Friday, February 8

Friday, February 8, 2008
This morning we had breakfast at our hosts and then were taken to Susan’s house where we met a legislative official who had made special arrangements for us to visit a “jungle” area and some of the local villages. Our first stop was at a nearby farm. The main crop for this area is rice, but this farmer grew vegetables—tomatoes, cauliflower, beets, some type of squash, and some other vegetables that we were not familiar with. We walked around to see various plots and were given some samples to try.

Next we drove to a guest house in the “jungle”—forest reserve. Here we had tea and snacks. Today Tom is not feeling well, and he decided to stay at the guest house and rest (and be near a bathroom). Our next stop was a site with a reproduction of a village home, for tourists to stay at when they visit. Next we went to a nearby village market, and “clinic”. Our host for the day, attracted large crowds and it was clear why he is such a popular politician in this area. He knew many by name, and was very open and caring. He also had an armed body guard with him at all times carrying an automatic weapon—not a site we are used to seeing.

The rest of day was spent stopping at various guests houses in the reserve for lunch, tea, snacks, and touring the reserve. The roads are quite good, by Indian standards, and there was not much traffic, only the occasional truck or ox cart. We also stopped at a site where some of the locals were preparing herbs for sale. We were given some to taste that was supposedly good for our digestion.

Molly and Dani went on a jeep ride to look for animals in the evening but were not able to see much—perhaps the cool, rainy weather has encouraged the wildlife to snuggle in for the evening. In the evening we were also treated to some tribal dancing and music, and were asked to join in. The villagers welcomed us into their dancing circle. After dinner we returned to our hosts where I think we all fell into bed exhausted.