For the past three days I have taken a one hour bus ride through the Dhauladhar Mountain Range to the fields with Sarita. Once we arrived at our bus stop, we walked 3 kilometers to the rural villages where we began knocking upon doors looking for villagers to answer our survey. Every villager warmly greeted us. They offered us a chair as well as a cup of chai tea. Unable to refuse a cup of tea, given that the villagers keenly persisted, I went home every evening with a soar belly. I accidentally complimented a family for having a large buffalo which sat in the mud in front of their hut. Shortly after my compliment, the daughter-in-law of the house brought me a cup of warm buffalo milk on a tray. I peered down into my cup and acknowledged the black floaties and tiny hairs drifting in my milk. I reminded myself that this family was below poverty line, and drank the contaminated milk like a champ – it’s been 48 hours since I drank the cup of milk and I’m still living and going strong!Over half of the villagers we have surveyed have been below poverty line, yet they have been the most generous people I have ever met. Most houses offer lunch/snacks albeit minimum wage in Himachal Pradesh is 100 rupees (2.50$) per day and old age pension is only 400 rupees (10$) per month. The majority of villagers defecate outside, therefore, I am continual dodging their poop (as well as the poop that belongs to stray dogs, cats, cows, sheep, and goats). Children pop a squat anywhere, while grownups go in the fields or behind their homes.
Villagers have kindly offered for me to stay the night and one family even offered their toddler. As cute as she was, with pigtails, dirty cheeks, and a torn pink dress, I had to refuse. Another beautiful child that I encountered, unfortunately had jet black teeth. Concerned, I asked Sarita what was wrong with the 6 year old's teeth. Sarita meekly replied, “Bacteria”. “Oh gosh”, I replied. “Sarita, I hope you take your children to the dentist”. Sarita replied, “What’s the dentist?”…
4 comments:
You are more courageous than I am, my friend.
I would have done the pretend-I-am-drinking-but-casually-dribbling-
out-the-side-of-my-mouth thing, the sorry-I'm-lactose-intolerant thing, the can-I-accept-the-cow-as-a-gift-instead thing... But I am touched by the generosity of these people. Even with the ups and downs we have in our part of the world, be it the rat race, our wrinkles, our overweight, our aches and pains, our husbands who drive us crazy after more than 20 years of marriage (sorry - I got carried away, there), we are better off than most of the rest of the world. And that makes me grateful that I am who I am.
How lovely these people are, giving more than they can afford to. How can people like me help them, they who are so out of the way (short of doing what you're doing!)?
How's your stomach, by the way?
you, my old friend, are quite an inspiration!
i love the comment where u wrote (in an earlier blog) "...and I've been thanking him for my surroundings and my new experiences (even the negative ones!)."
I think sometimes we forget how much we can learn from the negative, and until we're truly thankful for what we have in our lives now we won't make room for anything new.
I really do hope to catch up with you one of these days (years?) and hear about your experiences first hand, but for now i'll have to live vicariously through you!
keep on living and experiencing! I can't wait to read more....
Monique gave me the link to your blog and I am really enjoying it. I have just returned from a trip to India and must say that my experience with the people and yours differ wildly. Maybe it's because I was on a tour and not working with them but I found the people pushy and grasping. I really respect what you're doing because I know after my experiences I couldn't.
Read your blog....actually i am a resident of sidhbari or a little far off but i visit it usually...my mother was a member of it(FHW).....hope for your visit again
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