First Village Visit!

Yesterday was my first village immersion! We first traveled to Aurepalle, which was about 2.5 hours away. The drive was scary, I don't know how we didn't hit anyone. Indians are not afraid to use their horn. One thing I noticed on the drive is that there is trash EVERYWHERE, no exaggeration. At one point during the drive, I think we ran something over, but I honestly have no idea. The bus started smoking so we pulled over and the bus driver informed us that it was just the AC and it wasn't working anymore and kept driving. 

 In Aurepalle, we dropped off my friend, Asha because she is going to be doing educational testing with kids for the rest of this week.

 After dropping her off, we went to a different village, but it was only about 5 kilometers away. This village is where the Cornell interns were going to test their nutrition survey. The interns split into groups and each when with a translator. I got to go with Kavitha and Alex. (Kavitha is my supervisor as well as a translator.) The first house we went to consisted of a 22 year old girl and her husband. The girl seemed way younger than 22, she was 9 months pregnant with her first child and she was so adorable. Alex and Kavitha started asking her about what she had eaten the past few days. It seemed like they were one of the wealthier households in the village because she was eating three meals a day, snacks, and tea. Part of the survey was to ask where the food came from. While her husband was there, he was  dominating the conversation and answering for her. I figured this was just because that's typically what the roles are in villages like this. However, as soon as the husband left, she started into a long conversation with Kavitha, but of course me and Alex could not understand her. She told Kavitha that the produce that they eat in their meals comes from other family members that own a produce farm, but her husband didn't want us to know that. It was very interesting, because I didn't think that was something that he would be ashamed of. The second house we went to was an older lady. She wasn't really sure of how old she was, but she thought around 40. She was funny, and it seemed like her and her husband treated each other as equals. She only ate two meals a day, and they really only consisted of rice. She works from 2-11pm at a cotton mill. Overall, I think the trip went really well because I was able to be exposed to a lot of things I hadn't before. 

There were goats all over. They were all very skinny.

There were also stray dogs everywhere. Everyone told me that they were really viscous and aggressive but I didn't see one dog that the village people were afraid of. The dogs just kind of did their own thing. 

These women were screaming and fighting about how to distribute the water. 

I didn't even think it was possible, but the drive back was even scarier. It took us 2.5 hours to get there, but it took 5.5 hours to get back because traffic was so bad. When traffic is really bad, men just park their cars on the side of the road and go to the bathroom in plain sight. It's the weirdest thing to me. After just getting in the bus, someone threw their water bottle out the window and it hit someone's house in the village. It just drove me crazy because of the trash problem and I thought it was disrespectful just to throw trash at someone, but it's a completely different culture and no one else on the bus even reacted slightly. 

This morning when I was making tea, and this little guy crawled across my hand. He's so tiny.

Life at ICRISAT

Hi everyone! This past weekend was my first weekend on campus and I had no intentions of making any plans or doing anything whatsoever, and I did just that. I caught up on sleep and explored campus a little. Yesterday was Monday, and I just did a lot of reading again. I must say, I'm becoming quite the expert on agriculture in India. Today was exciting! BIG NEWS: I finally got a cubicle, so no more moving around for me. I got to sit in on a meeting of Cornell interns talking about their nutrition survey that they are going to test tomorrow in a village. The best part is: they invited me to come with to see what it is like. So of course I said yes and tomorrow I'll be going to a village about two hours away. I can't express how excited I am to get out of the office. Dr. Bantilan wanted to meet with me today, and in our meeting she talked to me about my passions and I told her education and youth in agriculture is what I what I want to spend the rest of my career doing. She suggested that when I go to the village tomorrow that I talk and ask kids if they think agriculture is important, if they want to be involved in agriculture when they grow up, what their dreams and aspirations are, etc. I seriously can't wait to go tomorrow. I finally took some pictures of my room so here's the long awaited tour!

Thanks everyone for reading!

-Kirsten

Settling In

Today, I had my weekly report due and even though I've only been here for three days, I had a lot to write. I found out my project will be on small holder farmers and nutrition. I love the topic of nutrition, but don't know much about the small holder farmers in India, so I'm excited to learn. I read information on each village located near ICRISAT and took notes on them. If I'm remembering correctly, there were about 20, and each of them were so different. Some had electricity, cell phones, and even cars and some didn't even have irrigation systems or indoor plumbing. The crops grown here are much different than anything I've ever heard of.  I have a salamander in my room and he eats all the ants and other bugs, so I'd much rather have him than a bug problem. In the middle of the night, I can hear him running across the tile in my room, that's how big he is. Someone comes to room everyday at 7am and puts a newspaper under my door and everyday at around 6pm and drops off cookies and tea in a little tin. I am so well taken care of here. I do get a little intimidated to go eat lunch in the cafeteria, but today some of my Indian friends took me. Their names are Sushma and Asha. They're 21 and 23 and working on their masters program. They've been here since February and are leaving around the same time in August that I am. We've spent the last few days asking each other questions about our countries. I asked Asha what her favorite food was and she said KFC chicken. I was shocked they had KFC here and she insisted on taking me next weekend. Sushma has a boyfriend, but she told me they have to breakup because Sushma is going to get married next year to someone her parents chose. The whole process really blows my mind, but she didn't seem bothered one bit. Finally after having a rough few days, today was great and very much needed! Much love to back home, I miss you guys terribly xoxo
-Kirsten

Finally Here!

So after about a week of delays, I'm finally in India! I got here at about 5 yesterday morning and had just enough time to shower and head to breakfast. I didn't sleep for like 36 hours, and that was interesting.
However, traveling was easy for the most part! From talking to previous interns, I've been told to only bring one bag, but I really couldn't help it and I brought two. (Both of which were extremely heavy)

I first flew to Seattle, which I've done a million times, so that was a breeze. Once I got to Seattle, my gate was on the opposite side of the airport and I had to take three different trains to get there. At my gate, there were already a ton of people. Most of which were foreign and I was able to talk to a lot of them. Boarding was the biggest disaster because there were so many people speaking what seemed like a million different languages. My flight left a little late to Dubai, but we still arrived on time. On the flight there were tons of new movies or TV shows you could watch. We were served dinner and breakfast on our 14 hour flight. Dinner was chicken, curry, and a roll. Surprisingly, it was very good!

Flying into Dubai was a really weird experience. I've watched documentaries in school about how luxurious it is, but when we were flying in, it wasn't what I expected at all. I saw the tall buildings and those really were breath taking, but the air pollution was so bad, it was hard to focus on anything else. 

After I landed in Dubai, I found my way to my final gate. This would be my last flight and I would land in Hyderabad. I sat by this older man who gave me a big smile when I told him my seat was next to his. I found out he didn't speak English, but through a series of hand gestures and drawing pictures, we had a few hysterical conversations. It was nice meeting someone who went out of their way to get to know me despite the language barrier. While arriving in Hyderabad, I realized how big it was, and I was not expecting that. 

After going through immigration (which took forever) I exchanged my currency and then went to get my bags at baggage claim (which took even longer). After I got my luggage, I went out the exit and found my driver standing right at the front with an ICRISAT sign. He was very nice and spoke some English. The drive to ICRISAT was interesting to say the least. The driver drove in two lanes the whole way. It was the weirdest thing to me, because he was doing it on purpose. Despite it being 5 in the morning, there were people everywhere, just walking in the middle of the highway. Then we drove by some tents made of tarps and cardboard and it broke my heart. I'm so glad I don't live here because I couldn't drive past those everyday and not feel insanely guilty for all the technologies I take for granted. Then I arrived here and checked in at housing. I was expecting a single little studio dorm and I was totally surprised when I entered my room to find two beds, a kitchen, my own bathroom, and a little living area with a TV. Though no one else is here yet, I wonder if I'll have a roommate soon. I'll upload pictures of my room later when its clean :) 

I just got done with my second day of work, and jet lag is kicking my butt right now. I've never been so tired in my life. But campus is beautiful and I can't wait to go sight seeing around India soon! 

I miss everyone at home so much. I couldn't thank you guys enough for your love and support  because it's much needed right now considering how homesick I am. If anyone wants to skype me, my name is live:kirstenforster_1 and my email is kirstenforster@live.com, so feel free to contact me at anytime. Hope everything is going well at home!

-Kirsten