Mama We Made It

And that’s a wrap. Six weeks complete. I managed the spicy food. I survived the hectic street crossings and car rides. I rode in an auto-rickshaw. I learned a little Bengali. I wore a saree, twice! And of course, I consumed lots and lots of chai.

ASED AND GREEN RHINOS

Last weekend, ASED hosted a donor party to raise funds for the Green Rhinos Program. I had my pamphlet printouts ready and Nick, Dana and I had compiled our Green Rhinos testimonial footage. Everyone had a pamphlet in their hand by the end of the night — I made sure of that — and everyone seemed to enjoy the testimonial footage.

Throughout my last week, I have compiled a document of suggested edits for the ASED website, continued to work on the survey, and made final edits to the pamphlet — I’m happy to hear from Diti that she will use the pamphlet at another donor event in September. There is still lots to do on the survey, much of which won’t be complete before we leave. Of course, it is disappointing that we are leaving before the project can be completed, but I guess this is all part of the learning. We accomplished a lot this week and also had many valuable conversations with Diti reflecting on our experience.

THE SUNDARBANS

After the donor party, Nick, Dana and I headed off on a trip to the Sundarbans with Kushal, Diti’s husband. The Sundarbans is one of the largest mangrove forests in the world. It is sandwiched between Kolkata and the Bay of Bengal and is worshipped for its biodiversity by environmental geeks worldwide. We spent most of the day on a small boat exploring the forest and stayed the night at a “resort” on one of the islands. I use quotations because the rooms were made out of bamboo and other natural resources and the electricity was solar-powered (and occasionally powered by a loud generator coincidentally stationed behind our room). There were spiders the size of my palm and frogs hiding in the corners of the room. Still, I had no trouble sleeping that night.

Kushal and boats and monkeys and ducks and sheep and sheep and more sheep

A couple of big takeaways from our weekend: (1) Mangroves are tough-a** trees that can survive in saltwater. (2) Bengal Tigers are really hard to find. From the water. From the watchtower. From the land. They are really hard to find. (3) I am obsessed with the animals here — the cows, sheep, goats, monkeys. The snakes and spiders I’m less obsessed with. (4) Despite my tendency to get seasick on even the calmest of waters, I survived the boat ride with flying colours (I’m straying from the original phrase only slightly).

FINAL DAY

On my last morning walk around the neighborhood — something that has become a sort of routine for me — I had two moments that I would again call “muy rico.” It felt as if India was saying “thank you for stopping by” or “farewell” or “come again soon” — sounds cheesy, but I can’t explain the feeling in any other way. I walked past three men selling beautiful plants on a bicycle cart — I love both bicycles and plants so much, so put them together and you get me spending my last rupees on plants! I asked them “how much” in Bengali and also did a little bargaining for two aloe plants — the Bengali and bargaining both felt like major accomplishments.

How perfect: three men who love plants just as much as I do.

I also sat with the man who I have pledged my chai loyalty to. As mentioned in a previous post, throughout my six weeks here, I purchased nearly all my chai from a man who owns a street cart right outside our office. This morning, I sat for thirty minutes on a tiny wooden bench under his cart’s awning and splurged on not one, but two dixie cups of chai. I told him “I like” in Bengali and pointed to the second cup of chai he served me. We finally shared our names, he introduced me to his father, and he showed me a picture of his son playing cricket. I paid him the 10 rupees for my chai (less than 15 cents) and told him I was leaving tomorrow for the States. He stopped his work and grabbed my right hand with both of his hands and shook it. I thanked him in Bengali and left for the office. Two beautiful moments to wrap up the trip.

Alright India, I guess that’s it. I’ll be back again, soon enough.

Until next time,

This picture of me, on the bow of a boat, in the Sundarbans, wearing a men’s shirt stained with curry, and zip-off pants caked with mud seemed like the right way to wrap this whole blog thing up.

JJ