Wednesday Wildlife

Yesterday evening some friends of Rajen and Manil arrived from Bangalore. Chewy and KK are long-time friends, and Ishat is a long-time friend of Chewy who also came along. We spent yesterday evening with the three visitors catching up with Manil and Ronny, and Alex and I getting to know them. All three are highly educated, speak English as a first language, have lived in different places - including the USA - and all are now either retired early or are semi-retired, thus have time on their hands for leisure.

I couldn't stay up talking for as long as I would have liked as I had to get up for school this morning, although in the end it was a shame that I didn't just take the day off and not worry about it, as it turned out the children's 1st unit tests were beginning today, so the children were busy revising their Hindi lessons for the first test - not something I could help with! We observed the revision for a short time, then Alex left and I spent a little bit of time in the kindy class, where the small ones were learning numbers.

Children revising ahead of their test

After calling it a day at the school because there was nothing I could contribute, I went back up to the house to find the others. Chewy had planned an afternoon drive with with Rajan, and was joined by Ish, Ronny, and Alex. I was also invited, but by this point the car was full so I said I would go out with them in the evening instead. I was a small bit disappointed when Alex got back and showed me pictures of the camel spider he had found, but I had got a lot done back at the farm. I had spent the rest of the morning in the office, talking to Manil about the way the SEDS school is funded, and discussing with her my ideas for a project to conduct while I'm on placement. I had two project ideas, one was a piece of research into the biogas project, specifically looking at people's perceived benefits of using biogas (where it is in use), and the barriers to using it (where it is not in use). SEDS have installed 5,000 biogas units at single-family houses in villages around the area, so there will be plenty of potential participants for the study. My second idea was to investigate any sources of funding I could find for the education program and the school, after I had heard part of a converation between Manil and Ronny about the high cost of providing transport for the children to get to school. Manil liked both ideas, and said I could work on both, so I will definitely be busy here! I began my literature search about biogas use in rural areas, and then headed up with Manil to wait for the others to get back for lunch.

In the evening, we then all loaded up into Manil's son Rohith's ute, with Alex and me in the back and Chewy driving, to go out looking for black buck - a type of deer that live in the area and are the state animal for Andhra Pradesh.

It was a bumpy ride, the sun was low, and there was a lot of dust in the air. This was not a recipe for good photography, but it was a huge amount of fun!!

Ready to leave

After the drive, Chewy and Ish were cooking a biryani for the hostel boys who live at SEDS while they complete their education. I didn't take photos as I was busy trying to write down the ingredients, learn the cooking technique, and chat with Chewy and Ish. Chewy also cooked up a steak dinner with veggies and mash for the rest of us, which turned out to be very similar cooking to my mum's cooking. Everyone dug in and talked about how tasty it was, and we celebrated Chewy's birthday - which it turns out was the reason for his visit - with a few drinks, some cake, and a pavlova that Alex made (with a bit of help from me!).

Happy birthdai Chuey sir

Chewy cutting his cake

The pav coming together

Alex whipping cream for the pav

A fun and productive day :)