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Founder's Travel Journal: Bandipur Day 7

June 7, 2008

-Email Bear

I'm finally over my asthma inconveniences. During our walk through the mountain range in Bandipur, I was actually being nagged at by the kids and Meena that I was going too fast. They wanted to stop for a break but I told them we needed to keep going. I got some quintecential shots of the kids monkeying around, no kidding on the primitive primate behavior. It was quite a riot and those kids have such hillarious personalities!

The trek back to the village was something else. The boys began scratching themselves compulsively. Poison ivy. One of the boys got it particularly worse than the others. He had large oblong-shaped bumps all over his torso and his face began to form discoloration around his eyes, nose and mouth. We hastened our pace but he kept stopping to scratch himself. Ten minutes to the main square he began to sweat more but his head felt cool to the touch. He started spitting and his breathing became pronounced. I wasn't sure if he was having a serious allergic reaction or not. He may have stuck his fingers in his mouth when I wasn't looking, making it possible for his airway to become constricted by swelling. I sat all five boys down in front of the Old Inn, scratching and complaining to me the whole time. I ran to the employees of the Old Inn but they had no clue what I was talking about. I kept asking for Ram and they all looked at me with blank stares. (Now they all run to the presentation given by UNICEF and Nepal Red Cross for the dancing rather than for the information they are presenting about sanitation and hygiene). Bread and Circus. (I ended up grabbing my last bottle of calamine lotion and having the boys smuther themselves in it. They were laughing at how pink each of them was turning out to be. They all turned out fine after some rest in the cool shade, ots of water, and a couple jokes from Meena and me).

Thankfully, I'm slowly filtering out the students who have potential - all but 2 of them - and the rest of 3,000 people that reside here. I'm leaning more and more towards anthropology the more I observe the people here. Oh great. Here comes more of Mr. "all show and no go". I've got to stop playing nice so much.

I'll eat on the patio rather than in the kitchen with the Old Inn crew today. At least I'll have more time to read. I figured out that the only reason why Ram has me running around ragged is because Tony told him that volunteers in the past complained of not having much to do. What they were really complaining about was not having enough of the trekking and rafting trips.

I gotta get in this industry. "Volunteer Anthropology" trips, charge a few thousand bucks like the program I'm in now. Sounds pleasant.

I'm exhausted! The crew at the Old Inn is about to see a change in behavior.

 

 

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