Weather, Work, and Timothy - India 9

The rains are coming, I can tell by the smell and the wind in the air. The rain is nice and helps cool things down. Many people stand waiting underneath awnings, but despite getting used to wearing long sleeves and pants, walking/standing in the rain helps keep my temperature decent. Today was a cool day; it only got up to 94.

We went biking through the pastoral landscape of my campus. The farm roads are accessible and there is a large lake with pavilion. Around sunset the 90 or so peacocks are out and about. Unfortunately the mosquitos come at the same time. Todays rain kept the mosquitos down, but it also sent us packing. While the monsoons haven't yet started I could use wipers for my glasses.

The trees around my dorm are pregnant with mangoes. The wind causes them to drop. Workers pick them up and some pile them into bags. Many are sold and many go into pickles. For my part I have tried these unripened mangoes, and I have to agree they are better as pickles.

Last year, I am told, the mangoes were plump, yellow and brilliant. Therefore, this year the crop is not so good. Most of the mangoes are mainly pit with little flesh to enjoy. I am tempted to rename this blog about food, because that is all I seem to want to write about.

Three people have been given IV's for heat, one gets used to the heat, and then many forget to drink, or they have diuretics like alcohol in the evening after a day in the field. Hydration is particularly a challenge, because except at a nice restaurant: the poor sanitation encourages bottled water, which isnt always available. The common idea of a clean straw or spoon is a spotless one, even if that means cleaned by thumb, right in front of the patron. I am told that straws are recycled.

I keep bottled water in the library with me, although I sampled the water today at the Chinese restaurant. This afternoon I started making photocopies in data collection from annual reviews of the state of Andhra Pradesh's five year plan. I had a breakthrough when I found that these reviews list projects, how much was spent on them, whether they were completed, and what steps will be taken. These directly relate to my goal of finding government actions and commitment to drinking water on the Krishna river.

Conveniently, this morning I hitched a ride towards town with the head librarian of ICRISAT. I have often tended towards librarians and this one is no exception. After explaining my research he told me that if I need a document in any library in Hyderabad, he would pass my name as a contact. This is useful because I believe the annual reviews of Andhra Pradesh are mostly in the Secretariat Library, which is only somewhat open to the public. I will head there or to a university library tomorrow. Is anyone else's summer being spent in libraries?

While taking the shuttle home from nearby the Hyderabad International School, a waiter riding the bus gave me a Christian Bible quote tract. For the most part, humdrum except that it quotes from I Tim. I had thought I read the Catholic Bible, which includes more than the typical protestant Bible, but I didn't recall a gospel of Timothy. I wonder if my copy didn't have it due to its discredited nature. More likely, I simply disregarded the Epistles, as they are not my favorite part of the Bible. For a while though, I had wondered if the Indians had extra parts to their Bible and not just been the recipients of visiting Apostles.