Staff Training

The next day, Dilshad, Akshay, Sarah, Raekka and I drove to the MHE camp in Damdama, not going to lie, I felt bereft to leave the  aircon which had been my saviour from the Indian heat. I was told I'd be staying in the camp for 2 nights so I packed light. However we stayed for 5 (hand washing of pants was necessary). We're beginning to realise that what were told is not written in stone, things change very last minute for us here.

The view from my tent

Glamping

At the camp me and Sarah soaked eachother with the hose, making the heat no longer an  issue. Myself and Raekka entertained Sarah all day as Akshay and Dilshad had meetings with the MHE crew. When they left, I stayed at the camp with the crew and joined them in watching a cricket game going on in the adjacent field and I had  some small conversations with some of the crew as they only knew a few english words. They  were all very welcoming and friendly.

When I was told goat was for dinner, I wasn’t expecting to see a live goat arrive on a lead, they let me hold it and I began to stroke him, until I realised it wasn't the smartest idea to get attached to an animal that would soon be my dinner. He was around 3,000 RPS (£34) and lasted 15 people for 4 meals. (Don't read on if your a big goat fan). They pulled the lead up to its ears to pull the head down towards the bucket, the executioner then  struck it 3 times but the blade was too blunt so it only made the goat sink lower to the ground and  let out a horrible wail, then they began cutting it halal style. The head was brought onto a tarp  followed by the body. They then gutted it which I was surprised to have been done with no gloves,  and all bracelets kept on. The insides looked like something from the film alien. The body was stuffed with  mango leaves to prevent burning and then chucked onto the fire. Once cooked they cleaned the  body, pouring water into it which they swirled and chucked out, it reminded me of emptying a  kayak as the goat now had a cockpit looking hole in its stomach. The goat was then brought round  to the eating area outside the kitchen and cut into pieces, some of which landed on my toe. When  it was brought out it looked very much like how it was before, it also tasted slightly of how it smelt  before therefore it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience. The crew were extremely welcoming and hospitable, always bringing me more goat which I felt obliged to eat, washing it down with Whiskey helped do the trick.

The goat burning

We had two days of staff training, so getting the down low and day to day activities of what happens at Bull's retreat, soon to be our work place. Some of the crew started a game of cricket at the end of the day, loving sports I ran over to join them. J.P, Fil and Nathan were particularly  hilarious to watch as they attempted to throw and hit the ball.

JP showing the Indians how its done

We worked hard in the day, and had fun parties in the night, work hard play hard if you like. One of the crew, Vicky had had a baby so the first night was a special party, JPs birthday was 3 days before so that was another party, and in between we just had parties for party sake, Indians love to find any excuse to drink. But you can’t blame them when the local liqour is 100 RPS Kinnu (orange flavoured) which we had every night. The evenings were the times we began to really bond with the crew, the more Kinnu we had the better their english became, and apparently our hindi. We learnt some essentials Pani (water), Dahannivad (thankyou), Sharab (alcohol). We taught eachother card games and shared our music, it was times like these where the language barrier didn't seem so high.

Ahh Kinnu

5:30 am: Myself, Nathan, J.P, Fil and some of the MHE crew who also managed to drag themselves out of bed went on a morning trek to the old MHE camp now lived in by Sadhu’s (buddhists) who abstain from all material  possession. Lucky for us, guest means god for them so we were lovingly welcomed and went into  their Mandi temple. One of  them called for the dogs “Pira, Pira, Pira” and 8 puppies came hurtling towards us from the heavens, I was in bliss. It came to 9am and I had already seen 8 puppies, what more does one desire in a morning. Today I am  feeling particularly fortunate for all these new things I get to experience, every day here so far has been  such an adventure.

The Ridge

River crossing 

अतिथि का मतलब है भगवान

Pedalo River crossing

Puppies!

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Birds nests

Clean up of camp:
The Gardening tools were interesting; a machete which was fun to use, I got slightly too carried away, slashing the hell out of the grass until I realised how much I was sweating and calmed down a bit. The slightest  effort in the heat of the day causes extreme sweat, I was positively dripping when me and Nathan  used the lawn mower which was extremley basic, a handle with blades which took 2 people to drag across the lawn. Each night here we slept on our beds  under the stars, the mosquitos did not show us mercy, as I foolishly braved the night without a mosquito net, "my mosquito cream will protect me", famous last words.

JP snug as a bug

When we ran out of goat, we went to the market and brought chickens, (another warning for vegetarians to stop reading) their throats were slit and then thrown into a bin  where their reflexing bodies ran around for around 10 seconds, they were then skinned in front of us. Nathan got a splash of blood on his leg which I found highly amusing.

Its no KFC

In the morning we got a rickshaw to the metro, tips for rickshaw users:
1. Set a price before you get in (even doing this they will still ask for more when you arrive at your destination)
2. Know where you are going and get up the location on google maps (we were dropped off on the side of a road next to nothing and told it was the visa office)
3. Get a seat at the side, you get a good Indian breeze.
4. If you secure this seat, don't stick your head out of it or it will get taken off by oncoming rickshaws.
Happy Rickshawing

Our first Rickshaw