Thursday, June 5, 2008

Back on the Road...

After a few days taking it relatively easy, armed with our new spreadsheets, we are now back out on the road, starting to collect some data for Clean Himalaya.

Although each run collects from the same places each day, trying to keep track of where we have been is not made easy when there is no name on the shop or house. Also, depending on which man is doing the collection run, the places are often visited in a completely different order so keeping a numerical ordering of all the collection sites would not work every time...

There has been quite a swapping around of jobs for each man from day to day. Although this can be a good thing, combats boredom and complacency etc, this has been happening because a few members of staff have simply not turned up for work. Apart from the sheer scale of their task, staff non-attendance is Clean Himalaya’s biggest problem.

During the course of our travels here, already there have been numerous sights, sounds and smells that are alien to western eyes. Just about the strangest has been seeing a small child mugged by a monkey! It is pretty strange seeing the large amount of animals roaming loose in the streets. Avoidance of the cows and bulls on the roadside is part and parcel of daily life. They are often trying to swipe odd cucumbers or tomatoes from the stalls and then are driven away with kicks or beaten by branches by the outraged stall holder. There are also any number of dogs in the streets and wild pigs wallow in the muddy edges of the dried up river beds. Lizards and endless insects are inside every building. To this picture add small silver or brown coloured monkeys surveying the scene below from the trees.

This cheeky monkey had obviously been watching and waiting for the right opportunity. The small boy’s left hand was being securly held by his mother, but in his right hand, but was a small bag containing 2 onions. The monkey leapt out of the tree, ran across the road, snatched the bag out of the startled boy’s hand and was back up in the tree almost before anyone realised what had happened. The child was completely traumatised and wailed long and loudly. I bet the monkey was not too impressed either when he found out he had pinched onions instead of a bag of nice, juicy mangoes....

However all this looks to western eyes, there are some sights in Rishikesh that must seem very strange to Indians. While out on rubbish collection runs, proudly wearing our Clean Himalaya tops, usually extremily hot, sweaty and dishevelled, more than once, people have asked to take our photographs! Usually with their children in the picture too! Do we look so unusual?

Some more unusual or just wonderful sights........

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