Off to the field...

Finally, after almost four weeks, I am heading out on Wednesday at 5am for Zanskar Valley to start the field component of my research.  It will take us 2 days of travel to reach Padum, the main town in Zanskar.  I will be travelling and working with K.C., the field manager for that region.  He will be my interviewer and translator at the 8 different villages where we will survey.  I am very excited to finally be making headway on my project but also a tidbit nervous that it could go horribly awry, especially since this is my first go at research of this kind and the pre-field time here has looked completely different than what I was hoping for.  Oh dear! 

I will be staying with K.C. and his family for the 2 weeks I will be there and then we will both head back on July 9^th.  From what I hear, Internet access is sparse but I will document as much as possible and update the blog when I can.

What Zanskar may look like...

Prayers and good thoughts would be greatly welcome and appreciated!

Puga...

Road to Puga.

After the craziness of the film festival – borderline bust of an event – the office took a trip to a place called Puga, about 7-8 hours away from Leh through beautiful and diverse country.  Of course we were to leave at 6:30 but in Ladakhi time it was more like 9:30 and then we had to stop for breakfast… I am still perplexed as to what time I should actually arrive anywhere here.

Black-necked cranes

We took three cars and about 11 people and were to return the same day we went – we ended up spending the night, shocker.  Another lesson learned in India – don’t count on things ever going as planned no matter how much everyone says it will.  The road to Puga was awe-inspiring, driving over small mountain passes, through deserts, rickety bridges, small towns, and always following the Indus River. The purpose of the trip was to drop off clothes, blankets, games, etc. to a school for nomadic children.  During the beginning of the summer, Puga is home to a nomadic tribe of people called the Changspa.  Throughout the year, these people move from pasture to pasture with goats and sheep.  They sell pashmina, meat, cheese, etc. as they move.  In 2004, some teachers were brought to Puga to set up a school for the children of these nomads.  So for 9 months of the year, about 50 children leave their parents and go to school.  It was very interesting speaking with the head teacher and meeting the children.  However, with most things like this, it brings up an interesting tension between traditional livelihoods and modern development.  Nomadic peoples are typically illiterate and non-educated in this area but it has not been necessary to have schooling.  So, it brings up questions of what is truly beneficial.  Hmm, just thoughts.

Chanspa man using a fork to pull out pashmina very very forcefully.

Very happy boy with pink socks.

Despite my internal tension, the trip to Puga was a breath of fresh air after the film festival.  It consisted of...

having to hide in the car at military checkpoints because foreigners are not allowed in restricted areas without special permits of which I did not have – shocker, dancing to loud Indian hiphop both inside and outside the car, windy mountain roads following an incredible sea green Indus River, adorable nomadic children calling 

Dancing

me madam, conversations with the Changspa as they use a fork to pull pashmina from their goats, a rock scramble adventure with Pankhuri, having chai with some random strangers camping, visiting a hot spring at night, seeing a shooting star in an unreal night sky, almost getting run down by a very large scary herd dog, Pankhuri and I getting a harsh scolding from SLC staff for the last 6 items in the list, seeing two nesting black-necked cranes, blue sheep and a pika, and riding in the back of an open truck back to Leh.  What a success of a trip…

Pankhuri sitting in our rock cove.

Kardun-la Pass, ~ 18,000 ft.

2 weeks in...

so, it’s taken me a little while to adjust my sleeping to the time change and life here.  The last three nights I finally have been able to sleep through the night and not wake up at 5 in the morning.  Its been glorious.  Except last night I was awoken by something quite different.  Around 3 am I felt a little something jump on my feet causing me to awake abruptly and release a little scream.  a rat...a rat jumped on my feet!  I have no clue what the little thing was after but the rest of the night left me a little sleepless.  Rats in the hostel, in the kitchen, and even on my floor – fine, no big deal.  Rats in my bed – uh, I don’t think so.  What if he nibbled on me?!  So I am currently rat-proofing my room with large rocks…

despite my night filled with the little pitter patters of rat feet, life here in leh has improved every day.  I am getting more and more comfortable in this different lifestyle.  I am also coming to terms with the amount of solo time I have and am getting better daily at controlling my own thoughts.  As a deeply emotional person, this has been hard for me in the past, as I can sometimes get easily overwhelmed [uh consumed, maybe] with my emotions.  But practice makes perfect – well, maybe not but baby steps.  I don’t know that I have allowed myself to be quiet in a long time.  I have kept life busy and moving – maybe intentionally- and so this extreme change in the pace of life here has been jarring.  This is quite possibly the reason my first week here saw many tears – but I’m no stranger to tears and, in fact, I think they can be really beautiful.  As Kahlil says ‘the deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.’  Phew, thanks Kahlil.

Over the past two weeks, SLC has been gearing up for Ladakh’s first annual International Film Festival, which has just finished its second day.  The shan (ladakhi for snow leopard) is the mascot of the festival, which places SLC as the festival’s cause partners.  So since I have been in the office, everything has been focused on preparing for this festival.  For the festival, SLC has a booth with a multitude of activities for festival goers. The first day, the stall saw some interest but since then it has been slow going, which has just been painful for us volunteers.  In the past I have helped plan two smaller film festivals and, in watching how the festival people have planned this one, I’m not entirely sure they have thought most things through.  But nonetheless, it may be good exposure for SLC, as that is not been their strong suit in the past.  Oh, and we all had to wear traditional Ladakhi dresses on the first day – very hot and uncomfortable.

Once the festival has come and gone, Ill get more of a chance to work directly on my project with some of the staff members.  And hopefully Ill get a chance to do some more exploring outside of Leh – I have yet to have a day off from work/the office…

p.s. the internet is weak so pictures aren't working, next time...

Walk the Sky...

is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books – the prophet by kahlil gibran.  its what came to mind during my short 45 minute flight from delhi to leh.  flying over the himalayas was unreal and was an epic introduction to the town of leh. 

it is now my sixth day in leh and my fourth day in the snow leopard conservancy office.  the hostel i will be living in for the next few months is wonderful and simple.  it is completely solar powered and the toilets are described as ‘open, long-drops,’ which makes me giggle.  

day one consisted of lots of sleep and drinking water – luckily my few years in colorado and my marathon in steamboat springs prepared me well for handling high altitude settings.  day two consisted of a bit of loneliness and sadness coupled with the feeling of being a bit lost.  being alone in the hostel and-even worse-alone in my thoughts, my poor little emotional self was put through the ringer.  and other than books my only other forms of distraction from thoughts are the lord of the rings movies and the three seasons of the original star trek - nerd alert! luckily, these feelings didn’t last for long as i decided i needed to put my big girl pants on and explore the town of leh.  ladakhi people are incredibly friendly and its easy to just wander around the market alone and feel relatively safe.  the scariest things on the streets are the stray dogs and those you just throw rocks at.

meeting the SLC staff has been wonderful as they are energetic, engaging, and welcoming.  most speak english but they are teaching me ladakhi, which has been fun and made me (and many others) laugh.  they are a great crew of people and i am excited to spend the next few months with them. 

two days ago marked the world environmental day and SLC, along with several other environmental NGO’s, organized a ‘clean-up’, a rally, and a march through the market.  [side note: one thing that i have learned about ladakhi’s is that everything is ‘cool-ay, cool-ay,’ so sometimes things happen very…slowly or, frankly, not at all]  we met at 7:30am and piled into a bus and instead of going straight to the town located at 18,000ft that we were to help clean-up, we went and had chai for about an hour and a half.  finally, we loaded again into the bus and proceeded to drive the highest motorable road in the world.  needless to say it was AMAZING and beautiful…and cold.  however, due to our late start (and sloooow bus) we only made it to 15,300ft – still pretty high and really awesome – and we didn’t clean-up anything.  instead tourists just came and took photos of the women dressed in the traditional ladaki garb while we passed our pamphlets that they (maybe) read.  regardless of the funny proceedings of the day, it was great to see what all these NGO’s are doing in this region of the world and how many people seem to care about it.  and i do love a good rally and march...

oh and did i mention the food is delicious…

love-love-love to you all!