Fred the Ant

So yeah, I failed on the whole “update on Monday” deadline. Surprised? Probably not. This week we made a couple of presentations to schools in the area. The first school was pretty small and we kind of used it as a demo, the next day (yesterday) was better. Yesterday we changed the presentation around a little to get the kids more involved and the school was also much larger. We went from presenting to a group of 30 kids to at least 100. This second school was also much more excited about our coming. They had a few kids prepare speeches in English about the environment in our honor and they also prepared a Sikh religious song. Their excitement and preparation was very touching and they all seemed interested in what we had to say. It felt good to really reach people. We’re hoping to work with the school to put recycling bins in their yard as a drop off point for the community in their part of the village- they’re in a more central location than our center. They say they’ll have the bins by the beginning of next month. And the bins for the front of our center should be arriving any day now.

However, I’m leaving in a week. I wondered if staying longer would make much of a difference but I came to the conclusion that in order to see the recycling project really take hold I’d have to be here at least 6 months, which isn’t really an option for me. I’m glad I at least got see the ball start rolling on my project and got to talk to about 200 people total in the area about the issues. I feel that I’ve inspired some people enough so that after I leave, what we’ve done won’t be wasted. Besides, more interns will be coming to continue the project and Olivia will be here for another month. I’ve also learned a lot about aid work since I’ve been here and if I decide to do it again, I’ll be much more prepared. Though I definitely have some disappointments about how little we were able to accomplish, I don’t feel like it was all in vain, which is a big relief.

Today after our English class we’re heading to Dharamsala- home to the exiled Tibetan government. I’ve been waiting for 2 months to go here so I’m pretty excited. We’ve given ourselves 3 full days there since there’s a lot to see. It’s also going to be cooollldddd (the low is in the 40s)- which right now I think I want since it still gets up to 100 here in the village but I’ll probably regret it when I’m shivering in bed due to no heat. But this place is a must see in India and there’s no way I’m gonna miss it! After that I’m back for a week to say goodbye and write up a report for the next interns and then it’s back to delhi next Friday for two weeks of traveling. Though many of my days here inched by, I’m amazed that my trip is almost over. 3 more weeks! I’m going to try and eat up every little bit of it- living in the present here has been a struggle for me and I’m afraid I may have wasted some precious moments because of it. No more of that I hope.

You may be wondering what Fred the Ant has to do with all of this. Well, one thing I’ve embraced are the formerly less appealing aspects of nature- particularly insects. Ants run rampant here, along with cockroaches, lizards, spiders, and slugs. While taking a shower it’s not uncommon for a small beetle to land on me or have a spider fall from the ceiling on to my unsuspecting head. It took me a while to get used to these things. But a few of weeks ago I went to the kitchen sink (which is outside) to find that our sponges were incredibly clean. I figured that Olivia must have cleaned them. Then a couple of weeks ago I discovered the real culprits- ants. I remembered from our 3rd grade ant farm study, that ants are incredibly clean bugs, and I’ve gained a huge amount of respect for these tiny creatures since I’ve been here. Not only do they keep our sponges clean, but they are seriously the hardest working living beings I’ve ever seen. I’m even a little inspired sometimes when I see one struggling with carrying a piece of food way to big for it. I’ve also heard that they have burial grounds in their ant hills- it’s amazing how their tiny brains can create such an efficient organized world while our larger, much more advanced minds can’t find a way to live in harmony with ours. After the sponge incident, I developed much more of a fondness for ants and thereby named them all Fred in an effort to apologize for my former hatred. Now in the morning I see Fred (or Freds) on the sink and thank them for their excellent cleaning job before flicking them off the sink so I can make breakfast (I don’t feel bad about the flicking though, these ants are like ninjas). In addition to the ants, I’ve begun to accept the purpose of the lizards and spiders, though I haven’t named the spiders yet… I’m working on getting that comfortable with their presence. I've really been able to observe their contributions to the balance of the environment- we're taught these things but seeing them in action over the past few months has been good for me. Cockroaches and slugs… eh, not so friendly with them. Especially since that night when stumbling half asleep to the bathroom I stepped on a slug and it exploded on me. Prettttyyyy gross.

Anyway, that’s all for now!