Today marks the official 2 weeks of me being in India! As of
today, there are 30 days left, and I will be returning to the USA!! I’ve decided to write a short portion
of my blog today as a sort of “ode to America”, just displaying all of the
things that I so take for granted in the US, that I desperately miss. They are very simple, everyday, mundane
things, but you never realize how much they mean to your life until you do not
have the leisure of having them anymore.
Things such as going into a public restroom. In the United States, when you stop at a rest area, you go
in, do your business in a normal toilet that is relatively clean, wash your
hands in a sink with soap, and then you’re finished…well, that is just not the
case here in India, oh no, not only do you get the luxury of a hole in the
ground that is almost full to the top with excrement, there is no sink, and it
costs 3 rupees to use (what that money goes to, God only knows…certainly not
cleaning supplies). Next, things
such as getting water from the tap…that’s a no no. Drinking COLD water…we only get that once in a while,
otherwise it’s room temperature.
Next, wearing gloves in the clinic…that just isn’t done here much,
unless of course the cow is suspected of having brucella or something. Finally, being able to cross the street
without seriously wondering if you are going to die. The drivers here obey no traffic laws, honk horns
constantly, and seem to not believe in car seats, or child endangerment. The biggest difference I think is that
all of these things are purely cultural…I’m not trying to say which culture is
better or anything, and I certainly do not mean to offend anyone. I’m just saying that I happen to prefer
my own luxuries, but it is just so interesting the impact that our native
culture has upon us all, no matter how much we think we can avoid being
imprinted by it.
Now that I’ve blown off some steam…let’s get down to what I
did today. This morning we were
scheduled to leave early in the morning to go to the Kancheepuram District to
collect blood samples from chickens, and to give the chickens an oral pellet
vaccine to protect against Newcastle’s disease. After a 2 hour bus ride in our Tempo Traveller, we arrived. We first came to a place called Krishi
Vigyan Kendra, which is basically a government-sponsored farm to teach people
how to farm, and be successful in reaping things from the land. They have crops such as rice and maize,
medicinal plants, piggery, poultry, rabbits, ornamental fish, precision
farming, cattle, goats, and various vegetable and fodder crops. The mission of KVK is to promote the
agricultural industry in Kancheepuram by providing services such as training in
their soil and water testing lab, autonomic weather station, and instructional
farm. We met with Dr. Kumaravel,
who is the head of Kancheepuram’s KVK.
He told us a little bit about what he does, showed us some of the
poultry they have which include chickens, turkeys, ducks, Japanese quail, and
guinea hens. Then, he showed us a
little bit about how they compost their cattle dung in order to grow earthworms
to feed the poultry…it is amazing to me, that in a country that is literally
littered with garbage, that when you go to the villages, and away from the
city, they are very concerned with being environmentally friendly. All of the districts in Tamil Nadu are
sponsored, in part by TANUVAS, to create these KVK’s. I really find this interesting, and in a country that is
giving away 300,000 free cows to people in order to boost the economy, the people
receiving the cows need some training in how to farm. Very smart thinking indeed…
From there, we left the KVK to head to the villages. We stopped at the first village, and
right away I was handed a chicken to hold. I thought it would be a good photo-op, so this big girl got
to be famous for a minute before I fed her a pellet vaccine, and stuck her with
a needle to collect some of her blood for gene comparison (I thought it was a
fair trade, and she was very compliant).
We continued with the rest of the chickens in that village collecting
samples, and will return in 21 days to re-sample, and examine if the vaccine is
working. 
Then, we moved on to a place called “Little Flock”. Little Flock is an Indian orphanage
that teaches the 42 children they house, to farm. They have cattle, goats, chickens, turkeys, geese, and
sheep. They also grow crops. Little Flock is sponsored by Christian
missionaries, and is really cool.
I checked out this brand new little girl! She is only 4 days old, and wasn’t having such a fun time in
the bright sun. Hopefully they
will get her into the shade next to her mama, and hopefully she will feel
better, but MAN, was she cute!! I
keep begging Dr. MohanKumar to let us take a calf or puppy or goat back to our
hostel to keep as a pet, and he keeps saying no…boo ;)
From there we moved on to our final village to collect
samples. The people from this
village are real live snake charmers!! They catch snakes and extract their
venom for medicinal purposes. They
promised that in 3 weeks when we come back to collect samples again, they will
show us a demonstration…can’t wait!!
We must have given over 150 vaccines to all of their chickens…it was
like they just kept coming, and coming, and coming! When we were done with all that, we got to see some baby
chicks, and then headed back to the hostel.
I can tell that I am never going to be a good researcher,
and that I am going to have to be in the field or at least in a processing
plant because I LOVE our field days collecting samples and interacting with the
animals and people. The days in
the lab are not so fun for me, but that’s okay, all part of the process! Anyway, our internet is out…once
again…so I will have to post this tomorrow! Goodnight to all!
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