Migrant Workers

There are men and women and little kids here that do very hard labor. I asked Anil, our director, who they were, thinking that what I was seeing was a "caste" issue. Anil said that the people I see carrying sacks of dry cement on their heads up flights of stairs to dump in a pile at the top, working on roads, and carrying bags of garbage are migrants workers. Some are from Bihar, to the east; most from central India, Madhya Pradesh; and some are from Rajasthan. Bihar is the poorest provence in India. Those from Rajasthan are mostly from a specific tribe who find work as rag pickers and waste pickers. All come because there are "menial" jobs to be done that people here would rather not do. Sounds remarkably like the U.S. and our migrant workers.

Asuni drives Maddy and I to work and back every day. I have never ridden with a more skilled driver. His family lives 55 kilometers from here, but it takes two and a half hours to get there on the bus. He is going home to see his wife, Sunita, and four children (ages 2 to 14) this Saturday and Sunday. He and his family will be harvesting wheat. His is an extended family with 12 people making up the household. That way, there is always someone there to help out. Asuni has been all over India driving tourists. He speaks Spanish very well and also English. On the way to work today, he taught me how to ask someone's name in Hindi.

Maddy went to the Dr. today for her cough, so I was with the women by myself today. They asked me to tell them the difference between do, did, and does. I did the best I could; then they practiced asking and answering questions around the circle using those words in the present, past, and future tenses as well as in singular, plural and second person. I am amazed at how little I know about my own language. Afterward we sang Bingo. They told me about some of their festivals; and, we sang Down in the Valley before I left to be driven, by Asuni, down into the valley.

The air is really smokey from forest fires. Pines were introduced into the region probably shortly after independence from Australia. This is not a good thing. The native forest here was Himalayan Oak at the level of lower Dharamsala and oak and deodor cedar at McCleodgunj. Pines make many areas monocultures, turn the soil acidic, and lead to fires. Before, the people cut the low branches and leaves from the oak to feed their cattle and other livestock, so you didn't have the layers of dried leaves (in the presnt case needles) lying on the floor of the forest. We are in a dry, hot fairly windy season now. I saw the smoke from two fires on the way home today. Of course, the pines have also caused habitat loss for a variety of species.

This weekend all of us (volunteers) are going off on a weekend exploration adventure on our own. For now, namaste. If I figure out how to upload photos, I may do that a little later this afternoon.