field work a day in the life

i thought i would give you an idea of a typical field day, just so you all see i am doing some work and not just having a jolly! my days typically start at 5:00am when i am rudely awoken by my alarm and have to force some brekkie down before Bablu my friendly driver picks me up at 5:30. thankfully the sun rises at 5:00 at the moment so its not too dificult to get up, although its pretty chilly in the morning. we then drive to the district of interest for the day, and it can take between 1 and 4 hours to get to the villages depending on distance but more importantly on the quality of the roads. the holes in southampton are nothing compared to these!

i then normally arrive in a small town or large village where i meet a local guide and translator organised by Arupjyoti. this usually entails having tea and being questioned about my life back in the UK and why on earth i want to visit villages in assam. we then move into the villages, which is more driving on mixed roads, and even sometimes paths and tracks. we are regularly ejected from the car by Bablu as he sends his tiny car down 'holes' which often resemble craters on the moon, not a bad thing though as they always appear near the poorer villages which is a result for my research.

generally as we approach the villages of interest the guide starts asking local people for advice on who we can go and pester about their lives. this is where we end up picking up another 'fixer' who always knows just the person. once at the said persons home, we are invited in and have detailed discussions about the land and farming etc over another cup of tea (which is served about 10 times the heat of tea in the UK but drunk immediately - thats why indian people can eat spicy food as all their taste buds have been melted!).

the villages are always very friendly and enquire at length as to why i am in India. they are most impressed that my sister is a police officer, and on more than one occasion they have decided that they are wealthier than the watmough family because they own more cows and land!

we generally repeat the same pattern three or fours times in a day before lunch at about 2pm. so far every field visit i have been invited into someones house for lunch and tea. we then set off back to Guwahati, which takes considerable time as we have to drop off the by now fairly impressive team of fixers and translators (at one village the language was a tribal dialect that wasnt understood by my translator so we found someone who translate for the translator!). on the way back to guwahati we generally stop at an important site for my research such as a tea garden, reserved forest, irrigation project or wildlife sanctuary.

before generally arriving back at 6:00-7:00 pm. its then dinner - vegetable curry - and then data input times! it takes a long time for this last bit, as the name of the village in the census never matches that given by the villagers. though sometimes this is down to vanity as the villager changes the name to represent his/her family!

and now for all those who managed to get this far in the blog, some photos of my recent visit:...

me in a rice field.

rice fields... endless rice fields. they are different colours because they use different types for different purposes, some for eating, some for flour etc.
a monkey. who later was caught eating someones rice!
meeting some students at the school owned by my translator.

and again, adopting the toilet pose!