Greetings from Durgapur, West Bengal!

After a long, crazy train ride, a bus, and jeep ride we finally arrived at the Basudha farm yesterday morning. It has been wonderful thus far to have a break from the insanity that was Varanasi, the holiest city in India, arguably, where the Ganga river runs through and is the religious and cultural life line of the region. There we were able to observe Arti, a ceremony that is conducted at Dasaswamedh Ghat (on of many ghats on the river which are palace like pieces of architecture build by Maharajas and noblemen centuries ago), many cremation ceremonies at another ghat where the dead are wrapped in beautiful, glittering cloths and adorned with flowers before they are submerged into the river and burned for at least 3 hours. It was a very intense experience witnessing these events, it is amazing to me how spiritual Varanasi is (or Baranas as the locals call it). It seems like going to temple and singing religious songs is such a big part of their life and yet I don't get the sense that t people there are trying to force Hinduism on anybody. Though you do come across many bicycle rickshaw drivers and boatmen who try to get you to purchase their services at every turn. It is sometimes hard to deal with the constant staring and harassment but I think I'm getting use to it, it is just a apart of their culture. Now that we are in a smaller town off the beaten path, we do still get the stares, but it is much less offensive and hard and more curious. We have had packs of women and children following us around where ever we go and unlike in the big cities, they do not beg us for money or food.

When we arrived at Basudha after our arduous journey, we were greeted by Dr. Debal Deb and Rahul, an Indian gentleman who has been doing work in sustainability for many years and is currently traveling all over India. We had a delicious breakfast of fresh puffed rice cereal, tiny sweet bananas and jagary, which is a candy made from boiling sugar cane. It was all very tasty. The cook, Hanu, is very nice and cooks wonderful food that is all local and organic, everything is from the farm except for the potatoes. It had been really fun learning to eat rice and dal with our hands, there is a technique that one must develop in order to avoid making a huge mess! But it is great to have that extended connection with your food through the sense of touch and also, you never burn your tongue because if the food is hot to the touch, then you wont dare put it in your mouth! The farm is fantastic so far. There are 545 varieties of rice growing here on a little over 2 acres of land; within these small plots, there are a few experiments being conducted to determine the effects of soil type, water, and natural inputs on different rice varieties. In addition, there is a field of rice growing right up against Basudhas land that contains conventional rice - the stalks are not as heavy with rice as the ones on our organic farm! Its pretty cool to see these differences with your own eyes and not just read some statistics in a science journal about yields. While we are here we will get a chance to harvest, thresh and winnow rice and make scientific observations for Dr. Deb's research. There is so much to say about the farm... the farm house where we are staying was constructed by hand with no wood, plastic or metal what so ever and is made from condensed mud bricks, mud paste straw and bamboo. It is very comfortable, simple and beautiful. There are also a few hand built composting toilets! Rad! These outhouses are very simple. There is a metal funnel where you can pee and it just runs right into the plants and then right next to is there is a dirt hole where you can poop, and then cover with dry dirt. It is very important to keep the pit dry or it will start to stink and wont decompose as quickly. There are at least 4 types of composting going on at the farm, it is amazing to see all the different methods in action and I am planning on drilling Dr. Deb about these methods so I can bring back info to Davis and Project Compost! Id better run because I have to upload pics, probably to facebook, I guess, and then look up classes for next quarter! Ah!

There will be an update on the 6th, I think that should be the next time I have access to the net.

Until then, take care and give love!
-Liz