Corbett national tiger reserve, India

We do apologize for the delay in posting the much anticipated Corbett National Tiger Reserve vacation blog. I'm posting only a few of the pictures today and Gina will tell about them later. I will be posting this by picture groupings.

First for a few legalities: © 2008 by David Helbley
The pictures posted are only low resolution photos but if anyone wants to use them for production or posting on their website please contact me. We can work something out and I have high resolution photos available. My address is: Helb Da (at) gmail (dot) com (take out the spaces and fix it to actually e-mail me.)

Let's get started by setting the mood with a little landscape and the ride into the park.

Strangle Fig Tree

Our first big surprise was when we saw a hot-air-balloon rising from the trees next to us.







Along the way we saw a few birds and 3 of the 4 types of deer to be found in the park.

Sambar Deer (Largest deer in Asia)

Spotted Dear

The "graceful" Barking Deer (smallest deer in the park and we think Asia).

Hog Deer

Sambar Deer

Elephants are always impressive. We saw many wild elephants and took a morning elephant ride. While on the elephant ride. We heard a Tiger roar and Gina and the other riders saw the stripes of a tiger through the underbrush.

Elephant family taking a bath.

Angry mother elephant. Her calf is nearby.

Self-portrait from the elephant ride.

Elephant parking.

We of course ran across several different mammals.

Common Languar

Bad monkey (he stole those nuts)

Wild boar

Jackels

There are many other animals that will be posted soon... Including some really good bird pictures, crocodiles, fish, and more. For the sake of not putting it off another day we will skip right to the chase.




The TIGERS!!!!

This isn't like the zoo, there are no bars.

Tiger sighted at the end of day 2. Male, estimated age <2.5>

Tiger sighted at the end of day 1. Female known to have 2 grown cubs.

Day 2. Same male tiger crossing the road about an hour later.

Whenever a visitor sees a tiger they get to write about it in the log book and brag on the chalkboard. We got more than our fair share of bragging in. This is Gina and our friend Yakko from Finland in front of the brag board






Well thanks for taking a look. Gata soar.



© 2008 by David Helbley

nomads

It's been only a little over a week since David and I made a quick exit from Garo Hills and arrived in Delhi on a Thursday night but everything has changed. We are pilgrims once again trying to decide what to give away and what to pack. Airport weight limits and painfully high overweight charges are very purging.

Maranatha is doing budget cuts because of the falling US economy and after a long and friendly talk with our boss we all agreed it would be best for us and the company if we left for awhile. The timing is good for us. David and I were able to save enough working with Maranatha to finish paying off my student loans so now we are free to take a larger range of volunteer positions without worrying about financial responsibilities.

We did some shopping on the Adventist Volunteers website and found a call for English teahers in Almaty Kazakhstan. We have applied with the school and received a positive response from them so we are completing paperwork and applying for a visa. Our tentative departure date is March 9.

Kazakhstan is the largest of the new former USSR countries. It is bordered by Russia on the North, Kyrgystan and Uzbekistan, on the South, China on the East and the Caspian Sea on the West. The geography is mostly steppe, high grazing land, with some very large mountains. The people were historically nomadic shepherds divided by family and tribal groups. Of course many (most?) are settled now. Almaty, Alma Ata on the map above, is one of those larger settlements called a city. It's located in the South Eastern part of the country. Alma Ata means literally, "the father of apples" and that sounds pretty good after all the grainy and creamy apples we have eaten in India. Pictures of the mountains and evergreen forests remind us of Washington State. Just because you have never heard of it you should not assume that Almaty is a backwards place. It is actually a rich and modern city. Kazakhstan, like many of the "stans," has oil. It is also a place of historical interest for Russia's space program. I have found an amateur radio club in the city. Unfortunately, their website uses cyrilic letters so I can understand very little but they have a nice photo gallery. Here's a link: http://qrz.kz/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=205 David's looking forward to making contact with them.

The primary religion in all of Central Asia is Islam. It is not the extremist Islam that makes the newspapers and evening news broadcasts. It is a religion of personal devotion and surrender to the will of Allah. Alcohol, smoking, unclean meats, and immorality are all forbidden by the principals of Islam so that Islam faithfully practiced, is a religion of peace.

Our new job duties will include 24 hrs per week of English teaching, weekly duties at the local church, teaching Sabbath School, Friday night Bible Study, etc. We are sorry to leave India but looking forward to returning to Central Asia where we think we will at least understand a few more words. Russian is the primary trade language in Kazakhstan but many other turkic languages are also present including Kazakh, kyrgyz, Uzbek, tajik, and Uighur. There is even a Uighur population in Almaty. I'm hoping to make some Uighur friends that I can speak with. It's use it or lose it with second languages. God is good and his children are never bored. :-)

Garo Hills Campus

A lot has happened in three months. Gina and I are back in the Garo Hills of North-east India. In a few days school starts. Work continues on the campus. I am still waiting for the truck carrying the water distribution pipe to arrive. The truck is coming from half a country away, state border crossings, paperwork and taxes to be checked and rechecked.... The local merchant gave me the assurance, that we all know is just the fastest it could get here, of 10 days. That 10 day wait ends tomorrow. Any number of things could hold the supplies up for a few days, or weeks. I look forward the long days of joining the 1200-meters of water distribution pipe, one 6-meter section at a time.
Here is a shot of the campus from across the river on a hill.

Campmeeting in the hills

We may have skipped the country but are still taking in the local church functions and enjoying our status as members of a worldwide family. On Sabbath Gina and I melted into the group, as much as possible, at the 52nd Garo Annual Meeting. It was so liberating to be part of an event that would happen exactly the same whether we were present or not. We did cause a small stir and a unique photographic opportunity. Some people just had to take pictures with us.









The nightly meetings were cold. Gina dressed warm. One evening after the meeting was over a cow wandered in. I had go up and say hello.







My favorite person in the whole meeting was this old man who always had the biggest smile on his face. he seemed to be alone but always made you feel like you were part of his world.









This is my favorite picture, a child with the sun shining across his face. The second runner up.... well there were many.
























The meetings began Wednesday night but because of work responsibilities I had to wait till sabbath to take pictures during the day. There where thousands of people, many traveled several hours from their remote villages to attend the meetings. This annual meeting means more to the Garo people than just getting together once a year. There aren't enough churches and pastors to go around so believers bring their tithes and offerings to the meetings. Pastors take the opportunity while everyone is together to conduct mass baptisms and weddings. We got the rare opportunity, as foreigners, to be present during the baptisms. The last picture is a mass wedding. Fourteen couples were in attendence.

Our first Kid!!!

Gina and I have adopted our first student. He still has parents of his own but we are helping him go to school. Vamsi is enjoying his first year at school and is the excellent artist who drew all of the pictures on our virtual refrigerator.

Virtual refrigerator

Good news all around

Our family is growing. We are sponsoring a young man named Vamsi Devi at the Cuddapah school. He is nine years old and very artistic. He loves to use the computer to make pictures on paint and colors in the lines very carefully.

David has lost weight, a lot of weight. He looks good.

Gina has learned how to tie a Sari

Here's the evidence

Loongies

It's Sabbath afternoon. David and I are sitting on the porch of the principal's house in Cuddapah district (not actually occupied by the principal). We have been be staying here for the last week and a half. There is an academy group coming next week who will move in here so we'll have to vacate to an obscure corner somewhere. That means giving up the nice big bed and putting a couple single mattresses on the floor. I tell him he needs to hang a curtain to separate the small kitchen area and make a bedroom for us. He suggests buying "loongies" (wrap around skirts for men) to use as curtains. We both know it's just an excuse for him to buy more "man skirts." He says they are comfortable. He bought his first pair while I was away in Gurgaon. I wasn't too excited about it because men around here grap the bottom corners and lift the fabric up above their knees. The result is something like a baggy miniskirt. David has resisted the temptation to do this (willingly, see below) for which I am grateful. I suggested sharing clothes but he frowned about that. I think it's going to take some time before he's comfortable sharing. He sure looks manly in a long skirt! : )

Sabbath afternoon is very quiet. The contractors are forbidden to work and the children are forbidden to yell and shout. After church service the teacher told all the children to go back into their rooms and enjoy themselves but not to make any noise. We laughed as they immediately began jumping between the top bunks, swinging on the window bars, and (in the case of the boys) running around naked. Finally order was reinstituted. I think the command to enjoy themselves was revoked.

We went off soon after that to find food for ourselves. If we had not made a timely exit we would have been constrained to eat with the children. Everyone here is very gracious about sharing their food but I can't eat it. Everytime I eat Indian food I hate it more. They use oil as if it were water (often palm oil) and chilis as if they were salt. The chilis are everywhere. I can't escape them. Not all chilis are equal. It's the small green chilis that are my archnemesis. My chest feels heavy and my throat constricts after just one bite. They are in every cooked dish from rice pilaf, to lentils, to vegetable curries.

We have really appreciated the generosity of the principal in giving us a small gas canister and burner so that I can cook. Keeping vegetables around is a challenge. We can't just drive to the grocery store. First I have to find someone to go with me to translate (more bodies means more arms to carry bags), then we have to catch a bus. Once in town we buy as much as we can from vendors who supply bags and try to make sure the tomatoes are stacked on top of the potatos and not the other way around. Then we start stuffing spare things in bags wherever there is room (grandma's crocheted bag comes in very handy for this). Finally I buy whatever papayas we can carry. After the necessities, we usually cannot carry as many as we would like. When we board the bus with all of our bags we hope we can find a place to sit. Usually some of the school boys meet us when we get back on campus and help us carry the well traveled bags to their place on the polished stone shelf that serves as a kitchen counter.

I ran out of gas once, I was right in the middle of frying up some eggplant. David went out to see if he could find someone to help us get more. He returned a few minutes later and told me that the children were dancing. Dancing? I had to see this. Back at the children's home Hindi music was being played on the donated DVD player (that machine gets a lot of use) and one of the translators who had come early was leading a sort of dance class. The kids put up a good cheer when we went inside for a closer look and we were immediately pushed up to the front. I kept saying "We don't know how to dance." but I think the language barrier prevented my appeals from having any effect. David, and this is the best part, was wearing a loongie. Everyone kept making motions that he would have to pull it up and tuck it in to which he turned pale and made desperate hand motions to the contrary. In the end he was pulled into a room and after a long time and much encouragement finally emerged again in a baggy miniskirt. We were then forced to improvise an interpretive dance based entirely on our brief experience with Hindi music videos. It was the first time I have ever regretted not paying more attention to Indian dance routines. Our leader made it look so easy and beautiful! I really have a new appreciation for the complexities of Indian dance now. We laughed a lot and looked like complete fools but everyone had a good time and it was a lot of fun. The children still tell me "Ginaka (sister Gina) dance bagondi (beautiful)". They are such charming little liars. Dinner was very late that night. We ate half cooked eggplant and laughed about what a great adventure we had.

David will be buying three more loongies. We determined that is what it will take to make a curtain across the kitchen area in the principal's house.