More food, this time: breakfast

A shot of espresso is not the breakfast of champions.
Some buttered toast? Rice crispies? Fruit smoothies? Yawn. Does it get any more boring?
Bring on the Indian breakfast! (insert music, actors singing and dancing, moustaches, big smiles)
A caress of the palate, a challenge on the stomach, hallelujah this is tasty.
But oh boy am I craving for a big glass of cold Cecemel...

Your typical Sunday

Weather forecast for Sunday: Sunny with a chance of natural beauty, Indian food and a moment of culture.

Natural beauty, brought to you by the lush and dense greeneries of Kerala's backwaters. Astounding.
And should you be so lucky as to have no crying child and baby on board, the backwaters are very soothing, relaxing and tranquillizing too. No such luck was my part. Alas...








Indian food coming to you live from the internet café and a place a tad more upmarket for dinner.

And Sunday, culture day. Featuring today: Kathakali, a Kerala dance performance, stylised classical Indian dance drama, dating back to the 16th century.
Impressive...


BTW - after day 1, bargained an upgrade in the -again- empty hotel.
The Rositta Wood Castle, a charming old hotel in rosewood with high ceilings, wooden floors a flowery courtyard and a phone as decoration.

The weekend shift

Friday morning (well... we're flexible on the timing... the drive took 2 1/2 hours instead of 1 so, pretty much noon by the time we made our big -late- entrance): Meeting the POABS Director. POABS is a fair trade tea (i know!), coffee, rice and spices organization in Kerala.
In exchange for an IBM pen (including light, thank you very much), we got a massive goodie bag filled with coffee, spices and tea. (Gifts for the people back home: check! Excess baggage: check!)
And oh yes, the actions we're taking based on the meeting look good too. We're on a roll!

Question: Would the following scenario be likely to happen in Belgium?
Friday afternoon, 4:30, based on a tip we got from the POABS director, we randomly call the AVT McCormick general number (AVT-McCormick: a joint venture between the Indian AVT company and McCormick, one of the oldest and largest USA based spices companies) asking for 'an executive'.
After some back and forth transfers, kadzzzinggg - we're meeting the Director and COO Mrs. Sushama tomorrow. Saturday that is!
Corporate Social Responsibility, livelihoods for farmers and IBM, prove to be a great door opener.

Saturday, 7a.m.
Those two, don't normally mix. But against my highly valued principles, I'm up already.
Down by the waterfront, during the wee hours of the morning, there exists a place so smelly, so slimy, only the heartiest of (wo)men dare walk its slippery pontoons.
Need to catch the fishermen doing their fishing thing in the early morning light. That my friends, is dedication... (me getting up that is).

Saturday afternoon: Taking the ferry (Fort Kochi to Ernakulam) in flipflops to attend a business meeting is somewhat of a new experience. (good excuse to pick up some new shoes along the way at the Mahatma Ghandi handicrafts market: turns out they're made of camel-leather. I made sure no camels were purposely killed for them and the proud creator of the kicks assured me only the ones that fall dead of old age are being used :-)

From now on, Saturday afternoon, coffee shop and flipflops are my *star* ingredients for a fruitful meeting! The suggestions Sushama made were beyond our expectations. (can't reveal...need to save some successes for our moment suprême, il grande presentacion final)

I chose to disrespect my principles again. Sunday morning: the backwater tour sets off at 8.
I'm sure you were already convinced but hey: This is hard work.

Getting some work done while we're at it...

Arriving Thursday at Cochin airport (Kerala), we were met by the driver arranged by the Nadukkara Agro Processing (Juice) company, a fair trade certified juice processing plant we’re meeting with.
We were taken to the hotel where a royal treatment awaited.
The manager personally welcomed us and another 6 people are constantly buzzing around us. I’m guessing we’re pretty much the only guests around for the moment.
We were officially handed the Royal Guest Book that already mentioned 2 other customers. I guess they had just started a new one cause they’ve been open since 2001…

Mr. Manager is almighty in this hotel and is omnipresent. Gets called in for everything. A very helpful person.
When I asked some more explanation about the food: Manager! Approach please.
When Clai asked for a second coke: panic aboard. We saw some major whispering and hissing action over at Mr. Manager’s desk after which the waiter who had drawn the shortest straw, had the unfortunate task of bringing us the bad news: there was only one Coke in the hotel.
Dare I inquire about a possible internet connection? The World Wide Web so to speak? The information super highway? I could see them think: the internet… yes… we got it caught in a cage last week but it managed to get away. Uh oh – major panic. Two guys had to go check with Mr. Manager. He appeared promptly, telling us there’s no internet today. Maybe tomorrow (don’t see any connection though). But problems call for solutions, so he kindly volunteered a member of his staff to help find a connection in town. The volunteer looked puzzled…

Anyway, off to our business of the day: Nadukkara plant visit. Highly recommended. They have a very refined infrastructure set up, funded partially by the Government of Kerala and the European Union (Italian machines). (My mind sort of wondered off during the factory visit: How come our host didn’t have to cover his moustache with a hygienic cap? A whole lot of hair going on there…)
The company is owned for 70% by the farmers collectives (pineapple), 30% by the government. We met with the General Manager and the Quality/Procurement Manager and tried to find potential opportunities for us to work together. We might go into an R&D process and gave them some ideas about new markets which we could tell they liked… It’s amazing to see how coming in as a volunteer, not wanting to sell or bargain and without having a personal business interest opens up so many doors. Productive meeting. First connections made between Team Ladakh and Team Kerala. North and South unite.

It's a first!

We spent so little time in our Mumbai hotel, I couldn’t even find the time to have my laundry done there.
The time has come.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
If a bucket bath is good enough for me, I’m sure it’s good enough for my undies too.
So: Laundry Day, the Indian way.

(pictures censored)

The leg (or the lack thereof)

There is a chance, one of my legs will not come home with me.
I have –again- been bitten by something.
The mark on my leg is getting bigger. Feel free to call it a pretty substantial stain by now. (It seems to lead a life of its own. I might even give my stain a name soon.)
I have a sense of trepidation that at any moment now little spiders will start crawling out .

Bite has been there for 3 days now and to top things off, yesterday I slipped coming out of the bathroom which made my shin hit the bed and get stuck under it (I know…), adding to the already tense and very painful feeling. Result: Immediate black swelling (which sort of clashed with the red stain). Ice cold water contained the damage.
Best is to keep my leg up but unfortunately this looks a bit strange in business meetings.

Moreover something else has been feasting on my legs as well. I think there were some bugs in my bed that had a pretty feisty party last night.
I was the top act and served as their main course.
Oh well, this too shall pass, I’m sure.

(I was going to post a picture but will spare you any further details.)

Driving, working, some more driving...

A couple of difficulties to overcome at the office before you can actually get some work done.
First of all no driver to be found this morning so slight delay in getting the day started. Luckily I’m still on Ladakhi time, meaning: go with whatever flow comes along.
Printers: nah, they’re not compatible with the laptop at hand.
Wireless: maybe, sometimes, try again.
The telephony system: a whole other world, no universe.
A shiny phone is sitting on my desk but doesn’t seem to be connected to anything and its main purpose would be to … pretty much just sit shiny on my desk.
Making a call with the local mobile seems to either be impossible due to the network being busy (I kept getting this guy on the phone saying: "Network is busy, kindly dial after some time" - see movie), me not being able to get the right numbers dialled or people simply hanging up as I seem to be completely incomprehensible.

You need to put one, two or no zeros at all in front of the number (depending on the time of day I guess).
Couldn't get the conference call going so they sent in a blind man to help: the blind leading the blind, we're on a roll. But at least he knew what he was doing. Thank you sir!

Despite all difficulties we managed to get some useful contacts in the Fair Trade business (tea –oh joy-, seed oil, juice).
And they so happen to be located in Kerala.
So, hopping on the next flight out (thanks to Roja, setting up our entire schedule).
Tomorrow morning first thing: deep South beware: team IBM is on its way (and will stay over the weekend while we're at it).

Tonight however, team IBM was slightly less productive.
Getting our driver to the right secret Bandra hideout was almost as difficult as getting a phone call done.
Bandra, home to many a Bollywood celebrity and to Kabi, our local beacon in Mumbai life was the place to be for cooking class (this week: Rajasthan cuisine by chef Kannu - oh yes, as Indian as you can get).
Food and company was great but the drives keep being a challenge.

Leaving Bandra, the rickshaw driver got clear instructions from Kannu to drive us back to the hotel. Straight home, no detours, no stops.
About 10 minutes into the drive, I realized I had forgotten my loyal friend “Laptop” at Kabi’s. Turning back however, was no option for our rickshaw driver. There was no stopping him.
He was determined.
Straight ahead.
A man on a mission.
Mission: "Drop off white people at Planet Residency asap".

We signalled, we yelled, we pointed in the direction we came from. All to no avail. He kept nodding his head fiercely which sort of got us in a twist: Did he understand? You think?
If so, why did we keep on driving at full speed direction "away from Kabi's"?

Finally, we called Beacon Kabi again. (You have to know Kabi spends about half of her days talking to our drivers in Hindi, explaining what we can’t get across.)
We were however slightly too quick to hand off the phone to the driver who got clear and firm Kabi-like instructions reinforcing the message to get us to the hotel. Now!

The poor man didn’t understand a thing. That was what he was doing and had been doing all along.
About 5 minutes and 5 kilometres later, we finally managed to get hold of the phone again. Explained situation to Kabi, Kabi explained to driver, driver made U-turn.

20 minutes later, laptop and I reunited.
On our way. Mission: Planet Residency.

Sunday afternoon wonder

Sunday morning 7:30,
leaving Leh, 2°C

Sunday morning 8:30,
arriving in Delhi, 28°C

Oh yes... Delhi is hot (and a lot greener than Mumbai).

Random Sunday afternoon road trip: taking in a little world wonder.
The renowned Taj Mahal in Agra ('the Taj' for friends).

(Weather update: 38°C, scorching hot.)

Brace yourself for a sophisticated treat: A stunning white marble construction, meticulously laid out by an ingenious architect about 370 years ago.
Inlays in precious stones, so smooth you'd think they're paintings, citings from the Koran in -what appear to be- letters of equal sizes (but the equal size only obtained through refined optical illusions), 4 symmetric minarets built slightly leaning towards the outside in order not to fall on the dome in case of earthquake.
A marble-ous (pun intended) construction built as a remembrance of a husband to his deceased wife.

The Taj Mahal...
And there was nothing left but to stand there in awe.

Me against 'The Tea'

Newsflash: Indians like tea.

And preferably lots of it.
At every -literally every- hour of the day.
Tea comes in a multitude of varieties here: green tea,
black tea with ginger and milk, salty yak-butter-tea (black tea, salt, a nice big chunck of yak butter and milk), seabuckthorn tea (oh yes, it's research!). You name it: they brew it.

But I don't drink it. You can feed me pretty much anything but tea's just simply...not my cup of tea. Ever since I was 5, I have a tea trauma so, thanks but no thanks.

That does imply having to turn down tea (and the accompanying people) about 8 times a day: at breakfast, during meetings, in monks' kitchens.
Yes, even declining Holy men...

Tea for two
and two for tea
tea for you
but not for me...

Welcome to "Who Packs Your Bags"?'

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to 'Who Packs Your Bags'?
Behind door No. 1: DIY aka the normal way - you go on a trip, you pack your bags, you bring too much.
Behind door No. 2: A charming colleague packs your bag for you and brings your stuff to Delhi.

Two?

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Here’s what you win: A round trip to Agra!

It's a simple plan.
No, I shouldn't say this.
Simple plans have a tendency to go very wrong very quickly.
So, this is the plan: I take a plane from Leh to Delhi. Skip my flight from Delhi to Mumbai. Clai takes my mountain stuff to Mumbai. Dawn brings my Agra-fit clothes to Delhi.
We drive from Delhi to Agra. We see Taj Mahal. Everybody happy.
Life is easy.

Trapped in -semi- paradise

Shht... What's that sound? Can you hear it? It's the sound of missing your plane returning to Mumbai.

You are currently reading the blog of a not-so-happy-camper.
Scheduled return to Mumbai was supposed to be tomorrow (Friday).
Booking the tickets today with a long weekend ahead, might have been a bit short notice (please note I was not responsible myself) .
So, yours truly is stuck in Leh.
No trip to Agra / Jaipur and Delhi any time soon. Big fat bummer!

We've pretty much seen everything there is to see and I'm pretty fed up with wearing my hiking shoes! (Did I really pay that much excess baggage to only be wearing my warm mountain clothes?)

Oh well, I guess meanwhile I did get used to the minor defects of mountain life, the cows know me and I can visit my adopted donkey again.
And didn't I mention feeling like a queen yesterday?
Well, I still need a couple of hours to get over it.
I guess it's true what they say: there's no such thing like a sure plan in India.



BTW - one good thing came out of it: the guy at the reception desk felt so bad for me that he gave a tour in Brad Pitt's suite at our hotel (he actually stayed here).
I walked over his doormat, sat in his sofa, laid on his bed. Too bad he wasn't home...

The one with the important visitor

Just finished our big workshop. Enough work for one day.

Ten of the most important stakeholders attended, including the Prime Minister of the State Jammu & Kashmir (*). He arrived in two cars.
How does one arrive in two cars?
Well, he was escorted by 6 armed military police officers.

All various parties involved were represented: the government, the collectives, the local farmers' association, forest preservation fund, entrepreneurs currently involved in other agricultural exports, ... All of them were VERY respectful towards the prime minister. As were we of course.
Everyone had tea (what else), biscuits, cake, spring rolls and samosas while Clai and I ran the workshop.
Three major topics we brainstormed about:

• Partner criteria (who do we want, who do we decline - like filling out an online dating form)
• Branding and awareness (trademarks, how to market, domestic vs international, which routes,...)
  
• Building the story (key differentiators, selling proposition, got the story going by showing the kids' drawings)
  

We had rented out a room in our hotel and checked upfront about the do's and don'ts in a 'Ladakhi workshop' so I think I behaved appropriately.
(To make IBM proud, I have to add we got compliments on the way we effectively ran the meeting! A Belgian and a US IBMer running an effective meeting. In India. Surely that's a first.)

Afterwards we were even consulted about marketing techniques for local shops (which was no problem for us in exchange for a discount). Or should I not mention this?
Probably against IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines...





(*) State Jammu&Kashmir is one of India's 28 states.
Population: 10,143,700
Surface: 222.236 km²
Capital: Jammu (winter) and Srinagar (summer)

Let's talk business...

Berry-business.
Finally starting to understand who's who in berry-land.
Local people aka Ladakhi: try to earn a living by picking berries that can only be harvested one year a month.
Harvesting of the berry that grows wild, happens between 5 and 9 in the morning.
Why? Cause at that point, the connection between the berry and the branch is at its most fragile.
Tapping on the branches with a stick or shaking the shrub, will set a berry shower (as opposed to berry bucket bath) into motion.
Then there's local entrepreneurs. People working in other industries the rest of the year but as entrepreneurs, get asked by the berry collectors when they'll be wanting (read buying) berries. But these local entrepreneurs first need a buyer. And that's where the problem starts.
There's currently one buyer and people are totally dependent on him. One year he bought the entire crop (but there's potential for more), last year he bought nothing (no berry-trade in 2008), this year he's buying only about 1/5th.
Another problem is the awareness of the berry. It simply isn't known or isn't being promoted in the right way.
It's already proving to be a challenge finding it in local shops.
And if they do happen to find some juice under the counter or in the back office, it comes in the most repulsive recycled plastic bottle that already survived 3 earthquakes and 2 civil wars and just started its fruitful 7th life. (btw: the picture is a civilized version in a program director's office)

The puss inside the bottle then comes into 2 parts: the top part being the pulp and the bottom part being water. Could be slightly more appealing.
Whereas other local produce is being sold and marketed (apricot jam, himalayan salt, ...), the juice seems to be a produce outcast.

But not to worry: Team IBM to the rescue!
Now that we understand the culture better, have -somewhat of- a handle on the ecosystem of stakeholders involved and the needs of the locals, we're working on a -insert drumroll- plan.
Not just any plan. A master plan (we don't get out of bed-or get off our plank- for anything less).
This afternoon, we have a workshop with 10 VIPs all having a say in the berry-process. They got invited through a hard copy invite, hand delivered by TISS to their offices at the beginning of this week (that's the way it works here for VIPs) and we'll be hosting them in our hotel.

The heat is on.
IBM needs to show its true colours. Today they'll be orange.
Time to start a new religion: Berry-ism.
All Hail to the berry!

Cultural smackdown

That's the way to describe the way I met Indian culture the past 2 days.In your face, up close and personal.

Foreseen pick up for Nubra Valley: Tuesday 7 am.
8:15 our party arrived.
The program: not really clear (what's new?).

The 5 of us (Driver Mr. Lobster, Jorgis, Ramesh, Clai and myself) in a tin 4x4 with worn out shock absorbers on our way for a 5 hour drive over the mountain.
I don't really have words to describe the journey... The first part was -besides very winding- OK.
But then we drove for about 2 1/2 hours over something that could be described as a very narrow, unpaved dust road with potholes all over.

You have to brace yourself, hang on to everything that doesn't move and can't sit back against the back of the seat as then you treat yourself to feeling the bumps and holes about 2 times more
Very very tiring.
The car wrecks of vehicles that made way for opponents -unsuccessfully- were scattered down the flanks of the mountain and didn't immediately provide comfort for a safe return.
The views on the other hand were amazing and that was a comfort as I thought these views could very well be the last views I ever laid eyes on.
We passed the highest motorable road in the world (almost 7000 meters: ice, snow, wind, tea) had a couple of stops along the way and finally arrived in a tiny tiny village.
Jorgis disappeared for about 1/2 an hour while Clai and I were the talk of the town: strange white people had been dropped. The Gods must be crazy.
I started getting grumpy as I got the message we were having no lunch today.
When Jorgis finally came back, he had dragged his cousin along who was rather sick (probably H1N1) but he told her it was better to get out of bed and make us some tea.
I had to refuse tea again (I have a tea-trauma ever since I was 5 and have to kindly turn down tea here about 8 times a day - people don't understand).
After a school visit (We brought a box full of stuff we bought yesterday and had them drawing Seabuckthorn stories), a SB processing plant, another cousin's visit (water irrigation system) and a monastery tour (seabuckthorn sightings), we drove off (for another 2 hours).
Where to? Only God knew. And Ramesh. And Jorgis. And Mr. Lobster.
OK, basically the only ones in the dark were Clai and me...
The only thing we did get out of Jorgis about our destination was that we were probably going to sleep there tonight.
Let the guessing game begin! Is it a nice hotel? Massage and copious dinner awaiting? Is it a warm and inviting guest house, no tea included? A hot shower? Internet connection maybe?
No, we ended up at his mother's house and were put in the sitting area for...tea.
All I could think about by that time was food. Meanwhile a lot of stuff was happening in the background but we were completely left out (as we are guests).
It turned out they had gone to the market (for a freshly slaughtered chicken) and Ramesh would cook it.
Get a move on Ramesh!!!
Not thinking about all potential stomach and belly complications ahead we had a great meal.
With very welcoming people: Jorgis mother and sister in law, who did think that adopting a donkey and drinking water instead of tea was not really a very normal thing to do.

The surroundings and the humble home are so far off from anything we're used to.
I can only describe with the help of visual support (and orally later on).
(see movie of my room, walk down to the dry toilet and the dinner)

After dinner: straight to bed. Which was for me: a plank with a blanket on it as mattress,
the family's Japanese pillow (which had a stone in it or sth cause half way through the night I thought I was about to loose my ear cause it ached like hell), and some thick dusty but warm blankets. Besides the ear-falling-off-condition, I had a great night.

Rise and shine for a new day.
And that new day didn't bring a bucket bath for a change but a hand pump down the garden.
(I don't think I'm that dirty today, I might skip this one)
And of course the new day also brought more of the same: driving around.
First stop: sand dunes (And camels. But they were on strike). Lots and lots of Seabuckthorn in the sand dunes and we convinced innocent tourists to try after giving them the full SB 101.
After that, we went to a monastery where we witnessed a Buddhist ceremony (secret footage attached) and had tea in the monks' kitchen (not me).
Some leftovers along the way later, I cursed myself for eating them right before driving back. But in any case: I did have lunch today.

Still totally overwhelmed by what happened, need to process a bit now.
Back in isolated Leh, with on and off internet connection, with my bucket bath and night time
only electricity, I feel like a queen, living a life of luxury.




Video-footage to follow - connection too slow...

Don't follow me, I'm lost too

Up until 2 hours ago, we had no clue whatsoever about any schedule for the days to follow. Just go with the Indian flow.
But all of a sudden, things are shaping up.

If the Gods are with us (Whatever God you prefer. Hey, we're open minded), this is what the calendar for the coming days looks like:

• Pick up tonight at 7 for the Leh Festival
  
• Indian food
  
• Tomorrow: Leave for Nubra Valley via the highest motorable road in the world (motion sickness pills within reach)
• More Indian food (though combining that with the car might not be one of my better ideas)
  
• Stay in Nubra Valley for our project and field research til Wednesday with a -yes- busy agenda: visit local farmers, women's collective, local school, government agency and forest conservation fund
• Some more Indian food
  
• Thursday: workshop in Leh with representatives from each of our stakeholders
• Let's go for Indian tonight
  
• Friday: Fly back to Mumbai
• Indian anyone?
  
• Saturday-Sunday-Monday (bank holiday): Colleagues back in Mumbai have started a small IBM travel agency and are arranging weekend trips to escape city life: Fly to Delhi, drive to Agra (Taj Mahal) and Jaipur

Delhi, bring me a big fat burger please...

The mountain and the donkey

Yesterday, I noticed this fun sign in the center of Leh: "Come and have fun at the only sanctuary for helpless donkeys."
Today: Sunday. Just had breakfast. What to do?
Donkey retreat it is!

An hour into the walk.
No, let me rephrase.
An hour into something I would be more inclined to call an intensive trek in the mountains, a hike for advanced...well, hikers, steep uphill all-the-time! At high altitude. I dare you!
So, an hour into the thing, small update on the vital signs (small as practically no vital signs were left):

• Heartbeat: 298
• Blood: pumping in my head
• Breathing: what breathing?
  

(the above might be a slight exaggeration and misrepresentation of the truth...)

At that point, we passed a green bit of land where a couple of donkeys were grazing.
Hallelujah we have arrived. We made it! And I survived. My reward: donkeys. And some nice grass. Good enough for me.
But when I tried convincing Clai we had arrived (Cool this sanctuary! Look at all the donkeys! Woo-hoo! Picture time.), he wasn't too sure. So, on our merry way we went. Again.
Every person we stopped to ask about a donkey sanctuary seemed clueless. And on top of that looked quite amused, when they understood us that is. We learned afterwards that donkeys are in the lowest caste of animals and not exactly loved in the holy-cow-country.

Almost 3 hours after we left and three scattered arrows later, we found... Donkey Heaven (update on vitals: body had gone into the automatic pilot mode by now so, feeling tip top. Dixie, sign me up for your next expedition).
The sign says it all (but I'll recap): Donkeys are left out on the street after they served their purpose, get weak, get bitten by dogs, whipped and kicked by people, ... not your ideal scenario. But then comes along...their ride to paradise: The bus to donkey sanctuary where they get shelter, get fed and can hang out with friends. What's not to love about that?
So, we hung out with the donkey daddy and his protegees.
They all seemed to be in good shape except for one poor fellow, locked in a shed, that got hit by a car and couldn't get up because of the broken bones and wounds. He didn't even seem to have an appetite (some grass? no thanks).
But then -idea- I still have a bar of Belgian chocolate and a Tootsie Roll (thanks Sue - I saved it for a special moment). And that went down very smoothly. (although Tootsie roll caramel did take some time..)

After a nice donation -they actually wanted to offer me a baby donkey in return- I felt cool as a cucumber and ready to walk down. Donkeys rule.
Whenever you're in the Ladakhi mountains, make sure to pay them a visit.

'The greatness of a nation can be determined by the way its animals are treated.' - Mahatma Ghandi



PS - about another 100 donkey pictures available.

Photographic evidence

A picture's worth a thousand words.
Brace yourself cause you're in for quite a read: 111000 words to be precise.
So, on the count of three: One, two … see
(with comments)

The good, the bad and the Friday

• Bucket bath
• Breakfast
• 10:30 pickup
• No internet connection at the office
• Meeting with local entrepreneur (Ashram)
• Communal home cooked lunch at the office
• Meeting with the project officer of the Government of Jammu & Kashmir
• Drink some Seabuckthorn juice
• Wander around local market
• Curse the (none existing) internet connection at the hotel
  

Just your typical Friday in Leh.

The office and the monastery

Thursday, September 10

Clai is still in a man on man fight with altitude sickness. The dry mountain desert is not agreeing with him.
No breakfast for our American friend. At this rate he’ll be vanished by the end of our assignment.
On our way to work, we stopped for some medication to help him in his fight against the evil mountain decease. The end is near. (of him being sick that is)

The TISS offices in Leh, are situated in a beautiful domed building. After our meeting in Mumbai with the professor, lots of insight from expert and program director Jorghesh and a meeting with our colleagues Titiksja, Ramesh and Tashi today, we identified a number of areas we’ll be working on:
• The empowerment and enablement of local people
• Identification of SB applications to focus on (based on revenue and value)
• Buy in of local people involved in the value chain
• Creation of identification parameters for partners (both fair trade and commercial)
• Recommendations for optimization of supply chain
• Creation of an information kit
• Line up a branding strategy
• Partner negotiations

One traditional Ladakhi lunch later, a big moment of truth awaited: a field trip to meet the source of it all: the Seabuckthorn berry. (see other post)
It grows in the wild on thorny shrubs, only the female plant bears berries and after tasting them, I can confirm: they taste bitter.

Later on that day, Jorgesh took us to a Buddhist monastery, beautifully laid out on a mountainside. A very serene and spiritually loaded environment that made for a very special experience. Something to share later, face to face.


After numerous unsuccessful attempts to connect to the outside world (hey, who’s still trying?), we went for dinner at an outdoor restaurant.
Bit chilly (we áre in the mountains) but the open fire, the veggie food and the Bollywood movie ‘Luck’ (oh my G… the drama of it all!) made up for it.
The bill didn’t hurt too much either: 230rp (about 4,5€ for 2).

Thanks Vanessa for the winter sports coat, it was put to good use.

Bucket bath

I admit.
After non existing mobile coverage, electricity that only comes on at night and failing internet connection, I had little faith in having hot water in the morning.
The idea of having to wash my hair with cold water in a slightly less tropical surrounding, didn’t exactly sound very appealing.
I approached the bucket bath (*) hesitantly and realized I had jumped to conclusions too fast: Warm water was my share.

Let the bucket bath singing begin!

(*) see picture (you figured that out, right).
Instructions: one fills the large bucket with water , one then pours the water over one's self with the small cup :-)

Introducing: "the berry"

And here it is: the one thing we travelled all the way to India for, the subject of many research papers, the diversification of livelihoods for the Ladhak Region.
Drum roll....
Seabuckthorn (or Tsermand, or Tsetsalulu or Shibshululu).
We met with it today, up close and personal, live and in person.

Minor accident BAU

Yesterday, driving away at Leh-airport, we smashed into one of
the other parked 4x4s door: Someone swung their door open
just when we passed by.
Result: Lots of noise, scratches and me thinking:
oh well, yet another hour we’ll be held up to fill out all
the forms.
But none of this. We didn’t stop and the others didn’t ask us to.
Business as usual and we continued on our merry way.

This is how we do it.

Airheads

Competing with connection time to get rid blog-backlog.
We're in Leh, the Himalayas.
Electricity only comes on around 6pm, hence also the internet (which didn't work until 8). No mobile connection.

Arrived this morning (Wednesday September 8).
The view from the plane was amazing: I have never seen so many fierce mountains cuddle up against eachother.

Traditional Tibetan welcome crew at the airport handed everyone a welcoming scarf (more stuff for suitcase) and guidelines on how to deal with altitude sickness.
It comes in 3 forms, one even less pleasant than the other:
1/ Acute Mountain Sickness (mild an early form however if non treated: high risk even leading to death).
2/ High Altitude Cerebral Edema (swelling of the brain)
3/ High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (swelling of the lungs).
Good stuff - where do we get it?

Well, seek no further: at the guesthouse TISS booked for us, the first signs became visible. Mild headache, strange feeling in the stomach, shortness of breath and "airy" head.
And really: just literally walking about 30 meters at normal pace, doesn't feel that good. And this time, it has nothing to do with my condition!

So, nothing to do but follow the advice from local doctors: Rest for 30 hours and drink 3-4 liters of water a day.
Off to bed and off to the toilet about every 1/2 an hour (not used to these amounts of water).

In the afternoon, we decided to risk our lives by sitting quietly outside in the sun under the Tibetan prayer flags.
Sunburn in about 5 minutes without sunscreen. (no worries for the fans of my fair complexion: I have sunscreen!)

It's hard having to be convinced to engage in no other summery physical activity than to put a glass of cold water to your lips and take a nap. Life can be hard...

More or less OK first day but like Kylie said: s-l-o-w.
I feel some swelling of the brain coming up, better go to bed again.

Delhi-Leh and lots of stops in between

Not a single taxi knew how to get to our destination when we wanted to head for our overnight stay in Delhi.
TISS had booked 2 rooms at the Indian Center of Sciences Research (ICSR).
Yes, I forgot to mention this part but: I'm in research now. Felt very intelligent there for a while.(switched from lenses to my glasses to align the image).
The ICSR is a government owned facility that is... well, hard to find.
But it got found!
After some late night curry dinner around midnight, we were faced with 2 rooms, 3 people.
So Clai got a chance to get to know Sonam Jorghesh (from TISS) slightly better by sharing a double bed with him. Male bonding. You gotta love it.

Three hours later (and luckily I didn't wait for the wake up call that came at 4:30, the time we had to leave to the airport):

Dark, taxi, rain.
Five minutes into the drive: first stop, checking the tires.
Seven minutes into the drive: second stop, trying to put air in one of the tires.
Ten minutes into the drive: third stop, middle of the highway, everyone out of the car, flat tire, change tire.
Half awake, rain, broken tire jack.
Goodmorning Delhi.
Things are going well!

A new tire (and the deadline of a leaving plane) made our driver shift into a horribly dangerous driving mode.
But Karma once again proved to be traveling with us: we arrived in one piece and just on time.

Off to Leh. (coverage zero)