Wednesday, May 26th 2010 - Day 4

22:00 Hrs. Bengaluru, India.

The avid travel bug many of us had upon arriving is slowly wearing down. I certainly wouldn't say culture shock quite yet by any means. We are still abosrbing everything we can, food included. Jet lag, and our 'hit-the-ground-running' itinerary however has started catching up to us. Today we were to return to ATREE for three lectures and lunch followed by some shopping. So where we were given a much needed physical break, our brain capacity was stretched like maternity clothes...

Another employee at ATREE, Harisha, and his wife and 9-month old son, Himanshu, joined us this morning for breakfast at UTC. Many pictures were taken of the chubby youngster with light-up shoes. We were told Harisha had invited us to the naming ceremoney of Himanshu (an elaborate event in India), but as you can tell we missed it by about a week. It's too bad Geeta didn't use it as an excuse to get us out of exams last semeseter. They have also invited us to their home when we visit the MM Hills later next month. A truly compassionate and generious family, like so many others we've met already.

Today we trekked (took our bus, with our old driver and new friend Ramu) back to ATREE for a series of three lectures. I'd like to mention that Bangalore's roads are practically all main roads with walls on the side much like Mexico City. Many of the walls however have beautiful elaborate art of images and symbols of primarily India, but all over the world as well. From wildlife to landmarks and national symbols, to multi-colored, multi-limbed deities, the city's roads are incredibly decorated.

Our first lecture at ATREE was by a man named Arvind and covered the NGO itself. Mission and goals as well as research and education. The next covered some of the types of research work they do, particularly the pollination work of our lecturer, Dr. Ganesha. After a brief lunch, we returned to the classroom to meet the director of ATREE. The man was a brilliant, well-traveled humourous gentelman with excellent English. He sat down and asked us (11 + Lisa) to introduce ourselves! He continued to ask questions: where we were going, what we were studying, our upbringings, our reactions to India. Next he told us a little about the ways ATREE works to go green, particularly architecturally. Eventually it morphed from question and answer to an open dialog about environmental issues in India and their methods all in comparision to other nations.

Next we were asked to return to the terrace four floors up (where we've been eating) and write our first essay summarizing what we'd learned. After racking my brain, and finishing the schoolwork, I sat on a seat on the edge of the terrace and stared at the city sprawled out on a hill in the distance. Being back in the rural village, so high up, staring at this third-world city, I'd never felt so on top of the world, yet so miniscule at the same time. So many people, so different from others, yet struggling for the same thing as everyone else, survival.

Why am I on this trip? It seems I've forgotton. I squish on the floor aisle of the van between two seats as we leave since we're taking a few extra people (India-sardine can style of Geeta says). We stop in a market and half of us go shopping while the rest of us go to a cyber cafe. Waiting for the others to finish on the computer, we soak in our last evening in Bangalore until the end of June at the end of this program. We head out to the field, the forests of Southern India early tomorrow.

~Walking on, and following blindly,

-David