More Villages, a Market and Staying Put.

October 22.

Leon, the Australian owner of the place I’m staying at brings breakfast down to the cottage. He knows that I’m not happy with the room arrangements and is trying his best to make up for it. Much more on that, later.

After breakfast, Prashant and I walk few steps to see a village getting started on day. Cow dung with water, thought to be suspicious, is spread evenly in front of houses to clean. (it’s ironic that the houses, both interior and exterior are kept so clean, while streets and public areas are laden with trash).Mandalas are drawn on the area right outside houses to welcome the goddess. Cows and people mingle. A government pump house provides water for one hour in the morning and one in the evening. Some people are using free gas provided by the government for their stoves.

Two boys, rotating each day, walk cows and goats up to the jungle to eat. On the way back, cows know their houses and peel off, so there are no marking on the cows. Mixed village, some Hindus, some tribal, from many different tribes.

We visit a second village called Lanjiguda, inhabited primarily by the Lower paroja tribe.

Photos of people below come from both villages.

Below are a few pictures of interiors of village houses

After visiting these two tribes, we drove through nice, hilly scenery, was once all forest, but tribes cut trees for firewood. The forestry department has been planting many trees. Unfortunately, the beautiful landscape is often marred by trash.

There is no road up to the hill tribes. They walk down to market once a week, which is the only place you can see them.

Our destination is the Kakiriguma Monday weekly tribal market of the Desia Kondh tribes with participation by the local community. The Kondhas are one of the well-known tribes of Orissa who were famous in history for their Meriah –Human Sacrifice. They are found almost in all the districts of Orissa but mostly concentrated in large numbers in Phulbani, Koraput and Ganjam districts.. We walked around the market and Prashant pointed out different tribes, which he could discern from the jewelry and clothing they were wearing. The number of different tribes, and variations on those tribes, is daunting.

I spent the next several hours not moving. To explain, I was unhappy with my accommodations and wrote to my travel agent to complain about it. The travel agent succeeded in finding an alternative place, which I visited and rather liked. So I decided I would move there. We went back to my original hotel and found that Leon, the owner, had convinced two of the French people to move in together thus freeing a room for me. After some fairly unpleasant exchanges, I decided, after inspecting the new room, that I would stay in my original hotel, after all. This was something of a case study of poor communication. Leon and I have buried the hatchet, and I think the decision to remain where I am is the right one. Throughout all of this, Prashant was terrific, focusing on what was best for me, being very patient and, ultimately handled it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in my new room, working on photos and blogging. Dinner was very good, as has every meal here, including today’s lunch, which happened in the midst of the not moving period