March 4, 2015, Wednesday, Ranthambore to OAT camp

This morning we left on the bus for our journey to Agra by way of the OAT camp.  This breaks up the long drive.  We first visit a village in Ranthambore and see a small store selling just about anything you could want.  Many things are in small plastic packs in rolls.  David bought a book with numbers and letters written in English and Hindi.  Everywhere he went children would grab the colorful book.  He finally had to give it up to a girl who gave him money for it.  It was Indian money decorated with Mickey and Minnie Mouse!  He later tried to pay with this money but no one saw the joke.  I guess he still has it.

village store

Next we visited the OAT sponsored school.  It is a "public" school, ie. parents have to pay.  The kids all had on uniforms of course.  There were maybe 6 classrooms with children from 3 to 12 yrs.  Five men teachers and one woman. We went into a classroom where I met Mento, a 12 year old eager, smiling boy.  He showed me his school book with the lesson they were working on for English class.  He said his family had a cow and he milked the cow.  His father was a farmer and his mother was at home.  He has a younger brother.  We took photos of us and the girls in front of him in class.  They all sit on small blankets on the floor in a dark room.  The only light was through a grate in the ceiling of the outer courtyard.  OAT has provided toilets, additional classrooms and electricity.  I gave the pencils and DVD of space travel that we bought at the Kennedy Space Center.  I have no idea if they have a DVD player or not, but there were two computers in the OAT library.

Ann and David in a classroom

Mento and I

Three cute girls

Next we enter the village.  We saw women carrying water, women selling bangles under a tree, the cows in their yards, the crude shelters with corrugated iron roofs held on by rocks, thatched shelters for the animals or cooking.  We walk to the end of the lane where there is a beautiful stone structure of a museum which isn't open yet.  We walk nearby and meet a landowner of 2 acres.  He plants guava and mulberry and lots of vegetables.  His scarf covered wife makes us masala tea.  He explains that he lives here with his son.  His brother lives next door.  His daughters are married and live with their husband's families. 

village home

boys playing roll the tires

 

 A beautiful young girl watches in colorful dress.

We get back on the bus and drive to a women's craft coop called Dhonk.  Dhonk is the name of a tree in this area.  We see blue buck, an animal that sometimes comes into the fields behind the work area.  

They have also seen tigers attacking wild boars in this area.

The women are from the Mogia tiger hunters community. These people became criminals overnight when tiger hunting was outlawed and needed a new profession.  The coop was formed to help this community learn new trades.

Dhonk craft coop

I bought a pretty indigo floor length skirt and a pink hand embroidered scarf.  I wore the skirt the next day and my legs were all blue, so I imagine the dye is natural and I will have to wash it by hand.

We continued our drive to OAT camp.  This is to break up our journey to Agra.  The cook gives us a demonstration of how to make chapati and the vegetable dish.  Then after we move into our tent accomodations, we have Indian dinner.  Then some local farmers came to perform dances around a campfire for us and invited us to join in.  They are very fit.  The dances require lots of jumping and kicking.  I didn't last too long, but it was fun.  We each got  hot water bottles for our beds.

OAT brochure:

A Day in the Life of a Ranthambore community, overland to OAT Camp

After breakfast, we'll stroll into a local village to visit with the students at a primary school that OAT proudly supports through donations from Grand Circle Foundation.

Then we'll continue our Day in the Life of this village, meeting local people and seeing their houses and way of life.  We'll be the guests of one family for a Home-Hosted Visit.  Next we visit a cooperative where women are trained to make handcrafts (Dhonk).  We'll learn about this enterprise from one of the women involved, with the opportunity to purchase its products and have lunch.

After lunch, we begin our 4 hour drive on a bumpy road to our village camp retreat.  Our campsite is nestled among small plots of land used by local farmers to grow a rich diversity of crips.  Often, villages will stop by to pay us a visit, or famers will take a break from their work to share a laugh or dance.  Especially enchanting are the mustard blooms, which in season, resemble thousands of buttercups waving in the breeze.  Join your travel companions this evening in the relaxed environment of the campsite to enjoy an authentic Indian Dinner and watch the preparation.  Dinner is prepared especially for you by our camp cook, who uses the freshest locally grown organic ingredients.  After dinner we'll relax around the campfire and enjoy being entertained by local dancers who proudly perform cultural Indian dances for us.