Monday, May 25, 2009

Monday, May 25, 2009 Day 12

The newspaper says a monsoon has settled in although it's not raining all the time yet. We shall see.

Dr. Baji sat with us while we ate dinner last night. His brother has a doctorate in something to do with fish. There are fish hatcheries and fish farms here in Kerala. Prawns are raised on farms. The female prawn only has eggs every two-three years. The brother determined a way to make the females have eggs every 3 months. The gene for propagating is near the eyes which are set out from the head on little attenae. To achieve the every 3 month rotation, they cut off the gene/eye so all the females are blind. BUT, they do propagate every 3 months now. Also, for those who want to know, prawn taste differently when they are allowed to die on their own as in taking them out of the water-- kind of like deer taken down in the forest tastes differently than venison hit by a car. So, instead of letting them thrash around, they immerse them in water below the freezing level. You've heard of freeze-dried? Well, this is freeze-died. Sorry, couldn't resist. Think about this. All of the fish you eat when you go fishing would taste better if you freeze-died them. I wonder if they do this with fish in the States. Lobster dropped in the pot would have a better taste so that is why you get live lobster at the store.

There are 5000 Ayurveda factories in Kerala alone. So many that some of the herbs/roots have to be imported from other countries like China, Burma, andThailand. The government has started a program to help farmers grow the herbs and roots. The companies provide the raw matrials and coach the farmers and then buy back the product. Sounds pretty progressive to me. I think he said that Ayurveda roots and herbs cannot legally be exported, but then he said that these companies export to western countries. Maybe in the finished form. There is no standard here for what a concoction must contain, which is a problem. One doctor could very well use different amounts of the ingredients for an illness than another doctor would use. (Our pharmaceuticals have replicatable properties. Generics are supposed to be the same as the real thing.)
Topic for today: The staff.
All of the Indians who work here are short except for one. Dr. Baji and Colonel Babu are both tall--I would guess it comes from the difference in nutrition.

Gita is one of my technicians who does the treatment massages. She comes up to my chin. She weighs 34 kg. (See? There really was a reason to know that there are 2.2 pounds in a kilogram. This is the first time in my whole life I needed to know that.) Her hands are smaller than Keagan's and so are her feet. I could almost put my two hands around her waist. She has long, black hair, dark skin, and beautiful eyes and eyelashes which need no make-up. She also has a beautiful smile which she shows often. The teeth of the people here seem to be pretty good--at least on the younger people.
Kathy is the other technician. She is a little bit taller and weights 43 kilos. These people are so small I feel like a giant. Kathy has a daughter 17 who is in college studying to be a teacher. She also has a great smile and is the better of the two regarding English. She also is a talker. Their conversation is so musical, it helps me relax, and I prefer it during the massages.
David has two male technicians. One older. One somewhat younger. It's hard to tell ages.
The men tend to be taller and have more meat on their bones, but they aren't overweight by our standards.
Dr.Baji says he trains all his technicians himself.
Kirish is our medicine man. He didn't smile at first, but now that we've gotten acquainted, he usually has a smile. Can't be easy bringing us this yucky-tasting stuff. Actually, that is getting better. David said that if I had just learned to drink whiskey, I wouldn't be having a problem at all. (May have told you that before.)
There are at least four other women working here. The women appear to work considerably more than the men--except Kirish and the cook. If Gita and Kathy aren't doing treatment, they are either cleaning, washing laundry, or working in the garden. I don't see the other two technicians doing anything else. One woman seems to be an office worker--she wears beautiful blue saris everyday. The three other women clean, do laundry, work in the garden or sweep both the drive, etc. and the royal garden. Gita's mother comes early in the morning to sweep outside. I think Colonel Babu has her do this so he can pay her and add a little moremoney to the household income. She gave me a mango the morning after we took a tour of her house.


Things you might not know:
The Tall Man's Association is petitioning the government to require a certain number of seats for tall men on each bus.
New Delhi is requiring that 50 million square feet of buildings install solar energy. This would be for large buildings, hotels, etc. I assume this is in New Delhi, but I don't know.
Children here get no vaccinations--at least poor children.

I'm going to post this now.

Love,
Mom/Peggy/Granny