Foremans' Travel: Day 8 - Game ride, School, Typical Home

What's the name of this bird?

Today's nature runs produced few dramatic sightings, except for maybe Mums peeking over the wall of the ladies room in the park. We counted as 'sighted' two tigers showing off their clever camouflage. We could barely see them as they lay in the jungle brush maybe 40 feet away.

However, the trip to the local school and to the home/farm of a local family were highlights enough. At the school there are three rooms, each containing all grades of elementary, middle and high school. The kitchen is the separate building with the smokey fire inside. Children get one meal a day. The government provides school for all poor children (25% of the Indian population) including uniforms, books (they look like basic workbooks rather than texts), and one meal. For high schoolers the government used to give each girl a bicycle and recently they included boys receiving a bike also. The picture tell more than I can explain.

The home we visited belongs to a family moved out of the park. They are provided natural gas and a well (it was not working when we visited). It was spotless inside. How do they do it? They waste nothing. All the plants have eatable or of medicinal value. Before the natural gas was provided, they burned the cow and buffalo plops after drying them. They have no odor… had to see it to believe it. The family still has that as a backup system if the gas fails. So much more to say but no time now.

After dinner we go up to the roof of the dining hall to hear Amit Sankra (owner of lodges) give a passionate tiger lecture. He shows a documentary of the tiger skin trade from India to China's wealthy... bones and other body parts for phony medical cures… turned our stomachs. Tiger breeding farms with thousands of tigers in worse conditions than any puppy farms we've ever seen documented. He said we could upload 'our' tigers' photos to tigernation.org -- (site originated from Born Free movie, in UK). Partners include US Fish and Wildlife. Expensive to maintain blog/photo website. Each tiger has its own Facebook page.