Jungle Discovery and Latest Photos

My bedroom door slams open. “Didi, Didi, aajao! Didi, jaldiiiii!” (Sister come on! Hurry!) It slams shut again. Two pairs of feet race down the stairs from my room, skipping quite a few steps it sounds like.

I am in the middle of outlining the discussion topics for next week’s co-op meeting when this intriguing interruption occurs, and I don’t really want to stop what I am doing. But I am curious. Usually interruptions happen and the kids want to come into my room. They want to look through pictures or listen to music or play guitar. But this interruption was brief, and ended with the kids running back outside. I look out my window, and see everyone running to the fields. The kids, the co-op members, and even Sudhi and Devendra. I call out asking what happened. One of the kids turns back only long enough to yell “sher.” Lion. I grab my camera, and run to catch up.

Once I meet up with the crowd I get a few details. A lion was spotted in the jungle (which simply means “forest area” in Hindi) by some members of our village. It was recently dead when they found it. We walk through the low lying hill area until we get to the spot where the lion’s corpse was found. It is no longer there, I am told—they moved the body to Haripura, a nearby village. We make the short trek to Haripura and see a crowd of perhaps fifteen people that is rapidly growing. I cannot see the body yet, but I see women covering their faces with their saris, presumably because of the smell in this heat.

I do not know what to think. I have read from several sources that lions disappeared from this area in the 1930s, and so I am doubtful. But this is India, and anything is possible. I make my way close enough to see patches of sandy colored fur with black spots. Could it be an Indian cheetah? Those were once native to this area too. I get closer. I break into the circle. It is not a lion. It is not a cheetah. It is not even a member of the feline family. It is a huge hyena. When I think of hyenas I think of The Lion King and the hyena with Whoopi Goldberg’s voice who, although somewhat menacing, was pretty puny. This hyena was scary, even in its dead-as-a-doornail state.

So the rumor of a lion was a little inflated. I would bet that whoever found the body actually thought it was a lion, since most of the villagers do not know what a lion really looks like. Anyways, it made for a fun afternoon adventure despite the heat, which is back as if our brief two months of semi-winter had never happened.

Latest photos:

First step of the cloth making process-- making the tana, or warp.

Some girls from our group in the sarsu, or mustard, fields.

One of our students with the co-op's cloth, after helping me

photograph some cloth for marketing