Day 7 - The Salt People and the Ride to Ahmedabad

We checked out of our simple hut at the Kutch Safari resort after eating a buffet breakfast with the group.  Mat was one of the last to eat as he spent much of his morning with camera in hand capturing the sunrise.  He is a full-throttle champion this trip -- up at dawn organizing his camera equipment, charging batteries, and packing his carry bag for the filming ahead.  

I, on the other hand, am in slow motion.  I didn't sleep much at all last night.  Though our accommodations were comfortable enough, I had too much on my mind.  The days have been filled with so many experiences -- it is sensory overload on steroids.  So much so that my brain is much like a stew with too many ingredients.  On the bus, I've been meditating. Sometimes it is just to make me focus less on the arduous drive ahead, other times it's to prevent me from thinking about having to pee, but most often it is to clear my mind "stew" of some of its ingredients.

One of the Agria's migrant salt flat dwelling - they live here for seven months of the year 

Regardless we are adding more to the mental/emotional/sensory "pot" today as we visit the salt fields.  This day of the tour we met a spokesperson for SETU.  This organization helps promote the welfare of the salt people, the Agrias.  Agrias are migrant workers who spend 7 months tending to the crops of salt during their harvesting season. Though the caste system has technically been abolished here, the people of India believe that if you are into a particular lot in life, that it is your "calling" to respect what you've been dealt; however, for the Agria, their fate is just another form of slavery.  They work to produce a crop of salt that is then collected and given for literally pennies on the dollar as it is whisked away by the salt cartel dealers who then sell it for exponentially more than they paid the Agria people. There haven't been many agricultural advances in the tending of the Agrias harvesting process, so this country is pretty reliant on the Agria's "art" of knowing just when the salt crop is ready.  

After a short introduction to the plight of the Agria people, we loaded the bus for a trip to the salt beds. Down the long, primitive roads we bounced for nearly an hour.  I wasn't sure how or if our tour bus would quite possibly make it out there-- over literally hundreds of speed bumps along the way.  Needless to say, I took my first dose of Dramamine as a preemptive strike against motion sickness.  

Solar pump technology helps drain the salt flat

When we finally arrived to the Agria's salt land, it was obvious to why these people lose their eyesight so early in life.  It was a vast dry and desert-like landscape with just a few scattered tent structures near the salt harvest. There are salted dust storms that keep their eyes irritated for much of their lives, and just as there is snowblindness, the salt beds' reflective surface immediate makes one squint.

The agria salt workers we met during our visit

  We had very little time to interact with the migrant workers, but we were able to see that the SETU organization was providing a solar powered option for pumping the water out of the salt beds. There is such a need for automation in some of these processes, but little is done to help. We left wishing we had given them what sunglasses we had in our suitcase and backpacks.  Sunglasses may seem like something small and insignificant, but it would make their life slightly less difficult and would've been a blessing to them.  It was a hard realization and we are looking for ways we can help them.

We are on the road again-- driving away from the India/Pakistan border and into Ahmedabad.  It's another long day of travel.  Ahmedabad is the 6th largest city in India and home to over 5.5 million residents. The tour was way behind schedule and the back of the bus, ourselves included, almost resorted to singing "100 bottles of beer on the wall." As we finally reached the city limits, my seatmate, Persha, admitted that I didn't look so hot. We arrived close to 10 in the evening in Ahmedabad. Though I was ready to go straight to bed and recuperate, our beautiful boutique hotel, Mani Mansion, had arranged a beautiful dinner buffet for us.  The hotel staff members greeted us and blessed each one of our tour with a traditional "kumkum" a bright red spot of tumeric powder on our forehead; we ate, and we crashed hard after such an eventful, emotional day.