A Day in Mane

Looking out of the window this morning, the day looked fine and the white butterflies were flitting around the radish flowers. A Rosefinch was foraging in the field for a while and then flew off to the other side of the village.

A leisurely breakfast, which was a lovely traditional Spiti breakfast of chickpeas and dall, curds and puris, which we westernised by adding jam all topped off with tea, delicious. We then went for a gentle walk down to the hillside to the school that Joan, with the Spiti valley trust, had built several years ago. On the way we saw the present spring, which was the village water supply before a pump was installed  and we saw the lowere spring where all the water for the villagers of Upper Mane, plus their animals has to come from in the winter.

The charity is in the process of providing a pump that will lift the water into a supply that is much closer for them. The school was built for 120 pupils, primary and secondary, but now only has about 90. As the parents in the villages prosper, they look for private education for their children so quite a few go to the fee paying school in Kaza. It was a shame the children were on holiday as this is THE major pea-picking season and that is their main cash crop. The peas are picked by gangs of migrant workers from other villages or the ones by our homestay were from Bihar. They pick from around 8.00 in the morning until evening, getting around 300 Rs a day. They get breakfast and lunch as well as water and Chai provided. The peas are picked into a can, bucket or basket and then they are tipped into a sack which is around 40kgs before being sewn up, loaded onto their backs and taken up the hill to the waiting lorry to be sent to Delhi.

We walked back up from the school and then went for a stroll around the pea-fields greeting the pickers and I spent a bit of time looking at some of the flowers and trying to see a Rosefinch that was singing in a tree.

Returning to Jeet's place we rested up before a lovely Pasta lunch cooked up by Rinco with a little help from one or two of the ladies.
As it was raining we stayed in and I caught up on pictures and the blog.

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