Dirty Jobs

      Today we took a tour around the wharf in Udupi, the town closest to Manipal. Fish exports are essentially the primary livelihood in Udupi, so we were out to learn how the system works. With one of our professors translating Kanada to English, we were able to talk with some of the women who work there, cleaning and sorting fish. It must have looked pretty funny, us in a semi circle around Meera (translator) and the women in a semi circle across from us and eventually a huge crowd of all sorts of workers joined and stood around us, as there were no boats were coming in, so they had some free time. The women were all smiling and holding each other's shoulders and arms, as is the norm for both men and women in India and telling us about their lives. It was awesome how willing they were to take a few minutes to talk to us and after a bit, they were asking us questions too. These ladies are pretty amazing, they wake up around 4am to do the housework and leave for Udupi around 6am on a bus, then they work at the wharf until 10 or 10:30 for just 100-200 rupees per day. Most of them are married to fisherman who are often away at sea for several days at a time and supposedly their children all attend school, but we did see lots of young girls at a different part of the wharf where the auctions take place. They asked us if they could come back to America with us and they promised they would sort our fishes, if we needed. They had a lot of questions about our fish industry that I didn't really know how to answer. We asked if they had any complaints about their working conditions and at this point, a gentleman interrupted and told us that the ladies are all extremely vocal about things they'd like to see changed. Often times when we were speaking with women, men would be sure to chime in with a sort of "don't listen to these women, I'll tell you the real story" attitude.
    Anyway despite the extremely pervasive fishy smell, heat and lack of clouds, it made for an interesting day and it was refreshing to hear from real, local people. Not that I don't love all the scholarly professional people at Manipal, but without the aid of a translator, the Indians we are able to converse with are often restricted to those who speak english.

That's all I've got for now, but I think I have a few days off from school this week due to Holidays that I don't yet know anything about. Guess I better figure that out.

malpe beach