Turtles, Fish, and Parakeets

We've skipped a lot of chapters here, but let's pretend we haven't. Here's the latest.

Friday night we attended the release of several Olive Ridley Sea Turtle hatchlings, which nest right along the Chennai coast here where we live. In just the past few years, Indian environmentalists have begun a strong program to protect these little guys who have been collapsing dehydrated as the move toward the lights of the city rather than the ocean. The volunteer group also protects the eggs from predators and escorts them into the ocean.

We also saw some mother turtles who had been maimed by fishermen, who cut off their flippers when they get tangled in the nets and watched a short documentary about the program. Last year Jane Goodall visited to publicize the efforts to educate fishermen and the public to save the turtles. It was quite exciting to see the little ones make their way into the waves. It was a bit of a mob scene, however, as the entire school community was invited. Still, it was great to see this local community come together--an army of volunteers--to protect this endangered species.



Meanwhile, closer to home, John and Widi are having a field day discovering our nearby hobby shops and pet stores. John got that smallish aquarium for his birthday and it has led to a couple larger aquariums, including a surprise delivery came today of a huge 74 gallon one--bought second hand or so I'm told.

The beautiful tropical fish are very inexpensive and if you look at the closeup shot, you'll even see John's Peacock Eel in the center.

John has been learning a lot about maintaining the right temperature in the tanks and how to combat the various parasites and contagious ailments that have come up. He spends a lot of time reading about the various types of tropical fish, snails, shrimp, and eels that are available here, who gets along nicely with whom (and who needs a separate tank), and what each one needs to thrive. Every day after school, he wants to stop at the aquarium store--just to look and see what's new.

 

Widi even decided to break the cardinal rule of "no noisy, smelly pets" and brought home three baby parakeets this week. John is advising him on the proper nutrition and care for these as well.

They stay outside the house in the foyer area, and while they are adorable, I'm still not excited about it.

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary

Oddly enough Susan finally caught a flight into Chennai at 2:15 AM the day we'd booked a school trip leaving at 5:45 AM. We drank a little more coffee when we got home from the airport, and Widi and I got on the bus for two hours to Vedanthangal, the protected nesting area for large birds that fly south for the winter. It was an amazing experience.

There were thousands of nesting birds set on a pretty pond. Loads of cormorants, herons, storks, pelicans, and many others including the Darter or Snakebird that we had a close encounter with. We watched it fish and then spread its wings nearby to dry. After futilely trying to capture the beauty of the birds with a tiny little Canon, we took a long hike, ran into some festively painted cows and took in the lovely rural scenes. Here are a few photos from the day.

January Highlights

We've finally sorted out our computer issues and our house guest has returned to wintry Amherst. So here now with a moment to spare, here are a few January highlights.

We celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary with some friends, dragging out the DVD of our wedding in Java and playing it throughout the evening.

Notice the lovely amethyst jewelery Widi got me as a gift. He's made some good choices of little jewelry sets, Christmas was garnet, anniversary was amethyst, and my birthday was jade. I'm becoming a bit of an Edna with all the jewels...

John celebrated his 14th birthday on the 17th and refused to have a party, so we surprised him by bringing cake and ice cream to his English class. His classmates were very appreciative. We got him an aquarium, some eels and fish, and a USB satellite internet connection service, which makes his life a lot easier as we travel around.



Susan Tyler visited us after a harrowing experience getting stuck in Dubai for over two weeks trying to get a visa to visit India. It is a long and sordid tale and once she finally arrived, we got an emergency email that a tree had fallen on her house in Amherst. Still, she happily let us and our driver John drag her around to various temples, historical spots, and musical events. The high point might have been the Sunday we spent with our driver's cousin's family visiting the inner sanctums of the oldest Hindu temple anywhere, receiving VIP service through the hoards of people to get our pujas (special blessings) from various priests. The main reason was for our 20th wedding anniversary, but Susan seemed to be included in all of them as well. Strangely it seemed like she had become part of the marriage before it was all said and done. The family also cooked us a scrumptious Indian meal eaten native off banana leaves without utensils.