I’ve been quite busy in this past week or so with everything coming to a close. I’ve been finishing up with work and trying to spend as much time as possible with the friends I’ve made here. On Monday and Tuesday, I went to the IACD to give some of my last English classes, which were mostly just practicing conversation and showing pictures from the U.S. I had too much work to do on Wednesday to make it to class, and Thursday was my last day. I brought in some more no-bake cookies and shared a few more pictures. Then one of the girls gave me mehindi. She did a beautiful job, even incorporating ‘Izzy’ into the design. I took some last pictures with them, which I will print off at the ICRISAT printing shop and drop off at the IACD before I go. I hope I was able to help them at least a little with their English.
At work on Monday I prepared an excel file with all the data from the vegetable soybean taste-test survey which would be sent into the bio-nutritionist at ICRISAT for analysis. On Wednesday, we got back the results, so I had to work pretty quickly to get it processed into charts and into the final report I had written. I’ve never had a statistics class, so I was pretty clumsy with handling the numbers and had to redo a lot of work because I had compared things that had been analyzed separately and so were incomparable. But after a late evening of work on Thursday, I got it submitted to Dr. Ram. There weren’t too many significant results, as the survey was pretty limited in size/scope, but some tentative conclusions could be made; Indian participants seem to favor the basmati flavor/aroma, gray seed coat color, and pods with no hairs. However, Dr. Ram told me the report was good and that it and the literature review I did last month should be helpful to AVRDC’s progress.
Outside of work, I’ve been doing a lot as well. On Monday we had a spaghetti dinner with fresh tomato sauce and parmesan cheese which was fantastic. We’ve been playing a lot of cards, and I’ve learned some new games to bring home from Helene and Daniel like Betting Whist. We’ve also been watching the Harry Potter movies (again!). On Wednesday, we went to the Shilparamum, the outdoor gated market/bazaar near the High Tech City mall, to do some final souvenir shopping. Then we went to Paradise again for some delicious biryani and daal. We’ve been doing a lot of good eating lately.
Spaghetti dinner... warming up for home!
Shopping at Shilparamum, the outdoor market district sort of place, where I got to do a lot of bargaining.
Dinner at Paradise!
On Friday, I gave my final presentation at the office. Since I had had such a rush to process the analysis results and get them into my final report, I was up quite late on Thursday preparing the power point, but I think I managed to make a good one. At 10 AM everyone at the office met in the conference room where I used the projector to make my report. It was a casual presentation (since it’s such a small office: Dr. Ram, Dr. Warick, Usha, Rehana, Neeraja, Tomar, and Aqil sometimes). Helene, Daniel, Sahima and Shraddha also came to watch, which was really nice of them. I spoke for about 20 minutes and then had a sort of discussion about my feedback and thoughts on the potential of vegetable soybean. I think it went well overall! Then the office went to canteen as a group for my farewell lunch.
After lunch, as I had previously made cookies and a cake, Neeraja and Usha each taught me how to prepare an Indian dessert for the little farewell gathering we would have for me during the afternoon tea break. Neeraja made semiya, which is sort of like rice pudding with raisins and nuts, and Usha made carrot halwa. Both were really good, and I’ll have to give them a try at home. Neeraja also invited my friends to come back for the break, so Helen and Daniel joined us. The office got me a gift as well – some beautiful pearl jewelry. (I wrote them all a card and gave them nice Lindt chocolates). I said a few words of thanks, and Dr. Warwick gave a little speech about my time here, even saying I should come back if ever interested in a job. The only drawback was that before tea I had to sing! Huyen sang a Vietnamese lullaby during her farewell tea party, so they wanted an English song. I was a bit flustered and sang part of I’ve Just Seen a Face by the Beatles. It was a bit mortifying, but it was a really sweet, touching conclusion to my work here.
The celebratory farewell tea break - semiya, no-bake cookies, laddu, carrot halwa, and tea/biscuits.
Posing to receive the gift :)
And suddenly it is my last day in Hyderabad! As I write, I’m trying to pack up and wrap up any loose ends before I leave tonight. My flight leaves at 1 AM India time on Tuesday, August 9, and I will arrive in Columbus at 7:40 PM the same day. I will make one or two more posts about the final weekend (which was really fun – we had a lot of great food, cycled, went to the Golconda Fort again, and had a farewell party). But I might be writing them from home, or at least an airport on the way! This is a pretty good feeling – I am leaving an amazing trip on a high note, but I also can’t wait to get home. I’ve missed everyone so much!
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