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Members of the Scientific Exploration Society were invited to visit the village of Riangmaw in the Khasi hills, Meghalaya in 2003 via a naturalist who has regular contact with the villagers through his conservation work. Our trip was a follow on from this to check the installed water system was working, to do an epidemiological study into the strain of malaria in the area, to undertake a nutritional study and paint and equip the village school.
Meghalaya is referred to as the Abode of Clouds, bordered on the south and southwest by Bangladesh and all other sides by Assam. Assam claimed the region as it’s own in 1947 but in 1972, Meghalaya became independent. The original inhabitants are the tribal groups of the Khasis, Jaintias and Garos, the main religions being Animism-the worship of nature deities and other spirits, Christianity and Hinduism. The area is rich in tribal folklore and culture where drinking rice wine and dancing to the accompaniment of music from bamboo flutes and drums at religious ceremonies and social occasions still continues.
Meghalaya is renowned for the diverse concentration of plants and animals, including elephant, tiger, leopard, boar and black bear and we saw and heard evidence to show how dangerous these animals are. Few outsiders enter the area of the Khasi hills which is cut off from the rest of the state by steep sided, jungle covered hills.
A group of twelve from the S.E.S. including three doctors, three dentists and myself left Heathrow airport on November 8th, little realizing what an adventure the journey would be. We spent one day in Kolkata then took an internal flight to Guwahati, Meghalaya, where a bus was waiting to take us on a six hour drive to Shillong, 1496 metres above sea level, where the British used to holiday in the days of the Raj to escape the heat. We spent part of the next day in the bustling mediaeval market where people jostled through narrow alleyways carrying huge bundles of produce, sometimes whole pigs, on their backs. The meat section was quite an eye opener, even to those well travelled, where there were piles of intestines and tripe-absolutely nothing was wasted. In the town we bought clothes and shoes for the villagers, cricket bats and footballs and materials to fix and paint the school.
From Shillong the journey proper began, two days off road in ancient but robust Indian jeeps, a near copy of the famous Willy’s design, which bounced and revved their way up and down 1:4 slopes and through rivers, climbing over boulders and sometimes breaking down. One part of the track was too narrow to drive on safely so we all collected large stones and pieces of bamboo to make it wide enough to use. Further on we came across a bulldozer digging out the road where the ground was particularly boggy so we waited for a couple of hours whilst this was filled in with bamboo and clods of earth. Time was not on our side and as a result of this hold-up, we had to make camp on a small island in the river where the porters worked wonders in the dark, soon having us comfortable on the seats from the jeeps round an open fire .They even produced a few bottles of beer!
The village of Riangmaw was reached by a fast two hour trek through the jungle once the road came to an end. This we did at night, very briskly as elephants were around and could have been dangerous (apparently one did track us but we weren’t told until later).Mike Nampui, the conservationist, was responsible for our safety on this trip and is a fascinating man being the official elephant hunter for Meghalaya. I can now recognise elephant droppings and estimate roughly how long ago the elephant was there, spot their tracks by footprints and smooth areas which they have rubbed on trees.
After a steep climb up the mountain we arrived in Riangmaw in darkness and quiet as the villagers go to bed when the sun sets and get up when it rises. We were about to set up camp when two women came over and took us to an empty house where they were soon preparing a meal of pork and rice over an open fire. They were so welcoming and it’s amazing how much can be communicated without a common language.
For several days we ran clinics in the old school at the end of the football pitch. We swept the small stone building, managed to find a few benches, filled a couple of buckets with water and potassium permanganate to wash hands in, and we were off! One table was used for the equipment needed, and the dentist set up in the next door building where sterile packs of tooth extractors were laid out neatly alongside prefilled syringes of local anaesthetic. A few teeth were pulled, but not as many as three years ago – as one man said “how do I eat without my teeth?” We suggested that so much sugar in tea, and chewing beetlenut were not advised, as they would make their teeth bad.
One of the doctors and myself with the help of an interpreter, took blood samples from 100 villagers. The slides were fixed and boxed to be analysed in the Liverpool Hospital of Tropical Medicine, although we did loo at a few later using a microscope carried carefully as hand luggage from Heathrow. Plasmodium vivax was isolated as expected. We palpated everyone’s abdomen to feel the spleen; indicative of malaria if enlarged, as many were. Most children have developed immunity to malaria by the age of 5 years old if they live in a stable malarial area which means when malaria is constantly present. This immunity is lost should they leave the area. We took a basic history from each person, whether they had history of malarial infection, if they were unwell, their age (which many could only estimate), and if the women were pregnant. Pregnant women suffer more from the effects of malaria and we had taken a supply of mosquito nets to give out to these women. Old spectacles were also given out, to great amusement!
A general clinic was held daily where a few people were treated for various problems but if someone was very poorly or we were concerned, they were advised to visit the nearest town and see a doctor. A few complained of pain in the forehead, back and knees which was classic from carrying such heavy loads in baskets strapped over their heads. One man had lost weight, was breathless and coughing up blood so he was advised to visit the local doctor for investigations and treatment and to stop smoking-an idea he found highly amusing. We also took many blood pressure readings, all of which were found to be low and not so surprising with their level of exercise, lack of obesity and low fat diet. A nutritional study was done by weighing and measuring children and it was found that approximately thirty percent of them were a little undernourished. It was advised that an extra bowl of rice a day would be enough to bring up their weight.
The water system installed in 2003 had developed problems with the solar system which Steve, an engineer in the group, was able to fix. The water supply for the village came from the spring where everyone (including us) bathed, washed clothes and filled steel pots which were carried up the muddy slope to their homes, very difficult after it had been raining.
One of the highlights for everyone was painting the village school, a simple stone building without windows or doors. We had bought all the necessary equipment in Shillong and our porters had done a great job sanding and priming the tin roof, ready for us to paint green. The outside and inside of the building were whitewashed. Matilda and I were up at 6am the following morning to start on the interior design which consisted of jungle animals, trees, numbers and the alphabet, all in bright colours. Needless to say we had an audience the whole time and various members of our group would come in and add a little bit, or someone would bring fruit or a cup of tea. We had also brought a good supply of pens and stationary so everyone was thrilled with their beautiful school.
Our last day in the village and everyone turned out for a ceremony where there was dancing, singing and a re-enactment of their daily lives in the fields. This starts with slashing the old grasses prior to burning the stubble, digging the ground and planting rice, weeding the crops and finally harvesting the rice. One man produced a chicken and proceeded to remove the intestines whilst the bird was still alive to see if our visit was auspicious, this being defined by their length-fortunately in this chicken the intestines were long! The villagers were so grateful for everything we had done that they gave us a pig, already killed, but not at this stage ready to be cooked. The preparation took a couple of hours and involved alternately washing and singeing the hair which was rubbed hard with a metal cup until the animal’s skin was perfectly smooth and clean.
Later in the evening when we were all sitting round the fire and enjoying the company of new friends, we taught a group to sing the round “London’s Burning” which they loved and managed very well.
The following morning there were a few emotional farewells before we set off down the hill in a crocodile with thirty five villagers carrying our equipment behind us. One of my most enduring memories will be of trekking out of Riangmaw into the jungle with so many smiling faces, huge packs on their backs singing “London’s Burning”.
This was an amazing trip for everyone concerned and thank you again for helping to make this possible.
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