Houser returned from the cricket match around 3:00 in the afternoon and the match was supposed to have been going on late into the evening. When I saw him, he didn't smile, and he looked very disappointed. I knew that there was going to be an interesting story.
They arrived at the field in the morning and waited outside the gate for over an hour and a half. Then they were sitting on the stands for three hours, waiting for the game to start. There had been a lot of rain the past week in Guwahati and so the fields were drenched. Thousands of people were waiting in the stands to see India play against England. During these hours there were no annoucements or any communication and the crowd became restless.
There were mostly men in the crowds and in the beginning they would cheer when a woman walked by. But after a while they started throwing things at the women as they walked by. Houser even saw them throw a banana peel at a women's head and everyone laughed and cheered. Really. As the time went by, they started throwing things at Houser because they thought he was from England and wanted his attention. If you notice from the picture, Houser is wearing a shirt that says India. He was definitely cheering for the India team. A man gave him a free India hat since he had come from so far away.
The people who organized the event even brought in a helicopter to fly over the field in circles, hoping that it would dry out and the game could start, but it was to no avail. When the crowds began to realize there was not going to be a match, they became outraged. Many of them started tearing down parts of the arena, advertisements and whatnot, and setting things on fire. It was about that time that Houser and the group decided to leave.
A little over three hours later, the weary group reaches Shillong. We found out from the news that the crowd really started a lot of trouble and the police had to use tear gas to break up the madness. It was even a big story in the newspaper this morning. Houser and everyone that went were joking that they have more memories of the event now than if the game had really gone on. We're all glad that they made it back safely. Houser is teaching this week in the DTS. This is the last week of the lecture phase and we are having a Commissioning night for them this Friday, before they go on outreach Sunday.
