The Hunt for Kalimansi

The hunt for a lime. But it was much more epic than that.

This struggle starts a few days back at an English Club meeting. We were planning the Christmas party. The members suggested I make something and I offered to make cole slaw. The next day an enormous bag of cabbage was waiting for me when I entered the school. The way home that afternoon was dark and drizzly. I passed a group of students and asked where I could get a carrot. By the time I arrived home there was a carrot waiting for me on the counter. Then I remembered I need a lime, and so I asked my host mom where I could find one.

“You’ll have to go to the top of the mountain,” she said with her back to me, busy preparing dinner.

I must have thought she said “on the mountain,” and since we lived on a mountain, I turned to my host brother and asked if we could go right then and there. He looked doubtful at first but then agreed to take me to find the lime tree.

As it turned out she didn’t simply mean “on the mountain.” She meant it when she said “the TOP of the mountain."

So, in rain-boots, my winter coat and my flimsy umbrella we started our hike. The wind chose to pick up within a few moments of our departure and my umbrella became useless. Up we went. Up and up. There were a narrow set of concrete steps built into the mountain. Near the top we left them behind and began trekking through the rows of potatoes in the terraced gardens. It was muddy and I nearly caused a landslide. After 25 minutes we reached what must be the peak of Mt. Data. The wind was whipping the rain around us and we looked down on a large garden with rows and rows of cabbages. Trees were scattered about. I followed Rajiv as he carefully wound his way toward a specific tree that was set alone from the others. The Kalimansi Tree. I was exhausted but my host brother immediately set to picking the small limes. I stopped him after some time.

“Uh, Rajiv? You know I only need one right?”

It was dark when we arrived back home. I was soaked and muddy. But I felt like I just returned home with gold from the top of a sacred mountain. The coleslaw turned out horrible. I got a little zealous with the lime juice that I was so proud of fetching.