yay! more pictures!
PART TWO: THE VILLAGES
There are lots of pictures in this one. Let me apologize for the smallness of them, but in order to put that many on photobucket.com, I had to shrink them wayyyyyy down.
I think I will put up another part later today.
The first thing we did in India was to go out to the villages in the surrounding areas of South India. It was an incredible experience, but I think here I will let the pictures speak for themselves...
Those are the usual huts that people live in. Although they are usually not even that nice, it's mostly mud with the thatched roof.
National Geographic right?
This little boy was helping "cook" dinner out of sand and coconut shells, very much like kids here do. It made me happy to think that people around the world, really aren't as different as we like to think.
Those four were all taken in the first village that we visited, that was also where we began our Tamil lessons. Needless to say, they didn't go so well. By the end of the trip, we still butchered "How are you?" and "What is your name?"
The next village we went to was even further from "civilization" than the previous one. It was incredible being in a situation that is completely different and new. We had no idea what we were doing, but we did it all the same.
The people in the villages are amazing. They had never seen white people, like Clara and I, and gathered around just to look at us, point and giggle. But they always tried to give us what accommodations they could, even with so little they gave us the best. It was very touching and I don't think I will ever forget it.
We saw like fifty billion of these trucks carrying everything from cows to hay and everything in between.
Look! More interesting people!
This woman was really nice, she tried to help us with our Tamil lessons. She was helpful, but by the time we left that village, we already forgot.
One of the last villages we visited was by far, my favorite memory.
The children in that village crowded around the camera, it was too bad that the battery quickly ran out. I will never forget that evening. Clara and I lay on these rope bed things and looked up at the stars. You could see the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper at the same time. When we were about to leave, Ama pulled us aside and said, "We eat here," pointing at one of the huts. We shrugged, looked puzzled, and followed her to the hut. We took off our shoes and washed our hands and waited patiently for the meal.
They put banana leaves down and dumped large piles of rice on them. Then another woman came around and added the vegetable curry. It was fantastic, spicy, but fantastic. It was one of the best meals of our entire trip. The tiny hut was like with five or six candles that sputtered and danced, illuminating only their tiny space. It was amazing.
Later when we were really leaving, heading toward the bus, the woman who had served us and cooked the meal was apologizing to Sarah in Tamil, she interpreted for us and said that the woman was sorry that she couldn't give us anything that we liked like chicken or something like that. We did our best to tell her that it was incredible anyway, and she smiled.
It's the people like that who I remember the most.
There are lots of pictures in this one. Let me apologize for the smallness of them, but in order to put that many on photobucket.com, I had to shrink them wayyyyyy down.
I think I will put up another part later today.
The first thing we did in India was to go out to the villages in the surrounding areas of South India. It was an incredible experience, but I think here I will let the pictures speak for themselves...
Those are the usual huts that people live in. Although they are usually not even that nice, it's mostly mud with the thatched roof.
National Geographic right?
This little boy was helping "cook" dinner out of sand and coconut shells, very much like kids here do. It made me happy to think that people around the world, really aren't as different as we like to think.
Those four were all taken in the first village that we visited, that was also where we began our Tamil lessons. Needless to say, they didn't go so well. By the end of the trip, we still butchered "How are you?" and "What is your name?"
The next village we went to was even further from "civilization" than the previous one. It was incredible being in a situation that is completely different and new. We had no idea what we were doing, but we did it all the same.
The people in the villages are amazing. They had never seen white people, like Clara and I, and gathered around just to look at us, point and giggle. But they always tried to give us what accommodations they could, even with so little they gave us the best. It was very touching and I don't think I will ever forget it.
We saw like fifty billion of these trucks carrying everything from cows to hay and everything in between.
Look! More interesting people!
This woman was really nice, she tried to help us with our Tamil lessons. She was helpful, but by the time we left that village, we already forgot.
One of the last villages we visited was by far, my favorite memory.
The children in that village crowded around the camera, it was too bad that the battery quickly ran out. I will never forget that evening. Clara and I lay on these rope bed things and looked up at the stars. You could see the Southern Cross and the Big Dipper at the same time. When we were about to leave, Ama pulled us aside and said, "We eat here," pointing at one of the huts. We shrugged, looked puzzled, and followed her to the hut. We took off our shoes and washed our hands and waited patiently for the meal.
They put banana leaves down and dumped large piles of rice on them. Then another woman came around and added the vegetable curry. It was fantastic, spicy, but fantastic. It was one of the best meals of our entire trip. The tiny hut was like with five or six candles that sputtered and danced, illuminating only their tiny space. It was amazing.
Later when we were really leaving, heading toward the bus, the woman who had served us and cooked the meal was apologizing to Sarah in Tamil, she interpreted for us and said that the woman was sorry that she couldn't give us anything that we liked like chicken or something like that. We did our best to tell her that it was incredible anyway, and she smiled.
It's the people like that who I remember the most.