I had an absolutely phenomenal day today. Last night we got back to the hotel and I got to shower. It was the - best - feeling - ever! Our hotel is super nice and I got a wonderful place set up on the couch b/c my mosquito net is able to be hung up on the window shades. We will check out day after tomorrow though and need to find a new place for the last night.
Today in the village, I had a number of experiences. I do not know how to begin. (That seems to be my trouble a lot, huh!??!!?) I am so happy. I had a meeting with government officials in Kinkheda b/c we were too late to meet with farmers who waited for us for an hour and then went to the field. I felt so bad and could not meet with them. And let me make one thing very clear: it is the women who were chronically waiting on the men, thank you very much. All stereotypes dispelled!
In our meeting we had a snack for the people, and we all got our own little serving in some newspaper. Then when you were finished, you could just crumple the newspaper up! I'm not too big on Indian snacks, but the mixture had some type of nut in it, so I was grateful for some protein and enjoyed that :)
The day was kind of interesting. I didn't really know what we were going to do until it was over. We got to see around Kinkheda village before lunch and then we went out to a restaurant for lunch - but not until like 3:30. Then supper is very late here also. (At home I am used to eating supper from like 4-6 p.m.!)
This was where the pictures came from in the photo album with the cow dung burning to try and keep away the flies. (The dining was outside - where we sat at least.) The flies were insane :) It was helpful though when the server turned on the fan above us. We were in an outside structured room of sorts . . . and I had some food I brought along and also tried some sorghum roti which was good. All roti is bread and then there are different kinds. For example, chapatis -which I have talked about before - are roti, just made out of whole wheat. Paan is another roti made out of white flour and baked differently.
After lunch we went back to the Kanzara village and I tried to think of what I could give the kids when a little girl touched a wooden bracelet I was wearing with a cross on it. I remembered I had a couple other wooden bracelets along so I went to my backpack to try to find them. As I was frantically searching my bookbag, I realized the bracelets were in my hotel room, but before I despaired, I came upon a different wonderful discovery. Playing cards! Yes! These are the pics. you saw of me playing with the kids, first the little boys and then the girls too. The girls were my favorite so I would always point at them to help out or something so some of the boys wouldn't get too much playing time!
This elder in the village - the old man in the pictures - loved the game also! He would keep the kids back from the playing table and tell the kids when to take the cards. It was so much fun!!! It was also cool how the whole village was kind of like a family or a team I felt. They knew each other and not me, so of course they were all kind of rooting for the person from the village playing me! But then when I made friends with some of the girls, my favorite one (the one in the pink dress in the pictures) was on my side! So there would be the 2 of us playing and then a person to pull in the tricks won also for them. I would usually pull in my own tricks. She started not only pulling in my tricks, but she grabbed every one and then would hand it to me. I would of course need to then give it back when I didn't win that one!
This village is not actually the village of my study, but it is similar to my village because they are only 8 kilometers apart. After we finished playing, the kids started communicating something to me - and I figured it out after a couple of seconds. They all wanted me to give one card to each of them!! It was so cute!! I tried to explain how 1 card for each would not be good b/c you need the whole deck to have fun together, but who knows if that was successful!
Ok, I will tell you about the hopscotch tomorrow . . . .
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