Wow! It has been a LONG time since I have written a post. That is mostly attributed to the fact that our internet was down at the beginning of the week and then we went on a trip, away from our wifi, over the weekend. So prepare yourselves. This is going to be a LONG post.
On Monday we had sewing, as usual. We had a translator that came for the first half of the day and it was SO nice. It made it very helpful. She was also even good to help the girls with measuring and cutting, etc. Our beginning girls were working on their kurta petticoats, which essentially were just a long tank-top. The advanced girls started working on actual kurtas. I brought one of my kurtas from home to measure so I would have the dimensions to give them, but I picked which kurta based on neck shape and accidentally brought one of my short ones, but I didn't realize until they'd all cut them out and finished stitching them together, Sarah said it would be okay because at least now they knew the concept of how to measure and put one together, but I still felt silly. After sewing, we rushed home to make dinner because we had invited the Mekalas over. We were planning to have mashed potatoes, fried chicken, sauteed green beans, and rolls because we promised them an American meal. When we got home, the power was out. The other girls said it had been for the whole time since they'd gotten home. Without power, we couldn't start dinner, so we were panicking just a little. Finally, around 5 o'clock, the power came back on and we all rushed to get he dinner going. Courtney started on the potatoes, and I was in charge of the chicken. I'm not 100% sure how that happened, but it's possible that in my control freak nature, I just took over. The fun story about the chicken is that you can't buy frozen chicken breasts in a grocery store. You can't buy chicken from a grocery store at all. So Asia and Megan went to go get the chicken...fresh. Like, so fresh that they were present when the butcher killed it. Ach! At one point when I was cutting it up, I found a vein that still had blood in it. It was so gross. I haven't really had a problem with raw chicken before, but knowing how fresh it was kind of grossed me out. But I made it through! I got it all cut up and battered, but then we only have the one hot plate, so I had to wait for the potatoes to get done. Once the potatoes were done, I figured the beans should probably get cooked first and since no one seemed to be doing those, I just started on those. I spent a good 2 and a half hours in the kitchen, first frying up the beans and then the chicken. We thought we had told the Mekalas 7 o'clock but they didn't show up until 8, which turned out to be a blessing because the power went out again half way through frying up the chicken so I didn't get it finished til nearly 8 anyway. It all worked out in the end and it was so fun to have them over! Courtney's potatoes were DELICIOUS. The rest of the food was good too, but I made it, so by the time we ate, I kind of didn't want it even. Haha. So we had dinner and then Asia and Megan talked with Josephine and Monica about jewelry. Josephine and Monica want t learn to make it so they can teach the kids at the school that Josephine and Manohar run. Then Josephine, Julie, Sarah and I played some card games. We started by trying to teach Josephine and Melvin Nerts, but then Josephine wanted to play Rumi, so we did. And she won. Haha. They left around 10 and we all cleaned up and went to bed. Lauren Merkley, our new photographer, arrived Monday night, but she didn't get here until most of us were already asleep. We are so excited to have her though!
On Tuesday, Sarah, Julie, Courtney and I took the train to MV Foundation. We have figured out the secret to train travel here in India. Always sit in the Ladies cabin. I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but there are specific cars that only ladies can sit in. It makes the whole experience a lot more pleasant because the ladies cabin is always less crowded and there are no guys to stare awkwardly at us our whole ride. This week we kept working on dancing and music with the girls. There was even an impromptu dance party. The girls just wanted to dance for us, and then they wanted us to dance for them. It was kind of like playing "Just Dance," because we had to follow what the little girls were doing, and it was kind of hard. They are just so fluid! After we left MV we caught the train home and again, got on the ladies car. So nice. And then, Sarah and I got a little adventurous and sat in the open doorway to ride. It was amazing! I loved feeling the wind rush past me. I even got brave and let my feet dangle out for a while. I'm sure that was incredibly stupid and dangerous, but it was thrilling! The train hobo inside of my soul was very happy about the experience.
Once we got back to Secunderbad, we heading to the slums where Christy had already started teaching the first RUMPS (Re-Usable Menstrual PadS) class. Christy first taught about the health portion of why it is important to always have clean and dry protection. Then, Sarah and Julie taught the women to make the reusable pads. It was a very successful class. Later we took Lauren to buy her Kurtas. That evening, we went jewelry shopping with Josephine and Monica. The sunset on the ride over to the market was STUNNING. Sarah and I were freaking out about it a little.
We only stopped at one shop, a place where Josephine and Monica shop a lot, so we got a really great discount. I wasn't there to buy, mostly just to see the market and spend time with the girls. It was fun to look through the jewelry and see what everyone else was buying. Most of the girls bought anklets, which was the main reason for the trip. There were some really nice pieces and the owners gave the girls REALLY great deals. After shopping we went to dinner with Josephine. Monica came in with us for a little while, but then she had to leave for work. We had some delicious lamb biryani (my choice! haha) and then Manohar came to take us home in the car. It was a very fun night.
Wednesday morning Sarah, Lauren, Julie, and I went to go visit the Mekalas school. It was so neat! Manohar gave us a tour and then we sat in on some of the classes. Their school is called the Indo-American School and it teaches K-10. The children all learn English in the lower grades and then the upper grade classes are taught in English, so that the kids will be well rounded with both Telugu and English. It was so amazing to see their school, they built it from the ground up and now have about 300 students enrolled.
This is the tree Manohar planted when the school first opened and it has grown right along with the school. I thought it was a lovely notion.
Manohar drove us to sewing after our visit, which was very kind of him. At sewing I decided to fix my mistake, and had the girls add ruffles to the bottom of their kurtas to make them long enough. It was so great, they picked up of the pleating so quickly! And everyone got finished. I was SO proud. It's nice to see them work on and finish their projects, but the kurta was something I helped them with from start to finish, so it was my big project. They all did fabulously!
We ran a lot of errands after sewing, one of which was to Josephine's to look at her old saris. We had a wedding to go to on Thursday and the sari I was having made wasn't finished. Apparently the tailor got married and was closed for an entire week and somehow I missed that fact. Anyway, so I went to Josephine's and she provided me with a sari that I could wear to the wedding. It worked out well because the sewing girls also asked us to wear saris on Thursday. That night, Wednesday night, we went to dinner at a members house. Actually, it was Josephine's brother. But the connection was set up because their son applied to be the India country director (which is what Sarah and Lauren are) but is now working in Japan. They made us some delicious curry and rice, and we had ice cream for dessert. It was wonderful.
Thursday morning Sarah, Julie, Lauren M., and I all went to the wedding of Venkat's friend. Venkat was the guy who came to visit our sewing classes last week. He invited us to the wedding, which was a Hindu wedding, and it was really cool. We all dressed up in saris and got to meet the bride and groom. The grooms parents were SO excited to see us. No, they don't know us - it's just because we're white. They were so excited that they escorted us to the front of the greeting line. When you're greeting the bride and groom, they give you a handful of rice that you sprinkle on their heads as a blessing for their marriage. After we had sprinkled the rice the photographer made us pose for a picture with the bride and groom. It was so weird and so funny because they didn't even know us. After the greeting we went outside and took some pictures.
Then we had to head to sewing. Venkat and his friend drove us part way there, but then the car over heated, so we had to take an auto the rest of the way. Thursday was the last day of sewing classes. The beginning class finished up their kurta petticoats. Part way through they noticed me tucking my sari in a little and the next thing I new I was completely unraveled and they were redressing me. I guess white girls aren't very good at putting on saris.
While we were teaching, Lauren and Courtney did some video interviews. One lady, Rajhita, whom we had never really gotten along with, was one of the girls they interviewed. We'd always found Rajhita to be kind of bossy and she always wanted to do things her way and not ours, so we'd kind of butted heads with us the whole time, but in her interview she said the sweetest things. I guess Courtney had finished all of her questions and Lauren was turning off the camera when suddenly Rajhita just started talking again. Urmi translated and what Rajhita said was that it would have cost her $10,000 rupees to take a sewing class in the city and that she couldn't afford that. She said we gave her an opportunity to learn something she has wanted to do for awhile. Even now, she has her own little mending and embellishing company that she runs from home. She said it was her goal in the next 5 years to have a company where she employs at least 10 people. Then she said that they believe in God, but they cannot see him - but when she looks at us, she sees God, and she knows that He sent us to them as angels to teach them. It was SO sweet and we were so touched by those comments. Rjhita then stayed and worked with the advanced class. Her sewing has improved so much over the past few weeks that Sarah felt she could benefit from Thursday's class. First though, we taught everyone (beginning and advanced) a little business lesson to try and help them understand what it will take if they want to use their sewing to make a living.
Since the advanced class had finished both of their organized projects, Sarah taught them to make clutches. They all did really well!
No one showed up for the afternoon block of classes, so Sarah taught me to make a little coin purse, and I will teach that to this advanced class this week. She also christened the sewing machines with stickers of her business logo.
That evening, we had a fashion show/celebration for our classes.
They displayed the items they made and were presented with a certificate. They all showed up with their kids and it was so cute! It was supposed to be an outdoor event, but the rain hit and we had to move it inside. It still worked out well and was a wonderful evening. After we had presented them with their certificates, they had Sarah, Julie, and me sit up at the front of the room and they did a little ceremony for us. They gave us bindis with red dust and presented us with necklaces of Jasmine. We each said a few words of gratitude and love and then one of our girls, Shailajesh, who WORSHIPS Sarah, sang a song that she had written for Sarah. It was beautiful and we cried. Once all was said and done, and the rain had stopped, we went out to take some pictures. Everyone took so many pictures and we had to lock up and leave without cleaning up just so that we knew we could get away. We were afraid if we stayed, no one would ever leave. The girls all followed us to our auto and waved goodbye as we drove away. It was very sweet.
Once at home we started getting ready for our trip. The plan was to spend a day in Hampi and then head to the beaches in Goa. As we were looking up weather, however, there was a 100% chance of rain in Goa all weekend, so we decided to just spend the whole time in Hampi. Our driver picked us up at 1:30 am and we were on our way. The drive was actually pretty miserable. An hour into it our driver pulled off the road and told us he needed to sleep for an hour. Then once we were going again, we hit a million speed bumps, and Julie and I were sitting right over the back wheels. India uses WAY too many speed bumps. So the road was horrendously bumpy, and everyone here drives with their brights...I didn't not get much sleep in the car at all. Also, our driver kept having to stop and ask for directions, so that was comforting...Finally we made it to Hampi!
We drove to our little hotel and were immediately face-to-face with a monkey!
Our little guest house was so quaint and perfect. It had wifi and AC and an amazing view!
After settling in and taking a little nap, we went and found a place to eat. We ate at this little restaurant called The Mango Tree, where the food was amazing and honest to goodness served on banana leaves.
After lunch a tour guide took us around to see some of the ruins that were not within walking distance. First we went to a temple where they used to have the pearl and gold markets. The vendors would set up in these permanent stone stalls.
At the end of the row of stalls was the temple. It had some incredible and beautiful carvings.
This one in particular has two bodies and one head, when you cover up the left body - you see an elephant, but when you cover up the right body, you see a bull!
The buildings in the temple were all designated for different pleasures. There was one specifically for dancing, one specifically for singing, and one just for marriages.
Then our tour guide took us to what he claimed was a good market. It was actually just a store. It didn't even have that many things and it wasn't cheap. We decided he must have some sort of deal with them where he gets a commission if we buy things. Asia bought some sandal wood, but that was the only purchase. Also, the tour guide took our driver and disappeared for like 10 minutes. It was weird. But they both came back and on we went. Next we went to "The Queen's Bath" which was an incredible structure, just where the queen could bathe. I wouldn't mind an entire building with a swimming pool for my baths.
Then we went to "The Royal Enclosure" which was mainly for performances etc.
BUT I got to ride an elephant!
It was the best they could offer me, aside from Sarah dressing up as an elephant and giving me a piggy back ride. Haha.
We visited a palace after that. Once again, it had INCREDIBLE carvings.
The Queen's Summer Palace was the next stop, and one of my favorites. It was SO beautiful!
Next we visited the statue of Hanuman - the monkey God. Here is his sitting in the mouth of a six headed cobra.
This is where they worship, throwing flowers onto the pedestal.
Finally, we visited the Temple of Ganesh.
Here we walked up a hill to watch the sunset. The view from the top of unbelievable. Here are the pictures, but I know that you will never fully understand.
We also saw a bunch of monkeys hanging out!
Met some cute kids.
And saw a crazy cool lizard.
The sky was pretty cloudy so the sunset was a little hard to see, and not terribly colorful, but still beautiful.
We headed back to town a little early so we wouldn't get caught trying to go down the hill in the dark. I slipped and fell in the daylight, so it would have been much worse in the dark. Once we reached the main road, we were by the big temple close to our guest house. There were a bunch of monkeys there!
We even fed them :)
They get so close to you, because they are used to tourists feeding them. I fed one monkey, but they're so quick there isn't time to get a picture half the time. After the monkeys had depleted our banana supply we went back to The Mango Tree for dinner. I was really craving spaghetti and they had it on their menu, so I got it. It was good, but defs not American spaghetti. We told our waiter we were planning a sunrise hike, and he gave us a bamboo stick for defense. Apparently there are bears. Haha. Sarah got some good training to keep us safe.
We all hit the hay pretty hard that night, we were SO tired. But even though we were exhausted, we got up at 5am for a sunrise hike. We booked it up like 100 stairs to the top of this hill where a mountain sits to watch the sun come up. It was beautiful! Honestly, there is no way you will ever understand the grandeur of the views in Hampi, unless you see them for yourself.
There were lots of monkeys up here too.
After our hike, we went back to the guest house where they made us eggs and toast for breakfast. It was delicious. Then we took a nap. Around 9am, we headed down to the river where we got to see Lakshmi the elephant take her bath!!! :)
After spending some time watching the bathing elephant, we took a ferry across the river.
On the other side we rented scooters to ride around to see the temples. It was SO fun to ride around that way. 100% not safe without helmets and proper shoes, but I still loved it. I rode with Megan who has her motorcycle license, so I felt very safe.
Of course, we found out later that we weren't supposed to be driving, because our volunteer insurance doesn't cover accidents that happen while we are driving. Luckily, we're all okay.
There were four temples that we saw while we were there. The first one was WAY up on a hill and after our sunrise hike that morning, we were really struggling to make it. But the rest were not bad, and we really enjoyed ourselves.
After the temples we went to see the lake. It was really pretty, but we didn't stay there long.
On our way to return the scooters, we stopped at a little jewelry shop to look. There were some really cool things and I know that Asia and Sarah bought quite a few things. After returning the scooters we took the ferry back across the river and had dinner. We went to The Mango Tree again because the man at our guest house told us it was the only safe place to eat...so, yeah...Haha. After dinner we went to the big temple near our guest house.
You had to pay to take pictures inside, so Lauren was the only one who took pictures. As soon as she has them uploaded to our drive - I will share them with you because this was AMAZING.
Inside the temple with where Lakshmi the elephant lives. So I got to see her, up close. She blessed me with her trunk and I got to pet her. I seriously almost cried. I can't wait to see the pictures :)
After that we all piled into the car and headed home. I sat in the back again, this time with Sarah. I slept way more on this drive though, so that made it a lot more bearable. We got home around 2am and just CRASHED, but were still up in time to go to 9am church. After church we taught piano. By the time piano was over and we were getting ready to leave so we could eat lunch, I was starting to feel really hot and sick. When the girls told me I looked pale and asked if I was alright, I said I was fine and would be okay once we were in the AC again. I didn't tell them this, but if they read my blog the secret is out...I actually threw up twice while we were waiting for lunch to be ready. But once I was cooled down and had some food in me, I felt MUCH better.
Sunday we had a new volunteer for second wave arrive. His name is Rohan and his family is actually from Hyderabad, so that's cool. Sunday was Sarah and Courtney's last day, so we made no-bake cookies and played Nerts. It was really fun. Then we all went to bed.
This morning Sarah and Courtney left around 6am to catch their flights to Delhi where they were going to spend a few days. Lauren W. went with them to pick up another new volunteer - Rachel. Julie, Lauren M., Rohan, and I went to the sewing school this morning just for a few minutes to clean up from the fashion show and pick up a few things that got left behind. When we got home, Lauren was back with Rachel...and Courtney. Poor Courtney got really sick and didn't want to get on her flight. She was throwing up on the car ride to the airport and then actually passed out once they were there, so she is back with us and resting. She is hoping to feel better tomorrow so she can catch a flight and meet up with Sarah in Delhi tomorrow.
It's crazy to think I am only here for five more days! It has been like a dream, and once I come home I'm not sure I'll believe any of this really happened.
On Monday we had sewing, as usual. We had a translator that came for the first half of the day and it was SO nice. It made it very helpful. She was also even good to help the girls with measuring and cutting, etc. Our beginning girls were working on their kurta petticoats, which essentially were just a long tank-top. The advanced girls started working on actual kurtas. I brought one of my kurtas from home to measure so I would have the dimensions to give them, but I picked which kurta based on neck shape and accidentally brought one of my short ones, but I didn't realize until they'd all cut them out and finished stitching them together, Sarah said it would be okay because at least now they knew the concept of how to measure and put one together, but I still felt silly. After sewing, we rushed home to make dinner because we had invited the Mekalas over. We were planning to have mashed potatoes, fried chicken, sauteed green beans, and rolls because we promised them an American meal. When we got home, the power was out. The other girls said it had been for the whole time since they'd gotten home. Without power, we couldn't start dinner, so we were panicking just a little. Finally, around 5 o'clock, the power came back on and we all rushed to get he dinner going. Courtney started on the potatoes, and I was in charge of the chicken. I'm not 100% sure how that happened, but it's possible that in my control freak nature, I just took over. The fun story about the chicken is that you can't buy frozen chicken breasts in a grocery store. You can't buy chicken from a grocery store at all. So Asia and Megan went to go get the chicken...fresh. Like, so fresh that they were present when the butcher killed it. Ach! At one point when I was cutting it up, I found a vein that still had blood in it. It was so gross. I haven't really had a problem with raw chicken before, but knowing how fresh it was kind of grossed me out. But I made it through! I got it all cut up and battered, but then we only have the one hot plate, so I had to wait for the potatoes to get done. Once the potatoes were done, I figured the beans should probably get cooked first and since no one seemed to be doing those, I just started on those. I spent a good 2 and a half hours in the kitchen, first frying up the beans and then the chicken. We thought we had told the Mekalas 7 o'clock but they didn't show up until 8, which turned out to be a blessing because the power went out again half way through frying up the chicken so I didn't get it finished til nearly 8 anyway. It all worked out in the end and it was so fun to have them over! Courtney's potatoes were DELICIOUS. The rest of the food was good too, but I made it, so by the time we ate, I kind of didn't want it even. Haha. So we had dinner and then Asia and Megan talked with Josephine and Monica about jewelry. Josephine and Monica want t learn to make it so they can teach the kids at the school that Josephine and Manohar run. Then Josephine, Julie, Sarah and I played some card games. We started by trying to teach Josephine and Melvin Nerts, but then Josephine wanted to play Rumi, so we did. And she won. Haha. They left around 10 and we all cleaned up and went to bed. Lauren Merkley, our new photographer, arrived Monday night, but she didn't get here until most of us were already asleep. We are so excited to have her though!
On Tuesday, Sarah, Julie, Courtney and I took the train to MV Foundation. We have figured out the secret to train travel here in India. Always sit in the Ladies cabin. I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but there are specific cars that only ladies can sit in. It makes the whole experience a lot more pleasant because the ladies cabin is always less crowded and there are no guys to stare awkwardly at us our whole ride. This week we kept working on dancing and music with the girls. There was even an impromptu dance party. The girls just wanted to dance for us, and then they wanted us to dance for them. It was kind of like playing "Just Dance," because we had to follow what the little girls were doing, and it was kind of hard. They are just so fluid! After we left MV we caught the train home and again, got on the ladies car. So nice. And then, Sarah and I got a little adventurous and sat in the open doorway to ride. It was amazing! I loved feeling the wind rush past me. I even got brave and let my feet dangle out for a while. I'm sure that was incredibly stupid and dangerous, but it was thrilling! The train hobo inside of my soul was very happy about the experience.
Once we got back to Secunderbad, we heading to the slums where Christy had already started teaching the first RUMPS (Re-Usable Menstrual PadS) class. Christy first taught about the health portion of why it is important to always have clean and dry protection. Then, Sarah and Julie taught the women to make the reusable pads. It was a very successful class. Later we took Lauren to buy her Kurtas. That evening, we went jewelry shopping with Josephine and Monica. The sunset on the ride over to the market was STUNNING. Sarah and I were freaking out about it a little.
We only stopped at one shop, a place where Josephine and Monica shop a lot, so we got a really great discount. I wasn't there to buy, mostly just to see the market and spend time with the girls. It was fun to look through the jewelry and see what everyone else was buying. Most of the girls bought anklets, which was the main reason for the trip. There were some really nice pieces and the owners gave the girls REALLY great deals. After shopping we went to dinner with Josephine. Monica came in with us for a little while, but then she had to leave for work. We had some delicious lamb biryani (my choice! haha) and then Manohar came to take us home in the car. It was a very fun night.
Wednesday morning Sarah, Lauren, Julie, and I went to go visit the Mekalas school. It was so neat! Manohar gave us a tour and then we sat in on some of the classes. Their school is called the Indo-American School and it teaches K-10. The children all learn English in the lower grades and then the upper grade classes are taught in English, so that the kids will be well rounded with both Telugu and English. It was so amazing to see their school, they built it from the ground up and now have about 300 students enrolled.
This is the tree Manohar planted when the school first opened and it has grown right along with the school. I thought it was a lovely notion.
Manohar drove us to sewing after our visit, which was very kind of him. At sewing I decided to fix my mistake, and had the girls add ruffles to the bottom of their kurtas to make them long enough. It was so great, they picked up of the pleating so quickly! And everyone got finished. I was SO proud. It's nice to see them work on and finish their projects, but the kurta was something I helped them with from start to finish, so it was my big project. They all did fabulously!
We ran a lot of errands after sewing, one of which was to Josephine's to look at her old saris. We had a wedding to go to on Thursday and the sari I was having made wasn't finished. Apparently the tailor got married and was closed for an entire week and somehow I missed that fact. Anyway, so I went to Josephine's and she provided me with a sari that I could wear to the wedding. It worked out well because the sewing girls also asked us to wear saris on Thursday. That night, Wednesday night, we went to dinner at a members house. Actually, it was Josephine's brother. But the connection was set up because their son applied to be the India country director (which is what Sarah and Lauren are) but is now working in Japan. They made us some delicious curry and rice, and we had ice cream for dessert. It was wonderful.
Thursday morning Sarah, Julie, Lauren M., and I all went to the wedding of Venkat's friend. Venkat was the guy who came to visit our sewing classes last week. He invited us to the wedding, which was a Hindu wedding, and it was really cool. We all dressed up in saris and got to meet the bride and groom. The grooms parents were SO excited to see us. No, they don't know us - it's just because we're white. They were so excited that they escorted us to the front of the greeting line. When you're greeting the bride and groom, they give you a handful of rice that you sprinkle on their heads as a blessing for their marriage. After we had sprinkled the rice the photographer made us pose for a picture with the bride and groom. It was so weird and so funny because they didn't even know us. After the greeting we went outside and took some pictures.
Then we had to head to sewing. Venkat and his friend drove us part way there, but then the car over heated, so we had to take an auto the rest of the way. Thursday was the last day of sewing classes. The beginning class finished up their kurta petticoats. Part way through they noticed me tucking my sari in a little and the next thing I new I was completely unraveled and they were redressing me. I guess white girls aren't very good at putting on saris.
While we were teaching, Lauren and Courtney did some video interviews. One lady, Rajhita, whom we had never really gotten along with, was one of the girls they interviewed. We'd always found Rajhita to be kind of bossy and she always wanted to do things her way and not ours, so we'd kind of butted heads with us the whole time, but in her interview she said the sweetest things. I guess Courtney had finished all of her questions and Lauren was turning off the camera when suddenly Rajhita just started talking again. Urmi translated and what Rajhita said was that it would have cost her $10,000 rupees to take a sewing class in the city and that she couldn't afford that. She said we gave her an opportunity to learn something she has wanted to do for awhile. Even now, she has her own little mending and embellishing company that she runs from home. She said it was her goal in the next 5 years to have a company where she employs at least 10 people. Then she said that they believe in God, but they cannot see him - but when she looks at us, she sees God, and she knows that He sent us to them as angels to teach them. It was SO sweet and we were so touched by those comments. Rjhita then stayed and worked with the advanced class. Her sewing has improved so much over the past few weeks that Sarah felt she could benefit from Thursday's class. First though, we taught everyone (beginning and advanced) a little business lesson to try and help them understand what it will take if they want to use their sewing to make a living.
Since the advanced class had finished both of their organized projects, Sarah taught them to make clutches. They all did really well!
No one showed up for the afternoon block of classes, so Sarah taught me to make a little coin purse, and I will teach that to this advanced class this week. She also christened the sewing machines with stickers of her business logo.
That evening, we had a fashion show/celebration for our classes.
They displayed the items they made and were presented with a certificate. They all showed up with their kids and it was so cute! It was supposed to be an outdoor event, but the rain hit and we had to move it inside. It still worked out well and was a wonderful evening. After we had presented them with their certificates, they had Sarah, Julie, and me sit up at the front of the room and they did a little ceremony for us. They gave us bindis with red dust and presented us with necklaces of Jasmine. We each said a few words of gratitude and love and then one of our girls, Shailajesh, who WORSHIPS Sarah, sang a song that she had written for Sarah. It was beautiful and we cried. Once all was said and done, and the rain had stopped, we went out to take some pictures. Everyone took so many pictures and we had to lock up and leave without cleaning up just so that we knew we could get away. We were afraid if we stayed, no one would ever leave. The girls all followed us to our auto and waved goodbye as we drove away. It was very sweet.
Once at home we started getting ready for our trip. The plan was to spend a day in Hampi and then head to the beaches in Goa. As we were looking up weather, however, there was a 100% chance of rain in Goa all weekend, so we decided to just spend the whole time in Hampi. Our driver picked us up at 1:30 am and we were on our way. The drive was actually pretty miserable. An hour into it our driver pulled off the road and told us he needed to sleep for an hour. Then once we were going again, we hit a million speed bumps, and Julie and I were sitting right over the back wheels. India uses WAY too many speed bumps. So the road was horrendously bumpy, and everyone here drives with their brights...I didn't not get much sleep in the car at all. Also, our driver kept having to stop and ask for directions, so that was comforting...Finally we made it to Hampi!
We drove to our little hotel and were immediately face-to-face with a monkey!
Our little guest house was so quaint and perfect. It had wifi and AC and an amazing view!
After settling in and taking a little nap, we went and found a place to eat. We ate at this little restaurant called The Mango Tree, where the food was amazing and honest to goodness served on banana leaves.
After lunch a tour guide took us around to see some of the ruins that were not within walking distance. First we went to a temple where they used to have the pearl and gold markets. The vendors would set up in these permanent stone stalls.
At the end of the row of stalls was the temple. It had some incredible and beautiful carvings.
This one in particular has two bodies and one head, when you cover up the left body - you see an elephant, but when you cover up the right body, you see a bull!
The buildings in the temple were all designated for different pleasures. There was one specifically for dancing, one specifically for singing, and one just for marriages.
Then our tour guide took us to what he claimed was a good market. It was actually just a store. It didn't even have that many things and it wasn't cheap. We decided he must have some sort of deal with them where he gets a commission if we buy things. Asia bought some sandal wood, but that was the only purchase. Also, the tour guide took our driver and disappeared for like 10 minutes. It was weird. But they both came back and on we went. Next we went to "The Queen's Bath" which was an incredible structure, just where the queen could bathe. I wouldn't mind an entire building with a swimming pool for my baths.
Then we went to "The Royal Enclosure" which was mainly for performances etc.
BUT I got to ride an elephant!
It was the best they could offer me, aside from Sarah dressing up as an elephant and giving me a piggy back ride. Haha.
We visited a palace after that. Once again, it had INCREDIBLE carvings.
The Queen's Summer Palace was the next stop, and one of my favorites. It was SO beautiful!
This is the elephant stable at the Queen's Palace where 11 elephants were kept for ceremonies.
Next we visited the statue of Hanuman - the monkey God. Here is his sitting in the mouth of a six headed cobra.
This is where they worship, throwing flowers onto the pedestal.
Finally, we visited the Temple of Ganesh.
Here we walked up a hill to watch the sunset. The view from the top of unbelievable. Here are the pictures, but I know that you will never fully understand.
We also saw a bunch of monkeys hanging out!
Met some cute kids.
And saw a crazy cool lizard.
The sky was pretty cloudy so the sunset was a little hard to see, and not terribly colorful, but still beautiful.
We headed back to town a little early so we wouldn't get caught trying to go down the hill in the dark. I slipped and fell in the daylight, so it would have been much worse in the dark. Once we reached the main road, we were by the big temple close to our guest house. There were a bunch of monkeys there!
We even fed them :)
They get so close to you, because they are used to tourists feeding them. I fed one monkey, but they're so quick there isn't time to get a picture half the time. After the monkeys had depleted our banana supply we went back to The Mango Tree for dinner. I was really craving spaghetti and they had it on their menu, so I got it. It was good, but defs not American spaghetti. We told our waiter we were planning a sunrise hike, and he gave us a bamboo stick for defense. Apparently there are bears. Haha. Sarah got some good training to keep us safe.
We all hit the hay pretty hard that night, we were SO tired. But even though we were exhausted, we got up at 5am for a sunrise hike. We booked it up like 100 stairs to the top of this hill where a mountain sits to watch the sun come up. It was beautiful! Honestly, there is no way you will ever understand the grandeur of the views in Hampi, unless you see them for yourself.
There were lots of monkeys up here too.
After our hike, we went back to the guest house where they made us eggs and toast for breakfast. It was delicious. Then we took a nap. Around 9am, we headed down to the river where we got to see Lakshmi the elephant take her bath!!! :)
After spending some time watching the bathing elephant, we took a ferry across the river.
On the other side we rented scooters to ride around to see the temples. It was SO fun to ride around that way. 100% not safe without helmets and proper shoes, but I still loved it. I rode with Megan who has her motorcycle license, so I felt very safe.
Of course, we found out later that we weren't supposed to be driving, because our volunteer insurance doesn't cover accidents that happen while we are driving. Luckily, we're all okay.
There were four temples that we saw while we were there. The first one was WAY up on a hill and after our sunrise hike that morning, we were really struggling to make it. But the rest were not bad, and we really enjoyed ourselves.
After the temples we went to see the lake. It was really pretty, but we didn't stay there long.
On our way to return the scooters, we stopped at a little jewelry shop to look. There were some really cool things and I know that Asia and Sarah bought quite a few things. After returning the scooters we took the ferry back across the river and had dinner. We went to The Mango Tree again because the man at our guest house told us it was the only safe place to eat...so, yeah...Haha. After dinner we went to the big temple near our guest house.
You had to pay to take pictures inside, so Lauren was the only one who took pictures. As soon as she has them uploaded to our drive - I will share them with you because this was AMAZING.
Inside the temple with where Lakshmi the elephant lives. So I got to see her, up close. She blessed me with her trunk and I got to pet her. I seriously almost cried. I can't wait to see the pictures :)
After that we all piled into the car and headed home. I sat in the back again, this time with Sarah. I slept way more on this drive though, so that made it a lot more bearable. We got home around 2am and just CRASHED, but were still up in time to go to 9am church. After church we taught piano. By the time piano was over and we were getting ready to leave so we could eat lunch, I was starting to feel really hot and sick. When the girls told me I looked pale and asked if I was alright, I said I was fine and would be okay once we were in the AC again. I didn't tell them this, but if they read my blog the secret is out...I actually threw up twice while we were waiting for lunch to be ready. But once I was cooled down and had some food in me, I felt MUCH better.
Sunday we had a new volunteer for second wave arrive. His name is Rohan and his family is actually from Hyderabad, so that's cool. Sunday was Sarah and Courtney's last day, so we made no-bake cookies and played Nerts. It was really fun. Then we all went to bed.
This morning Sarah and Courtney left around 6am to catch their flights to Delhi where they were going to spend a few days. Lauren W. went with them to pick up another new volunteer - Rachel. Julie, Lauren M., Rohan, and I went to the sewing school this morning just for a few minutes to clean up from the fashion show and pick up a few things that got left behind. When we got home, Lauren was back with Rachel...and Courtney. Poor Courtney got really sick and didn't want to get on her flight. She was throwing up on the car ride to the airport and then actually passed out once they were there, so she is back with us and resting. She is hoping to feel better tomorrow so she can catch a flight and meet up with Sarah in Delhi tomorrow.
It's crazy to think I am only here for five more days! It has been like a dream, and once I come home I'm not sure I'll believe any of this really happened.
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