Huge day yesterday - drove 3.5 hours (guess how far you get in 3.5 hours - wait for it - about 100kms!!!!) So you can just imagine the state of the roads, the wailing horns etc.
Went to a tiny village where our guide, Shyaam, lived. We visited his family and saw their cute little house (complete with dirt floor and tv covered in original plastic wrap to stop the screen getting dusty!)
They have a womens quarters and a mens quarters. We ate chapati fried in ghee, salty bright yellow lentil soup, salty yellow potatoes and REALLY salty spinach. Which is really good when it's really hot and all salt has been sweated from your body (seriously, the guys had salt stains on their shirts once the sweat had dried. I'd never seen that before).
Had a great time being absolute celebrities. Most people in the village had never seen a real live white person before. The kids were quite scared of us at first, but once we got to the school and started our excellent rendition of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme song (In West Philadelphia, born and raised, on the playground was where I spent most of my days...) they warmed up a bit. And when we took digital photos of them and showed them their faces on the screen on the back of the camera, they thought we were amazing. So we played silly games and then, having 2 teachers on the trip, we got the whole school up doing the hokey tokey, ring-a-ring of rosies and head/shoulders/knees and toes. How funny.
We walked around the rest of the village covered in dust, sweat and little children, with an entourage that had grown to about 200 people.
Then the 3 boys went and looked at the marijuana crop, while the 5 girls were dressed and made up by the women in beautiful, awkward sarees. I have no idea how they manage to live every day in those hot dresses with scratchy thick petticoats underneath and huge flowing bits of cloth falling off their shoulders. And I found it impossible to keep the material on top of my head in that hood type way they wear it. They though we were hilarious and I think they have a skill just to wear the damn things so gracefully.
After we were indianised, we were forced to dance to Bollywood music in the tiny living room with at least 20 villagers watching. Goodness me. Those ladies don't hold back. No men allowed, so they are completely free. Makes our night club dancing look extremely tame! So we learnt some new moves and covered their beautiful clothes in our sweat.
It was a fabulous day and we feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to see the village Tanepur (and give Shyaam an excuse to go and visit his 80 year old mother!) It was so nice to be in the quiet, rural countryside (think Kokatahi with an extra 25 degrees of heat and an extra 400 years of history). Won't forget this day in a hurry.
