Last weekend, Saturday and Sunday, were our last days at Achen's house for orientation. Here are a couple of tidbits about what we did and some pictures of our adventures.
(Additionally, I can't believe in my last post that I forgot to mention that teammate Rachel safely arrived after 10 days! Though she did not have the time to adjust that we all did, she is doing extremely well and we are so very thankful for her safe arrival and for the completion of our team!)
On Saturday, we drove to go see some elephants. Initially the elephants were out bathing, and so while we were waiting for them to finish we went to a zoo at the complex. Sadly, the place no longer hosts elephant rides, but here are some photos of our large wrinkly friends:
Some other new events were:
1) Seeing our first Malayalam film...entirely in Malayalam. This was certainly an adventure, and I enjoyed making up for myself what the characters were saying...especially when it was most likely not at all what they were saying.
2) We enjoyed together at home an Onam sadhya, or meal, eaten off of a banana leaf, with a wide variety of curries and chutneys. It was delicious. I'm finding the food here to be extremely different from anything I've eaten in the states. When I've travelled before I've at least had a sense of some familiarity with the food, such as "this is some kind of meat" or "this is some kind of fruit." But here, wow. Initially I never knew what I was eating. It is a matter of trust! Now I'm beginning to recognize the foods, but the flavors are really very different, many flavors that I have never tasted anything like in the states. It is all very new.
3) On Sunday, our last day together before going to our sites, we had many adventures. We travelled to Cochin to go to church, and while there, Binu, Rachel, and myself sang "The Summons" during the service and it was such a blessing for me to be able to share in this way. After church, we began our tour of the many sites in Cochin, first by visiting a synagogue and then proceeding to the Dutch Palace, a 16th century Portuguese palace that was then taken over by the Dutch. Inside were many portraits and historical artifacts to see from the early colonial period. The power also went off when we were inside the museum!!!! which meant that we got to look at everything in the dark, and I was so excited! (For those of you that know about my museum obsession, I also greatly enjoy power outages, so the intrigue of maneuvering through the manikins and portraits in the dark was delicious!)
This was St. Francis, a 16th century church where Vasco da Gama used to be buried.
We visited Fort Kochi, a swirling mass of people and drums and fish stalls and sea air-as well as tourists-the first white people we've seen since we arrived! They fish with huge Chinese fishing nets, and the four of us tried our hand(s) at fishing, though admittedly our catch was rather meager. :)
We also stopped to take photos at a gorgeous lookout over the backwaters. Later in the day, we hurried to get more errands done-shopping at Fabindia, a rather fashionable clothing store, and getting passport photos to be able to register with the state department.
And then we spent our last evening together for the time being, though I was very excited to get to my site! It has been a rich and wonderful time, and I will miss Achen's insightful teaching, Kochamma's warm laugh, our favorite gecko friends on the wall...I'll even miss the call to prayer which at first always made me jump! I'll miss watching movies and playing worship songs with Binu, and this wonderful home-away-from-home. I can't imagine having had a better introduction to Indian culture nor a warmer welcome.
And now, onward & upward!
(Additionally, I can't believe in my last post that I forgot to mention that teammate Rachel safely arrived after 10 days! Though she did not have the time to adjust that we all did, she is doing extremely well and we are so very thankful for her safe arrival and for the completion of our team!)
On Saturday, we drove to go see some elephants. Initially the elephants were out bathing, and so while we were waiting for them to finish we went to a zoo at the complex. Sadly, the place no longer hosts elephant rides, but here are some photos of our large wrinkly friends:
Some other new events were:
1) Seeing our first Malayalam film...entirely in Malayalam. This was certainly an adventure, and I enjoyed making up for myself what the characters were saying...especially when it was most likely not at all what they were saying.
2) We enjoyed together at home an Onam sadhya, or meal, eaten off of a banana leaf, with a wide variety of curries and chutneys. It was delicious. I'm finding the food here to be extremely different from anything I've eaten in the states. When I've travelled before I've at least had a sense of some familiarity with the food, such as "this is some kind of meat" or "this is some kind of fruit." But here, wow. Initially I never knew what I was eating. It is a matter of trust! Now I'm beginning to recognize the foods, but the flavors are really very different, many flavors that I have never tasted anything like in the states. It is all very new.
3) On Sunday, our last day together before going to our sites, we had many adventures. We travelled to Cochin to go to church, and while there, Binu, Rachel, and myself sang "The Summons" during the service and it was such a blessing for me to be able to share in this way. After church, we began our tour of the many sites in Cochin, first by visiting a synagogue and then proceeding to the Dutch Palace, a 16th century Portuguese palace that was then taken over by the Dutch. Inside were many portraits and historical artifacts to see from the early colonial period. The power also went off when we were inside the museum!!!! which meant that we got to look at everything in the dark, and I was so excited! (For those of you that know about my museum obsession, I also greatly enjoy power outages, so the intrigue of maneuvering through the manikins and portraits in the dark was delicious!)
This was St. Francis, a 16th century church where Vasco da Gama used to be buried.
We visited Fort Kochi, a swirling mass of people and drums and fish stalls and sea air-as well as tourists-the first white people we've seen since we arrived! They fish with huge Chinese fishing nets, and the four of us tried our hand(s) at fishing, though admittedly our catch was rather meager. :)
We also stopped to take photos at a gorgeous lookout over the backwaters. Later in the day, we hurried to get more errands done-shopping at Fabindia, a rather fashionable clothing store, and getting passport photos to be able to register with the state department.
And then we spent our last evening together for the time being, though I was very excited to get to my site! It has been a rich and wonderful time, and I will miss Achen's insightful teaching, Kochamma's warm laugh, our favorite gecko friends on the wall...I'll even miss the call to prayer which at first always made me jump! I'll miss watching movies and playing worship songs with Binu, and this wonderful home-away-from-home. I can't imagine having had a better introduction to Indian culture nor a warmer welcome.
And now, onward & upward!
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