Performance of local culture provided at the Daisy Hope home.
This morning everyone woke up from a nice, humid, sweaty sleep. We untangled bug nets and sleep cocoons and attempted to set them up on our beds. Annie and Dana were involved in an epic battle over bug nets. Annie was situated in a somewhat smaller bed that required a smaller bug net. However, Annie decided to bring the "Metropolis" sized bug net. After a long, heated debate over beds and bug nets, Annie convinced Dana to switch nets with her. But of course, Annie managed to get Dana's bug net pole caught in the ceiling fan and caused it to explode around the room. It was all in good fun, and ended up being just fine.
The top floor is occupied by 10 people. These 10 people all share one bathroom. Lines for this bathroom may take up to one hour, but everyone was able to take a shower eventually.
Downstairs, Dana was greeted by a lovely, three inch wide spider. Kaytee explained to Dana that she had showered perfectly fine with this wonderful creature, but that definitely was not going to work for Dana. She decided to kill the spider, going against her own wishes (and the Hindu beliefs). Upstairs, Larissa found a praying mantis and was frightened, but kept from killing it.
We scampered downstairs to be greeted with hot cups of steaming tea with sugar, milk, and spices, prepared by Lal who had just milked the cow that morning. We also enjoyed handmade rice noodles with sugar and coconut. There was a warm vegetable stew, and a tasteful omelet. Every morning we also have fresh bananas and pineapple.
After breakfast we walked to the library located down the hill from the house. We were welcomed by around 32 excited, beautiful children (grades K-10). They cheered for us when they noticed the 750 pounds of new books on their shelves. We went around the room giving introductions. After that the children performed songs for us and we sang Old McDonald, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, I'm a Little Tea Pot, and a trio of the Star Spangled Banner. Mr. and Mrs. Schulz were given garlands of jasmine and locally handmade, engraved boxes of spices and bindi dust. We took pictures of the kids and they loved seeing themselves on the camera. It got a little bit crazy when the kids got hold of our cameras and filled up our memory cards.
Next, we embarked on a journey to the center of the town to buy formal wear (saris and lungis). We piled three people into tuk tuks (small motorized rickshaws). One of the drivers was related to three of the children at the library. We all arrived at the "Nordstrom" of Kerala, and overwhelmed them with 11 students trying to explain what designs and colors they wanted their saris to be made from. After all the women picked out their saris they went upstairs to continue to shop. We bought numerous clothes. First, they had to pull our hundreds of colors and designs, creating three feet piles of clothes. However, no one had a bigger pile than Mrs. Keeton. Mrs. Keeton cleaned out this store and bought many unique local shirts. We piled into the tuk tuks with our purchases and went home for another wonderful meal.
We had some down time and wrote in our journals. Around three o'clock, we watched make-up artists paint masks on the faces of the men for the traditional Kathakali (story dance). It is an ancient Kerala art form that is slowly fading away through the generations. The men manipulate their eyes, mouths, cheeks, arms, legs, and hands for precise movements that tell a story. We had dinner with Dr. Sashi and his daughters, Meeda (junior) and Needa (8th grade). We engaged in conversations about the differences between Kerala school life and Riverdale school life. For instance, they study 6-8 hours a day and wake up early to continue their studies. They don't date or sit near boys, and do not have any after school activities. We had another tasty meal and went to bed for a better night sleep.
Namaste, Dana and Larissa.
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