Recently we got to see Gayathri's, our cook's, village all the way out by the Kolar Gold Fields. She lives with us full time because her village is too far to go home each night. I knew she had a long commute but her commute is even longer than our two hour drive was. In the early dark hours of the morning she has to take a rickshaw through the countryside to reach the train station. Then after an hour and half on the train she takes a bus the rest of the way to our neighborhood. She arrives around 7:30 on Monday morning and doesn't leave for home again until Saturday afternoon. After doing the drive myself to her village I now really appreciate the time it takes her to reach our home on Monday.
Gayathri was really nervous about having us over but I could tell she was also very excited. I gave her plenty of opportunities to back out if she felt overwhelmed but she insisted that she wanted to make this happen. I offered to bring a dish or drinks but she refused a single bit of help.
I prepped the kids a couple days in advance about what to say and what not to say. And we practiced together thinking of loving things to say that would make her feel special. Sometimes kids don't have filters so I didn't want them to accidentally hurt anyone's feelings by making little comments about her village or home. I knew it would be different than what the kids had seen before and I knew this would be a great opportunity for them to see the way the villagers live, but I had no idea what her place would really be like. I knew they wouldn't have running water and they wouldn't have a convenient toilet. Other than that I had no clue what to expect.
After a little over an hour and half drive through beautiful countryside we finally passed through a small town. We renedvoused with a guy on motorycle who instructed our driver to follow him the rest of the way to Gayathri's house. I didn't know it would be another 15 minutes through even more country. On these roads, a two hour drive easily feels like a three hour drive. Field after field of nothing but green, one lane country roads that were so curvy and bumpy, and plenty of cows and sheep to avoid along the way.
A little after noon we finally turned off the main road and pulled into a little village that was nestled quietly in the middle of rice paddies and cow pastures. We pulled up infront of a small row of cement huts. They were painted bright colors and had blue doors, and orange clay tile roofs. Can you imagine the color splash as women in bright colored saris came out of their homes to inspect the visitors? One of the woman had drawn "WELCOME" in bright chalk colors on the stones in front of the doorway.
We felt very welcomed and loved. Her family showed us what it meant to be hospitable.
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| Mother, Sister, neice, and Gayatrhi |
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| The girls love Gayathri, and they instantly took to her family. I love the bright green walls in this bedroom/living room. |
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Girls are enjoying Gayathri's neice. |
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This is the cutie being loved on by my girls. The kitchen has one small window but the bright color on the wall made the place feel happy. Gayathri fed us a delicious meal of traditional biryani and raita. I didn't think it was possible, but her biryani tasted even better here then it did when she made it for us back in our home. After lunch Gayathri took us for a tour around her village.  |
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| Owen was quite a scene in the village with that curly blonde hair, that mixed with his vivacious personality made him the center of attention. He fell in love with this chick and was so disappointed that he couldn't bring one home. The older chickens are actually tethered by a thin rope tied to their leg. There aren't any chicken coops around and I suppose that keeps them close to home. We walked behind the homes and green fields spread out in front of us as far as we could see. It was so peacful and you could literally smell the green. If green had a smell that would be it. I filled my lungs with fresh air and dreamily asked Gayathri what the stars were like at night. This was such a nice respite from the dirty, grimy, noisy streets of Bangalore. Village life is very quiet but everyone knows everyone's business, and it seemed that everyone was somehow related to each other in one way or another. The local school has two teachers and no one who stays here gets above a fifth grade education. Every person who stays in this village works the fields and helps with one of the many crops. This was the first time I saw where peanuts came from. I knew they came from a bushy plant but I didn't know they were a root of that plant. Gayathri pulled some directly out of the dirt for us to see what they looked like when they were ready. The sweet potatos and corn were all planted together with other plants with no rhyme or reason. Just all mixed together. They've been doing this for centuries so it must work. I saw rice paddies being worked for the first time. That was pretty cool to watch. |
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| We watched the oxen tread over and over the same little area of rice paddy, making sharp turns in thick mud. The guy called out commands, raised his arm as if to strike the oxen with his stick, but he never once used his stick. How long does it take to train oxen to obey a command? This was the first time I've ever seen a rice paddy being tilled and planted. The women in the background were planting small segments of rice plants into the muddy water. Their saris were pulled up over their knees and they were singing songs as they worked. |
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This woman started singing and dancing Bollywood style for us when she saw she had an audience. We were cracking up over her little antics. Then she came up out of the mud and started telling jokes that Gayathri translated for us. Life is hard for these folks but this lady still keeps her sense of humor.
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Days before we came I anticipated feeling like I would have to fix something. But to my surprise, I actually didn't feel that way at all. They treated us like honored guests. They showed us a quiet, and peacful life, I almost envied it (except for the no plumbing part). Kids were full of smiles and giggles. No doubt they work hard and life is hard, and they are poor. But they are happy. They have so little but have so much. I left feeling like they "fixed" me for a bit. I wasn't sure what we could give them but they were quick to give us smiles and make us feel welcome.
