This past week, I got to take my first village trip. It was just me and a friend and we traveled by night train about 4 hours away to see a national friend who got married and moved away a few months back. I was really excited to see her, get a little break from our daily routine, and see some countryside and nature (so good for my heart!). It was a good experience that left me very grateful for the modern conveniences I have and all the blessings I often take for granted. It also gave me some more insite to the culture here and helped me get past some of my 'culture shock' issues.
My friend lives on a small farm outside of a small town (by S. Asian standards it is small but still lots of people). It's a 4 room house (2 bedrooms, kitchen, and hall/living room) (pretty big by village standards) and is home to 7+ people. They were all incredibly kind and welcoming to us. Every morning my friend rises early to start heating the water for each family member to take a bucket bath (thankfully they have a tiny room for this in the home rather then outside, which is the norm), and while doing this off and on for a couple hours, she makes breakfast and chia for everyone and then "tiffins" (a fresh hot meal, packed away for lunch) for those who are heading to work. We rose late everyday (which was awesome!) and by then we weren't in anyone's way and could get ourselves ready. The only challenging part of the trip, is the lack of toilets. 60% of the population here uses open-air toilets, or in other words, no toilet, they just find a plot of grass. It's a real problem here and one of the things I've taken for granted my whole life.
After those chores, my friend gets to work on sweeping the home and washes everyone's clothes from the day before by hand. I was glad I learned to do this as power outages happen a lot here and now I know what to do if I'm in a pinch. Washing machines are another HUGE luxury I've never thought much about before. I'm learning though, that even most my neighbors don't have one so it's extremely rare here.
We spent the rest of the day touring some local sites and visiting their extended family in two different villages. We probably visited 12 or more homes in those 3 days and at each one we had to at least have a cup of chai. Their chai is awesome b/c it's made without water, just strait from the cow-rich milk, tea, sugar and maybe some spices. It's great but rich so after a couple cups, I'm good for the day. But for good manners sake, we didn't refuse any. It's a necessity in hospitality here, to serve your guest a cup of chai. It's insulting to your host to say no. So we probably gained a few pounds on our trip as we were also offered tons of food the whole time, but it was all tasty and I didn't have to cook any of it :)
Here are a few pictures from the trip. This is a great time to be site-seeing as it is the end of rainy season and everything is green and fresh looking.
My friend lives on a small farm outside of a small town (by S. Asian standards it is small but still lots of people). It's a 4 room house (2 bedrooms, kitchen, and hall/living room) (pretty big by village standards) and is home to 7+ people. They were all incredibly kind and welcoming to us. Every morning my friend rises early to start heating the water for each family member to take a bucket bath (thankfully they have a tiny room for this in the home rather then outside, which is the norm), and while doing this off and on for a couple hours, she makes breakfast and chia for everyone and then "tiffins" (a fresh hot meal, packed away for lunch) for those who are heading to work. We rose late everyday (which was awesome!) and by then we weren't in anyone's way and could get ourselves ready. The only challenging part of the trip, is the lack of toilets. 60% of the population here uses open-air toilets, or in other words, no toilet, they just find a plot of grass. It's a real problem here and one of the things I've taken for granted my whole life.
After those chores, my friend gets to work on sweeping the home and washes everyone's clothes from the day before by hand. I was glad I learned to do this as power outages happen a lot here and now I know what to do if I'm in a pinch. Washing machines are another HUGE luxury I've never thought much about before. I'm learning though, that even most my neighbors don't have one so it's extremely rare here.
We spent the rest of the day touring some local sites and visiting their extended family in two different villages. We probably visited 12 or more homes in those 3 days and at each one we had to at least have a cup of chai. Their chai is awesome b/c it's made without water, just strait from the cow-rich milk, tea, sugar and maybe some spices. It's great but rich so after a couple cups, I'm good for the day. But for good manners sake, we didn't refuse any. It's a necessity in hospitality here, to serve your guest a cup of chai. It's insulting to your host to say no. So we probably gained a few pounds on our trip as we were also offered tons of food the whole time, but it was all tasty and I didn't have to cook any of it :)
Here are a few pictures from the trip. This is a great time to be site-seeing as it is the end of rainy season and everything is green and fresh looking.
so fun! Love these pictures and the stories :)
ReplyDeleteWow I'm so glad you got to experience this! And it makes me realize (again) how many things we take for granted. Great pics sweetie!
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