Mr. Manny, his pregnant daughter Raji and Mr. Manny's wife Ghomati. According to Indian tradition, when a daughter becomes pregnant, she and her husband move in with her parents months before the baby is born and 6 months after baby's birth.
Rod, me and Raji at the balcony overlooking Erode.
Then we drove a few hours to the Moringa farms.
This little girl, who is a 6th grader, walked with us to look at the Moringa trees at the farm. I took her picture and then showed the picture to her. She started giggling a giggle that was so joyful, and then ran to get her little brother. Again, I took their pictures and showed them to them. They both giggled and were so happy to see their own pictures. I'm not sure they have seen a camera before. Beautiful, beautiful children.
Rod, Alex and I at the Kadavur valley. The mountains surrounded the entire valley and there was only one road in and out.
This old man was biking past us and stopped to look at what we were doing. I loved his old bike with a striking green saddle.
One of the villagers who was curious to know what we were doing in their village. I loved this old man because you can see his original skin color on his forehead where he has applied the "bindi" all of his life. His thick, gray hair is amazing.
The drive was long and Rod and Mr. Manny fell into a restful slumber.
That night we had dinner at the Chimney restaurant in Erode. Here Mr. Manny is smiling for the first time in the pictures. Indians don't smile in pictures.
From left: Baskar, Mr. Manny, Rod, me, Alex, Ramesh, Vinod (Ramesh's cousin) and Anand (Ramesh's brother in-law and Raji's husband)
It is still a mystery to me what you are supposed to do in the bathroom. Almost none of them had toilet paper. I was totally baffled, but carried my own toilet paper with me.
Tomorrow: Back to Coimbatore and catching a flight to New Delhi through Mumbai, then to Paris and Salt Lake City.
3 comments:
What beauitful people! Great pictures! Especially of the two old men.
That last picture looks a lot like a clean Egyptian squat pot. One stands on the rugged part and squats to do their business. It is so wise to carry your own toilet paper.
And hand sanitizer.
I had to use that exact toilet for 6 weeks in Taiwan. I could give you a lesson if you ever plan on going back to India. The hilarious thing is, they think OUR toilets are disgusting and unsanitary, and that they'll pee all over themselves if they sit on a chair to go potty. Ha!
LOVE the people pictures...Don't love the bathroom so much! :) It looks like such an AMAZING trip! Thanks for sharing!!
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