Last week was our first week of work and we quickly settled into a routine. We wake up at 4:30 am, meet for tea/coffee, which Britto serves at 5, and are gone by 5:15. We are at the worksite and working by 6 am. Around 7:30 am or so we have breakfast, shmy around, and then work until around 11, when we have tea/coffee, and biscuits. Then we return to RIDE for lunch.
The tasks are usually pretty much the same, but there's always a surprise or two. Today we leveled dirt into the part of the school which will be the foundation. Robyn, Leah, and I also painted a bed with white primer-for sick kids we guess?
While some of the tasks are repetitive, I really enjoy being outside and using my body. Being active is really nice, and my muscles are becoming more toned. The workpants that were too tight on me when I bought them are getting loose.
After lunch we usually have either rest/session, or session/town, or something like that. Then dinner, and we go to bed around 8:30/9 pm...because getting up at 4:30 am cannot be accomplished with late nights.
July 3rd (Thursday), Jeyaraj took us to see this play/performance in a nearby village. It was in Tamil, and was about child labor. There were loud drums, wild dancing, crazy acrobatic tricks involved needles, knives, rupee bills, and pieces of fruit. It was an amazing experience, but I didn't have my camera with, so I'll have to steal someone else's pictures.
Nothing out of the ordinary happened on 4th of July, but we did sing "American Pie" at Shabbat dinner. Oh, and there was ketchup (for the Indian noodles??).
Yesterday we went to Mamallapuram, about 90 min from Kanchipuram. We had a wonderful guide. We first went to this area with lots of incredible rock carvings and this huge rock balanced on the edge of a rock face. It's called Krishna's Butterball, and is from a story where Lord Krishna, as a young boy ran from house to house stealing butter to create one large ball of butter.
Next we went to another area of rock carvings where there were also large life-size carvings of free-standing animals. It is amazing to think about how much work creating these masterpieces must have been. Also, they've been there for thousands of years too!
Then we went to the Shore Temple, which was created out of smaller (but still big!) pieces of rock, which were carved and brought there by elephant. The Shore Temple is on a piece of land that juts out between two beaches. There is a huge wall of rocks in front of it, which ended up protecting the temple when the tusnami hit in December of 2004. The temple was saved, but the land on each side of it was devastated.
We did some trinket-y shopping in the area then went to a hotel restauraunt called the Golden Palate for an Indian buffet lunch. Then we went to a resort-y area near the beach to swim in the pool. First though, we went into the area of town next to it, which was a backpacker-y area. In the internet cafe we went to, I saw a stack of Hebrew books, including one called "Shokolat." After some internet time, Emily and I went shopping for clothes in the area. I bought awesome pinky-orange fisherman's pants (which I'm wearing now!). Then we bumped into Lilach and Shani and kept shopping with them.
Back at the resort, I swam and read. I walked down to the beach by myself for a bit. It was nice to be alone and think. I saw the fishermen pulling in the catch of the day, and saw some cows grazing. While one of my goals for the summer (sunbathe on the beach next to a cow) has not quite been accomplished, I feel that my experience yesterday comes close enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment