Hello friends, so sorry to keep you waiting! I was in a city without internet access, but do not fret, I am here. I have a lot to cover so bear with me, or just look at the pictures. That's fine, too
Monday, December 31, 2012
In the morning we visited the site of one of our sponsor
organization, Laurie Baker Center. We
toured around that campus for a while.
First we listened to a man named Ar. P B Sajan talk about the background
of the Laurie Baker Center and about the history of Laurie Baker. We had a coconut water break with vanilla
cookies (NOMS). Then we listened to another
speaker, Dr. K P Kannan. First he talked
generally about India and discussed a variety of topics including: culture,
religion, political parties, languages, population dynamics, education, social
systems, and land distributions, which was very interesting. Then he
talked about four important transitions that are occurring in India right now:
demographic transition, health transition, transition from agrarian to
non-agrarian, and educational transition.
He briefly talked about the next transition that will occur which is the
change from rural to urban habitat. We
also met a student, Logan, who has been living at the center since September to
do research. He went on the India
Winterim last winter where he was first introduced to the Laurie Baker Center
and decided he wanted to spend more time working with them. He told us about his experience here and that
he received a job offer as a professor here.
After these talks, we had lunch at the center where I learned how to eat
with my hands (Don't worry, I washed them). After lunch, we had a
final brief lecture by Ar. P B Sajan. He
introduced us to the Center for Development Studies (CDS) project. After the introduction, we packed in the van
and traveled to the CDS. We toured the
center’s library and some other small buildings then had a snack of chai tea (noms) and fried bananas. Then we went back to our hotel for about 5
minutes and then left again. We took a
long drive to the Sagara Beach Resort where we spent our New Years Eve on
Kovalam Beach on the Arabian Sea. The
beach was so pretty and there were touristy shops all along the strip. When we got there, there was dancing going
on. There was a traditional dance that I could not follow at all, and then there were dances by children. There were these two boys who were up next to
dance and the DJ kept putting on the wrong song. So they were standing up there forever. He finally got the song correct and they
started doing their dance. Then he
changed the song and kept scrolling through songs! I felt bad for those boys. They ended up just stepping off the stage and
not getting to do their dance. After
that we ate dinner there and then went along the beach and walked in the water
and looked through all of the shops.
Spending the New Year on the beach was wonderful. Unfortunately, my camera died this day and I only got one picture:
It's of a rubber tree at the LBC. The sap runs down and collects in the coconut shell and then they turn it into rubber.
I found an adaptor for my chargers so I will have plenty more pictures for the rest of the trip.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Tuesday was a pretty low-key day. We traveled to Kanyakumari in the state Tamil
Nadu, which is the southern-most tip of India.
This is where the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean meet. Before we got there, we stopped at
Padmanabhapuram Palace. It was
beautiful.
Courtyard before entering and mountains
Entrance to courtyard from inside
The front of the Palace
Windows looking out to the front of the palace. They can see out, but no one can see in.
Where the King and Queen bathed.
Oh, look, that's me.
The name of this is "Nagini". So obviously I took a picture
Statue
Then we got lunch at a little stop called Sri Gowri
Shankar. We ate our food off of banana
leaves and with our hands. On our way to
the city, we were stopped at a bridge and we look out the windows and there is
a policeman pulling a mans arm while he is on a motorcycle, trying to stop
them. There were three people on the
bike and apparently that is restricted Afterwards
we checked into a hotel in the city, and then went exploring.
Our hotel in Kanyakumari
Fishing boats
Beach area
They're kissing!
Am I immature? Whatever, I laughed. STD is a telephone booth by the way.
There were copious
amounts of little shops to look through.
I was with 4 other people when we were starting to leave one shop when
this child snapped something toward Katie and Dana.
At first I thought it was a firecracker until I looked. There was a whole family, which I can only
describe as gypsies, because that is what they reminded me of. They were making such a racket in the
street. We ran inside the shop to get
away from them and they followed us in!!
Thankfully, the owners shooed them out.
We then had to devise a plan to get around them in the streets. It was definitely a bizarre moment. This city is much more chaotic than
Trivandrum. There are so many more
people, since it is a tourist area and there are also just a lot of people
living there. It is pretty upsetting to
see some living conditions. Here we saw
people sleeping on the streets with little to nothing and children taking care
of children, among other things. After we were done walking around we ate
dinner at a restaurant across from our hotel, and then went to watch the sunset
on the water.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Today was another low-key day. We woke up to watch the sunrise on the water,
but there were clouds in the way. Then we went to stand
in what is apparently the world’s longest line.
A line for the ferryboats to take us to the Vivekananda temple on a
small island off the coast. I believe we
stood in line for about 2 hours. There were
people walking around trying to sell ray bans, pearl necklaces, maps, and some
other odds and ends to us. Our professor
had a blast haggling with these people.
The ferry ride was really short to the temple and we only spent about 30
minutes there.
After the visit to the temple we began to head back to
Trivandrum. On the way “home” we stopped
to see a Hindu temple and had lunch at the same restaurant as yesterday. Throughout the drives between Kanyakumari and
Trivandrum, there was beautiful scenery, rice paddy fields, tapioca fields,
banana fields, cows, goats, and so much to see it’s impossible to include
everything.
Fruit, nom!
Creepy. Trash bin
Cady, Misty, Dana
On the ferryboat
World's Longest line ever
Still in line..
the Temple
Hindu temple
