Interior Places
October 26th, 2009
Yesterday our entire group which is 18 I believe loaded up Indian style into 3 vehicles and set off for just 5 project dedications.
In Trichy I can do at least 8, start to finish, meaning from hotel in the morning to hotel in the evening in 10 hours at most, so knowing we only had 5 to do I figured would be no problem. We will just whip out these bad boys in a couple of hours and be able to make a run out to New Life Children’s Home for dinner.
What I didn’t take into consideration was that it was going to take us 2 hours to get to our first stop and then another hour to get all 18 of us up the mountain on the back of motorcycles. We finally made it up to the interior village complete with mud huts and a single brick building which was their school house. The school house wasn’t much, just a room with nothing in it but it had a roof and walls and was made out of brick and they were proud of it. It reminded me of Greg Mortensen and his book Three Cups of Tea, (a good read if you want one). After dedicating the project and pumping the water we sat down and shared with the villagers God’s love. They in turn showed us love by handing out what look like baked cow patties. The first thing I did was smell them after having to handle them and surprisingly there wasn’t a smell so then my brain logically went to where is Raja, he will know what this is.
Now here is the picture, 18 of us all lined up in a row sitting on chairs and bed cots holding this “thing” and not quite knowing what to do with it. Some were tearing off very small pieces and putting it up to their lips and then being in a quandary about what to do next. Others were brave and actually took a bite and yet none were really brave and just consuming the thing like it was a tasty morsel.
I did get Raja’s attention and he told me it was something that I didn’t quite understand but he assured me it was edible. I knew it was edible to them but did he forget we were white people who for the most part grew up in the big city and loved bbq? This was no KC strip but a brown round thing that looked like a squashed brain membrane.
Wheat and nuts and other grains he said was what this was, so I tasted it and guess what? It tasted like chicken. No, not really. I don’t know quite what it tasted like but I was sure glad with the cookies came around because they sure did taste a whole lot better.
Speaking of food, we came down the mountain after another hour of transporting one by one on the back of 5 bikes, crammed into our vehicles and headed off for our next village. (Luckily I broke my seat in the very back of the SUV and so I jumped on the back of a bike and spent the next 8 hours travelling from village to village enjoying the open air and large bugs. Now you can sing that song, Born to be Wild, that was me, helmet less, arm in a sling, camera bag over my shoulder, cruising the back roads of India and thinking life can’t get much better than this!) Anyway back to the story, we finally arrive at village number 2 and by now it is 4 in the afternoon, we left Light of Love at 10:30 and I was thinking we would be back at Light of Love by 4, so anyway here we are and they decide we should finally have lunch. We were praying for chicken and after our last food experience it was a prayer shared by many.
We followed our guides and found ourselves in front of someone’s home, there was a small area which had enough open space to accommodate us all and so here we are in a large circle surrounded by thatched huts and homes, a stall for several cows, chickens and goats running around and now here comes the food. Now I should say something about who is traveling with us, most about half haven’t been to India before and the other half have and of the 18 only 3 women, 1 of which is Bella who is 8. Ok, so now were all seated, I have Schaun and Troy, pastors at Westside to my left, their engaging in some bantering back and forth about something, some guys who joined us from Thailand, not Thai though, are making fun of something else, I have Kai and Bella next to me and their wondering what the food is going to be and then someone else is just amazed that we are eating something at all after our last experience. So now, here comes the food, oh yeah, my good friend Bob is with us from NM. Now Bob is 50 something I think and loves India and especially the girls…in a good way. Anyway, most women love him and the kids find him hilarious. He is at least 6’ 4” and large fingers, in fact his thumbs are the size of these bananas here, Bob for the most part is quiet but when he speaks it is either profound or really funny.
Ok, the food, here it comes on Styrofoam plates much like what we serve back home at a church pot luck and surprisingly it is looking good: 2 bananas, some boiled potatoes and 1 or 2 boiled eggs which have been peeled. Immediately the conversation turns to the food, some are expressing relief; others joy and for the most part most are relieved. Those that wanted chicken are a little sad but then Schaun reminds us the eggs are chicken eggs and so the guy working in Thailand from the US should have been more specific in his prayers, which brings laughter from the group and a few other comments. The food has been distributed and some who don’t like boiled eggs are looking for ways to rid their plates of eggs. Some have 1, others 2 and there even may have been a plate with 3. I personally am not a fan of hard boiled eggs. Never have, never will. Thankfully, Bella is sitting next to me and her plate of food hasn’t arrived and so I, being the loving friend decided to model servant hood to her and offered my egg.
Joy appeared on her face and thus joy appeared on mine.
Bob wasn’t so lucky. He chose his seat wrong and he couldn’t pawn off his eggs as elegantly as I did and so what happened next was classic and only Bob could pull it off.
Now picture this: were all in a circle for the most part, our wonderful hosts are behind us and others are staring at us with an expectation of serving us more food and then there are all these Americans trying to be brave and eat. Some enjoying the meal more than others but most are hungry and resigned to eat. Now here is Bob, pickier than I when it comes to food and isn’t ashamed to say he loves India as much as I do which is why he has been here at least 6 or 7 times, but he hates the food. Each trip he brings syrup, soy sauce and either salsa or picante sauce to cover up any food he is served except for the bland chicken.
No one really notices Bob at this point, he sits 2 chairs from me holding his plate of eggs, bananas and potatoes, and then he sees Vik Kumra without a seat and he hops up quickly and offers it to Vik, which to Vik seemed very polite as between Bob and I was his son, Kai. So myself, Vik and others just thought Bob was being nice, the reality though was Bob was being very strategic for this is what happened next, he pretty much now has most people attention because of what he just did, he then takes several steps forward and then purposely lowers his plate so that his 1 egg rolls off his plate and onto the dirt. All eyes are on Bob and the dirty egg and then in classic Bob style and matter of factly he says quite loud, “Damn”.
At that the place broke out in laughter, I about fell out of my chair and others just had that look of disbelief, they couldn’t imagine those words would ever come out of his mouth, but they did and it was classic.
We’re still laughing about it today and thankfully for Bob, the egg wasn’t replaced.
Oh, how I love this place.
Wow, the food was awesome every meal we had when I was there. Too bad it sucks now that I’m not along. I really feel bad especially since I couldn’t go. Remind people that the kids at Tuni get the leftovers, so set a little aside so the kids can do some modern day gleaning.
Bob is an institution in India and no trip would be the same without him.
Hmmmm. Come to think of it, all of the villages we visited were readily accessible. Could it be that you’ve virtually supplied all but the most remote villages with water?
Bob…that is classic. You told it beautifully-I’m laughing here, but it would have been much more fun to be laughing with ya’ll and subtly ditching eggs.