Yesterday, (3/09/16) after 12 hours on an overnight train ride where we slept in triple bunk beds (!) and were offered amazing chai tea every five seconds, we got off the train in Bindyor, a village near Krishna's home village of Heranjalu. Bonus points to Jake L. and Ms. Drezner for hosting mice in their backpacks. (They did not actually see the mice--just the evidence.) We got off the train at 10:30 in the morning and experienced a whole new kind of hot from what we had finally adapted to in Mumbai. As we waited for rickshaws (motorcycles meet
Central Park horse carriages), we played a huge game of Ninja. In the final round it was Jake vs. Jake. All of our money was on Jake. Jake won. Jake lost.
We got on the rickshaws and rode on them for about 30 minutes before finally reaching a school in Heranjulu. The kids, aged around 7-11, greeted us warmly and watched in amusement, okay, fine, they laughed at us—as we all attempted to chug coconuts that Krishna's father had broken open for us. The children sang to us, especially to Aniris who turned 16 yesterday (yay!) before we went to Krishna's house for lunch. We ate a delicious lunch on banana leaves (with our right hands only) that consisted of rice, spicy pickles, and spicy cucumber curry.
We got our homestay assignments and headed off to meet our new families (You've been replaced.) In each family there is at least one person who knows a bit of English, although we have really been brushing up on our Kannada and charade abilities. There is also, in each family, an average ratio of cows to humans of 2:1. We spent about 45 minutes with our homestay families before all joining back together as a BC group and playing with the children from the school. We taught them how to play quack-a-dilly-oso (spelling!?) where we, let's be honest, let them win. We then played their game with a name that in English translates to "broken leg." In this game there are two teams and the object is for one person at a time to, while hopping on one leg, tag as many people from the other team as possible. We are convinced they have been doing Olympic-level training for this game in anticipation of our arrival. They DESTROYED us. We said goodbye and headed back to our homestay families for a shower.
We then walked back to Krishna's house where many of the kids joined us to surprise Aniris with a delicious birthday cake and confetti. We talked about our day and did ANCHORS (appreciation, news, concern, hopes, obscurity/observations, reading, shoutout) and headed back to our homestay families for dinner. After dinner the power went out in the majority of our houses, taking the lights, our sanity, and most importantly, the fans with it. When the power came on shortly later, it was "the best moment of my entire life."- anonymous. We have all really bonded with our families and are super excited for the next couple of days!!!!
-Eva and Ari