Country Life

I have written about the clamor of city life but country life has a different clamor.  Days start early.  Hot water for a bath is heated over an outside fire (mine was graciously delivered in a steaming pot that was carried atop my neighbor's head each morning and right to my door).

While I was shocked the first day it happened....it was not uncommon for a herd of oxen to parade by on their way to the open grazing field, as I stood outside each day brushing my teeth (only feet from my bathroom, which was located outside the main part of the house and did not contain a sink).

By 8:00 am. I would walk a short distance to a teacher's house for breakfast.  The walk was short but as I took each step I carefully checked for snakes and made sure to step around mud puddles and oxen droppings. No matter how many successful walks I made I was always feeling nervous that a snake might be lurking somewhere (the number of snake killing stories did not help ease my fears).  Breakfast, lunch, and dinner was  served and prepared each day by the teacher's sister.  She was an excellent cook.  No meal was served twice.  Options were vada with corn....cilantro with coconut, and  tomato chutney for breakfast.  There was a delicious spiced carrot raisin dessert (I had no idea that shredded carrots could taste that good) and always a new curry to try for dinner.  Their  humble, straw roofed house was wonderful: two rooms in the main house and a washroom and kitchen out back.  The main room opened to a perfectly kept backyard which was a great spot for my morning tea. The walk to school was beautiful.  The sky always seemed to threaten rain; the clouds dark and heavy gave the sky a brilliant blue tint - providing a beautiful backdrop for the mounds of hay that towered above the houses' thatched roof tops.  Cattle grazed in people’s front yards and children in neatly laundered blue dresses waited to greet us. 

It was so much fun to spend a week living in the same village as the students.  It was great to meet their families and learn about their lives. I am so thankful for all the effort everyone put into accommodating me this week.  The teaching and time at the school could not have gone better.