Weekend

After work on Friday I planned to take a quick trip outside with some friends to pick up a few things like lozenges and light long pants to cover up against mosquitoes, but the bad traffic/pollution led to some breathing problems and I ended up experiencing a Hyderabad hospital! (Just to be on the safe side - a friend said her aunt has breathing problems because of the city, and using an oxygen mask always helps her.) The first thing I noticed was that it wasn’t air conditioned – and the mall next door was. In fact, the mall next door had seemed all around a little cleaner and more high-tech. Not to say the hospital was terrible, but it was definitely a different feel than the ones I am used to... the nurses/doctor didn’t really write anything down, and there wasn’t soap in the bathroom (that I could find).

(I'm really fine, I just thought it was a sort of funny picture.)

So Saturday was a relaxing day to recover. I took a walk in the fields to check on the AVRDC soybeans. It's really pretty out there, and so dramatically different from the outside - cleaner, more open, quiet (though every now and then you can still hear the traffic in the distance). It was really windy today – birds would be flying into the wind and not actually moving. (Ava, I tried to get a picture of the flock of pigeons for you).

(I think that’s haze off in the distance, though I was hoping it would be storm clouds.)

I ran into this group of women walking along the paths. I was admiring their clothes (it seems strange to me that women here just ware such beautiful clothes for work on the farm), when they noticed I had a camera. They were really excited and wanted a picture (I think – there was a language barrier. All I got was “Thank you madame!")

And then one of them wanted to try taking a picture with me in it, so here are those. They all thought it was really funny that she missed both times :

(And these are their working/farming clothes! I feel so inelegant in comparison.)

Then it was lunch time. I have not gotten tired of Indian food yet, especially since they change the menu up so much that I can still be trying new things almost every day. I really love the chapati bread, and my digestive system should be phenomenal by the end of these two months as I’ve been having a cup of yogurt with almost every lunch and dinner. Arvind, another Indian friend did tell me that the canteen is not quite exemplary of “real” Indian food, so we might go to a restaurant in the city to get that experience sometime.

Vegetable jahlzfrezi, yogurt with kernels, chapati, fresh vegetables.

After lunch I had time to read, and go to the gym, as seen below … (They have one of those old-school machines with a band that supposedly shakes the fat off the hips). I was the only one in gym clothes (t-shirt, gym shorts) – the men I saw there were in polos and khakis, and the one woman was exercising in a full kurti/trouser ensemble. Afterwards I went swimming with Arvind, which was really nice - I don't know why I hadn't gone to the pool earlier. I felt too conspicuous in my swimming suit, though, so I wore a tank top over it just to cover up a bit more skin. I'm still figuring out what is acceptable...

It gets dark around 7 PM here, and then the bats come out. There are some small ones that flit around like at home, but there are also some cool huge ones. What with all the mosquitoes, I love the bats. I also saw a feral kitten on the stairway up to my dorm room:

Sunday was another relaxing day. I have sort of a cold, or a cough, or something, that I just want to get over. While walking the fields again, I came across what looked like a shrine at the base of this huge tree…

And, as usual, there was delicious food for dinner: Cow peas with tomatoes and onions, something else with coconut, roti (a slightly thicker version of chapati, I believe) and yogurt. I’m in one of my new kurtis, (which I think needs to be fitted). Also, I am writing this to the sound of what I think is a feral cat fight outside the dorm...

Finally, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!!