Our Day at the Village

I wanted to shared about our day at the village before the memories fade from my mind. We went to the village on the last day with our friends... the day before we got the girls. 

Our friend’s sister lives in the village which is just outside of Delhi in the state of Haryana. She married a man who owns a great deal of land. They live in one of the nicest homes in the village. It was so elegant in contrast to the rest of the village. 

The village itself is surrounded by farmland. You have to drive for many miles on narrow roads to get to it. It was a relaxing drive to me... a break from all the bumper to bumper (literally) traffic of the city. We passed by laborers carrying large loads on wagons, on motorcycles and even on their own heads. The roads were lined with stacks of cow dung patties that are used for fuel. I’ve never seen that in person. It was interesting.

When we would blow the horn and pass the carts or tractors they would turn and stare at us. I wondered if many of them had ever even seen a white person in their lifetime. At one point we stopped to get a picture next to the sugarcane field as requested by our friends. A motorcycle with two men and a young boy stopped to watch. John offered to take their picture with the white people and you could tell they were just so excited but a little shy about it. I felt like a celebrity. haha

When we pulled up to the house, we were greeted in traditional Indian fashion. We were ushered into a sitting area where we were served coke, water, and an assortment of foods. All of it was quite yummy... until they brought us Lassies. These are curd and milk drinks. They are a local favorite but we were not fans at all. Lance tried to plow through to be kind but he just couldn’t finish it. After not feeling well I didn’t want to risk something else that would make me feel ill. 

We were taken to see the rest of the house which was nice but simple. We went up on the roof and were able to see around the village. That was really nice. There wasn’t much on the roof but you could see around the entire estate. They showed us where they cooked on fires outside. You could see the cow dung patties stacked ready for a fire. There were a cows tied to a tree in the courtyard and a small garden in the far corner. 

Villages like this don’t often get guest from the outside much less guests from America. It was a big deal for them... and for us. We loved the village! Another man who was related to others invited us to his home which was just across the street. He had a very nice home too. It was odd to see a flat screen tv in such rural settings. Here we were offered Hookah and juice and a dessert made from sugarcane. The dessert was really good but very rich. I could only eat a small little chunk of it because it was so sweet.

I can’t really remember the sequence of events but at some point, Lance drove a car, Lance rode a horse, Lance sat on a tractor, Lance got licked by a cow. HAHA!

We could have spent all day in the village but we were running out of time. our friends had to get back home for work. However, we had been requested to visit Savita’s father’s dairy factory. It was not far from the village. 

We entered the gate and were seated in the office of the factory. Savita’s father was very kind. Of course he brought us drink and food. I can’t even remember what we had at this point. We sat there for a while and then were showed around the factory. The factory isn’t really that big. It was basically just one big room with a lot of different stations. There were some big pasteurization tanks, some butter churners (probably not what they are called), lots of tubs to put milk and butter in, and a huge refrigerator where everything was stored. 

After our tour, we said goodbye to our friends and headed to our hotel to check in. I wish I could fully describe how wonderful this day was. It was such a great distraction from the fact that we were less than 24 hours away from meeting our girls. I think the pictures will probably say more than I ever could. :)

Next blog will be our Embassy appointment and TB check. Until next time -K