Slices of Life

Sometimes, when I sit down to type up a blog entry, I can't think of anything to write. Today, I am thinking of many things that I want to write about.

I want to tell you about the Harvest Festival I attended on Sunday. Harvest Festivals are celebrated in churches in Kerala by members bringing in produce and other items to be auctioned off for the church's benefit. The floor of the community hall was covered with produce. At least a hundred coconuts were stacked in one corner, taking up the space of a small bathroom. Probably a thousand bananas were stacked in another corner, still green and attached to their branches. Small piles of ginger lay among piles of larger roots, most of which don't have names in English. There was tapioca root, another lumpy root the size of a football, another larger root in the shape of a bowl and the size of a human head, and a few even larger roots the size of a human torso. Bottles of egg-yolk yellow ghee were actioned off, as well as cakes, beet syrup, jars of guppies, pepper and gooseberry wine.

I want to tell you about my trip to the park in Kottayam. As the sun set, I watched children crawl over a huge metal ladder structre in the shape of ABC. I watched women with headscaves run after little girls in little dresses. I watched two brothers chase each other, knock each other down, get up and start all over again. And at the end of the night, there was a water and lights show, complete with Bollywood music.

I want to tell you about my vain attempts to get malaria medication for my upcoming trip to Sri Lanka. I waited almost two and a half hours in the hospital for a doctor to show up (enduring the relentless staring and questioning of everyone around me - where are you from? what is your name? where are you staying?), and when he finally did, he told me that it wouldn't be necessary to take any medication. Thankfully, I had brought the names of two common medicines taken to prevent malaria. "Our pharmacy will not have these," the doctor told me, "but come back tomorrow, and I will tell you if we can order them."

I want to tell you about the family who invited me into their home recently. I walk by their house when I go for walks in the morning, and always stop and say hello. They have three children, two girls and one boy. The boy is the youngest, and the girls will whisper questions for me in his ear, which he will then ask me out loud, practically jumping up and down with excitement. They have a very nice home, and I even got to watch some Saturday morning cartoons with the kids. They invited me to breakfast, but I was afraid that the people and Mandiram would worry about where I was if I did not return. I was really touched by their kindness, though.

Sometimes, I write in this blog with a point in mind. Sometimes, the point is just to give you a little slice of what my life is like here.