Kendra in India: June 30th

This past week has been exceptionally busy! We started off by having Sunday dinner with the American family here, which consisted of tacos with homemade tortillas and salsa. I am officially convinced to never buy tortillas again! Monday was cram time for Lizzie and I to get as many hours in for our internship. We are half way through our internship but not quite half way through our hours. Considering our late start though we are doing well and should finish our hours without too much work. Tuesday we left on a four-hour train ride to Rajhamundry. This is the hometown of Dr. Krishnayya. We kept hearing that where we were going was significantly hotter. We were worried at first until we realized that they thought it was hotter because they weren’t used to dry heat. Being from Utah, we all welcomed the dry air and found it quite refreshing! We also were able to stay in a hotel with A/C. For the first time since arriving in India I found myself shivering.

For meals we went to a restaurant that restored my faith in Indian food. At the house the food is okay but nothing that I’m going to miss coming home, except possibly their goat curry. The food at the restaurant though seemed to be more northern Indian food, which is what you would find in the states. Unfortunately, I had a terrible canker soar and the spicy food irritated, so I could only eat so much curry. 

While in Rajhamundry we visited the house where Krishnayya grew up, the birth town of Kuchipudi (a traditional Indian dance that one of the students here is learning), and a textile “factory”. Now I only use the word factory because that’s what Krishnayya called it. Really it is a few houses and open shelters in which a handful of people worked. The blocks that created the pattern were carved by hand. The blocks would then be dipped in ink and placed on the fabric. Putting together a number of blocks the solid fabric became a beautiful, complex patterns. After touring the “factory” we were able to buy some of the blocks and items made from the fabric.

Another day we were able to go on a riverboat trip. We walked on the boat around 10 am and, aside from the few stops, didn’t get off until 7pm that night. It was so beautiful wandering up the river and seeing the greenest hills spotted with huts. It was definitely one of the more relaxing days we’ve had here in India.

Saturday we came back and crashed we were so tired. Sunday we went to church and were once again invited over to the American family’s house for breakfast burritos. While we were there we watched The Lego Movie. Personally I didn’t have much hope for the movie despite what most of the boys on the trip said (they had all seen the movie on the plane ride over here) but after seeing it I would recommend everyone watching it once.  The rest of this week will involve Lizzie and I catching up on the hours that we missed out on while we were gone. It should be easier since five members of our group are going to Nepal this week which will hopefully limit any distractions.

I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all!

Kendra