sugarcane, swimming, and serpents: an Indian farm experience

The other day our friend Shunkar showed us his family's farm. It was awesome. His family grows sugarcane and the grain that roti is made from. His neighboring crops are corn, peanuts, bananas, and coconut/palm trees. It was a great afternoon full of swimming in the river (right next to a fishing dam), chewing on sugarcane, eating raw veggies and sipping on coconut water, riding in a cart pulled by a pony, oh and a cobra-killing by the river.

Chillin' on the fishing dam with Anil.

So many grazin' goats!

Walking between the crops. Southern India is beautiful.

Shunkar climbed a coconut palm to cut down coconuts for us all. I had never had fresh coconut water before. It was warm and refreshing.

Shunkar's farm neighbor opened up the fruit for us with his sickle.

Thirsty babies.

Exhibit A of an Indian pony.

Then Shunkar's friend let us take his pony-wagon combo for a little walkabout.

While we were talking with some friends next to the river, Tom spotted a cobra slithering up from the water. It darted across the rocky ground and hid under a woman's drying laundry. Shunkar grabbed a shovel and killed it.

This is his third cobra he has killed in his 20 years.

After all the excitement of the cobra-killing. Shunkar showed us his parents home where they served us chai and biscuits as we watched the India-Pakistan cricket match. After that we visited our friend Anil's house where we also had... chai and biscuits. Goos thing those are two things that never get old. I love Indian hospitality.

It was one of my favorite days so far here in southern India. It's an absolute tropical paradise of a landscape. We will visit the farm one last time before we leave in just 5 days!

8 days

As I type this we have 8 days left here at Ashraya Mission. This community is so wonderful. It's much more rural than the crowded streets of Delhi. The weather here is beautiful, hardly ever reaching 85 degrees. The market is close, and all of our friends and the staff of Ashraya is even closer. There are so many things I will miss about being here. The girls of Ashraya, of course. Getting to know them over the past two weeks has been so wonderful. Even though we don't speak the same language, living with a person and bonding with them over such things like dancing and teethbrushing together brings you close. We took the girls to get icecream at our favorite soda shop in the market last week and they had SO much fun. They could hardly contain their excitement as we rode to the market in auto-rickshaws.

A few other things I will miss about this cozy town:

Looking out the office door while working at the desk and being greeted by the neighborhood kids.

Hanging out with this little nugget. For those that don't know, this is Blessy. She was abandoned at a nearby train station. The Christian community here has taken her in. She lives in the orphanage up the road. She has so much personality and spunk. She is the coolest baby in the world.

Helping Yallawa in the kitchen is always fun. Although sometimes we make messes. Well, I make messes. The other day we were making coconut chutni. I plugged in the blinder (without the top on the mixer) and the machine was already switched to the On position. Chutni pieces went everywhere.

This is how we get our milk. The dude comes by every other day and pours us fresh milk into our designated milk bowl. The word for milk in Kannada is "dude". So, we call this guy the Dude dude.

These are just a handful of things that have become comforts of our home here, but our work is not done. On September 30 the team and I head to Thailand for our fall break then we're off to Delhi after that for the remainder of the internship.

isaiah 49:16

God has your name written on his hands. What has He given you that is written on yours?