Good Day Sunshine

October 3, 2012
| 221 Comments
| Food in India, Life in India, Malayalam

The rain has gone. Mara poy, as you would say in Malayalam. I no longer have to grab that umbrella each time I leave the house. The sky is blue and the sun is shining. The village where I am working has taken on a whole new splendor. I can see the mountains in the distance where during the monsoon, all I could see was the underside of my umbrella and a gray, heavy sky. The heaviness that has been lifted from the sky has also been lifted from people’s spirits here. The children are out playing cricket, I can hear them running and laughing outside my window. Every house has their blankets, sheets, sarees, lunghis out to dry in the sun. New flowers are popping up everywhere. Oranges and papaya are making their entrance on the scene at the market. There are also babies of every sort stumbling along, feeling their way in this vast new world. Kittens, calfs, puppies, baby goats, baby bunnies, and baby monkeys are all peering at us with their wide, innocent eyes.

In the past week, Isel and I have been making the most of this sunny weather by exploring Kerala. Last week we took a day trip to the Arabian Sea, to a town called Kannur. We found a sleepy little bungalow that sits atop a cliff, overlooking the sea. You could descend a flight of steep, rickety stairs to reach a beautiful clean sandy beach dotted with giant red porous rocks. The water was a perfect temperature. Warm enough for a bath. We went in to our waists but were too shy to delve all the way in with the local fishermen watching in the distance. Instead, we took a seat and watched the fishermen. They cast their nets out with such ease and finesse. Once they caught a fish, we were a bit horrified to watch one fisherman begin beating the fish on a rock. I suppose the beating did not do the job because a moment later, he lifted his leg up and stomped on that fish with all his might. The horror. We decided right then and there, we would not be eating any fish that evening.

Luckily, our dinner consisted of vegetable curry and shrimp. Hopefully the shrimp were spared the beating. The owner was delightful and he turned out to be quite the farming expert. He hooked us up with a variety of seeds, bitter gourd, pumpkin, okra, and green beans, the beginnings of an organic garden. We departed better off than when we arrived. Our mini vacation was just what we needed to begin another week of work. More on that later….