I am happy to report that I had a successful first day of 2015. The couple who's house I am crashing in invited me to join them for a New Years Eve lunch. But besides just eating it, I jumped in on the cooking action to. Of all the things you don't mess with much a woman and her kitchen are pretty high on my list-which proved to be the right choice in this situation. I was given the task of coating the veggie balls with their tasty outside layer before throwing them into deep fry. I would say I did pretty well at it but who knows, they could also have just been being polite. Either way, they tasted yummy alone and then especially yummy with the homemade chutney sauce; which I had no part in making but made sure to watch carefully. Although my role was small, I loved cooking/watching Indian food be cooked. And I loved eating it too.
After lunch I headed back to Jew town. I wanted to wander around there a little longer then I had earlier on in the week. I am so glad I did! I visited some bookstores, art galleries and found the coolest little antique shop. I could of spent hours in there alone--there was that much to see! Come to think of it I did spend quiet a bit of time there after all. I even left and came back! If only I had a fortune to spend and ship things back to the USA with..........
After lunch I headed back to Jew town. I wanted to wander around there a little longer then I had earlier on in the week. I am so glad I did! I visited some bookstores, art galleries and found the coolest little antique shop. I could of spent hours in there alone--there was that much to see! Come to think of it I did spend quiet a bit of time there after all. I even left and came back! If only I had a fortune to spend and ship things back to the USA with..........
After Jew town I headed to "the restaurant" (the rabbit's home) to hunker down for the Kochi Carnival Parade. This was the finale to all the carnival's events. I was so excited to see it--for cultural reasons and also because there is part of me that still loves parades the same way I did when I was 7, but mostly I was excited because I thought I had scoped out the perfect spot to sit; on the wall above the crowd. That way I could actually see what was going on, be able to get good pics, etc. Watching certain things (such as a parade) can be challenging when you can't see over most people's shoulders/heads. It sometimes feels like you are just watching peoples backs which believe it or not get really boring in no time at all. So I set up on my perch and waited patiently for the parade to come but unfortunately I didn't account for the fact that although I could see above everyone else's head, Their arms and hands holding their phones and cameras blocked my view just as much as if I was on flat ground. Grrrrrrrr. Short girl problems.
Needless to say, I wasn't able to get many awesome pics but I was still able to "see" things fairly well. Considering.
The parade was as over the top as it promised to be with entries ranging from Hindu Gods to Mother Teresa to President Modi to who knows what that was to lots and lots of drag queens. Seriously. I can honestly say that I was shocked at the amount of "shemans" as the locals refer to them. I wasn't offended, I wasn't uncomfortable, I was just surprised. And pretty fascinated with it all. They were everywhere. I would say that a good 80-85% of the parade was shemans. Mothers were taking their kids up to meet them and EVERYONE wanted pictures with/of them; men, woman, the young and the old alike. And the shemans were more then happy to strike a pose and use the streets of Kerala as their own personal catwalk. The parade ended up the beach so as soon as it was over I headed over to get at least some pics of the characters/shemans. I had my phone on me but my camera was close to dead and I had grabbed the wrong bag when I left the house so I didn't have any back up batteries on me which was extremely frustrating although to be honest it was probably a good thing because I could of taken pictures for hours. Some of the shemans didn't look so she like but others looked pretty dang good. If there was any community hostility towards them it didn't show, but I found it interesting that when I saw the news coverage of the carnival they didn't mention or show any shemans, even though they were basically the main attraction! India is just full of surprises I guess. And I could of taken pictures of them all night. Yes, there is a lot of pics but that should just give you an idea of how many there were--and I probably didn't even capture 1/3 of them. :)
My camera died and I left the replacement battery back in the house (I really hate when I do that!), but I HAD to get a few more pics with my phone, even though the quality kind of sucks.
The parade was as over the top as it promised to be with entries ranging from Hindu Gods to Mother Teresa to President Modi to who knows what that was to lots and lots of drag queens. Seriously. I can honestly say that I was shocked at the amount of "shemans" as the locals refer to them. I wasn't offended, I wasn't uncomfortable, I was just surprised. And pretty fascinated with it all. They were everywhere. I would say that a good 80-85% of the parade was shemans. Mothers were taking their kids up to meet them and EVERYONE wanted pictures with/of them; men, woman, the young and the old alike. And the shemans were more then happy to strike a pose and use the streets of Kerala as their own personal catwalk. The parade ended up the beach so as soon as it was over I headed over to get at least some pics of the characters/shemans. I had my phone on me but my camera was close to dead and I had grabbed the wrong bag when I left the house so I didn't have any back up batteries on me which was extremely frustrating although to be honest it was probably a good thing because I could of taken pictures for hours. Some of the shemans didn't look so she like but others looked pretty dang good. If there was any community hostility towards them it didn't show, but I found it interesting that when I saw the news coverage of the carnival they didn't mention or show any shemans, even though they were basically the main attraction! India is just full of surprises I guess. And I could of taken pictures of them all night. Yes, there is a lot of pics but that should just give you an idea of how many there were--and I probably didn't even capture 1/3 of them. :)
My camera died and I left the replacement battery back in the house (I really hate when I do that!), but I HAD to get a few more pics with my phone, even though the quality kind of sucks.
When I got back to the house, Benson (the man who owns the home stay I'm residing at, not Benson from Delhi) and I had a nice little chat. He and his family actually almost moved to Utah, and get this---he was given a Book of Mormon at one point but then lost it (thanks a lot Satan) but then received another copy from the missionaries a while back. He hasn't been able to find the missionaries for a bit now but really really wants to talk to them. I am going to have to ask the missionaries in my branch if they have anyone down in or near to Kerala. I was invited in his house to meet his family (who were so sweet!) and he was telling me all about how he uses antiques in both decorating and building his home stay-which would explain why it looked so freaking cool. I was kicking myself for not coming home earlier in the night-because then I would have had more time to talk to him, not only about the church but just in general. Plus, he told me that the family I am staying with wanted to have dinner with me and was waiting to do so. That was lost in communication on my end at least but I felt horrible when I found out. I have been so lucky to have met such amazing and welcoming people here. I mean really, who goes on vacation and ends up with these kinds of experiences. I really hope we are able to stay in touch. I know I am for sure going to try from my end.
