Visitors part 1

On the morning of my birthday, I went to the airport to pick up our friends Ian and Monica. They stayed with us for 6 days and I have a strong suspicion that someone somewhere shortened the days, because they flew by.
We have known Ian and Monica since our time in Tripoli. Ian was Adriaan's boss till the reorganisation, when Ian made the smartest move ever and retired at 51, making Adriaan really, really jealous. Monica and I have been friends since the day we met and are never out of topics for a nice, long conversation and a good laugh. We have spent many hours over coffees and lunches and I love her Singapore Laksa.

On Wednesday we celebrated my birthday, so poor Ian spent the afternoon having lunch with 11 women while trying to battle a jet lag. He soldiered through like a trooper!

On Thursday I took them to the slum, to show them the Anu project and to buy some handbags (Monica will have her very own handbag-room in the near future).

Embroidering cement sacks to make into bags

Browsing through the tetra pack bags

After the shopping spree in the slum, we went to the Phoenix Mall for lunch, to experience the more luxurious side of Bangalore.

Adriaan had taken Friday off so we could go to see some sites outside Bangalore. We left with an ambitious plan to see 3 temples, but ended up only seeing 1, because we got side tracked in some little villages along the way that there was not enough time left.

When we go out on day trips, we prefer to take the smaller roads. This gives us the opportunity to see the villages and their people. We often stop to take photographs of village life.

Taking the outer skin off of the coconuts



A silk worm farm, the caterpillars are fed mulberry leaves

Adriaan was walking across the play ground of a little school on his way to a temple and the kids spotted him. They were very keen to have their picture taken by the tall, white Uncle and all of them wanted to shake his hand. It must have been at least 25C at that time, so I can't imagine how the boy in the jumper and woollen hat must have felt.

If the boy in the sweater and hat was warm, this guy must have been boiling. He was sitting inside the hut, keeping the fire going to cook the sugar water that the men outside were pressing out of the sugar canes.
We could only stay inside the hut for a little while, because the sticky air and the heat made it hard to breath.

The sugar cubes being stacked and packed

All this just on the way to the temple...to be continued