Jaipur Day 3

March 26, 2018

A “Day in the Life” . One of my favorite activities in traveling with Overseas Adventure Travels is when we spend time with a local community learning what it’s like to live there on a daily basis.  Leaving the city, we drove about 2 hours out into the farming country side to visit a small village.

It is harvest time here and as we drove along the rural roads you could see where wheat was being gathered. They only grow one crop a year because the summer months are too hot and dry for another planting. The majority of the work is done by hand as there are no signs of any large combines.

You can barely see a woman bent over cutting the wheat by hand a little to the right of center.

A man working on his irrigation ditch for his garden.

Making bricks by hand out of the red clay. The smokestack in the background is where the bricks are fired after drying in the sun.

 

A man herding his cattle down the road. I learned today why Indians consider cows as sacred. Thousands of years ago, after many infants were dying, they discovered that a baby could live on cow’s milk. Therefore, it is considered a gift from the gods.

We stopped in the village to buy some produce to be prepared for our lunch meal. We had a shopping list and had to learn the local names of cauliflower, tomatoes, and okra as well as the vendor’s name.

I think the merchant was glad when we were finished and out of his way.

Our next stop was the local government school. This school is being supported by the travel company as well. They are helping to build an assembly hall and restrooms. Notice the signs on the posts going  through the school gate. I wonder if Disney got any royalty fees.

We arrived just as the children were arriving. They sat on the dirt in the assembly area. That’s why the hall being built is important and especially during the monsoon season. The students started with a prayer for country, community and family. 

We were somewhat of a distraction as they were curious about us.

As part of the assembly they sang a couple of songs, had the headlines from the newspaper read to them, did some yoga and some meditation before going to the classrooms. Here is a short video of one of the songs.

The school administrators had a group discussion with us about the school and some of the issues the students face in their daily lives.

Out of respect for the opportunity to attend school and the teachers, they remove their shoes before entering the classroom.

They were learning yoga practices from their school book.

A couple of the students then read a story from the book. It was interesting that when we asked them to share with us what they would like to do as an adult, all of the boys wanted to be soldiers or police and the girls wanted to be teachers except for 2 who wanted to be engineers.

Farmers resting in the shade with their flock of sheep.

We climbed aboard these home made trucks and went back a dirt road to a local farming village where about 200 people live.

 

The men where out in the fields working and the women greeted us and shared stories about what live was like for them.

We were served a tea which was delicious.

Some of the kids weren’t in school as they had stayed to help with the smaller children while the adults worked the fields. I had some balloons to share with the children and they were a big hit.

These boys, age 12 - 14, were very curious about us and asked some questions. The one in the blue shirt spoke fair English.

He wanted to try on my hat for a picture.

The type of houses in the village varied from cement to grass thatched roofs and walls.

An elderly woman walking past a pile of manure that is kept for fertilizer and dried for burning.

Prescott tried his hand at milking the goat 

A grass thatched shed for the cattle.

This woman demonstrated churning buttermilk.

Kitchen area of a cement walled house with a tin roof. It was very hot inside.

A young girl poising for a picture with E and I. The kids loved having their picture made and then looking at them on the camera. 

A sleeping area.

A cow getting a bath.

Demonstration on grinding grain into flour.

A look across the grass thatched roofs.

A pile of cow chips being stored for fuel.

An outdoor cooking stove.

A storage unit for the grains.

The indoor cooking stove looked the same as the outdoor.

We were served lunch that the ladies prepared from the food we bought.

After a we returned to the hotel we had a rest period before going out to a rooftop restaurant for dinner. We were entertained by some local musicians and dancers.

The water palace across from the hotel was lit up when we returned. It made a beautiful setting.

Our doorman at the hotel. I love the outfits they wear.

That concludes our visit to the Jaipur area. Tomorrow we have a long bus ride to the Vindhya mountain range to see the Ranthambore National Park.