Party and Monkeys

After our CARE trip this morning, we went into the bazaar to get some shopping done. Our main task was to get a saree for our ayah. This traditional Indian outfit is a gift for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights that happens this Tuesday. We got our gift and took a few pictures of the preparations going on in town. Most of the shops had strings of lights on their awnings and there was lots of decoration over the street.

Most of the shops were also selling fireworks and metal goods. The fireworks are an obvious necessity for the festive occasion. The metal goods are apparently an auspicious thing to buy and sell at this time of the year. Diwali is the time that Hindus celebrate the goddess of wealth and buying metal means that both consumer and producer should be blessed with some of that wealth.

After our walk through the bazaar, we made our way up to the elementary school dormitory. They were having their big open house this afternoon, and it turned out to be a rather large party. There were lots of food vendors selling their goods and there were even some guys painting mehndi on hands. Beth got one of these temporary henna works of art.

We also got to try some panipuri. Literally translated, this means "water in fried bread." It's made of a round, hollow dough that is fried and filled with a watery mixture of tamarind, chili, spices , potato, onion and chickpeas. In this photo, Dave is trying to get it down before the water leaks through.

The most exciting part of our day took place as we were leaving the dorm. On our way home, we were walking with a group of middle school students and we saw a group of monkeys on the fence ahead og us. These were the rhesus monkeys that are not very nice. We were waiting patiently for them to pass when one came from the buildings above us and ran right at us. It swerved before reaching us, but was waiting ominously behind us.

A moment later, a really large male came off the same building above us. He looked down at us menacingly and we realized that monkey number one was edging closer to us from behind. The entire group started to get pretty nervous and this was justified when both of the monkeys started running towards us. One of them grabbed onto Dave's leg, but he shook it off and no one else was really touched. After a few attempts to breach their defences, we finally made it to the path home. Eventually, we got back and vowed never to leave the house again. It's entirely possible that we've made the "attack" worse in our minds than it actually was. But we've now officially survived our first monkey scuffle. Anyone want to come and visit?

Dave and Beth