These men really wanted me to take their photo.
Cows grazing at dusk.
Indian birthday cake.
The feeding of the birthday cake.
Group shot! My Indian shirt is a little baggy - it might appear that I am concealing something under that shirt. It hides nothing but too much birthday cake.Hi everyone,
You probably thought that I forgot about the blog - but it isn't so! After our fabulous holiday in Kerala we have been so busy; barely a moment to collect our thoughts. I'll do a post on Kerala soon, but I wanted to post on my very exciting Indian birthday first. I turned 31 in India on a 3rd class sleeper train car . . . quite an adventure! We took the overnight train back to Manipal, and after only a few hours to recuperate we were headed out to our morning field trip to a cashew factory. Interestingly the employees of this factory who work with the nuts during a particular phase of their processing develop a rare type of dermatitis. It was interesting to see the factory, and the repetitive motions involved in processing the cashews reminded me of the film Recycled Landscapes.
Later in the afternoon we visited yet another hospital, and then we found out that we had been invited to take a sunset cruise on the President of Manipal University's boat, and to then join he and his wife and many other bigwigs for dinner. Wow - what an invitation!
The houseboat cruise was beautiful. While we were gone over the weekend the weather seems to have changed in Manipal so that it is even cooler in the mornings and evenings.
Dinner with the President was stupendous; the food just wouldn't stop. We had delicious appetizers and soup, and many main course items including paneer manchurian and delicious spicy prawns. To top it all off, one of the students in our group told the President's wife that it was my birthday. She ordered up a cake for me, and everyone sang happy birthday. After I blew out the candle everyone fed me a bite of cake, as is the custom in India.
As much fun as the night was, it turns out that something didn't agree with my stomach. I spent most all of yesterday holed up in my room . . . you can imagine what that means. Today I can tolerate gatorade and ritz crackers, but I still feel very weak and have no appetite.
Unfortunately, our cooking class was last night. Given that I could barely look at or smell food, I had to skip it. My classmates and professor have taken wonderful care of me, and I should be okay for our voyage home which begins today at 4PM (that is in two hours!). Being sick on my birthday reminded me of when I was little. There is something about my birthday that often leads to me being ill; I can recall many slumber parties where I was in my bed sipping 7-UP and my mom was in our living room entertaining all of my little friends. I guess that I haven't changed much!
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