It is SATURDAY. I have been in India for one full week.
We had a blast today. It was packed with things to do.
Morning
Doris, Marta, Mala and I went to Roja to teach Sapna, Laxmi, Karishma, Roji, Mala's kids and Becca's kids how to safely lead horses. Becca and her husband Glenn also work for Freedom Firm.
Everyone grabbed a partner and one of the beautiful donated rope halters and leads. We learned how to properly hold the rope and lead our horse (human partner). Once everyone got good at leading each other, we practiced with Hira, the pony.
- Sapna practicing haltering Hira -
Angie, Angela, Ginny and Cathy did some errands and clothes shopping.
The Market
After our time with the horse, Doris and I went with Sapna and Roji to the market to buy food for our dinner. Tonight we are going to learn how to make an authentic Indian meal. I think we are going to make Dahl and chicken marsala.
The market was quite an experience. Everything is bought from separate little stands. The meat "department" is one little row of butchers. You don't want to buy meat that has already been prepared because you don't know how long it has been sitting out with flies and birds landing on it. So you pick out your live animal, in our case chickens and have the butcher prepare it. Typically you have to stay and watch them kill and prepare the chicken through the whole process to make sure they don't switch it out with one of the bad chickens. I watched part of the process, gotta get the full experience, but Roji and Sapna have a good relationship with their butcher and trust him, so we left to finish our shopping. Relationships are key in India. It is a very relational culture.
We finished purchasing the need fruits and vegetables and Doris and snapped a lot of pictures. It was so different from shopping in a grocery store in the U.S. I have seen markets like these on TV, but to actually be in one and buying my dinner here... what an experience. It is so easy to take for granted what we have in the U.S. AND to think I've been disgusted before by a few bugs here or there... bugs and flies are ALL OVER the food here, and I didn't die.
- our chickens are the live ones in the cage -
- our chicken being prepared -
- Supna buying our veggies -
Lunch
Everyone met for lunch at Hidrabad Pariani. It was a fun meal. Mala and Becca have been developing a relationship with the restaurant owner, so we eat here often.
- we squeezed into the booths -
The Good Shepherd
After lunch some of us headed off to The Good Shepherd which is a private Indian boarding school to check out their horse stable. I wanted to continue learning about caring for horses in India. We met with the stable manager, vet and trainer. The girls from Roja were so excited to be able to go with us. They were so excited about the paddock boots that were donated they didn't even care what size they were.
Most of their horses at Good Shepherd are retired race horses, but some are Indian ponies and Australian ponies. They were very helpful. There was a break in the rain and the stable manager offered to let us have rides on some of the horses. This was Sapna, Laxmi and Karishma's first ride on a horse. They had a BLAST. The men at the stable were VERY generous. We couldn't have asked for anything better for the day.
I was so thankful that the rescued girls and Supna got to ride. What a treat.
- Supna petting some of the riding school's horses -
- Laxmi making friends with another school horse -
- Doris meeting a friendly horse -
- Laxmi's first ride on a horse -
- Supna riding one of the Australian ponies -
- me (Molly) riding the Australian pony -
Cooking Dinner
Later that afternoon we went back to Roja for our cooking lessons. It was fun. The only thing that made cooking difficult was in planning we forgot that the electricity in the city gets turned off every Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Once the power came back on we were able to finish the preparations for the meal and ate it. There was a brief moment when I was eating my chicken marsala that I remembered I had seen this chicken alive earlier today... this is the way life is here.
After Dinner
We watched a movie and had papaya for desert. The movie was supposed to be in Hindi, but it turned out to be in another Indian dialect which Laxmi and Karishma could understand a little, but they could not translate it.
Conclusion and Note on Health
Today was FUN and eventful. A very enjoyable day.
I have been fortunate so far as I have not gotten sick. Ginny as had a little bit of an upset stomach ever since we have gotten here and Angela has for the last 2 days. I hope they get better soon.
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