Food!

It dawned on me the other day that there are two entries I need to write. I’ve been getting some emails asking what the food is like, so I thought I’d give you an entry based on food. I was also moved last night to write a entry about the caste system. I’m by no means an expert, as I’m sure you all will see. And I don’t plan on offering any patronizing statements espousing my strong Amerrrrrkan values. I’m just going to tell you some things that I’ve seen.

But first I want to tell you a story.

The rains have started as predicted and brought around a fair, cool temperature. I’m not talking 65 F degrees; I mean more like 85 F and humid. Regardless, it’s a nice break from the weather in the last few weeks. Since the rain has come and the temperature has dropped, we have seen an increase in bugs. Last night was an event of biblical proportions and I really wanted to take pictures or video, but my camera was locked in the office. Imagine heavy clouds of swarms by every illuminated light bulb and every wall coated with flies. Yuck! Add to this the fact the generator was out and the water pump couldn‘t be turned on. Normally this would not have been a problem. The drinking water cooler was working (I don‘t know how), I didn’t need to shower, and I can usually make do without electricity.

But this morning I needed to shower, like most mornings. There are several water tanks on the roof of the buildings, so water was accessible. I filled a bucket with an awkward blue hose coming down off the roof and brought it over to the bathing rooms. The Gram Chetna driver, Ramu, saw me lugging the water bucket and let out a surprised sounding “Oh!”, as if he was surprised to see me doing any physical labor. I think the general consensus among the men is that I’m a princess (by rural Rajasthan standards). While I think I’m a pretty good sport, roughing it with the squat toilets and the bucket showers, hand washing my clothing and eating on the floor; they only see my red brick pedicures, my use of a fan at night, and my avoidance of cooking detail. They think I’m soft, but I don’t! I just like my feet looking nice, I get hot at night, and I don’t like my hands smelling like onions all the time.

Anyway. I took the bucket into the bathrooms where there are two showers to choose from. I prefer one over the other because it has a wire rack and hook to hang my clothes on while the other shower just has one broken hook. Unfortunately the door to my favorite shower wasn’t latching all the way so I had to use the other shower, which was overrun with bugs - nasty flies, grasshoppers, ants! And I’m not talking about a few here and there. The flies were crawling the walls and there were probably upwards of twenty grasshoppers huddled in the corners.

So I got in with my bucket of tank water and tried the nozzle of the faucet one more time. Still no water. I began to splash myself with water and begin my showering routine. About three minutes in I heard a gurgling noise followed my a low pitch hissing sound. All of the sudden the faucet turns on, spraying water everywhere. I had forgotten to turn it off when I checked a few moments prior and it was startling the grasshoppers. It was sort of like that Jackass skit when one of those idiots dresses like a mouse and rolls around in a room full of mousetraps. One cricket set off another, who set off another, who set off another. Suddenly I had close to twenty jumping crickets bouncing off my legs. Luckily I kept my cool. I quickly finished my shower and got the hell out of there, having thoroughly shaken out all of my clothing before getting dressed. I’m realizing that I will have nerves of steel by the time I get home.

Come to think of it, I don’t really feel like writing about the caste system right now. I think I’ll leave that to another time. Let’s talk about food!

I’ve had a lot of questions about the food here and I don’t think I’ve really taken any time to answer. Yes, the food is excellent, for the most part. When I first arrived I was operating under the assumption that all of the food here would be amazing and delicious and even more amazing. That idea lasted for about two weeks, when I had the unfortunate experience of nearly gagging on mango sabji. Since then I’ve had to eat some other less than delicious Indian food, but I’d say on average the food is pretty darn good.

That being said, I had to put myself on a diet. In the first few days at Gram Chetna I was stuffing myself at every meal. We are only served two official meals a day, breakfast and dinner. Breakfast is served anywhere between 9 am and 11 am, and dinner is served at around 9:00 pm. When I first got here I would eat as much as I could, to the point where I was in pain, for both breakfast and dinner. About two weeks into my stay I felt like I was becoming a fatty, so I imposed a two chapatti rule. I gained a lot of weight in Kenya and I didn’t want the same to happen in India. The two chapatti rule means I can have a regular sized portion of daal or sabji, but I can only eat two chapattis with it. So far it seems to be working. But I’m also taking daily hour-long bike rides. So who really knows what’s doing what.

I also thought I should explain the meaning of some of the words I am using. They’ve become part of my daily vocabulary and I don’t even think to tell you all what they mean. First, chai is tea made is milk and it’s delicious. Well, it has a little bit of water mixed in, but it’s mostly milk. It is also loaded with sugar, so in a way it’s more like candy than tea. It’s one of the things I am going to truly miss when I get home. As for daal, it’s a lentil soup type dish. You can eat it over rice or scooped up with some chapatti bread. Sabji is a general term for any sort of sautéed or stewed vegetable dish. Chapatti is circular flat bread with an approximate 5 inch diameter. Oh, and two rules here is that food must all be vegetarian and no alcohol. But apparently the latter is merely a suggestion because we had beer to celebrate Canada Day.

And Govinda is coming back today! He normally works seven days a week, 24 hours a day, so every six weeks he gets time off to visit his family and relax. This time he was going to a family wedding as well, so he’s been gone for more than two weeks. I can’t say he doesn’t deserve the time off, but when he left he took the joy of this place with him. In his absence we have Lala, who isn’t nearly as good of a cook or as friendly. But allegedly Govinda is coming back today… we’ll see if that actually happens. He’s been coming back “tomorrow” for the last seven days.

Ok, that’s all! Love ya!

MCC