Wildlife, Mississippi and smiling kids

April 19, 2016

 So far we have seen cows, camels and elephants on the city streets in this very large city.

 Today I had nothing on my schedule, so I spent the morning in our room, catching up on email, watching BBC News and reading the paper. I ate leftovers from last night in our room and decided to go out for an Americano and take the camera with me. I went to Mississippi, my fave place to eat and for espresso. It has the coolest décor, particularly for India. The interior has pressed metal floors and m walls as well as the counter and ceiling over the kitchen area.  On the side walls are numerous round framed logos and photos from rock groups mostly from the 60’s-80’s. Maybe I am just reminiscing and thinking back to that time in my life.

I took some photos; one of a man hauling a refrigerator on the back of his bicyclUS is notorious for fattening cows using corn which they cannot digest so large agribusiness farms keep vets on staff to keep the cows alive with medications and antibiotics due to the acid created in the stomach from eating corn instead of grass.

e and  some of cows on the busy streets and stopped to watch a hungry cow nose through a smoldering ash pile for any morsel of food. It is pretty darn sad to see this. Most cows here are not owned from what we have been told so they depend of the kindness of the community to feed them. Let me tell you, poor people can’t feed themselves much less can they feed stray cows which are viewed as a sacred animal, the mother of all civilization. Cows have evolved to eat grass, not leftover fast food and rice which is often what I see them eating. The

 

But I digress…I then strolled down the lane where the kids swarmed us on Sunday. Same kids showed up today and let me take their photos. They all talked at once, calling me ‘Auntie’, asking where I was from, and asking me to take a photo first with this friend and then that friend. What fun! What beauty and innocence. It made my day. They pleaded with me to return tomorrow. Hopefully I can find a place to print photos and will take them copies to have at home.

Today we got word that we will sign the lease papers on Wednesday and can move in on Thursday. I will NOT count on it thus saving myself another false move date. If it happens I will be thrilled and if not…’it’s not the end’ according to Ron’s new mantra. Over all life is good. Our temps this week will range from 106-107. I got really hot today as I stood out in the sun with the kids for quite a while, talking, asking and answering questions. I know one phrase in Gujarati that is a greeting. When I said it they howled they were so shocked and happy to hear me speak their language.

We just found out one of the people from CEPT who needs to be present to sign the papers cannot be there tomorrow. And so it goes….