Getting Acclimated

We went on our first visit to the villages!! It was such an eye opening experience. Villagers were so friendly and welcoming.  Language barrier be damned, we had great conversations with them! Some gave us a tour of their homes while others told us about their children levying the village in order to travel to school in Pune.

It was amazing for me to see that no matter what they had or did not have they were happy and they expressed it. They lived their lives in a manner necessary to maintain a good productive lifestyle. The women were constantly working. To my surprise, although they lived in a poor village some homes had a satellite dish and TV!

The school children were so jovial! They are apparently used to receiving visitors. They harassed us for a "foto" and wanted to examine each picture afterwards. Surprisingly, some of the children were familiar with some English words. Hopefully, with the help of our daily language class, I will soon be able to carry on basic conversation in Marathi.

While I'm still getting acquainted with my surroundings, I took a walk into town yesterday to buy some fabric. A tailor is supposed to take our measurements to make my saree/sari.

It was sort of like and organized mess (reminded me of my closet lol)!! A swarm of blue and white children's uniforms running around and screaming since school had just let out. The cacophony also included honking cars,  motorcycles, mopeds, and the three wheeled cars. Where ever the merchants found space they set up shop for their goods. This is where it gets organized. The fruit merchants were together, bracelets and saris in one area and if needed you could still go into the little shops on each side of the street. We went into this three to four story building. It had a large variety of fabric, saris, and other items of clothing. Each floor was totally saturated with workers or people were just spending their day there. A group of us arrived at a messy counter and had the employees pull out every type of fabric they had - all different colors and patterns. We sensed they were getting a bit overwhelmed and inpatient when we couldn't make up our minds. So it goes... this is the market! It's just what you do - search for the best product for the best price! Another floor above carried and sold saris. We had to remove our shoes since there were mats arranged everywhere. You remove your shoes and basically sit with the merchant of your choice while he/she surrounds you with all these beautiful patterns and colors. The choices are so overwhelming! Side note: Lol, I'm so thankful for bringing a pumus stone! I can't count how many times we have to remove our shoes to walk into a room!

Walking back we stopped and purchased some mangoes to possibly make some shakes. On the walk, I located an eyebrow threading place! This is my top discoveries for the day! When it comes to my eye brows, I have placed my trust in one lady for the last 14 years. Yes, I confess, there have been in between but the results have always ben the same - dissatisfaction and frustration. I'm in INDIA!! So I'm seriously considering getting my eyebrows threaded while I'm here. Live a little. Why not?!? I'll keep you posted.