A Busy Day...

An amazing day with four diverse activities:

1.       Visit to local market

We arrived at 8:30 so the wholesale customers were gone and only the locals were shopping.  It had fruits, vegetable, poultry, meat and fish. Across the street from the market was a Mosque that shared a wall with a Hindu Temple and on another corner was a Catholic Cathedral.  Religious tolerance is important in India to maintain balance.

2.       Micro Credit Meeting and site visits

We traveled on the main North/South Highway that goes throughout India.  (If we wanted to drive to Kashmir form Kerala, it would take 13 days.)  There were 100 women waiting for us under a blue tarp in a village about 30 miles from our hotel.  This group is part of the Grameem program and they are all on their second loans (average 8000 Rupees about $175.00).  The majority are weavers but about 25% have poultry, goats or cows.  They welcomed each of us with a flower and they were beautiful in their colorful saris.  They were all married and the age range was early 20-60’s.  After the meeting where our three interpreters were able to help us communicate and they provided refreshments, we started to visit their homes to see their businesses.  All homes had electricity and a few even had western bathrooms.  Their standard of living was higher than some of the Grameem clients I visited in Kenya and Costa Rica.  Between the 20 of us, we bought every sari and dhoti they had.  It is always an amazing experience to witness how these women have changed their lives.  Most of the husbands are supportive of their projects which makes it much easier.

Children of the cleints

I bought a Dohti loomed by this women

3.       Lunch at the beach

After three hours with the clients, we drove about 25 minutes to a restaurant on the beach in Kovalam.  It is part of one of the many Taj hotels.  The cool breezes were a welcome experience after being in the sun for three hours.  The food was delicious starting with the mixed juice cocktail we were greeted with.  The grounds were beautiful and we had a leisurely lunch before we headed back to Trivandrum to visit the temple and shop.

Fell in love with swing at the beach

4.        Trivandrum

We were not able to enter (only Hindu’s) the Padmanabhaswamy Temple dedicated to Vishnu. Legend has it the original construction was in 3000 BC and it took 4,000 masons, 6,000 labors and 100 elephants to complete it in six months.  It is also said to be one of the richest temples in the world with all the gold, and gems adorning it. We were not allowed to take pictures but I did take a few from the distance of the seven story intricately craved tower.

Was hoping to get a better shot but police nixed that

Last but not least, shopping and most of the women had Indian style clothes made that will be delivered to our hotel tomorrow night.  By the time we arrived back at the hotel around 7, we were all exhausted but pleased we had several amazing experiences.