Village Life

Another late start, 11.30 this time and oldies first again for breakfast. We managed to catch up a bit with the blog after various technical hitches but are well behind. Most people opted for the jeep safari and first stop was the dam. It was an old dam on a river bordering two states but a new one was being built which would also generate power for both states.


Next stop was a village where the people make money by growing tobacco and selling it but also making cigarettes using leaves to roll them in. A couple of the young smokers tried them and found them quite strong. By now the whole village was surrounding us and we all laughed at our group's attempts to make a cigarette. They are evidently just as bad for your health but much cheaper than commercial ones. We were told that no-one is allowed to sell cigarettes within two kilometres of a school. The village seemed much cleaner and we soon found out why. There was a little cart and the man in charge of it was paying for plastic by weight. The Government then pays him at a waste site. Next we met a man on a bicycle selling various trinkets, balloons etc. You could pay for the goods in rupees but some of the girls were trading bundles of hair which will go abroad to be made into wigs.


We heard children in a school and to our delight were invited in. It was lunch time and the children were getting their free lunch of rice and dhal, a way of enticing children to attend school. They were all eating up the whole lot with no complaints. Some pupils were receiving English lessons so it was a chance to test them on their knowledge. The head teacher was a very nice man and we were all made very welcome. After a brief visit to a ruined palace we finally met a hand potter and a few had a go, not with much success.

It was back to the hotel for a late lunch and collect a packed snack for the train, first a 3 hour bus ride then 12 hours overnight on the train to Varanasi. No one was looking forward to that part of the journey.