Pics from Kale's trip to a student's house, his little buddy Abhey (in the red)
This is another student that walked with them, Divea
Ahbey in the red vest in front - Kale and him are buddies now. He invited Kale to his house twice to meet his family and have tea and cookies.
Our last update was posted while we were still in Satyon volunteering for Town School. A lot has happened since then! For one, we purchased a small building in St. Francis, Kansas, which we will be converting into a new motorcycle shop as well as a small loft once we return to the states. We will be living there for around six months out of the year, and we will live in Arizona for the other six months. Obviously we had to put a chunk of our savings down on this building, so to offset the cost of our trip around the world, we decided to postpone our six-week yoga intensive and expedite our journey. We will probably be home in January or early February now.
Also after our last post, I became extremely clogged with mucous and phlegm, AND my diarrhea came back with a vengeance. The amazingly stunning and minimally-developed environment of Satyon quickly became the bane of my existence while I was sick. Having to bundle up every time I had to use the bathroom, and sometimes barely making it to the toilet was enough to make me crazy. Furthermore, running out of toilet paper was a nightmare because NO ONE in the village sells it! They sell handkerchiefs. Dealing with freezing temperatures on top of outdoor bathrooms and diarrhea was not ideal, and I just wanted to leave to a warmer climate. After a week of recovering and resting in the village we decided it was time to move on. We said our good-byes to the kids, our fellow volunteer, Pauline and our gracious hosts Pooja and Manish, and set off for Rishikesh, the birthplace of yoga.
On our first day here in Rishikesh, after checking into an ashram, and unpacking we decided to take a walk to get to know the area. There are vendors everywhere lining the streets selling fruits, vegetables, peanuts, hashish, cheap jewelry, flowers and religious symbols. We decided to purchase some freshly roasted peanuts as a snack while exploring the lay of the land. This is how the first mugging transpired. We were walking up a winding paved footpath, which was crowded with sadhus, vendors and tourists when a hand latched onto Kale’s arm, and then grabbed his t-shirt. The assailant was three-feet tall, and full of hair. He stared at Kale and then stared at the bag of peanuts in Kale’s possession, and waited for Kale’s next move. Either Kale could forfeit the peanuts to the monkey, or fight for what was rightfully his… the monkey won that battle. He got Kale’s sack of nuts(peanuts)
The second assault on us took place on the main street along the Ganges river. We had just purchased a selection of fruits and veggies and were walking back to the room. The fruit was in a clear plastic bag, which makes it easy for the thieving monkeys to see. As we walked along, out of nowhere a monkey appears right in front of us, and approached Kale very quickly and swatted the bag out of his hand, also tearing the bag open. Then the contents scattered all over the ground, he had his pick of anything he wanted. It was a buffet of choices; he grabbed what he could carry and ran off laughing at us. :)
Also this same day, a small calf decided to head butt me in the thigh as we entered a corner shop. So far we both have been bruised on our thighs, Kale from the camel, and me from the calf. I slapped the calf on the ass after it hit me and called him a jerk. I don’t think he cared! LOL It was probably just a love tap anyway. He was saying to me, “Hey, dude! Thanks for not eating me or stealing my mom’s milk!”
ALSO - A word about burning trash…DON’T!!!!
Soooo – here we are in Rishikesh, which was supposed to be our home for the next six weeks while we completed our yoga intensive. However, after the purchase of this building in Kansas, as well as almost four months of travel in India, we have decided it is time to move on. We are now Nepal-bound. We will keep ya’ll posted along the way:) Peace, love and happy trails!
View from our room at the ashram
We found tasty Iranian palm dates...
Morning line up outside the ashram cantina, right before this pic was taken, there were monkeys lining the opposite wall on the left. It was a funny sight.
Here we captured a perp in the act, trying to steal our fruit and assault us again :)
Feed me, I'm bored
That's a big Buddha
Shanty village along a dry river bed
Happy pigs in trash and shit, the axiom is true...
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