We had been told we were done visiting but after dinner some more family friends came over then asked if we would visit their house, so in our new clothes, we were back to visiting. After the last visit Somiya applied a special dye, similar to Henna but lasts longer and is good for the body, to Courtney’s palms and then we finally went to sleep. In the morning we packed up, said our goodbyes and were off to Chennai with Arvind.
After a lovely 6 hour bumpy bus ride we arrived in the not-so-touristy city of Erode, where we would stay with Elango’s family for two nights. Elango is an Indian friend who studied with Courtney in Edmonton. One cold wintery day in Edmonton while Courtney and Elango chatted about India, Elango offered for us to visit his family if we made it to India. We said, "for sure!" and were very excited when the time had come! While we waited at the bus station for Elango’s “brother cousin” (male first cousin) Arvind, we noticed we were the only foreigners around, which obviously was exciting to the locals as they gathered around us. Eventually a friendly guy came up to us and introduced himself as Arvind. We walked to his car and drove the 30 minutes to Elgano’s parent's house. On arrival we were greeted by Elango’s mother, father, two aunts and his sister cousin Somiya. Arvind and Somiya were the only two who spoke English so they acted as our translators and guides for the next two days. We couldn’t believe that Arvind had travelled all the way (6 hour train) from Chennai the day before we arrived and Somiya had taken off school just so they could show us off… I mean around. We settled in to our own room where they had prepared us a bed and our own clean bathroom with a western toilet! We were instructed to shower and then we would prepare lunch. I (Courtney) had asked Elango if his family could teach me how to prepare some Indian dishes. So happily his mother and Aunts taught me how to make Vada, an onion spiced doughnut fried in oil. After the cooking lesson Somiya asked us to sit on the ground while she served us lunch. The first thing she brought out was a large green banana leaf. Then she scooped out rice, veg curries, a coconut based chutney, and a sweet for dessert. We then were shown how to properly mix the food by using only one hand to intensify the flavours. We took a bit of everything, placed it in a pile neatly at the center of the banana leaf and then mashed it all together into a fine paste by squeezing all the food in our palms and through our fingers. Once the food was well mixed we would scoop it up and eat it with the same hand (the right one). I found it a little difficult to get used to but I had a lot fun eating because hey, our mother always told us not to play with our food so this was a treat! After lunch we visited the family’s relatives and friends. At each house it was customary for them to serve us chai and some sort of sweet. We were already totally full but had to fit in several more chai’s and sweets before the day was up. We weren't omplaining, we love chai and sweets! Later in the evening we headed back to Elango’s family home and had Malasa dosa, a thin rice flour pancake stuffed with spiced potato served with dal and chutney. After dinner (10:00pm) Arvind and Somya took us to a Bollywood cinema where we watched a Masala film called Thuppakki . It’s called a Masala film as it had a mix of romance, comedy, singing, dancing, and action. The theater was retro and freezing with the air con blasting and fans circulating the cold air. The movie was entertaining but totally ridiculous at parts. It was a Tamil film with a few English lines thrown in to help us foreigners understand the plot. We had to fight falling asleep as we were completely wrecked from the long day of travelling and meeting every person in Erode. The next day we woke up early, washed up and went to their kitchen where Elango's Mom and Aunts were once again preparing food. Even after we explained we washed up we were asked to go back and take a full shower as we were heading to temple after breakfast. Once clean, Arvind dressed Andrew in a white shirt and a traditional white dhoti. The temple was situated 40 mins from the town up on a high hill with a great view of the surrounding area. Somiya was very excited as it was her first time visiting this particular temple, which she had been waiting to visit for along time. We really enjoyed learning about Hinduism, the gods and watching a prayer ceremony inside the temple. We also felt honored when Arvind and Somiya added us to their prayers in front of the Brahmin. After temple we headed back home. The women had spent the morning preparing us a delicious non-veg meal of chicken and mutton curry for lunch. It was fun chatting with the other family members who had come over for the special lunch and tasting local non-veg dishes. Somiya and the Aunts teased Courtney about not sucking every last bit of meat off the bones and picking through the curry. The truth was that Courtney had gone completely vegetarian while in India and found it very difficult to eat/digest all parts of the chicken. We felt like we were on a stage being watched while we ate, only we were sitting on the floor. While the men ate in the kitchen the women surrounded us and watched us eat then would giggle when we would miss our mouths and food would fall onto our laps. After everyone ate we were offered a leaf with calcium paste and a few red hard seeds. We rolled all three ingredients together then had to chew and swallow; this was supposed to help with the digesting of meat. The taste of this digestive product was overwhelming and hardly enjoyable. Once again the family got a kick out of watching their guests politely chew the leaf concoction and eventually Courtney had to spit the chewed leaf substance out. After lunch we got taken to visit more extended family members. Our favourite visit was to Elango’s cousins who farm. We loved visiting their farm, and playing with the animals. We then visited a sugar cane farm next door were we learnt about the cutting and processing of sugar and got to taste real raw sugar that had been made earlier that day. After the farm we visited more homes; everyone was very excited to meet us, feed us and take a snap of us in their home. They said they were honored we were in Erode and thrilled when we would patiently look through their children’s wedding albums. The wedding albums were from the 1940’s up to as recently as a few months ago; they also ranged in size, colour and extravagance! One cousin had 4 huge bound coloured albums for us to go through from the engagement to the wedding then to fun after wedding shots. Learning about the arranged wedding process was really enlightening; we also appreciated how everyone was so excited and happy to answer all of our questions. Once we were finished with the visits we picked up the aunts along the road and continued to a shop, which sold a huge variety of sarees and clothing of other types. To our surprise the family insisted they purchase us authentic India attire. When Courtney would try on the Salwar Kameez all the aunts would clap their hands in excitement then ask Andrew which one he preferred. Andrew politely turned down the offer for a Dhoti. After we were done in the saree store we went to another shop which sold men’s branded clothing. I (Courtney) then got to pick out a nice new outfit for Andrew. Again the aunts and uncles were so happy with the new purchases and that their foreigners were starting to fit in! We had been told we were done visiting but after dinner some more family friends came over then asked if we would visit their house, so in our new clothes, we were back to visiting. After the last visit Somiya applied a special dye, similar to Henna but lasts longer and is good for the body, to Courtney’s palms and then we finally went to sleep. In the morning we packed up, said our goodbyes and were off to Chennai with Arvind. Our time in Chennai was pretty uneventful except that we were attacked by bugs. Not sure if they were bed bugs but none the less we had bites everywhere! We switched hotels and treated ourselves to a 3 star hotel for the night in hopes of reducing our chances of being eaten alive! Once we had wifi and TV we only left the room to eat!
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