You knew it was coming....

An ode to food. Let it be said that South Indian food is pretty fantastic. Here are some pictures to prove it: Chilies and lentils drying at my house; idli (rice cakes) and coconut chuntney; and brinjal being sorted.

I also particularly love dosas which are rice/lentil creations poured into a thin batter and fried. They are very similar in composition to Ethiopian injera, and eating them makes me feel right at home. My family, because they are Hindu, eat primarily vegetarian food. But today is a holiday, so we had chicken curry for lunch. Excellent and very spicy!!

I am still helping to pick brinjal and occasionally following Kandasamy on business and other friends around town. I am learning a lot about his organization A.C.T.-- Ambiha(sp?) Charitable Trust-- of which he is a director. So far they've provided free medical care for the community (the eye camp is an example) some AIDS education, organic farming, support for an orphanage and I'm not sure what else. Kandasamy hopes to get foreign funding to start an caring facility for "orphaned" elderly people. I am not really sure how all of this is accomplished largely by one person. Pretty impressive.

Okay, more pictures. First, is Ajith a neighbor boy and close friend to the family posing for the camera. Second, a bunch of neighborhood kids in front of the town's temple. Last, the views of my town from the town's water tower. I climbed all the way up the ladder barefoot (ouch!) and attracted some attention and suppressed laughter, if you can imagine.