Today was another adventure! We started the morning with a delicious breakfast made by Achae Lal. He made parathas! Two of the students that have been with us this past week finished their program and headed back to the US. It is sad seeing people come and go! We spent the day with one of Lacey’s family friends, Anoop, at his work in Gurgaon where he presented us with our itinerary for our trip once we finish our rotation. He was so hospitable and extremely nice! He treated us to lunch at Golden Dragon where we tried Indian Chinese food. It was great! Lacey even ate lamb! We all tried the super spicy sauce and survived although this reinforced that I am the weakest link when it comes to spiciness tolerability! We learned about what Indians do when food is too spicy for them (which rarely happens it seems!). He recommended always having yogurt on the table and also salt. Now we know!
After lunch he took us to one of his organic farms out near the villages. On the drive there we saw children holding this cauldrons with something black inside. Anoop mentioned that Indians have a god for every day. Saturday’s god is black in color and the cauldrons have mustard oil in them to ward off the evil spirits. He explained that there are 67,000 gods (one for every city, state, etc.) and that they are all reincarnations of the same god.
When we arrived at the farm, it was a drastic difference between Delhi! There was a sense of calm and peace within the nature. There were different farms separated by a mountain. Anoop explained that the mountain separates the inorganic from the organic farms. So many crops were planted: mustard seed, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, peas. Across the road was a fruit farm as well with limes and lemons! It was special that we could be on the farm because today was the celebration of the harvest in India, called the Lohri festival. It is a winter crop season festival as well as a celebration of the end of winter and start of longer days. Traditionally, they have bonfires and peanuts and popcorn are thrown into the fire.
Mountain that separates the inorganic from organic farms
After visiting the organic farm we also drove to a dairy farm where there were pigs, cows, and goats. We saw a beautiful sunset on the farm before heading back to Gurgaon for dinner at Knight Rider in Cyber City. We met up with Nupur there and enjoyed lots of food and laughter before heading back to the apartment for the night!
Sunset at the dairy farm
Knight Rider Restaurant
Today’s Milestones:
- Lacey ate lamb!
- Lacey ate fish!
- We all ate some spicy food :)
-Alli