Ahh Sunday! After having an adventurous day yesterday with Anoop it was nice to be able to sleep in and catch up on some rest. The day continued to get better when we were served dalia, which is basically like a sweet porridge, for breakfast. I surprisingly really like it despite my hatred for oatmeal. I’m not sure if I’m just in survival mode or if India has made me more adventurous because I have been trying all kinds of foods that I would have never tried back home!
This morning consisted of a lot of lounging around and roof-top sitting while waiting until it was time to venture out for the big event of the day. Today we were invited to eat lunch at THE Dr. Pathak’s house. Dr. Pathak is the founder of Sulabh Sanitation and Social Reform Movement. We have heard about him multiple times when visiting Sulabh so we were all really excited to meet him.
Every year for Maghi (the day after Lohri; aka the financial New Year) Dr. Pathak invites his family and friends to his house to celebrate with a home cooked meal. He kindly invited all of us to attend the celebration this year. Upon arriving we felt star struck as there were multiple people videotaping and photographing us walking in. The “paparazzi-like” feeling continued as we were seated around a table and continued to have photos taken of us while meeting members of Dr. Pathak’s family. Shortly after making introductions the food service began. We were served so many different types of food that I can’t remember all of the names. The main dish consisted of flat rice that was topped with home-made yogurt and coarse grain sugar. It was a nice change of pace from the spicy foods we have been eating but no Indian meal is complete without a little spice, therefore, we were all given a spicy green chile to try. All of the girls thought the pepper was way too hot and did not finish them but I was deemed the “spice queen” because I ate not 1 but 2 peppers! Our program director’s husband was quite impressed. After we were finished eating we gathered around for a group photo and Dr. Pathak graciously gave each one of us a signed copy of “Happy New Year 2018.” It was then time to say our goodbyes and make our way back home.
Once we got back home we had a lot of work to do. Tonight 5 other students are scheduled to arrive and stay in the apartment therefore instead of having to share a room with one random person we decided to switch from the 5 bed room to the 4 bed room. Doing all that work made us super hungry, for pizza. We decided to have a pizza party to celebrate our first week in India coming to a close. We went to bed on the early side tonight in order to prepare for all the great rotations we have planned for this week!
-Spice Queen (aka Lacey)
Dr. Pathak is the one in the golden yellow/orange vest!
Pizza party!
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