Tuesday, Mar 3rd, Wayanad, India

Greetings!

Today's agenda included a bamboo craft cooperative, forest farm, kindergarten, home cooking demonstration and lunch, tribal music village, and a temple.  I'm still trying to delete extra photos.  At the Uravu Indigenous Science and Technology Study Center.  A nonprofit which has assisted a hundred family artisans to train 5,000 others in products using 50 bamboos species.  Mats from looms to cell phone sound amplifiers, these villagers are finding every possible use for a resource they have plenty.  They have fewer, and our luggage is a little heavier.

The farm family we visited are an example of many in Kerala.  Educated professionals, as many are in the state, they have chosen to make self-sufficiency and wholesale distribution of their farm products a complement to their application of other professional skills.  The variety of cooking and medicinal herbs, seeds, fruit, and nuts grown on their three acres astounded us.  We even got were able to see their large koi and other tropical fish they were raising, just before one of our hosts left to teach fish hatchery practices.

Kerala is well known for having one of the  highest literacy rates in the world, and a centerpiece is their decision long ago to support a school system starting at three years of age, with breakfast, lunch, and health care included.  We stopped by just as most of the staff were fetching lunch, and they really weren't prepared to host two foreigners.

Our next stop was a family who shared their home to provide their garden ingredients, hospitality, instruction, and a great meal with us.  Be sure to watch this mother and son team create a deeply inspiring set of dishes that were one of the best lunches we've had.

Next, we visited a Paniyar village   Brought by a 3rd century AD Malabar king from the mountainous region to the north east, this hunter-gatherer tribe has remained outside of the greater Indian society until recently.  We were treated to several musical ceremonies on drums and flutes they had made.

Finally, we visited the Maniyan Kottappan Temple in Kalpetta during a break in a festival being held there.  The temple design illustrated clearly the blending of Buddhist and Hindu designs into a unique Kerala style.


To see all 198 of the photos taken today, click on: Tuesday, Mar 3rd, Wayanad, India.