Hi All,
This has to be short and sweet. We leave Hubli for Hyderabad in 15 minutes. An AC bus that leaves at 7 p.m.and gets in at 6 a.m. It's the way they travel here. I'm getting better at sleeping on the bus, this is our 4th overnight bus trip.
I am sending the picture of the ferry from the previous email. If the other three pictures load, you'll see how we spent our last two days. We were the International part of the International conference Violence Against Women. By the way, my info said I was from Germany! Chuck was from the US though. The first pix is Chuck with other dignitaries at the lighting ceremony. The woman lighting the candle is our host (and chair of the event), Shrimati Das.
Next is a picture of me in a sari. I was not happy about wearing one since I had read that foreigners look really funny in them. But Shrimati insisted and I wanted to make her happy. I wore it the second day and thrilled everyone. Even the men complimented my "ability" to wear it. Originally Shrimati said to wear my western clothes the first day since I was the third speaker that morning. Another example of Indian time...I ended up being the 7th speaker on the second day. She had 27 speakers scheduled over two days. Originally all were told to speak for 45 minutes, then she asked us to cut it to 20. Most did not. Poor Chuck was second to last on the second day. I think most people were too tired to listen any more, although his talk was more interesting and informative than most of the others.
The last pix is an example of the cast system. We thought these were girls serving us our meals and Chuck loved making them smile as we went through the line. Now I think they are probably young adults (one with a toddler). But lighter skinned and taller are revered (even commercials to lighten your skin) here, so smaller darker people do menial labor. At any rate, they loved Chuck and called me "auntie" and were absolutely thrilled to have their pix taken with Chuck.
All for now. Hope to tell you more on our next stop.
Love Jan and Charles
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