Day 4 - Thursday/Beerwar - The Village People

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Today was the first of three days of outdoor activities and trekking, near Kune, which is about hour away from Lonavala, where we're based. We had breakfast, jumped into our minibus, then headed off to the place where we'll be spending tonight. We arrived at our "bungalow", which was more of a villa with one large open plan room, a small bedroom downstairs, kitchen, and 2 rooms upstairs, with marble floors throughout. It was located on a plain along with maybe half a dozen other bungalows, and surrounded by lush green fields and mountains, looking beautiful now we're at the tail end of the monsoon season.

We unloaded our daysacks, then had some team-building activities in a nearby field, including
name volleyball - 2 teams stand opposite each other in a line, and shout the names of someone in the opposite team, who shouts the name of someone on theirs, who shouts a opposing tem members name etc.
pirates - 3 teams stand at the points of a triangle, with 5 water bottles in the middle. At the word go one member has to get 3 bottles back to their team, only carrying one at a time, stealing allowed. Great fun until Louise rugby tackles Situ for a bottle . . .
the knot puzzle - 2 teams have an end of a looong rope tied around the wrists of each member, with a simple knot in the middle. Untie the knot. A LOT harder than it sounds!

When we were suitably knackered, we took a walk to a nearby village. This was a great experience, all the kids came out to greet us, wanting their photos taken, and we were taken to one of the villagers' houses. We were shown round the place, including her shrine to Ganesha, the Hindu elephant god, and then had a Q&A session where we asked about village life. We had a try of a traditional granite hand mill, and although some of the people couldn't turn it, I was told I was using it too fast. Must have well honed wrist muscles. . . from all the typing I do, of course!

We had a wander around the village and then a short stroll through the nearby countryside, chatting with the guides, Methusa, Shrikahn (aka Shrek) and two others whose names I didn't catch. They all have great english and are very friendly. We then went back to the village and went to the temple for a prayer/chanting session. I jumped at the chance to hold the offering plate - this is a plate on which small pieces of camphor and brightly coloured incense powder are burnt, while the plate is waved in a circular motion in front of a statue of the god, in this instance Ganesha. While I'm holding and waving the plate, the villagers all chanted praises to all the Hindu gods, and one kept adding pieces of camphor to keep the plate burning. By the end, the plate was a bit warm to say the least, and my arms were aching, but it was a very surreal, humbling moment.

After the chanting, we went back to the villagers' house from before, where we were given dinner of curry, dhal (lentil broth), chapatis and bombay mix, and as it was her grandson's 6th birthday, he very sweetly brought us all a piece of his cake! How cute!

We then left the village and walked in the pouring rain abck to the cold, damp bungalow, where we drank hot sweet tea and played cards before going to bed for a much needed sleep!

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