Happy May 24!

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Greetings from the sweltering south!

We have only 4 more days of training here in quaint Nettoor before we hit the road again and once more we will able to sleep in past 5:30a.m. !!! As a nice treat we were invited to a traditional Keralan lunch for a housewarming party. The party was thrown by our Guru's cousin and there were hundreds of guests. It was an open house but we decided not to tour through as we were feeling a little shy being the only foreigners and being stared at by everybody. The meal was the most traditional and delicious we have had in Kerala. It was served on an open banana leaf and dozens of servers were hurrying back and forth with several kinds of vegetarian delights scooping them out onto everyone's leaves as they zoomed by. There was unlimited rice, at least 10 kinds of veggie sides and 4 kinds of desserts. The whole event was quite busy but seemed to go off without a hitch and they managed to serve hundreds of people in 2 hours. For an all volunteer group they hustled better than many kitchen staff i have worked with.

Next on our itinerary is the monster... New Delhi. I am not looking to going. Aside from the music that blares from several mosques and temples near our house at 4:30 every morning it is not too oppressive here. Delhi is on schedule to get to Commonwealth Games this September so the whole city is getting an overhaul. We fortunately will not be around for the business and inflated prices of the games but that doesn't change how large, cramped and busy Delhi is.

The major upside is that a deep desire of mine shall be satisfied...SANDWICHES. Jenna and i LOVE sandwiches with all our hearts and souls. We have not had more than 3 sandwiches in this country and they were all pathetic and not worthy of their titles. The only place to get a good baguette or ciabatta loaf is in Delhi and they even have whole restaurants devoted to making the country's only real sandwiches. Two days ago a rickshaw drove by our window and awoke me from a dream... a wonderful dream where i was in a grocery store getting all the perfect toppings for a delicious giant sandwich. I had a cart loaded with all the fixin's : baguette, tomato, avacado, salami, mayonaise, hot sauce and i was just about to decide on which kind of cheese to finish it off with. Then the noise came in the window... some silly man yelling words i presume to be of religious scripture and being broadcast over a loudspeaker while driving around town. This is a daily occurrence and we are used to it... my dream of a perfect sandwich is not a daily occurrence. That man behind the loudspeaker is lucky i do not know his identity; he ruined my dream and my day

So if it means a voyage into hades to get what i desire that is where we shall voyage. All trains lead to Delhi anyways and if we want to go northward to Kashmir we need to go to Delhi.

Evening class is soon and we'd best be off to rest and stretch,
Go eat a delicious sandwich... for me... and because you can dammit
see you next chapter
Brian and Jenna

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Comments

[Chelsea]

Sounds like you kids are having a great time. Kalari training seems pretty interesting, maybe you will have some fun new tricks to share when you come back. Just wanted to let you guys know your staffs are being well taken care of, we took them out for some exercise by sunset on the roof of the gym last night. It was pretty awesome.

[beetboxer]

glad to hear the wood is warm
We have been doing daily staff training here and its totally different but lots of fun. We just started doing fencing with actual swords yesterday!! I already have a cut on my knuckle but we get to use swords!! Keep well and way the Dit da jow be with you!

[Dean]

Sandwiches
It's nice to break the "no bread" rule from the naturopath at times but I too miss what used to be a daily lunch sandwich. Perhaps it would be easier if there were not any bread around but the grocery stores are full of what passes for bread in this country. I doubt that there is anything that would make me happy about being in New Delhi. Hope the sandwiches meet your expectations!

[applecore]

sandwich faced
yer nuts. first, just to clarify, it takes quite a heroic appetite to dream of sandwiches and sandwich ingredient shopping, for which i commend you. I have actually seen Jenna's eye swell and glisten in conversation of such things. second -- this is the part where the world is too psychosynchronistic for comfort sometimes -- i only just read this entry. On the date you wrote it, however, I was indeed enjoying a sandwich, made of none other than the very aforementioned ingredients: tomato, avacado, ciabatta, ... there are witnesses and co-consumers of this event. Maybe you were really dreaming about wanting to feed me a delicious sandwich. Either way, thanks for the manifestation ; P It was well-directed.