On Sunday, Janaki invited me to go to a local Badaga temple for a celebration with her, her daughter from Coonoor, and Jayanthi. As it turned out, I walked to the temple with Jayanthi, Shemi and Shriya (7). Janaki came much later. Here's a video of the festivities when we first arrived. We had a wonderful day. Shemi left fairly early, leaving Shriya with me.
In the video, you will notice that many of the people are in white, which is a traditional Badaga temple dress. Also, you will see a collection of bags and baskets which hold 'prasad' (food, flowers, incense, etc., brought for the puja; the food items will be blessed and brought back home). Each prasad package included a cocoanut which a priest broke open, emptied, and returned to each package. I gave my cocoanut to Jayanthi who grinds them outside the house on a grinding stone into chutney.
On our way home, we stopped at Jayanthi's brother-in-law's home where his wife fed me coffee, dosa and kuruma. When we left, she gave me a bag of fresh beans from that village's garden. They are very beutiful, so I took a picture of them today as I prepared to cook them.
Mariama showing me how to cook the beans. Yum.
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