namaskaaram india: playing catch up

i've had a bit of bloggers block lately and i apologize. i blame this one two main factors- one the challenge of fitting an entire vacation of adventures into a blog, and two- maybe more importantly, the stress of catching up with work and to-do lists following said vacation. to combine the two challenges i've decided to document my previous week of excitement in simple bullet format. furthermore, most of these activities are well documented via my camera- so i have included the links to all my pictures in this blog. apparently a picture is worth a thousands words so i figure that i'll save some of mine.

flickr- http://www.flickr.com/photos/saracorinne/
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friday- was a think tank session for the situational analysis of the HIV affected child in Kerala. this project has been kind of my baby as i've been seemingly working non-stop on it since my arrival here. about 40 key stakeholders attended the session and we presented our study and developed specific plans of actions for improving the quality of life for HIV affected children. i developed the presentation and documented the session and am in the process of completing a report which i will include later. all in all, a pretty powerful day, very encouraging for improving the current state for positives in Kerala.
saturday-was a large HIV convention here in ernakulam. about 4,000 people attended, including lots of positive networks, and about a thousand HIV positive children (pictures on flickr). attending the programmes for the children and playing with them was by far a highlight of the day. i would give you a more detailed report, however it was all in Malayalam. we did give our presentation again, and the day seemed to be a success- hopefully again improving the quality of life and decreasing stigma and discrimination against HIV/AIDS.
sunday/monday- vacation! we hoped a train and headed down south to kovalam beach- aka paradise. Some highlights of kovalam:

two words- one paradise- german bakery. glorious coffee and breakfast food and a staple of our vacation diet. or lack thereof. we were a bit excited to escape curry for the weekend and relished in foreign dishes like pasta and french toast- and lots of ice cream. who thought that overeating could be so amazing. newfound meaning of the phrase 'fat and happy.' and a stunning view over the indian ocean to top it off.
beach, beach, beach! for those that know me, you know my deep love for this. despite the challenge of finding beaches were it was appropriate to be in bathing suits and searching for spots that we could lay out and swim sans an audience armed with cameras and shooing away all of the vendors desperate to sell us anything ranging from pineapples to fabric- the beach time was well worth the search- the sun was out and the waves were high. perfect.
exploration- turns out my group is a rather adventurous one (which i love) so we spent a considerable amount of time exploring the beach, random paths, the tops of lighthouses, fishing villages, rocky beaches and wherever else our flip flops would take us- and some places they probably shouldn't have taken us. which always end up being the best experiences.
jessica's birthday- monday night. kingfishers in horse mugs- what could be better? apparently not having a liquor license is not a reason not to serve. jessica's birthday night served to be a memorable experience, complete with late night 'swimming' (i have a problem i realize) and a dance party...complete with discriminating videos (NOT to be included in any of my albums). a celebration done right and all in good fun.

tuesday- kanakumari. we decided that because we were already 4 hours closer, we would journey to the southern most tip of india. we accepted a ride from our hostel owner ani (who was quickly becoming our new friends, and even secured another invitation to a wedding) and got to stop and sight see along the way. it was a very full, but rather amazing day. the highlights:

Padmanabhapuram palace- built in 1601 and entirely wooden with endless corridors of intricately carved woodwork. it is in Tamil Nadu, but actually belongs to Kerala.
we stopped at a wildlife sanctuary and ended up climbing up a (very steep) mountain. our sweaty efforts were rewarding with the most breathtaking views of Tamil Nadu. well worth the energy.
we took a ferry and visited the Vivekananda rock memorial and a 133 foot statue of a Tumil saint-poet, Tiruvalluvar. Swami Vivekananda is a famous spiritual leader who introduced yoga to the US and England and our yoga instructor Chethana considers him to be her guru, so it was great learning more about him. the island is a great experience, including a mediation room where you sit and...mediate, obviously. it did not hurt that it was the most beautiful day imaginable.
we stopped by the Ghandi memorial and visited the place where his ashes were kept before immersion. such an inspirational man, and consequentially, place.
hindi temples- throughout the day we were able to visit 3 different temples. quite an experience. so much history and faith. we visited temples that were 4 and 5 thousand years old. our final temple of the day was the most extravagant and was the hanuman (monkey man) temple. again it was about 4,000 years old and felt like a vast maze of worship and tradition. no cameras were allowed in any of the temples and the experience is difficult to place into words but it was one of energy and enlightenment.

friday- after returning to work for one day only, friday was a holiday and the second independence day i've celebrated this year (actually, i didn't so much celebrate our independence day this year, so india's independence was a chance to redeem myself). jessica and i decided that this would be the day that we would buy sarees for upcoming weddings. we visited two overwhelming crowded fabric stores, drank an embarrassing amount of coffee while 'browsing' (you sit, they bring you sarees and you drink coffee while accepting or rejecting the fabric- something i could get used t0). we took a break after our first store, refueled with veg puffs, samosas and more coffee- iced this time, before walking to another store. we had much better luck and each ended up buying beautiful sarees! it was rather exciting, i immediately fell in love with the one i bought, a bright blue (of course) and deep purple saree with an extravagant gold border and paloo (the piece that hangs off your arm). cindy lou- get excited, you will love this fabric! we got fitted for the blouses monday afternoon and are all looking forward to wearing our sarees, and hoping that we can manage to wear them with as much grace as possible and avoid all embarrassing moments. fingers crossed.