Jodhpur Village Treks

This morning we signed up for a 5 hour trek through a bunch of rural small villages outside of Jodhpur. Our guide, Deepak, grew up in a small village and was really knowledgeable showing us around and he spoke great english so that was a plus! We visited 6 different homes throughout different villages to see how rural India lives. We went to the house of a potter who works with his sons to make water pots, a family cooperative that are weavers of rugs, a family farm (the ladies of the family dressed Sue up in the full dress and costume that the married women wear), a group of family's that live off the land and grow and farm just to survive, and a UNICEF funded lunch program/educational center for some of the poorest children.

Learning to weave!

2 weird experiences on this foray into India!

The first was as we were driving down a quiet rural highway and we see something colourful off in the distance...as we get closer we see a small child, maybe11-13 months old, sitting all alone smack in the middle of the road. We stop and I ask where his mother is and the guide looks around and guesses somewhere working in the fields...but seriously, I know children here are left to fend for themselves with more independence that North American children but really...who leaves a little baby, not even old enough to walk, in the middle of the road?? Totally ignoring the chance of being hit by a car there are wild dogs everywhere whom it would be helpless against. We leave the baby behind and drive up about a mile of 2 ahead to see a woman running down the road asking our driver if we had seen her baby. He reminded her of where she had left him and she ran on back down the road. How weird is that? Who loses a baby??!!!

The second strange experience was when I had to pee in front of an audience. A large curious audience! About 4.5 hours into our adventure the pot of chai tea I had for breakfast caught up with me and I had to go NOW! I asked the guide, when we stopped at the UNICEF house, where I could use a bathroom. He beckoned the lady who was running the program to show me so she, along with the entire school house of children..10+ kids following closely behind took me out back to a field behind the house and pointed to the ground... then they all proceeded to stand about 4 feet from me and watch intently and giggle while I peed. Very weird.