Today was an interesting day. We visited a village. Originally I thought we were going to a village where a medical clinic was being held and that we would talk with the villagers about their everyday lives. Not so much. It was still very interesting. Early this morning we picked up our guides from the NGO (non-government organization). They took us to the village where we were greeted by what seemed like an entire village. They gave us each a rose as we got off of the bus. We then went to go sit under a tent for a welcoming ceremony. Bandwidth permitting I may be able to upload some video of this. The whole thing was in another language, and I didn't have a full understanding of what was going on. Nevertheless it was another situation where we felt like celebrities. Later on the bus Vikas told us that they do that so that people (women in particular) can get medical care. Generally if a woman is sick in a village and she has chores she is expected to stay home and do chores, not go to the medical camp. By adding the ceremony they can ensure that more people will come. They found 10 women that needed to be hospitalized before we left. After the ceremony we walked around the village. We were escorted by a woman from the NGO. We were able to ask a lot of questions. She answered a lot of them, or translated answers directly from the villagers. The village was really a lot bigger than I thought it would be - 400 homes, 1800 residents. On average each household has a cell phone and many also have computers and satellite television. It's wild. The children there were wonderful. They were so excited to see us and wanted to take pictures. I even have a video of them running in a race with Jason. After our tour we sat down again under the tent and drank coconut water directly from coconuts. It's really good. I don't know how to explain the taste, it's like water, but sweet, but then not..

We went to another village after this. We went to a house where they take care of mentally challenged people and orphaned children or single parent children who have given them up. We saw the most precocious child I have ever seen in my life. I have a lot of videos of him as well as others singing, saying their alphabets, and counting. Again, bandwidth permitting I will put some of them up. After that we came back to our apartments set our bags down and set off for a free evening and shopping.

We split into groups and rode in auto rickshaws to downtown Bangalore to Kaveri Emporium. They sell things that are not really available in North India where we'll be for the rest of the trip, so needed to get some things now. I haven't really bought much up until this point. I got several things, I won't be posting about them here because I'd hate to ruin any one's belated Christmas gift. Just know, we had a very good time shopping. We had dinner at KFC. I don't think I've ever been so happy to eat at KFC. It's probably the best meal I've had since I've been here. I had a 3 piece chicken strip meal. The strips were different from home - spicy like everything else around here, but they were good. We rode back to the apartments in another auto rickshaw. I plan on copying over pictures and videos from today and then going to bed. Tomorrow we head to the orphanage. I'm really looking forward to it based on today's experiences.