Travels in Trichy: Village Pics

This is some kind of agricultural collection building from the government.

The building below is the meeting house for the local leader and anyone he invites in.

Compared to the local village leader's meeting hall above, the below building is a government meeting building.

Below is the party hall for weddings and other big events.

This is a banana tree farm. As you can see, many of the banana trees have been cut down. Banana trees only really last for a year before the wind or something else destroys them. Notice the baby banana trees growing next to tree. In the picture is Raja, our driver.

This is a banana tree that has been cut down. That tiny plant next to it is a small banana tree. It will be dug up and replanted.

Here are some reject bananas that were too small. The man is Ravi, the man in charge of social outreach at BHC.

This is the inner stem of the banana tree.

Here is the inner stem bent in half with the outer bark layers peeled off. When Raja twisted it, a bunch of water dripped out. We gnawed on this pulp. The juice is said to be good for kidney stones and other health problems. It tasted like watered down banana.

This is a baby cotton pod.

Here is a cotton field. If you couldn't tell, it was planted right over the dead banana trees.

This is a cotton plant close up.

Here is a banana surviver among the cotton.

Adult cotton pod.

Random cotton farmer out in the field.

Pano of the banana field.

More reject bananas. These were all over.

Here is math being taught at the local village elementary school.

As you can see, they learn English along with Tamil.

100 students crowded the entrance to the classroom. The followed us around everywhere.

This is the entire classroom, pretty small.

Here are many of the students. They were more excited to take a picture than we were.

They crowded the car and shouted "Bye! Bye! Bye!" like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. They were very cute. It was difficult to drive away. They would hardly budge, so Raja had to drive carefully.

A building in the lower caste area.

This is a traditional stove with burning materials seen on top.

This is a roof of a government sponsored building. If the citizen pays part of the cost, the government covers the other part. Roof access is necessary for clothing drying and because it is much cooler up at the roof level with the breeze.

Seen above and below, these are some coconuts being dried before making coconut products. They are not tasty in this stage.

Pano of the village!

Here are some old coconut tree shacks. They are being slowly taken apart by villagers who have the newer government houses to be used as fuel for cook-fires. Kerosene is too expensive, so most villagers cook over the fire stove. This is horrible for the air pollution problem, though, and everyone tells the villagers to use kerosene. It is just too expensive.

Government-supplied water.

A local temple area.

The god will kill anything evil it sees with that spear it holds. It protects the village at night.

Ravi's family temple.

Below is an empty rice paddy. The land is being given rest for a few months before the next crop will be planted. Where you see that child walking is an elevated path that holds the water in. It is surrounding by a mound on all sides to hold water.