peanuts and potatoes...a day in the life

We started our day with breakfast cooked by our homestay families and it was delicious as per usual. At 9am, the group began our daily rehearsal/practice of the Yakshagana dance that we will be performing on March 14th. This was our third day of practice, and we finally started to get the hang of some difficult sections of the dance. After an intense dance session, we headed towards the peanut fields to harvest the town’s main crop.

Under the hot sun we understood what it meant to be a Heranjal peanut farmer, a profession of many adults in the town. We harvested many stacks of peanuts, and cleared around 20ft of the field. This is nothing in proportion to the size of the field and amount of peanuts. Johnny, as our resident nut-allergy representative, oversaw the project and motivated the rest of us to keep going. After peanut farming, we had the option to either help cook traditional Karnataka food or go swimming in the river nearby. Shreya and Ms. Clapps peeled potatoes while the rest of the group went for a refreshing swim.

After the swim, we watched and helped Krishna cook neerulli bhajiya (onion pakoda), a delicious fried snack. Following lunch with our homestays and a break, we headed back over to Krishna’s house to do various identity exploration activities. One in particular, we created fantastical creatures (blindfolded) related to the India program with a buddy. Some of the names of the creatures were Bish, Harenjalus Shoveleus, and Pablo Peacocko.

Written by Desi and Kai