The cyclone well over, and life returned to normalcy. So now the hammocks are out, and we can all enjoy the garden and the view of the ocean. The beech is just beyond the fence at the end of the garden, but as a lot of houses don't have toilets, people go outside - on the roadside, in a field, and the beach is a favoured place. If they need to go while they're out and about, they just sit down and cover themselves. So it's quite convenient with the floor length garments. A public convenience one might even say. For children it is not necessary to cover up, and you quickly get used to seeing men doing number one and children doing number two along the road. But thank god! Nobody is baring their shoulders in public!

During the windiest time, we all had to sit together on a table next to the kitchen when we ate. So we all got to know each other and have some good chats during mealtimes. The Canadians left and I ended up hanging out with two Spanish couples and a man from Italy. What a great crowd! Julio is learning English so his wife would continually correct him, and Andrea from Italy is a one man show with all his gesticulation. Hilarious! I was laughing at him and the others were laughing at the faces I made, straining to understand anything at all. The Spanish people obviously understands a lot of the Italian words, and he kept forgetting that I don't speak either. Well, we all agreed that the Indian people are very friendship.

We went to a temple dedicated to a fire goddess and Ganesh - the god with the elephant head. It was my first real excursion in India this time around, and I was happy to go with someone else. Once our taxi driver had driven us there, we wound our way through stalls and beggars to the place were we gave someone our shoes to keep while we were inside the temple. So we meandered - now barefoot - through the street towards the temple. I was a bit more aware of the state of the ground beneath us than a few moments ago. Maybe a good grounding exercise. The atmosphere was more quiet inside, even though there were a lot of people who had come here to worship. It was a large temple with a courtyard surrounded by several huge buildings, some of them completely covered with small statues. The backdrop of the green hills beyond it was amazing. On the floor in several places there were painted geometric shapes and floral patterns. In one spot we could watch while some people were working on restoring one that had faded away. I was walking around looking at everything and being looked at by everyone. Suddenly I stood face to face with Ganesha himself! I remembered having seen him on one of the travel programs I had watched back home while I was preparing for this trip. I didn't know it was this temple, and here I was. Check out the video of me being blessed by Ganesha. We moved into the more holy part of the temple, and waited in line to see statues and sacred flames and the priests giving the people's offerings to the gods. We were given some white powder to smear over our third eye, with the right hand off course! Oops, I forgot!

We had lunch were the locals eat, and though we didn't get our food served on banana leaves, it still felt authentic. I think in this particular place they give westerners plates. We had Maria's favourite - parantha - one of the Indian types of bread. It was served with some stuff to dip it in - so yummy! I did everything that stood in my power: washed my hands in the restaurant, even used some disinfectant stuff I carry in my bag because they had no soap, blessed the food, and most important of all - I didn't worry. Maybe it was the water, the food in the place I stay, just a natural reaction to a new environment. More than a week later I was still running to the bathroom, and not to powder my nose.

On our way home we stopped in a beautiful landscape, in Gingee. There was an old British fort on the top of a hill. It was really refreshing to see green grass and blue sky. All the dirt and dust of the city was far away. I breathed deeply for the first time in a while. We met several Indian couples and families taking their Sunday walk. See the picture of the beautiful baby with gold powder on her head. They made her blow a kiss when I asked if I could take a photo, and they were all excited about the picture.