Story time

Okay, here is fun adventure from Wednesday evening. That was the night that Ashley and I switched places so that I could come back to the village to do interviews the next morning…unfortunately the translator had to cancel that day. But anyway. Nate and I left the hospital at approx 7:30 that evening. The commute was terrible. We didn’t get to the village until around 11:00. We had to battle congested traffic, late busses, busses deciding to take half hour pit stops right before our stop, drunken bus drivers offering us rides and all such goodness. I was so glad that I wasn’t alone!

So we approached the house at around 11:00. Although in the past Mathew has claimed that he is always up until almost midnight, the darkened building and the sound of snoring from behind closed doors told otherwise. We crept up the veranda to our respective rooms and found that they were padlocked shut. We thought about it and decided we didn’t want to wake the family, and instead opted to spend the night on the veranda. After all, one slab of concrete is as good as any other, and Appa sleeps on the veranda on his cot beneath his mosquito net every night.

Appa has quite the set up. The shop is closed and tied up and Appa hangs up gunny sacks between pillars behind which he enjoys some privacy as he sleeps. Nate decided it would be wiser to be out of view by similarly being behind the extended cloth walls. So, from his spot near the wall in the middle of the veranda, he slowing and quietly began to scoot over. As soon as he went a few inches, and with hardly a discernable sound, Appa awoke and roared. He started to yell, and boy was it loud. I didn’t know that that man could generate that kind of volume. Nate immediately started trying to identify himself and turn off this human security alarm. “Appa, Appa, Appa. It’s Nate and Allison.” He kept yelling. “Appa, Appa, Appa.” Then there was silence for several seconds and we heard Appa’s sweet voice in an inquisitive tone say, “Hello?” He then sat up and shone his torch at us and all was well. It was hilarious! Appa is probably still laughing about it. He was when we left the next afternoon to head back into Coimbatore. It was a beautiful experience. Despite our protests, Appa then woke up Mathew who unlocked our rooms and I was back with my beloved mat. I miss that thing. Anyway, that was one of the adventures of this past week. I loved it.