Goodbye to Kovalam

On Saturday, August 26, we decided to walk through Kovalam one last time.  Here are a few of the sights. 

We passed this lady every morning.  She was selling fresh fish under the overpass as we got onto the bypass from Kovalam to the Technopark in Trivandrum.

We always looked to see if she was still there at the end of the day.  Some days she was still there.

This man is carrying milk on his bicycle. He would get it from the farmers and would ride to your house and then dip it out into whatever container. We watched him go house to house 

For us, we bought milk in plastic bags from the market.  It was still very fresh and we would get about a pint per bag. 

Our home is near Venganoor.  We turned left after leaving the Bypass.  If we turn right, we can go to the fishing village.

The road signs are in Malayalam and in English.  We lived on the border of Kovalam and Venganoor.

This is the last view of the fields across from our house. The women work crew had just cleaned out all the canals.

As we were walking, a scooter stopped and the guy took off his helmet  it was Amir(Shabna’s husband).  He recognized us and told us that his parents lived on the road we lived on.  He had just been there to check on them.  We were really starting to feel like locals who knew a few people and people knew us. 

Marshall is standing in front of the gate into the Thushara Villa, our home since July 15.

We packed up all of our 5 suitcases and said goodbye to the Thushara Villa on R.K.N. Road.  We decided to move to a resort for our final few days in India since Marshall's office was closed due to Onam.

Suki and Tutsi came to say good-bye.  Tutsi prepared some payasam for us.  We shared it with Shaji too.

From Left to Right:

Tutsi, Vivian, Chinnu, Marshall, Suki

Suki's real name is Sukeman.

Tutsi's name is Thulasi.

Chinnu's name is Rajeswari.  

I really bonded with Chinnu.  They told me her name was Yadi or Radi (first letter sounds the same) and I wasn't sure of her name.  One day she told me her full name but she preferred to be called by her nickname, Chinnu.  She spoke very little English so we used google translate.  She taught me a little Malayalam too.  She could easily say John and Maggie but she struggled with Marshall and Vivian.  I struggled with many of the names over there too.  

Tutsi told me that Chinnu was an orphan and grew up in a orphanage. This is a difficult childhood.   Chinnu told me that she had a sister.  She is married now and has 2 children.  When John came to visit, he brought t-shirts for her children (Minnie Mouse and Disney princesses for Shivanne  (age 7) and Spiderman for Sreeni (age 4).  She was so very thankful and told me these were the first gifts of Onam for her children. It’s a tradition to give some sort of clothing as part of Onam.  

She was very sweet and we really bonded.  She walked to the village market with me. She taught me how to chop jack fruit and taught me the name of things like lady fingers, which is okra to us.  I gave her all of the food and spices that I bought while there.  I gave her some of the Indian clothes that I bought.  She gave me a small gift as we left and said it was to remember her by. She and I both teared up as we said our good-bye.