17th March - Cochin, India

Cochin, India is an important shipping port. This is not the largest city in India and definitely not the tourist attraction New Delhi is, but it was a very interesting place.  At first glance, I see that India doesn’t have it together like other Asian nations -- Singapore and other modern cities. It reminded us of Jamaica in many ways, a little behind the times in most ways.

 Weaving factory where these women are making bedsheets for an orphanage.

 Look at all the products the are made from coconuts - juice, oil, rope, soap and wine.

 This is the coconut press used to squeeze the oil from the coconut meat.  Wasn't really anxious to buy any of the oil after seeing the sanitary conditions of the factory.

 Our trip was to the outskirts of this city with 7+ million people. Lots of trash by the road side, lots of half finished buildings, little shanty stores, etc.

We did see some interesting cultural things - making of coconut oil, weaving, pottery making, and rice powder making. After the ladies pounded the outer chaff off and ground down the remaining pieces to the edible part of the rice, they would then put it into a square basket and shake the chaff away to be discarded.  I thought that this process of is like us, Christ gives us challenges, we are tested and pounded to get to the good stuff of ourselves and then it is so easy to discard the sins and imperfections.

India is mostly Hindu and Muslim, with 17% or so Christian (Catholic) . There is a war going on between Pakistan Muslims wanting to take over India. The immigration visas were difficult to obtain and the procedure for getting off the boat had to be face-to-face with immigration officials.

There are about 26 districts, like our states and 17 different languages spoken throughout India.  Hindi being the National language.

They use this machine and a woman holding a sack of coconut husk fibers to make rope.

 This was our boat and the fellow that was on the front as the motor.

One of the highlights of the trip was riding on a boat steered and powered by two men, one on the front and one in the rear, using long poles and pure muscle to propel the boat.  We toured Kerlaka Lake where people us the water for doing dishes, sewage, washing clothes, and harvesting mussels that are sold for calcium pills and cosmetics.