More on India

We are still in Madikeri staying in a "homestay" where we are treated very well. Today Ana and I took a long walk before breakfast to a coffee estate owned by the sister of the woman who owns the home where we rent a room. Later, we went to visit the family of Padna, whom we had visited in Bangalore, and had lunch with them. Padna's niece is a physical therapist and we visited her clinic nearby. She also works in a government run hospital. She told us that there is free medical attention for India's poor as well as affirmative action programs to help the Dalits (the poor) get government jobs and into higher education. (I am not sure how this can work when the majority of the people are so poor and seemingly disadvantaged). She stated that opportunities for improvement exist but that in many cases people are not taking advantage of these opportunities. (Maybe they are not aware of them?) She also said that birth control was being promoted by the government and that the birth rate is now in decline, but its not declining fast enough.

Madikeri is a mountain town of about 50,000 people and quite a nice place that benefits from a nice climate, tourism (mostly people from Bangalore it seems), and the coffee production.

The food we have eaten here includes delicious sauces with mutton, pork, chicken or fish that can be eaten with chappaties. Also, lots of vegetarian curries that are good and for breakfast we have had a rice based kind of dumpling made with coconut and a donut-like fritter with a kind of chewy texture on the inside perhaps made from yucca. We were also served a delicious soup made from chick peas with a tomato base (sambar). We are enjoying the delicious coffee with milk and sugar. It seems to have a kind of caramel flavor to it.