village house

My rickshaw driver took me to his village in the hills to visit his family.

Village street

He said it was his uncle’s house, but he introduced the man’s wife as his sister, so perhaps he just didn’t know the word for brother-in-law. I remembered from the muslim wedding that names of family members seemed to be interchangeable – one minute someone was a brother and the next an uncle.

The village was on the side of a hill, with rows of block built terrace houses with corrugated iron roofs. The village street was of swept earth.  Women put out washing and children played. There was a chicken with 6 tiny chicks pecking in the dirt.

Halfway down the first row of houses we came to the house we were visiting. We went inside and the couple greeted us with nods and smiles. They didn’t speak any English, so the rickshaw driver interpreted.

The people who lived in the house

There was a small entrance porch and then we were straight in the front room.  It was all very clean and tidy. There were two double beds, a sideboard display cabinet, a table and 1 chair. I was to sit in the chair while tea was made. There were cheery posters on the walls. Rugs covered the concrete floor. There was electric lighting.

Front room

 

The ceiling was covered in shiny patterned paper.

Ceiling paper



I was brought a cup of tea and a bowl of snacks. While I drank my tea they took a picture of the sideboard and showed me a picture of their two girls. They were dressed in matching school uniforms and looked to be about 12 and 14 years old. The man worked as the school bus driver and his wife picked tea. They were not working that day because of the Onam festival.

I was able to take a look around the rest of the house. Behind the front room was the kitchen. There was a bottle of gas for cooking.

The kitchen

Behind the kitchen was an attached shed made of wooden struts and sacking. It had a channel cut into the earth floor with water flowing. There was also a pipe and a tap for water. Tools and various things were stacked neatly on shelves in one corner.

The shed

A door in the back of the shed led to a small outside area cut into the hillside.

As we left and said goodbye the rickshaw driver gave them some money – presumably from my fare to him.

At the top of the village there was a hindu temple and a Christian church on the opposite side of the road. The ricksaw driver said that about half of the people who live in the village are Hindu and the other half Christian.

Temple and church