After all of the running around we have been doing for the past two weeks, including temple and church visits, orphanage visits, and the beautiful mountain hiking, it was so nice to just sit and relax on a backwater boat tour this Thursday! We had just finished our second orphanage visit the day before and were all tired out!
Those kids, man oh man, do they tire you out. However those visits were adventures and heartwarming stories all in themselves. The Tabernacle orphanage will be the highlight of my year for sure, and an emotional experience that probably won't be topped for years to come! However, after these visits we need some down time and the boat ride was just a perfect fit.
Honestly the sections of Kerala we traveled through were some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen - there is no comparison. I have a picture below, but honestly pictures don't do justice,
even the functional components like fishing nets are gorgeous!
I also learned some valuable lessons on this boat ride, somewhat unfortunately. The boat was public and therefore we were sharing with other people, and the natives were disposing of their trash just off the roof of the boat, tossed overboard. Trash collection is one of the issues we have learned about on this trip, and while witnessing this I realized that it's not the system that need to be changed first, but its the mindset of the people, of all people really - once a litterbug always a litterbug unless the mindset is changed.
We can learn from the examples we saw in Kerala, we need to focus more on motivating people to do the recycling and reusing rather than just reiterating it! But overall the trip has been absolulty amazing and unforgettable, so sad we are leaving in just a few days!
Meg :)
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