Our first goodbyes

Saturday was a day off with no scheduled visits or journey to take. So we decided to sleep in and then decided what to do. About 10:30 the phone rang telling us that two gentleman from SMS were here to see us. So quickly dressing we went to meet them. Could we come to the office and Tanmaya would go over the options for the day. Apparently he had been trying to get us a tour of the aluminum factory and a spice processing plant in the area. Of course would come. So we headed over to the office for a short debrief. Turns out their was a death in a relocation village so visiting the Vedanta, the aluminum company was out and the spice processing plant just wasn't returning their call. So yes it would truly be a day off. We thought we might walk at least part way into town, which seemed to shock the team as they stated it was at least 3 or 4kms , please let our driver take us. We assured them we could walk. Then Tanmaya said if we weren't back in a while he would send the driver to fetch us. But how would he find us? We were the only two white people walking around town he laughed. But first we would share a coffee. We had been looking up how to say basic phrases in Hindi so that we could at least say thank you, yes, no and please so we thought we would try out our pronunciation on the team. They could understand most of what we were saying but laughed liked crazy once they figured out our last phrase was "where is the bathroom?". Apparently we didn't have that one quite right. They were totally impressed that we were trying! Then they wanted to know about the other Canadian language and did we speak it. Once we realized they we talking about french we tried to explain that while it was a national language of Canada only about 10% of the country speaks it. But could we teach them some? So here is two English speaking Canadians trying to teach five Hindu speaking Indians basic French. Hilarious!!!!!Then out for our walk. Apparently when it is 35 degrees it takes no or little time to work up a sweat. Really you would have thought I had just run 10 km about five minutes into the trek. Oh well what is a little sweat? We continued on, passing an outlet where they make Ganeshes. During mid September they have a 7 day celebration in honor of the Ganesh, the God representing the removal of obstacles. Continuing along it was time for a cool drink. Fanta for me and an Apply Jizz for Randy. The shop owner remembering us from the day before ran over to say hello. I thought how nice of him to remember us and then again realized of course he would. We are his only white patrons.lol...A few more blocks and it was time to head back. All of a sudden one of the SMS team was there to greet us. Did we want a ride? We could do but he was riding a motorcycle. A few seconds later all three of us were on the bike heading back to our hotel. Another first for us. Now I need to assure you we were safe. Only a few blocks to travel and we weren't moving very fast. On numerous occasions we have seem family.es of four or five all riding one bicycle or motorbike. It appears to be an acceptable mode of transportation.Back at the hotel we would rest until 6 pm when we wold meet with the guys to say goodbye to those not traveling with us on Sunday. Tanmaya shared his pictures of his trip to Canada a few years ago, we played some music and before long we were singing and dancing in celebration of our time together. Tanmaya said one of his favorite songs was "I want to change the world" by Johnny Reed. How very appropriate for this group of men that have made such a difference in the lives of so many women and their families, and our goal to be part of it. Truly an amazing, humble group of men that leave their families for 15 days at a time to work with the Subhalaxmi ltd women's cooperative.Tanmaya and one other would travel with us to Bhubaneswar on Sunday night but for the rest we need to say Au revoir ......