A day at the beach

We had been promising the kids that we would go to the beach down at Mamallapuram for a few weekends so they could play in the ocean and swim at a resort there. So today we packed up and headed south. The kids had a fun time playing in the sand and ocean and so far no one has gotten sick so the water must have been fairly clean! While at the beach we saw something we never thought we would see while laying on the beach...a herd of cows. Yep, you read it right...cows! Just meandering along the surf were about 20 cows. Where they came from and where they were going who knows, I am sure they knew but they weren't telling. It was something once again you probably would only see in India! I am always amazed at the animals here or I mean everywhere. There are cows, goats and dogs all over this place! There were a few cows that decided to make a mad dash across a busy road and a motorbike almost hit him. There are a lot of vehicles that have cow catchers on the front with good reasons. If we ever hit one it is going in the freezer!

Swimming in the pool made us more eager for our pool. They filled it up with water Saturday night to test for leaks. The really interesting thing was they filled it up from our well...gulp! For those of you from Illinois, you realize what a feat this is. We were pretty concerned that we would have no water left. But I guess when you are this close to the sea and are at sea level water is not a concern plus monsoon season just ended. But while looking down at the well, which is about 5 ft in diameter and who knows how deep we discovered we have fish in our well. Of course my big question that made Bhaskar laugh was "where to those fish go to the bathroom?". I am sure they somehow get out and go in there little fish outhouse. I learned that people put fish in there well to keep the well clean. This open well which is no where near up to code by US standards but does have a metal grate over it, sunlight can still enter in causing algae to grow, thus the fish. It seems like a pretty good idea but just very strange. Fortunately we do not drink the water, we use bottled water for our drinking water.

When they were preparing the spot for the well pump they had to relocate a palm tree. It was neat to see them move it. I told Emily I planted a seed and watered it all day and look what grew! She almost took the bait but then realized in no way could that happen.