Invitation to Kavitha's house

Today Kavitha, a colleague of Ellen's, invited us to her home. Ellen works at the Red Cross, and Kavitha and her good friend Pokodilla live in the house with Kavitha's family.

Since Kavitha is celebrating her engagement on Sunday and Ellen is leaving Chennai on Wednesday, there was a lively exchange of gifts. Ellen was given a rather large and kitschy doll that can spin around and play music. I won't dare to comment on the kitsch factor of the doll here, but in any case the gift came from the heart. Ellen gave everyone saris, which moved the recipients almost to tears.

Anyway, we were served a good dinner: chapati with a tomato sauce and a chocos sauce. Very tasty. The home-made food tasted much better than in a restaurant and a thousand times better than at work. It was just sooooo delicious. And the people were so incredibly nice!

The living conditions of the family, however, are more than poor by European standards. The family has two small rooms where all of life happens: sleeping, cooking, washing, and that with five people in less than 30 square metres. At the moment Kavitha's parents, her friend and her grandmother sleep in the bedroom. Nobody seems to sleep in the kitchen, and soon the husband will be joining them too…