A bumpy ride to visit the Boshnoi

The day of our last trip out of Jodhpur dawned, as usual very hot, blue sky and noisy!  Early breakfast, early start.  I'm sure Mark said we were having a comfy 4x4!   A nice big Jeep.  Well we got the Jeep but it was an old battered open jeep (why wasn't I surprised?) and I either had to climb in or stay behind because the back was wired up.  Think old army jeep! We took off down the narrow bumpy alleyways at speed, kicking up the dust, no one moves out of the way, so forcing us to swerve to miss hitting them. The seats were amazingly quite comfortable But feet planted firmly on the floor to stop us being thrown about!  We bumped out of the city and took off up one of the main roads towards where ever we were going!  We had no idea. Mark had asked to go a village where no other tourists go.
So it was a bit surprising when we pulled up at a pottery!...
A pottery with goats!!

Me milking a beautiful well behaved Anglo Nubian goat!

Let me explain.  We had seen a lot of goats during the week and I had told the lads that I used to keep goats and they were impressed (I think) that I knew what they were called.  Actually.... I don't think they believed that I had actually kept goats.  So they sent Kishal off to ask if I could milk one without telling me!

I couldn't believe it when he came back with a silly little can to milk into. I used to use a big stainless steel bucket.  Oh well small can, frisky goat what could go wrong?  Actually nothing, it was like riding a bike!   I had never milked standing up but she was a dream, she didn't budge.  Fortunately she had been milked earlier so didn't have a huge udder to empty.

I filled a third of the can, (without spilling a drop) but had great difficulty straightening up!

I was thrilled to bits really, it had been about 27 years since I had last milked a goat.

It worked

I was very impressed by this.  The wheel is almost on the ground.  No electrics with this one.  It is very heavy. We were asked if we wanted to have a go and I would have but would have found it difficult to have got down that low!  Also the heavy wheel did spin at quite a pace and very close to the toes!  So we let Mark, who impressed us with making a presentable pot.

The potter gets the momentum by using the stick. Muscle power!  The difficult part for the uninitiated is to get the stick in the hole on the side!

The finished object

The little shop sold many different items but in the yard there were many pots and I was 

really interested in the kiln.  My husband's hobby was pottery and we had a wheel (electric) and a kiln.  He always planned on building an earth kiln in the garden.  Not quite sure how it would have heated up in this country, it was high 30's when we there and it gets much much hotter.  One day in May 2016 it was 53 degrees. He was interested in the scientific side as well and used to get me to bring the campfire ashes back from Guide camps. He used them to make glazes. 

Back into the jeep again. The roads around here were very bumpy but the countryside is quite green.  Suddenly the jeep stopped, the driver had seen the goat herders bringing their herds.  We pulled in and everyone jumped out in eagerness (except me, I was flagging! but I did get out and was quite glad I did. There were two herds coming through from where and to where we never did find out but they kicked up a lot of dust!

A little boy appeared quickly from the nearby village to get his photograph taken!

Jeep in the background... back down. Kishal had taken pity on me and asked the driver to unwire it.  He really looked after me and is such a considerate person.

So off we went again........a  short way down the road and we came upon another village. Immediately people were running from all over.  We decided to stop and were straight away asked for money by a young teenage lad.  Obviously they had had tourists there before.

I think he was told off by someone and we went in.

  

This was the only person who didn't come out to greet us........but he wasn't really shy, he wanted to pose for photographs as did all the boys, the girls didn't get a look in.  Few men around, I guess they were working in the fields.

This is he after getting to know us.

I climbed under a very low straw roof to get in here and I couldn't straighten up.  Wasn't quite sure what she was making but.....

it was these... and it was very hot and smokey in there.

  I planned on having my hands done like this but only saw one shabby kiosk in Delhi that       did this and tattoos. Given the language difference I didn't dare risk going in.  Although I 

 love tattoos and have been considering having one I didn't think this was the time and 

 place!

These boys posed themselves for this image!  How could I not take it. I've no idea where the baby appeared from.  I was, at the time, trying to take a photograph of a young girl but they just pushed themselves in. By that time I was just laughing and gave up and spent a happy five minutes teaching them how to do 'high fives'.  They thought it great fun.   Just as we were leaving a couple of older men turned up and money was exchanged!   Rightly so, they had allowed us into their homes and posed.......they deserved it.

More bumpy roads and we arrived at another Boshnoi settlement.  It was very quiet with most of the men again working in the fields.  We were invited in for a cup of chai and to take photographs of one of the tribesmen.  

The only other people we saw were these two women who were very reluctant to show us their faces.

They gathered up the straw and carried it on their heads to another part of the farm.

I had no idea what these things were but...................

this is the gear

                                           

and this is the machine needed to make drinkable opium.

                                   



                                       


In between drinking the opium and having a smoke he pulled his coloured turban apart and redid it.  The fabric was beautiful.  

So that was it. We left him there in a happy state and continued our journey. This time to lunch!  We arrived at our driver's house. A pretty large house with a lot of ground and beautiful horses.  We gathered he was the owner of a hire car business.  This was the feast that was prepared for us.  The hosts were kind enough to make me a separate non spicy lunch and they mistakenly thought I couldn't eat eat the Naan and Roti so made me some Dhebra made from millet. It was delicious.

The two lovely ladies who prepared our lunch.