Heads up, this is almost exclusively a post about people.
Maybe I should clarify: this whole little trip is about people.
Its about connecting with people on a common level. If billions of people around the world wore a green shirt on Tuesday, then you really should go wear a green shirt on Tuesday and make a few connections.
Well, a billion people drink tea every single day around the world. Then, in the spirit of connecting with them, you should go drink tea.
We’re just going a little farther away to do it. This morning in Dibrugarh.
In a silk factory…
Spinning silk into thread… with a rigged bicycle.
.
Photographs in India has a certain look.
When the sun is in, the sky becomes a great big softbox like I’ve never seen before…
…and when the rains fall, those fat droplets. Warm and a pleasure to walk in.
.
Difficult to imagine. All that tea all over the world is something so simple.
Someone in England might drink tea infused from any one of these plants.
Slight shift in time now, a few hours later in Guwahati, India:
.
My favorite photo from the day:
.
Most everything you’re seeing is typical of India. All it takes is going.
Trains, planes and automobiles. And rickshaws.
.
But it wasn’t all fun and games today. We tasted tea. And… lots of it.
A significant part of tea is the grading and pricing system.
After yesterday’s post, you saw the tea get into the big bags. Somehow it gets to the customers… and that’s where the auction/brokering house comes in. With their own in-house tasters to remove all bias and favoritism, they taste 1200 varieties of tea – per day! – from plantations all over India.
So, the students tried their hand at it.
.
So the day ended there. Just a few more hours in Guwahati before heading on to the next stop.
And with light like this…
…you might just have to stay tuned to see what’s next.
-Noah D.
