Balmy Bhojpur

The next week for our day off we took a short trip to the another nearby town, called Bhojpur. This town is best known for the thousand year old, Bhojeshwar temple that houses one of the world's largest Shiva Linga. It stands proudly in the centre of the temple, 22 feet tall.

Scattered around the temple grounds were these huge, unfinished chunks of carved stone, that were intended to be part of another temple that was never built.

These were two boys who spoke very good English and were kind enough to show us around the temple grounds...and they didn't even ask for money!

There was also a small Jain temple next door so we decided to take a look. Here we found a much more realistic depiction of a lingam.

A shrine celebrating Frankshmi the god of dreadlocks!

It seemed to be a modernized version of a Jain temple since it was decorated with these odd coils and other apparatus.

Soothing Sanchi

On Sunday, after a week of working hard in the garden at Sambhavna, we headed to the nearby town of Sanchi for a relaxing day off, with two of the other volunteers, Alex and Laurent. 

Sanchi is famous for its ruins of various Buddist monuments and monasteries that were built by Emporer Ashoka hundreds of years ago. There were many beautiful carvings and landscapes to be appreciated there.

Let's play 'spot the white guy'

A Visit to Islamnagar

During our time volunteering in Bhopal, we were invited by Mukesh, one of the gardeners at Sambhavna, to go to his home in Islamnagar, 10km outside the city. Mukesh owns a 3-acre area of farmland, which he tends in addition to his full time job at the clinic. He also have five children, three girls and two boys.

A very interestingly designed rope swing.

Here's Mukesh with his adorable baby cow.

Here Mukesh is biting into a fresh beet that he has just plucked from his garden.

This is the kind of stove some people use to make chapatis and other Indian dishes.

Mukesh's house.

This is their living room/sleeping area for the five children.

This is fruit that I have never seen before in my life. It was green and crunchy, and you could the whole thing...kind of like a different version of an apple.

While in Islamnagar, Mukesh and Manmohan took us to see the ruins of a forified city, in which these two palaces still remain.

We managed to pick up an entourage of local kids...

Some palace residents...the Hanuman Langurs.