On the Street in Vapi

For the last month or two, freshly prepared "wafers" (we would call them "chips") are all the rage in Vapi. The veggies are cut, fried, and seasoned each day.

Frying the banana wafers.

Adding masala and packaging the wafers. The bags get sealed by melting the bag opening together on the side of the cooking wok. Note the green bananas in the background.

And while I'm on the topic of green bananas, a few bungalows have their own banana tree.

On to other topics:

Water jugs at the Jain temple in town. The porous terra cotta jugs keep the water cool. Indians can pour water directly into their mouths from a cup or bottle without touching their lips to the cup/bottle. I've tried, but all I get is a shower!

The yellow-flowering trees (see previous post) cover the ground with their flowers.

Our secretive neighborhood cat hanging out on the roof of our neighbor's carport.

These sure look like geese to me, but my bird book doesn't have any summer-resident geese in this area, and it seems a bit late for migration.

The photo below is the reason you should not include any plastic in your recycled paper. (Please don't use a plastic bag to wrap your newspapers when you recycle them!) This mountain of plastic trash comes from another paper mill in Vapi -- it's what's been removed from corrugated cartons and other recyclable paper before it is pulped to make new paper. It's just across the "canal" from MWV's mill, and it's the view from Lon's office.

 The man at the top is hosing down the pile hoping to keep it from catching fire ...

… which it did in June 2014.