They taught me so much. I felt truly at home. Click on Ganesha for photos. The South Indian diet is heavily dependent on cooked vegetables, rice and lentils the latter being a primary source of protein prepared in an almost infinite variety of ways. Pure vegetarians are not very common, but preparations including chicken, eggs and fish are usually used more as side dishes than main courses.
Host families boil drinking water, and bottled water is available outside the home.
Students are carefully instructed about precautions to take to ensure that their chances of becoming ill from food or drink are minimized. This is expected, and does not pose any long-term health threat. For anything more serious instances of which have been extremely rare among SITA participants high quality medical care is available through program-associated doctors. No student has ever missed out on any academic credit because of illness.