Kodak Moment

Every day is a Kodak moment here!

Intensely crowed traffic moment - all the time.
Just another cow walking the neighborhood.
Note the 3 women marching up the stairs with buckets of cement on their heads climbing to the top of the building.
Construction sites...



Couples dinner.
Note that one one construction site there are clothes hanging. People who were there also live there.
Note the chalk drawn Hindu symbols on the driveway. To warn off evil spirits and bless the house.

The dogs are so used to the intense sensory input that they just lie down where ever and people step over them.
Pictures of our main street at the end of the block and some of the small shops that we deal with.

Office Day

Hi all of you, Jack is off with the elders on a teaching appointment--his first. We were both asked to go, but the appointment they wanted for both of us fell through so they made a different one and just wanted Elder Ike, or Elder Guntu. He was told to tell everybody he was given an indian name yesterday at church because the members (we went to a different branch to let them know we were there to help them also) said we looked like New Dehli Indians and if we teased them and said we had an Indian name and were from up north they would have believed us! Plus they liked me because I looked like a senior sister that served there before and she was a New Dehli Indian! Anyway, so I'm stuck at the "office" until they get back cause I am not going to ride a rikshaw by myself! No way. It is too weird how I get stared at by everybody as it is, on the street walking, in the stores, and as the traffic passes by, and especially on the street by the office. We are by a girls primary school and they love to stop, stare, and grin at me. The mothers and grandmothers are not like that, they stop alright, but glare and talk about me. One little girl said, "HI AUNTIE" , and that is a sign of endearment to a stranger. It means they like you, even if they don't know you..so that was sweet.

Monsoon's

That red thing is my umbrella, riding to the church house. The monsoon rains hit and for once we were prepared and brought an umbrella. The driver showed me how to open it outside the auto and hang on tight to it to keep from getting wet. The drivers always get a kick out of me laughing over the rain and trying to get to us in the autos. I decided those 3 wheeled cars that just came out in the U.S.. are just auto rickshaws with all the sides enclosed!!!


This is our church building. Today at church we got assignments. Jack will shadow the Branch Presidency and give counsel as needed. I will do the same with the Relief Society. We also found out that our Branch President has his own company and basically he IS an Employment Center!!...he has ideas how we can help him and how he can help us. We are in charge of the Young Single Adult family home evening group on tuesday nights. Some of the young married couples attend too. We are starting to feel warm and fuzzy about our group.
This table of veggies is more than just a picture-it represents allot of work--1. I have to go shop for different items and different vendors. 2. We must soak them for 15 minutes in bleach water and then scrub them (it doesn't work to do this to bananas-the peel opens up). It takes several hours to do a small table top full of veggies, but they are pretty tasty once you get them chilled in the frig...especially the watermelon.
Here's our little propane stove!! Cooking on top is not too hard, but I used the oven once and it was scary trying to get it lit. My potatoes burnt on the bottom of the dish, the chicken was over cooked (the chicken was almost as tiny as a cornish game hen), and I haven't any idea what temperature the oven is at. Some sisters have a thermometer they keep in the oven, but since cooking isn't my thing anyway I will just experiment. I did make a yummy spaghetti that we ate for 3 days. I Found real American sharp cheddar cheese, that and my 6 oz. tiny jar of skippy peanut butter I use very sparingly. Found a Dollar store on Friday and the prices are better there and they have some extra American foods.