Our first real day in India - with our eyes open!! Today was so much better than yesterday. Jet lag was no fun. We went to the mission office on foot today. Just a few blocks from apartment. More passport photos had to be taken and lots of paperwork to register as foreigners. We still have to go to the local foreign register soon. The sights and sounds are extreme. The monsoon rains began last night. We had 2 blackouts without power on our first day. They need the rains desperately. The monsoons are fast and furious. We were fortunate we had just got back from the store carrying our things in plastic sacks when the rains hit hard. People hang up laundry here and when the rains come they just let it take longer to dry.
Today is much better. Yesterday, our first day was very frightening. The sensory input is extreme. With the roads, extreme congestion, torn up sidewalks, extreme noise, everything you can imagine. It was just like being back in Africa, Ghana, again. When the hustle and bustle slows down it sounds like a Tarzan movie with all the bird calls. We went on an early morning walk for exercise. Debby turned the corner and almost ran into a cow. You have to watch every step you take here and can't be looking up all the time. Deb is not fond of cows. The cow just mozied along like it owned the place-and it does.
We have been told not to leave things out at the church house because the local monkeys will come and steal thing out of a purse. You will never see it again. It is like the monkey 'Dexter' in Night at the Museum.
After business at mission we went shopping. That is a different experience. The refrigerator is very small so you have to shop almost daily. We were going to walk to the local bakery but the monsoons started.
We meet with the Seminary and Institute couple today. They are going to be our mentors. Shopping and getting Debby settled in the apartment is number one job for the time being. Tomorrow we will take our first motorized 'Rickshaw' ride. Can't wait. There are 75,000 of these things in Bangalore. They are everywhere. We will go to the church house where we will set up some kind of an employment office. It will take time. We are going to have a meeting with our Boss from Hong Kong in a few weeks. We have been told to just take it slow.
This was the night before we left. We got to see Ryan and Erin one last time. This was at the BYU creamery on 9th East just down from the MTC, we had some ice cream.
Debby is in front of the local fruit and vegetable shop where we will be buying things.
This is a typical road sign around here.
That's Jack up by our apartment on the second floor...Bangalore, India.
Elder E standing at our apartment door.
Here is the view from our apartment of the street below.
And look, even ING has an office in Bangalore!
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.
