Sri Lanka

For those of you haven't given up hope on Elder and Sister Eichelberger's mission blog...I (Erin) am posting something new for them. I will try to be better at doing this, I promise. Lots has happened in the past five or so months, so I'm not going to try and play catch up...I'm just going to start where they are now. Before we get to the mission news....Nikki and Eric had their baby girl on February 26 at 1:34 am. She weighed 6lbs 6 oz and is 19 inches long. They named her Alivia Ashley...no pictures yet, but stay tuned. Now on to the mission. Here is a letter from Elder and Sister Eichelberger:

We have been working for a month trying to see if we can do a PEF loan for a young man from Ivory Coast who is studying in India--today was sooooo funny--i e-mailed his Bishop in IC for answers to some questions--i was soo excited to get a fast response--til i opened up the letter--it was in FRENCH!!!--duh! the youngman's native language is in french. but, i could decipher enough words that it appears the Bishop must have been able to read english as it seems he probably answered all my questions :) every day is an adventure. We had a wonderful pef committee meeting the other day with a General Authority from Hong Kong who listened to all the information we had to share about India and how the loans need to be changed to fit the requirments...he was really humble and we learned a lot and we are excited about the possibilities for pef.

Did i tell you about "our" elder giving me a costco size book of pancake mix for a present?? we finally have 4 elders back in our branch and living in our area, which means i cook for 4 again on sundays. yesterday, i made breakfast-pancakes-yes, i used the whole box-they were not going to stop eating until i stopped cooking!!!

Do you want to hear about Sri Lanka?? all senior couples left monday-came back sat. - for senior conference/vacation/rest-we stayed in the hilton hotel close to indian ocean (though you could only see it early early or late late-during day time it is closed to public because of security issues). This part of ocean is like oregon coast--too rough to play it, but pretty to see. Luckily, the hotel had nice swimming pool (only me and one other sister were brave enough to put on suits :)--but, it was soooo hot that i had too!). Found a great book, The Legacy, the history of Sri Lanka plus fictional character story line--it was very very good and i enjoyed learning about the places we were visiting. One day jack and i visited a large Buddist temple-feed a baby elephant, toured the temple, saw all the Budda statues including the world's smallest pure gold statue-maybe 1/8th inch tall, and an ancient necklace with very very large blue gem-it had been cut in half and one part given to queen elizabeth-the other part into necklace and the Sri L. president holds it for 14 minutes for good luck...then a monk put a holder of Budda's tooth on our heads and in some language gave us a blessing (or curse, who knows :)-and then put a string of color string on our wrist for good luck (or i think probably more like their way to "mark" who had been there!). anyway, it was very interesting to learn more of what i had been reading in the book. another day, all couples went by bus (if you can call the sandwich press a bus) 3 hours north to elephant rescue. started out by meeting some elephants, for picture taking as we petted them, then down to the river to watch them come down in a group to bath, it was scary one time when we did not know the men were bringing a few of them back up, and we were kind of in the way, then over to an area for riding the elephant..notice no saddle, just a thin blanket. It was way fun -and a little scary, but the elephant was barely walking!!--only us and one other couple chose to ride "down" to the river and let the elephant spray us with his trunk. The conference part was just two days for 4 1/2 hours each day, training by the mission president and stories of spiritual experiences by all the couples, and the SL District President came and told his conversion story-we really should be taking a tape recorder everywhere we go, everyone has stories to tell that we would love to remember.

just for those who are still "enjoying" the snow, summer has now arrived in bangalore-winter is over-it was dec-feb-sleeping with the fans going and fighting mesquitos-soon it will be turn on air condition. Just thought i would share that with you :) and torment those of you who are snow birds still. going to go to bed now....been waiting up in case nikki called to say Alivia was arriving but...no such luck, so going to go to sleep...happy "snake God" holiday!!!--noises outside, the hindus are supposed to stay up all night celebrating and praying--they are not tooo noisy yet anyway.

Jackson Grant

Hey everybody...meet the newest addition to our family, Jackson Grant Eichelberger, Ryan and Erin's little guy. 

Jack just hours old, with lots and lots of red hair!

Jackson was born on Wednesday, October 8, at 4:52 pm. He was 7 lbs. 13 ozs., and 21 inches long. Dad, mom, and baby are all healthy and doing well, and back at home now. 

Members

This is our office, the way it is now. All we need are the two computers and we will be set up. We went from 1 desk & 1 broken chair, to this. The computers should be coming next week. The branch is so happy to have a place to come and work, and to make copies, etc. since there is no branch copy machine. Our office is to have the feel of a temple room.

This is our Indian branch and investigator family: 2 elders-Umesh & Satyadi, the 2 American elders are Rowe & Elliott (been here 2 weeks). The man holding the baby named Prince, is Purushothaman (the "h" is slient), and Nancy his wife is dressed western, in a white shirt and jeans. (In 5 years from now, I predict there will be very little of the sari's seen by the young people). The woman in the middle is Meena, she and the two teenagers, Ajay, Arvind were baptized Sunday, and this was our picture taking session afterwards. Today I started piano lessons with Nancy, and Elder E. started career workshop with Purushothaman. He is looking for a new job...we hope these two will accept baptism one of these days. This was Nancy's first time of attending church. The whole family is just awesome.

Elder Umesh and his creation. Look at how he made a box that could close and have a "bar" through it. He is holding the bar to keep it closed. He made this box for the members to put referrals into. He was very proud of it.

This is inside the church. Meena is in blue holding her nephew. Her sons are on both sides of Jack...her daughter is sitting on the lap of a young gal who was baptized the first Sunday we arrived. Charles (the young man) is sitting beside Debby, and Durga is the young man in front of Charles. We helped them with resumes and interviews, they are working part time now...Durga is saving for a mission, Charles drew us a picture of Christ knocking on a door as a thank you-IT IS VERY GOOD.

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.

Rickshaw Rides

Here are some of the latest sights of India...

Some street construction, near where we are.
They have guards outside some stores.
Sightes from our usual mode of transportation...the auto rickshaw.




Here's a cattle drawn carriage on the main road.
Some construction with scaffolding. The scaffolding is made of wooden poles lashed together with string of some kind. Take note of the workers, as some of them move in and live on the job site. 

Poor Jack, having dinner at a restaurant. He's really roughing it!

First Day in our New World

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!