Blame it on the rain, Blame it on the stars, Whatever you do don't put the blame on [Mehndi]

If it’s Sunday afternoon, it must be time to blog. I ’m flying solo today, Rae has gone back to the US for a month to sit Ben and Becca’s kids and to see family and friends. So, you are left with me for the next few weeks. I’ll try not to let down the team.

If you are on Facebook with Rae, you read about a huge storm we had on Wednesday and the personal aftermath of that storm. If you aren’t on FB with Rae, Here’s the 411. We had a storm. On Wednesday. That is all.

OK, that’s not quite all. The storm was a doozey: lightening, thunder, torrential rain. The whole nine yards. Oh, yeah, huge limb breaking off of a tree and falling on our car? Yes, we’ve got that. The limb crashing onto our car occurred whilst I was in Branch Presidency meeting. I didn’t get a picture of the limb because it was dark. By the time I went back the next morning, the limb had been removed. Probably hauled off to build a house. That’s how big it was. Okay, maybe not quite THAT big, but it was probably 10 feet long (not including the smaller offshoots) and 18” across at the thickest part. As you can see from the pictures below, it dented in the hood, the roof, the passenger front door, and knocked off the mirror on the passenger side. We are now without a car for a week to ten days whilst we check off “try out body work in New Delhi” from our bucket list. In this regard Rae picked a great time to be gone.

                 

We are always open to address topics of interest in our blog. We’ve been asked about toilet facilities, particularly public ones. As with much of the physical infrastructure, this is an area of great change and great variation, at least in urban centers. India has been called the world’s largest outdoor toilet. Historically, the side of any road, or any available wall has been all the toilet needed. It is still a very common site to see a car or bike pulled to side of the road and the driver standing with his back to the road “watering the roses”.

There are a few public toilets provided here and there, for instance in areas like markets or stations, but not many. They tend not to be particularly clean. Oh, it’s also a good idea to follow the old Boy Scout motto and “be prepared” with your own paper. Of course, in new modern facilities such as the mall or the airport the toilets are clean and modern. Well at least some of the facilities are. In a typical bank of, say, six commodes, four will be new, western style and two will be “squatters” instead of “sitters” like this:

In general, it’s best to relieve one’s self before heading out, always carry paper, have a large bladder, and excellent control.

A word about effluent: yuck. Having made that point, please allow me to elaborate. In Delhi, It is not common to find totally open sewers (though they do exist). On the other hand it is not at all UNcommon to find a sewer that would be open if it wasn’t for 3” cement slabs that have been laid over the top of the sewer. These slabs don’t seal the sewers but mostly cover them so people won’t just stumble into one accidently. They definitely don’t contain the smell. You add these quasi open sewers to those who “pisseth against the wall” (see 1 Samuel 25), and the various dogs, cows, goats, elephants, and other animals who wander about and there are some really, umm, “interesting” smells.

With that, “Smell you later. (I can’t believe that caught on).” Reference, anyone?

Namaste.

Well you know that it’s going to be alright, When we go shopping…

 Thanks to our good, close, personal friends Bare Naked Ladies for the musical intro to this week’s blog. It certainly sets the proper theme.

In past entries to this blog we have discussed the upper end of the shopping experience in New Delhi – modern shopping malls. This tip of the shopping experience is not the common one for most Indians, day to day. First, as huge as cities like New Delhi and Mumbai are, most Indians still live in smaller towns, or even a rural existence. For them, there is nothing like a mall. For these Indians and even for most who live in the cities shopping most often occurs in small shops, sometimes clustered in shopping areas or markets. We often do our grocery shopping in such a market and occasionally we will shop there for more significant purchases.

Rae is getting ready to head back to the US for a month of Nana duty and we wanted to pick up a few things, Indianish things, before she leaves. We thought we would have better luck finding them at the more traditional shopping area than at the mall, so we headed to Lajpat Nagar central market.

Many shopping areas consist of a few stalls or storefronts clustered around a central plaza or square. There are usually a variety of shops and “eating joints” (as the locals call them). That is a more accurate term than “restaurant”. Lajpat Nagar central market is such a shopping area, writ large.

Lajpat Nagar was originally a swamp area without much to recommend it. For that reason, no one seemed to mind when refugees from Punjab, relocated to Delhi after the partition of Indian and Pakistan in 1947. Well, what started as a refugee camp, then neighborhood, south of New Delhi continued to grow and expand. It is now in the heart of South Delhi and expanded from one area to four. The central market is in Lajpat Nagar III; my campus and the Church are in Lajpat Nagar IV. I don’t know for sure how many hundreds of thousands people live in this area that is probably no more than a couple of square miles, it is very densely populated area and the central market has expanded along with it to a core area of a few blocks, with new shops radiating out from along the access roads.

Shopping at Lajpat Nagar central market gives a more traditional experience than at the mall but there are a couple of downsides. A) The shops are rarely cooled and of course it’s not covered so it is much hotter; and 2) There are no beggars at the mall and there are always a few at the market. I really have a hard time with beggars, particularly the little kids or mothers with little kids. No matter how often I interact with them, this just does not get any easier. Not all beggars are women and children. In this picture, if you look closely in the center frame, you will see a man lying on a low trolley, scooting through the crowd.

Well, having laid the overall foundation, I will leave it to Rae to build the rest of the house. Here’s Rae….

Hi all,

I’ve been wanting to go spend some time at Lajpat Nagar market, as we drive by it all the time on our way to Phil’s work or our Branch.  We’ve been there very briefly a couple of times, I think I talked about going to the paint store; that was in this market area.  The previous visits were not that pleasant because it was so hot and humid and AC is not all that common [Phil – even fans are not all that common].  Some of the stores are enclosed with actual doors and so they might be the ones with AC, but a lot of them are open stalls and so whatever the outside temperature is that’s the temperature you get.  

If you picture shopping, I’m sure you picture going into the store and wondering around looking at things you might be interested in.  That is not how you shop at these markets.  While most of the stores are little more than formalized stalls, the larger stores are very narrow, fairly deep and usually 2 or three stories. Stairs to the additional floors are usually located at the back of the store. Items are not normally out for you to look at, but rather they are folded and stored on shelves that usually go from floor to ceiling. The ceilings are probably 12 to 15 feet high.  There are usually counters that run the length of the store and are probably about 18-24 out from the shelves with a narrow corridor down the middle for the customer to move. 

There are usually a lot of clerks behind the counters and the space for them to move past each other is limited so they work as a team to get things from the shelves.  Sometimes there are stools, benches, or chairs to sit at so that you can be shown the merchandise.  They will ask you what you are wanting, and assuming they understand what it is you are saying, they begin to remove items from the shelves, then from their wrappings and then begin displaying them, ( they also do this with items that aren’t what you’ve asked for).  There is always someone whose job it is to refold and repackage the items, so displaying MANY items never seems to be an issue.  We happened to be shopping for some clothing items, and I know if I’d had access to the shelves I could have ruled out a lot of items before they bothered to unwrap and display them.  I guess if I streamlined the process there wouldn’t be a need for so much cheap labor.  It was interesting to see the clerks sit on the counter, swing their legs over and repeat the process in reverse to get items from the other side of the store.  It was either that or have clerks from the other side throw items over to them.  It took going to a few different stores to find the items we were wanting.  In almost every store there seemed to be a tailor to make immediate alterations to an item.  We in fact had a tailor add sleeves to an item, and shorten sleeves on another.  An interesting thing about tops that come with no sleeves, there are sleeves included so they can be added if wanted.  I don’t want to say much more about what we purchased, because I want them to be a bit of a surprise for the family.  Later I hope to have pictures to post.

Shopping was still pretty warm and I found myself pretty sweaty, but overall, it was a fun adventure and I’m glad it was a bit cooler so we could go.  While we were in one of the stores having a mountain of merchandise displayed, there was a big rain storm going on outside and so that’s why it looks dark and rainy in the pictures.  A lot of the open air stalls seem to be prepared for such things, and almost magically items are somehow protected from the downpour and business continues.  There may be a few tables or displays that don’t get covered, but it seemed to me to be very few. Here are a few more pictures.

Here’s a funny thing that may give you an idea of how different our perception about the weather is from those native to Delhi. I’ve become friends on Facebook with one of the young women I met at camp. (Her father was our District President for quite a few years prior to our current one.)  She just posted on Facebook how much she was enjoying the “chilly” weather now, huh?  I worry a bit about her, because she is going to BYU in January. If 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity is "chilly" what is she going to do in a Provo winter? Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny.  

Namaste.

I'm just wild about smorgasbord, I got a cravin' for smorgasbord...

Greetings. Another week, lots to talk about. This week’s menu includes Ganesh’s birthday, dengue fever, a high-end fashion show, and a wedding. I will start and Rae will wrap up. Bon appetite!

On Monday the 2^nd, I was feeling a bit bad because family and friends in the US were celebrating Labor Day (or Labour Day as it is written here). Well, I shouldn’t have been so jealous because one week later we had an off whilst you were working away. Monday was Ganesh Chaturthi, or the Hindi festival which celebrates the birthday of Ganesh. For those of you who are not up on Hindi Deities, I’ll try to give a brief primer.

You probably would recognize a representation of Ganesh. He is represented as having a human body and an elephant’s head. He is one of the most widely worshiped of all Indian Deities. Not only Hindis but also Jains and Buddhists worship him or show him devotion. He is known for removing obstacles (sometimes cited as the god of beginnings for that reason) and is the patron of the arts, sciences, intellect, and wisdom. You may wonder why he is represented with an elephant’s head. I am not Hindi but I will try and relate what I have been told with respect.

According to legend, Ganesha (the terminal “a” is often left off of Hindi names) was created by the consort of Lord Shiva (Parvati) out of sandalwood soap or paste she used in her bath. Having created Ganesha, she set him to guard her bath and not let anyone enter. Shiva returned but Ganesha did not know or recognize him and refused him entry. Shiva was so angry he cut off Ganesha’s head. When Parvati discovered what Shiva had done she became furious and insisted that Shiva restore Ganesha to life, which Shiva promised her. Despite a thorough search, Shiva could not find Ganesha’s head. The only head he could find was of a dead elephant so he attached that to Ganesha and restored him to life. Ganesh Chaturthi is the day his rebirth is celebrated.

As I said, the image of Ganesh is one of the most common. Because he the god of beginnings and removing barriers, it is not uncommon for a statue or picture of him to be given or unveiled at the launching of a new venture. Here is a statue of Ganesh that is in the common foyer of our building.

Shifting gears gracefully…. It is getting to be mosquito season here in Delhi. I would like to say that as the capital of nearly a quarter of the world’s population that issues with mosquitos and the diseases they can carry have been resolved. Alas and alack as “they” say, that is not the case. Malaria is still a problem in parts of India, less so here in Delhi. However, for the past decade or so dengue fever has come to the subcontinent. For those who don’t know, dengue fever is also a particularly vicious illness passed by them blood sucking little varmints. It is also called break bone fever, which gives you an idea of how those who get it feel. Even relatively mild cases are described as feeling like a cross between the worst flu you’ve had and measles (due to the rash that forms). Mild cases are treated with fluids to fight dehydration. Severe cases have to be hospitalized and treated intravenously. Really severe cases are treated with funerals.

Brendon had dengue fever while he served his mission in Puerto Rico. We didn’t realize until after the fact how sick he was. Needless to say, we don’t want any more members of our family to have that experience. I have another reason to kill as many mosquitos as happen to cross my path.

Well, enough from me. Here’s Rae.

Hi all,

Let me start by telling you a bit about the fashion debut that we attended.  Charu Modi, who owns the college that Phil runs, invited us to the event.  Her daughter and mother have a clothing line that they design and manufacture.  All of the clothes are handmade and pretty much one of a kind.  They are made of the most beautiful and expensive fabrics available and have beautiful handwork details.  It is my understanding that if you wanted a particular item they would hand make it specifically tailored to your body.  Some of the pieces were actually quite heavy because of all the bead work and embellishments. It is still quite warm here for my taste and so even though this was a fall line I couldn’t imagine wearing many of them, at least right now.  The event was beautifully catered and beautifully displayed, and it was evident that the people in attendance were the social elite.  There were certainly some beautiful things there, and if I were to want something, it definitely would have to be tailored specifically for me, as I’m considerably larger than most any of the petite Indian women that were in attendance.  I find myself feeling rather Amazonish on occasion.  I’m hoping at some point to get a Sari and some other Indian clothing, not that I will look as beautiful as they do, and will probably even look a bit foolish, but I think they are beautiful and would like to have some as a reminder of our time here.

Now a bit about the wedding we attended yesterday.  It was not a traditional Indian wedding, in fact it was a simple Mormon Church wedding, with a few twists of its own.  I’m still continually amazed at how complex getting married is around here, so I will explain a bit about the situation for this particular couple.  The groom was originally from another Christian faith and the bride was, I think, originally Hindu.  They are both members of our Church now, but many, actually most of their family members are not LDS.  It is still very common for marriages to be arranged marriages vs. love marriages, and even in the case of love marriages it can be quite complex. 

Because family is so intertwined here, it is important to the couple that they have family approval and support.  Because of so many traditions and different beliefs, this is often very hard to accomplish in love marriages.  As a result sometimes the couple just has to decide that they will get married in spite of family objections.  Objections are not always based just on religion, but also might be based on education level, caste, skin color or, as in this case, nationality.  Anyway, it is complex and I’m continually surprised at the complexity.  As a result of some of these issues, the groom, who is from Nepal had no family there, and the bride had some family.  Her grandmother, sister, an aunt and uncle, and a cousin were there, not her parents.  As I said it is complicated.  The couple were married by the branch president and are leaving tonight for the Philippines, where they will be sealed in the temple on Tuesday.  When they return to Delhi, they will have a government marriage.  Don’t ask me to explain how this all works, but that is the story of this couple. And here are three pictures from the wedding.

I do know of another couple who wanted a love marriage and the bride's family who is Hindi was opposed, so they got married in secret and then told the family they were married.  The family did not disown them and they later had a traditional Hindu wedding and a year later they went to the temple and were sealed.  So it seems that it is not uncommon for some couples to have multiple weddings before it is all said and done.  It is still a huge puzzle to me and I’m continually surprised by the twists and turns that come to those who simply love each other and just want to marry and be together.

Well, I guess that’s it for my part of this blog.  We’ll see what next week has to offer.  Hopefully some cooler weather will be something I’ll get to talk about soon.

Namaste.

Then I looked up in the sky, And I'm thinking why oh why, These are all the many changes in my life...

I guess it’s my turn to start. In a couple of previous entries, Rae and I have written about language challenges we’ve faced. Today, I am picking up that loose thread. You may hear that everyone in India speaks English. Well that’s not true. You have read before of the language issues Rae has faced with various workers. Unskilled laborers rarely speak English. The best educated speak English quite well. Everyone else falls somewhere between. Even quite educated people often shift back and forth between Hindi and English, even in the same sentence. The advantage to this Hindi/English is that I often catch enough English words to keep up with the general thrust of conversations. My vocabulary is growing but if the conversation is totally in Hindi, I am lost.

Actually, sometimes even when the conversation is entirely in English I get lost. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, Indian English accent takes some time to get used to. This has to do with cadence as well as pronunciation. I think I mentioned that during a meeting shortly after I came here one of the managers told me he sometimes had a difficult time understanding me because of my accent. What? My accent? Well, I have tried to adapt at least to some of the local cadence and pronunciation so I am easier to understand. So, when I get back if I apologize for reaching you on your mo-buy-l, don’t assume I am just quoting Friends. Besides, I probably wanted to reach you on your mobile. Part of the issue with lack of understanding has to do with use of some colloquial expressions. It is often commented that Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language. Throw in the differences in cadence, pronunciation, and accent and you have India and the US.

Often, if I am trying to figure out what to call something, I ask myself, “What would I call this in the UK?” That doesn’t always work but it often leads to the right word (such as chemist rather than pharmacist). A friend gave me a list of common India English words and phrases. In hopes that it will prepare and inspire you to come visit, here are a few items for you to memorize:

India                                             US                                  Use

Belong to                                      come from                       Where do you belong to?

Bunk                                             skip                                 John bunked school today.

Cabin                                            office                               Which is your cabin?

Colony                                          neighborhood                   We live in Friends Colony West.

Cribbing                                        complaining                      She was cribbing about the heat.

Flyover                                         overpass                           He stood on the flyover watching the traffic

Fresher                                         recent graduate                 Many of our students are Freshers.

Geyser (pronounced GHEE-zer)   hot water heater                No hot water. The geyser is broken again.

Gravy                                           sauce                                The gravy on the fish was very spicy.

Hoarding                                      billboard                            Turn left just after the Honda hoarding.

Hostel                                          dorm                                  Many of our students stay in our hostel.

Jab                                               injection                             I got a jab at the doctor’s office today.

Ladyfingers                                   okra                                  The ladyfingers in masala are delicious.

Out of station                                away                                  Phil was out of station that day, in Nepal.

Prepone                                        move to earlier                   The meeting was preponed to Tuesday.

Revert                                           reply                                   I will revert next week.

Savings account                             checking account                We have a joint savings account.

Shift                                               move                                 When did you shift to India?

Specs                                            glasses                                He put on his specs to read the sign.

Tube                                              light bulb                            We seem to go through tubes too fast.

Tuition                                           tutoring                               I need tuition to learn Hindi.

Now that I have reviewed those phrases, the rest of the blog lies (she has or has responsibility for) with Rae.

Well, another week has passed and I continue to learn new things, get frustrated by some of the same old things, and become more comfortable with my surroundings. 

Let me start by saying that I can feel a slight change in the weather.  It is still warm and a bit humid, but the humidity is certainly less.  The windows in my house are no longer foggy and I don’t want to die if the power goes out and I know there will be no AC for a while.  I can even turn the AC off in some rooms at least for a while.  I can even walk outside to get into the car and not feel like I need to go back inside for another shower.  I feel that there is hope that it will eventually cool off enough that I’ll be excited about going out to see some of the sights and visit the open air markets. I am excited to do that, just not when it's so hot.

Yesterday it was my and Phil’s turn to help clean our church building.  Let me say that even though it is a bit cooler, by the time we were finished, I was soaked in sweat and more than ready to come home and shower.  We will include a few pictures of our building from the outside, but they will not show some of the unique features of our building on the inside, so I’ll try to explain a bit about how things are inside.  Phil told me years ago the building used to be the home for a wealthy family, which has been remodelled into our Church building. If you think of a large two story home rather than a church, you may have a better visual image. Here are a couple of pictures of the outside, just off the entry.

There is a lobby as you enter, but the lobby is rather an open air room and so there is no AC for that part of the building.  Off of the Lobby is our chapel area, a doorway to an outback patio (which is where our baptismal font is located), a couple of classrooms and a marble stairway that leads up to another open area with a few classrooms and the Branch President’s office off of it.  This inner corridor has no AC and so moving from the chapel to the classrooms means a trek thru this warm inner area.  Also, any gatherings or baptisms take place outside on the patio area, so those are always toasty in the summer months.  The chapel and each of the classrooms have individual AC units and ceiling fans, so they are usually comfortable as long as someone bothers to turn them on or the power doesn’t go out.  Here is a thought that I’ve had, there are doors that close the Lobby to the outside, and so in my US mind I think…they could just close those doors, add AC units and that inner area could be so comfortable, I wonder why they don’t think of doing that?

There are some things about cleaning our building that are things I’ve always thought would be a nice feature for any home.  Often as I’ve cleaned my bathrooms I’ve thought that a room with a drain and tile floors and walls would mean that I could just hose the room down.  Well, that is just what we do for parts of the building.  There are tile floors and walls in the bathrooms and drains in the floors.  There is a tap that connects to a hose with a spray nozzle that is located next to the toilet (a version of a bidet) and so it makes hosing down the bathrooms pretty slick.  The lobby area upstairs, the stairs and the lower lobby are all marble, so they are also hosed down.  There are large squeegee like tools that are used to move the water off the floor, down the stairs and out the lobby doors.  I know I’ve talked about the black soot before, but it is amazing to me to see all that black water that comes off those floors. Some of the other aspects of cleaning the building seem fairly antiquated and not very affective.  I’ve already made mental notes of some of my own cleaning things I will be taking with me for our next time. 

I think I’ve mentioned before that our kitchen was rare from other kitchens I looked at, in that it had an oven.  When we looked at the flat, the person representing the landlord said that they were going to replace the stove/oven unit.  That didn’t happen and it turned out that the oven didn’t work.  I’ve been both disappointed and frustrated that I haven’t had an oven.  A couple of weeks ago the landlord showed up with a toaster oven.  I was shocked and disappointed if that’s going to be my oven.  I asked the landlord if he wasn’t going to replace the other oven.  He said later, and we all know what that means.  Anyway, I do have a sort of oven now and have done some baking, just don’t plan on any 9x13s or cookie sheets.  Today I made an entire dinner for the 1^st time since I’ve arrived here.  It was both fun, fulfilling and frustrating [Phil – and delicious!].  I have to do a lot of adapting both with measurements, ingredients and equipment, so I was pleased that it turned out as good as it did.  I think I’ll try to do this occasionally just so I don’t completely forget everything.  Below are a few pictures of my stove/oven equipment, and also the finished project. 

Well, I’ve probably kept you spell bound long enough with my captivating writing skills.  Hopefully next week will have some new adventures to share.  Possibly something exciting like trying to buy the vacuum I think I want. 

Namaste.

I'm coming to terms, I'm starting to learn, This ain't all it's cracked up to be...

1 Sep 2013

I hope you know from our posts that I like India. I am glad we are here and I am engaged and excited by all we are experiencing. Having said that, there are times I just want to scream. Fortunately, that does not happen too often. However, in the last 24 hours it’s happened twice. My head has been on the verge of exploding.

Now that I have your attention, I am passing the helm over to Rae. I need to go finish washing the dishes. Rae?

I told Phil I would do the dishes and he could start the blog, but he just wouldn’t hear of it.  I know you are wondering why we would be doing dishes when we have someone who works for us and does that sort of thing.  Well, Christina only works for us Monday-Friday, so the weekends are up to us.  This is probably good, so we don’t totally forget how to do a few things for ourselves. 

Those of you who know me very well, know that it’s hard for me to live somewhere without feeling the need to change things at least a little bit.  As is usually the case with so many things, things look like they should work out smoothly, but then there is usually some sort of glitch.  We had purchased a new bed cover for our bed, but it is literally a bed cover, not a quilt or comforter or even a duvet cover.  Having a bed cover is okay for now since it’s so warm, but we’re told that we will definitely want more warmth than that when winter comes. So, I will be shopping for some coordinating fabric to add to the back so that it can be used as a duvet later on (glitch one). 

I knew when I first arrived I knew that I hated the curtains in our room.  So once we selected our bed cover, we were then ready to find some new drapes.  Finding what we liked wasn’t too hard and getting them hung wasn’t too bad.  Most drapes here come with either metal eyelets or fabric loops.  Ours had metal eyelets, and turns out that the eyelets in our new curtains were not as large as the ones in our old, ugly curtains, so they don’t slide on the rod like they should.  Opening and closing the curtains is pretty much impossible, so to solve this problem I had to go buy some tie backs so that we can open the curtains during the day, (glitch two). It’s probably good to remind you that stores like Target, Walmart, or Bed, Bath & Beyond do not exist, so it’s off to this store for this and that store for that.  In other word lots of different stores.

A week ago we found a duvet cover that we liked and thought would be good in the guest room, hopefully coordinating with the wall color and the art work.  We really liked it and liked it with the art work, but now the wall color is wrong.  That was my long way of telling you that we took a trip to the paint store and it’s that experience that I thought you might find interesting.  First thing you need to do is remove all images of Home Depot, Lowes, or even Ace from you minds.  Our paint store was about 12 feet wide and about 24-30 feet deep.  There are no displays of paint samples.  There is a desk that you are invited to set at.  When you tell them you need paint, they say “white” and when you say “no, color”, they open a desk drawer and pull out a tri folded piece of paper with about 60 small paint samples on it.  That is how you select your paint.  We were allowed to take the sample sheet out into the sunlight to make our decision a bit easier.  

After we made our selection the guy waiting on us picked up the phone and ordered our paint.  We were expecting to be told that the paint would be ready in a day or two, but to our surprised he said 15 minutes.  While we waited at the desk we told him we also needed a brush, roller, tape, and paint tray.  Once again, no displays to look at and choose from, but the clerk spoke to one of several other workers there and they brought a brush to the desk, unwrapped it and showed it to us.  This was the same process for the tape and the roller.  That didn’t happen for the paint tray, because they don’t have paint trays.  I asked him how you got the paint on the roller and was informed that you just dip it.  It doesn’t seem that there are different rollers for different applications.  Our roller is small and foam.  This is going to be a new adventure.  I will just warn you, if you come for a visit and stay in our quest room and don’t like the color, just don’t say anything.

One of the other fun things about setting at the desk waiting for our paint was that he kept asking us if we needed other things, like a wooden toilet seat or a wire laundry basket, or a set of scales or a few other things. If we didn’t say no fast enough he would have his assistant bring it to us and open it up so that we could see how great it was and realized we really needed it. Below is a picture of our Indian paint supplies.  (I just tried rolling the roller on the wall and it rolls about ½ way around and then stops.  I may be rubbing paint on the wall.)  Maybe some picture will follow next week, if things turn out.

For those of you who are on Facebook with me, you already know about this next adventure, but if you missed it on Facebook, here it is.  A few weeks ago Phil and I went to Ambience Mall in Gurgaon.  It is a very large, modern and upscale mall.    As we were about to leave, we noticed a sign for Chili’s.  I was interested in checking it out on our visit yesterday.  I have been craving salsa and chips and so was hoping I could get those there.  I fully expected their menu to be Indianized with all sorts of chicken this or chicken that or veg or non-veg items.  I was so excited to see bottomless chips and salsa on their menu, but nearly fainted when I saw REAL HAMBURGERS.  We both ordered a burger, and it was delicious.  I told Phil that if we couldn’t get turkey for Thanksgiving, I’d be perfectly happy going to Chili’s for a burger (chips and salsa too, of course).  I think it is so strange that I have a Chili’s here in India when all the ones around us in Portland are no longer there.

Since I seem pretty good at just random unrelated posts, I guess I’ll add one more just for fun.  I think we’ve talked about me serving in the District YW’s presidency and Phil being in the branch presidency.  Well, I guess that’s not totally it for us.  We’ve been called to serve as seminary and institute teachers.  This is not a stretch for Phil as he has taught seminary before, and he’s a really good teacher.  For me this is a stretch.  I know it will be a good thing, and something I will grow from but I also know it will require some work on my part.  Thankfully the young people we work with are so kind and accepting and so hopefully will not run me out of town on a rail. I guess if I stink, what’s the worst that will happen, they’ll release me?

Well. I’ve rambled once again and so should probably give Phil a chance to put some organization to this blog.  Now’s your chance to get something out of this blog.

Hello, everyone. Those of you who know us know that Rae is REALLY underselling herself and overselling me. During the two weeks we have taught Semitute, as I have never called it before but think I will from now on, Rae has done a magnificent job. She engages well with the class. Just as with this blog she more than caries her portion.

So I guess I’ll write my portion of the blog on how my head nearly exploded. They say confession is good for the soul I am going to confess, so I hope that’s true. I do love serving in the Church here in India. We have already had some amazing experiences and I am sure we will have more. However, it sometimes seems that people here believe two things: 1) we are here on a mission (not to work) and therefore should be ready to serve 24 hours per day seven days a week; 2) because we have been life-long members of the Church we can do anything with little or no preparation.

Last night I was trying to catch up a work assignment that I have not been able to finish. In the back of my mind, the lesson I was to teach the young men during Priesthood was lurking. The phone rang; I answered it; and heard the Sunday School President asking me if I would teach Sunday School. The teacher had called him and was not going to be there today. Well, what of the Sister we just called as a co-teacher for the class? She didn’t think she could get ready to teach with so little warning. OK, how about the Sunday School President? Could he not teach? Hmm. He might have to leave town suddenly. Apparently there was no one else in the Branch who could teach.

I was feeling sorry for myself, put upon, and angry that I was not going to finish my work assignment. Again. “Fine. I’ll teach” and hung up before the Sunday School President could say anything more. I was boiling. “Am I the only one who can teach? Don’t I need time to prepare? Am I the only one who can stay up late and get this done? How about the work I am not getting done?” You can see I was in a full pity party.

I put my work aside and started reading the material I was to teach. Martin and Willie Handcart Company? Check. People dropping everything and at personal sacrifice leaving their homes to help retrieve them? Check. D&C 81: 5-6, which calls on us to serve one another, strengthen the feeble knee, and lift up the hands that hang down? Check. By now I felt terrible. How could I teach this lesson about people who were willing to sacrifice everything; about people who were so loving and full of charity that they would throw their personal needs aside to help others? I got upset about being asked to teach another lesson! I felt awful. I felt unworthy. I felt like a hypocrite. I knew that I had to call the Sunday School President and apologize for my attitude or I wasn’t going to be able to teach this lesson. After doing so, my heart was much more at peace. Well, now I am feeling pretty good about myself. I had faced a crisis, true, but I had come through it hadn’t I? I proved how loving and patient I really am. Right. That lasted less than 24 hours.

Mehndi was sick today. He called about 45 minutes before we were to leave for Church. No problem; I called a cab and we were at Church in plenty of time. Our return was not quite as smooth. I had requested a cab to pick us up at 1:30. At 1:50 there was not yet a cab. No one answered the phone number we had been given for the driver. No one answered the number at the cab company. I’ll go to the website. No way to leave a message. No way to contact anyone. Blood pressure rising. Desire to swear increasing. I try all the numbers several more times. No answer. I DID find a way to comment on the ride that didn’t happen because the driver didn’t show up. Filing an online complaint really wasn’t very satisfying. Another round of phone calls – no answer. OK. Fine. I’ll make a request for a different cab to come now. No one is answering that line either. Wait, here is a way to request a cab online! I am half way through filling out the form when I get an error message that the server had a problem and I needed to submit the request again. Really? Fine. Whatever. I fill out the form again and hit submit. Almost immediately I get a text message my request cannot be fulfilled. There are no cabs available. WHAT? Argh! I am about ready to give up and walk home when I got a call from the first driver who, an hour late, wanted to confirm how to find us. Amazing.

I love India, I really do, but sometimes its inefficiencies are maddening. Actually, I think it is done perversely. India will lull you in to complacency. Make you feel like you have everything figured out, under control, and then WHAM. Right between the eyes. Well I have confessed my weakness; my vanity, laziness, and desire to be in control. I will continue my efforts to gain more self-control, develop greater patience, and love others more deeply. I clearly have a long way to go.

Namaste.