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.
No comments:
Post a Comment