We're not Romeo - not
Juliet, No we're not - that's a fact….
So, from time to time
President Jurial asks me to sit in on counselling sessions. I assume it is
because I am old and he can, if required, lean on my many, many, many years of
experience. In some cases, most often actually, I am not sure why he asks me to
sit in. He typically gives the advice or counsel that I would. He might word it
differently but the essence is usually aligned. Particularly when the person he
is counselling only speaks Hindi, I am not sure what I offer.
Apropos the above was
a session today. A single mom wanted to counsel with President Jurial about her
18 year old daughter who’s a senior in high school. I actually had a session
six months ago with the mother and one with the daughter six months ago when
President Jurial was out of town. At that time the mom’s concern was that her
daughter was getting too serious with a boy. She was doing poorly in school and
generally being a difficult teenager. She wanted me to counsel her that she was
getting too serious and she need to slow down and be more cautious. I knew this
not from the mom, who speaks no English, but she asked a Sister in the Branch
to sit in with us and translate. She assured me her daughter speaks English
well and I agreed to talk with her. Turned out, her English? Not so much. She
sat and smiled at me as I tried time after time to speak with her. It turned
out President Jurial was going to be back in a couple of days, and she ended up
waiting to talk with him.
What brings us to
today. Same mom. Same daughter. Same total lack English skills. Same problem
with the daughter running around with boys, not being responsible at school,
and generally worrying her mother. But this time mom has a solution. She has
arranged a marriage for her daughter. To her this seems like a great solution.
The daughter is out of her house and is the husband’s problem. President Jurial
tried to counsel her that pushing into an arranged marriage shifts but doesn’t
solve the problem. It’s a difficult sale in a culture in which an arranged
marriage seems like a perfectly reasonable solution. The girl just sat there
most of the time staring at the ceiling. I think she will be glad to be out of
her mom’s house and on her own. If the price of that is an arranged marriage to
some guy she has only met once, doesn’t seem too high. I am afraid neither
mother nor daughter have thought long term about the situation.
Shifting gears:
yesterday was the first day of Ramadan, 30 days of fasting and worship for
Muslims. The fast lasts from before sunrise to after sunset. I read, a few
years ago, about a Mormon Chief of Police in a city near San Francisco that in
a show of unity decided to observe Ramadan (high Muslim population in both the
city and the police force). Since I read that article, each year as Ramadan
approaches I consider observing it myself. This year, I thought about it again.
Then I thought about dealing with the Delhi heat without even water and I
decided, “hmm, well not this year.” Another item for my bucket list.
Here’s Rae.
A couple of things
made this week different from the usually heat, power outages and my trying to survive
them. On Monday morning I decided to put
a load of whites in the washer. When I
saw there was still room in the washer I decided to take my robe off and add
it. While the washer was running I
decided to mix a batch of cookies. When
I started looking for my phone so I could set a timer, I had a sick
recollection of dropping it into the pocket of my robe. DANG!
I went to the washer and sure enough it was there in the pocket. DANG!
Immediately I shook water out of it and set it in front of my hair
blower. Couldn’t find rice to put it
into. I sent Phil and email and told him
what I’d done and that if he wanted to reach me he’d need to email. I then put the cookie dough into the fridge
to wait for Christina (who has a phone with a timer) to come so that we could
bake them. I was trying to make cookies
in preparation for some house guests that were coming on Wednesday.
When Christina
arrived later in the day I told her what I’d done. She found the rice and so I transferred my
phone to a bowl full of rice and prayed that that would be the answer to saving
my phone. I left the phone in the rice
until Tuesday night and then decided to try it.
It turned on, YAY! But, I couldn’t
get it to open so I could access anything.
Back into the rice til morning.
Wednesday morning it wouldn’t even turn on, just black. DANG!
Wednesday afternoon
Phil arrived at the house with a new phone.
(Here it is)
He is such a good guy. So, I now have a new phone with some of my
old info and more work to be done in getting things restored. This whole thing has made it very clear to me
how tied to technology (our phones) we are.
It was almost embarrassing how many times I found myself reaching for my
phone that of course, wasn’t there. I
kept hearing my Dad’s voice saying “Well, it was an expensive lesson, but
hopefully you’ve learned it”. He, like
Phil, was/is a patient man.
We had 4 house guest
Wednesday-Friday morning. Our friend
McArthur who lives in Faizabad came with 3 young people. Michael (16) who is from the US but visiting
McArthur for the summer and 2 of her Indian neighbors, Ruby (18) and her
brother Siddharth (23). Ruby was meeting
with the US embassy to apply for a visa to do an internship in the US.
Siddharth came, I don’t know why, maybe just to come to Delhi or as a
chaperone, not sure. Michael turned 16
on Wednesday and so had made arrangements to be ordained to the office of
priest, which Phil did today. It is
always fun to have house guests and get the opportunity to meet new people and
share some of their experiences with them.
Finally, the sister
missionaries arranged a Branch photo this afternoon. You can't tell from this picture how HOT it is.
Namaste.
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