Testing...1..2..3 Testing.

 This week ended so absolutely wonderful but started out pretty rough, for Rob especially. Right after church, he felt a bad sore throat come on coupled with and an intense headache and an extremely sore ankle from playing soccer with the young men the day before so he came home and slept most of the Sabbath and a good chunk of our P-day too, although you'd never know he was feeling lousy. He still managed to be cheerful and work hard at every chore he undertook between naps; house cleaning, cooking, inventive household repair. He just won't let me nurse him or wait on him, even when he's suffering. He's been very discouraged though, that despite his persistent efforts, he can't get his sourdough bread to work here. The start would brew well but in the end the bread looked like a hockey puck with a unique taste that absorbed some of the unique smells of the surrounding air. Hard to describe a new taste in words. So he has finally hollered "uncle" and switched to trying yeast bread but with poor results there too. Maybe it's the difference in flour or the convection oven but so far he just hasn't found his bread groove.

                Rob with his hamburger bun?

However, we HAVE had fabulous success once we started cooking with Indian ingredients. Rob has perfected a Butter Chicken recipe taught to us by Sis Bushi, via Zoom that has become our staple. We eat it practically every chance we get. We just modify it a bit and add various vegetables; eggplant, carrots, mushrooms, peppers, or zucchini along with the occasional chicken or paneer thrown in. It is so good! And we like to eat it with our hands too. We are wanting to fit in to the Indian culture in every way we can. When I married Rob and told him I was a non-cooker, what I actually meant was I was a naan cooker. With his tutelage, I can now reliably make this simple flatbread. Just know when they charge you $3.99 for this at restaurants, it's pure profit.

Our previous bland American meals- Cole slaw, hard boiled eggs, apples, pickles, toast, cheese. 🥱

Our delicious Indian meals now, spiced with turmeric, garam masala, chili powder, mustard seed, cumin seed along with naan bread and basmati rice. Viva la differance!! 

For this next sequence, I'd like to share a saga I will entitle

 "Rob for want of a haircut."

 Rob brought his American hair clippers to India for he has always cut his own hair and wanted to continue doing so here. But with the difference in voltage, he knew he'd have to find a converter. After searching the internet, he found a store in Kovai (pronounced Kowai) that carried one so he set out to find and buy it. We were so excited, I could use it for my curling iron too! Well, my appliance worked for one blissful day but after that it wouldn't even turn on. All is kaput. Rob's clippers immediately zapped upon plugging in. Gone. So much for the help of the converter! His next dilemma--would they let him return it, claiming it didn't work and had burned up two of our appliances? I went with him this time to find out. Upon entering the electronics store, probably 5 different employees were sequentially summoned to look at the opened packaging. They all studied it very intently with worried looks and then asked their next higher up what they should do? Clearly no one had ever returned an item and this was new territory for them. We were ushered into a room where we feared we were going to be interrogated.  Yet another clerk studied his computer intently while we sat in rapt silence wondering what our fate would be. Finally, as any speaking being done was in Tamil, we believed a return  receipt would be produced and our deed would be finally done. But no. We were simply released from our holding room back into the store. In the meantime, Rob had found an actual hair clipper in the store but in a package that had clearly been previously opened and taped  closed. Well, here's a thought. Could we test this and see if it works and then just do an exchange? More head scratching and grimacing. We were told to wait some more. No, they wouldn't let us test the clippers to see if they worked until we actually purchased them. This defied all logic but we nodded our head anyway and smiled agreeably. After we sat and watched the HDTV displays for what seemed another eternity, we were summoned again and told they had offered us an extended warranty instead of giving us money back for the difference in price. We surely didn't want an extended warranty on a clipper that may have been returned for the same reason as our converter, but we thanked them profusely and asked if we could now test the product? But of course! More fumbling ensued as 2 or 3 of them tried to take off the very secure taping job with their bare hands. Rob produced his jackknife and sliced through the tape that was as thick as the tension.  Now the climactic moment of truth...Houston, we have plugged in the appliance. And...yes! The clippers worked! The entire store erupted in cheers while we all did a happy dance resembling a Bollywood finale. Well that's a little exaggeration. But everyone was clearly invested in our transaction and we were glad we could involve them all in this team building exercise. So there's a happy ending to the tale, Rob has given himself his first Indian haircut and he looks once again like a cleancut missionary. 

                                  The end.

How do we move on after an epic story like that? If you can endure a little longer, I'll share a couple more bright spots. So in finding that we have a little more time in our days than the young missionaries or say office missionaries or FamilySearch missionaries would, we wondered what we could do consistently to fill our hours up. If you recall from past blogs, I made a good friend at the FSL, Collette, a Swedish genealogist. She shared with me that everytime she traveled anywhere in the world with her husband on business, she would take pictures of graves for Billiongraves.com while he worked. She's done it in Tahiti, Japan, and of course, Sweden. On one of our walks we happened upon a Catholic graveyard very close to our home, overgrown with weeds and desperately needing some attention, it occurred to me we could do the same here.

So whenever we have an open morning, we set out for the cemetery, armed with spray bottle, scrub brush, mini-broom and camera to snap photos. It's truly a two person job, one good soul to sweep off years of grime and weeds, lift off the dead garlands, scrape off the wax from burnt candles and burn marks from the incense holders (Rob), while the other person merely squats and strains to snap the photos, trying to get all information within the confines of the shot, avoiding shadows and glare (me).

      Rob appreciating an ancient rusty bike relic he found behind a gravestone (It sure proved to be a chick-magnet in our story!)

Yikes! It was a little spooky to stumble upon a funeral pyre of sorts, with an exposed skull and various bones.

Some of the gravestones are very elaborate and ornate and some are so humble and rudimentary it would break your heart to see the contrast. Some have been neglected but some show fresh mourning and recent remembrance. Some are in Tamil but most are in English with Christian names that reflect the time when they were under the British Raj and their embrace of Christianity.  It isn't glamorous work but we get a deep sense with every photo that this is someone's ancestor and every single person ever born is a beloved child of God. We know from our doctrine there must be a welding link through the generations and we cannot be made perfect without them nor they without us. The work of family history in India has to gain a little more ground prior to the temple's completion and so we are glad to help in this behind the scenes endeavor, because of the testimonies we have of it's eternal importance that grew during our time at the Family Search Library. We imagine multiplying our efforts with our young adults, getting them involved in this important work too. So many of the grave markers I can't transcribe because they're in Tamil but they could definitely help with that as well as take photos with us and clean up loads of debris. We envision a wonderful service project with them in the near future. Now if we could get some of those yellow Helping Hands vests shipped here, that would be the best! Anyone with connections? 

Our last happy story also involves a bit of service. In a future blog I'll show you some sites of our favorite walking paths but for now, the story is more important. As we were walking along a path near a lake and picking up empty water bottles and other plastics, crushing them (thanks for the idea, Pre. Nelson!) and collecting them in a garbage bag, we encountered two young men, who appreciated what we were doing.

 We talked with them for quite awhile. We told them about an English conversation group we are starting at our church and invited them to come join us the following night for ping pong and badminton. They seemed very enthusiastic and so we went and bought badminton rackets and shuttlecocks. After waiting over an hour for them, we were sad they hadn't come. We were just outside the gates of the church leaving on our way home when there they were, right on India Stretchy Time. There were many young adults there to welcome them inside and give them a tour of the building and what goes on in a typical week. We had a blast playing table tennis with them as it was now too dark for badminton.  

They told us later they didn't have a clue what ping pong was, but they came anyway! 

We may even see them tonight at the YA Institute class. 🤞 I explained the teacher is fluent in both languages and can greatly enhance their English proficiency as she fluidly blends both languages in her teaching. Sister Deepa is marvelous!! She teaches with the Spirit and who knows, these young men could hear something tonight that touches their heart, perhaps regarding Jesus Christ. We have a constant prayer for them--that their curiosity in us and our budding friendship will grow into something more life changing for them than just English practice. 

So although this week had some mini-trials near the beginning, along with some ominous emails from the FRRO, (Foreign Relations Registrars Office) we, like Paul, can glory in these tribulations and like Lehi, can know that there must be opposition in all things. These temporary sicknesses, setbacks, and glitches are all part of the experience and we are truly loving every aspect of our time here.