The Mariott Hotel at last for lunch buffet to celebrate our anniversary and Elder Kasper's 66th birthday. The scene on the right is from the entrance drive looking across Tank Bund Lake toward our apartment which is probably pretty much to the right. The sideways pic of us is inside. The food was really good with all kinds of choices. We ate the Western style, including braised Sirloin tips, and didn't try the Indian as Kaspers said it was pretty hot. Going in, we ran into a man who sings in a local choir with the Kaspers and who works for the American Consular General who unknown to us until we were leaving had paid for our lunch. Then the maitre d' , who had known the Lyerlys, saw our badges and came to visit with us. He gave us his card and said to call whenever we are coming so he can take good care of us. We told him of our celebrations and he brought out some type of fancy chocolate cheesecake which we were too full to try and Kaspers took home for family home evening.
President Bushkar (I think) is putting a garland of very fragrant flowers around my neck (like a lei but with India's own unique look). Next he put on the scarf and the same on Bill. Then he gave us another garland of flowers to put on each other. We sat, laden down with this heavy and hot paraphanalia, while about 30 village men gathered around and watched us try to get information from the leaders--difficult because of the language barriers. As sweet as it was, I wasn't the slightest bit comfortable with the attention and gifts because we haven't done anything yet. We traveled to Pachampally for a possible water purification project which Praveen is trying to set up--different from the 30 village project that Shekar is helping us with. Can you believe that there were three of these signs on buildings around the village square?! I'm not geared for such attention. ( The camera's battery konked out so I don't think we got the best view and nothing after this little ceremony.) The scarves are very tightly handwoven in the village. If we hadn't stopped to watch one of the weavers after our questioning, I would not have believed it wasn't done with high tech equipment.
3 comments:
Glad you were able to eat some decent food at the Marriott. That's really nice they made quite a fuss over you guys. I can only imagine how uncomfortable you both must have felt with all that attention!
P.S. We are watching the Olympic Opening Ceremony which is awesome. I didn't see any women in India's group...can that be right?
We really enjoyed seeing you guys on Skype the other day. I am not sure I would enjoy all the attention either when you aren't sure whether you will even be able to help or not.
Wow, I couldn't believe it when I saw your names on the banner. You guys are really outside your comfort zones with all this attention. Maybe by the time you guys get home Elder will be coming up to us for hugs:) ha ha. You guys look like giants over there, it really is neat to see you among the people.
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