More Bits and Pieces

Up close and personal right across from where we live which is up the little alleyway to the right of the building with the blue sign. We have to cross two directions of traffic (It's Sunday--today--and traffic is always a lot thinner), the one on the other side of the median, and then the road you can see. We looked to our left for traffic and right in the middle of the road came these two camels. I had Dad take my scriptures and I hurriedly got out my camera. When these boys saw me taking their pic, they headed toward us and as you can see on the right, they are right next to us. Dad was negotiating with a stopped auto and wanting me to get in because the camel didn't seem any too friendly and Dad was just a little worried about being trampled. The boys didn't smile and perhaps didn't like our taking their pix but we did and hopped into the auto and were off. Pretty cool!

I have long been interested in the scaffolding around the buildings under construction and finally got a picture of one (below). I am usually too intimidated by all the people to bring out my camera. It is made from the bamboo sticks in this closest picture--not anything I would want to climb or feel secure about. Sometimes the buildings are six or seven stories and the scaffolding surrounds the entire structure.

Note the women in sarees engaged in road construction. I see them dressed in even fancier sarees swinging pick axes in the rock quarries along the side of the road. Here the men are digging a very large hole in preparation for a flyover. The dirt is put into the wooden bowl/plate and passed from one woman to the next until the last one dumps it onto the pile at the left. Quite amazing. It will take a lot of digging for the flyover.

Entrance to a large indoor stadium where we went for a press conference for SMAAT's new filter that produces 2000 liters/hour to be used for flood and disaster relief. SMAAT is the RO filter provider for the villages we go to. This spot was an hour away by auto and Shekar left us to come back alone so that he could get a bus to his house. It was the most harrowing ride we have had. Dad said while riding, "No one would believe this if they weren't here." I worried too because we had to make so many turns in every direction to get home and had no idea where we were and no live cell to call should we get stranded. But just the ride was pretty unbelievable, narrowly missing so many pedestrians and other vehicles. The driver wasn't giving an inch to anybody and had an auto with a little more power than usual. When we finally turned on to Raj Bhavan Road and eventually saw KFC, we knew we were OK.

The elders loved my breakfast of banana walnut pancakes, scrambled eggs and fruit salad. From left Elder Leckington, AP (stayed over from zone conference to do splits since they can't do any in Bangalore anymore), Elder Mackay (high school wrestler from San Diego, new), Elder Moses (Utah, zone leader), Elder Hatch (Scottsdale, AP, related to Snowflake Hatches), Elder Nixon (football player from Washington, D.C., new), Elder Tyler (Wyoming, zone leader). They are all very impressive .

Sister Arza (India, new) Veronica (pronounced with a long "o" and just baptized), and Sister LeFevre (Utah, the one adopted in family of 14). These sisters are very shy with very small voices around most of us but are fireballs when it comes to teaching investigators.