Monsoon Finally Here!!!

Today is August 9th. We have been told since June 1st that the Monsoon Season was upon us and the rains were coming. It rained a bit off and on during the week. Nothing unusual. Then last night it happened! It rained so hard that there was a haze in the air. Everything looked a bit blurry! It started during the day with some light rain but about 6 o'clock it poured buckets of rain!! We had a 7 o'clock dinner appointment. We called Elizabeth and Prema to see if we should cancel the appointment or at least wait until the rain lightened up. (ha! ha!) She said, "Sister, we are waiting for you." So we left the apartment to go catch an auto. There was a river in our street that we had to cross to get on our way. I had my Teva's on (I brought them for this occassion.) but Elder Kasper had on his nice dress shoes!! (No Teva's in his wardrobe) I got to the river and jumped in and waded across. He stood there looking at the river. I hollared to him, "Come on Elder. We have to go." He looked right and left, trying to find a smaller place in the river to cross." The entire street was a river. I was wet to about mid calf! They're constructing a building where he was standing and there was a pile of bricks higher than his head. He took 2 and put them on the ground. He stood on them. Then he reached behind him and took 2 more and dropped them in the water in front of him. They sunk out of sight! He had a look of dismay that is undiscribable! (Is that a word....it should be!!) I was laughing so hard I thought I would die! There was a man standing beside me watching the episode, wondering what would happen next! You could see the idea of dry feet dying inside Elder K's head! He leaped into the water in his suit pants and dress shoes and forged the river of water! What a wet good sport he is! He was wet almost to his knees. I'm sure his shoes won't last long in this weather.
2nd phase of our adventure:
We walked to where there were a few autos sitting on the street. No one wants to go anywhere when it rains like this. The auto drivers are only willing to take you if you are willing to pay. It would normally be 40 rupees to go as far as we went last night. We asked the first auto driver and he said 150 rupees.... We said no and asked a 2nd auto driver....while we were asking him the first driver came and in Telegu told him not to take us for less that 150 rupees. He was sabataging our efforts to get an auto. So we went to the 3rd auto driver and he took pity on us and drove us for the price on the meter. We were so grateful that we gave him almost double what was on the meter. It took us about 40 minutes to go a 15 minute distance. Rains were so hard and the rivers were in almost all the streets that we were driving.
We got to Elizabeth's and met her husband and figured out that Prema is her sister. She fed us the best Chapatti's with an egg dish that was drenched in tomatoes and spices and other stuff!! Then she tried her chicken out on us! It was delicious! She is a very good cook. I would like her recipes.
The drive home was 2 elders and Nikhel,a member on exchange that were teaching in the same apartment building as we were. We managed to run into each other and go back to West Maredpally together. Nikhel and Elder Jones didn't have an umbrella and 5 of us were huttled under 3 umbrellas waiting to get an auto. When we finally did it was 150 rupees and when I got in to sit it was in a puddle of water. I was so wet.
The rain was so noisy last night that I couldn't sleep. I finally closed my eyes at 2:30 and woke up at 6....tried to go back to sleep for an hour. I think I slept part of that next hour. We were suppose to teach institute but when it rains like this people don't go anywhere. So Pres. Guntu suggested we cancel institute. So Elder and I are taking the day off! This reminds us of being "Snowed In" in Idaho!!