Random Shots

We were out the other day and I took my camera and just snapped some random shots. These are 3 of the kids on our street that always come and say "Hi Auntie" "Hi Uncle" and must shake our hand! Then run and giggle. The sand pile is there because they are building a big apartment complex and they need it to make concrete. the kids love to play in it. You see people sleeping on it....and kids playing in it. The littlest girl was rolling in it.

She had the cutest smile but I caught her wrong every time. Isn't that just the sweetest little face?

St. Johns Catholic church just 3 or 4 buildings away from the West Marredpally chapel. Can you see the stained glass picture of Christ on the Right?

Rug shopping. This rug store appeared a couple of weeks ago. We bought a rug for our entry so elder had some place to put his shoes on and off!!

We went to see the elders and while we were waiting this man came with his brahma bull all decked out and he was playing an Indian Oboe. It was a fun sight to see.

Hyderabad Choral Society Concert

We have been singing in a community choir ever since we got to India. Elder Lyerly was singing with this choir and we enjoyed the concert he took us to enough that we joined the choir. Madhu also joined with us. We had lots of fun going to Choir Practice every Thursday night. Madhu and I would talk a hundred miles per hour!!! Elder Kasper says he could never get a word in. Madhu helped to desin this sign. He's awesome!!!

We performed 2 nights. This was the 2nd night. We performed at an "Adminstrative Training Center." It was a beautiful building with beautiful Grounds. (As you can see.) Heh...the girl and the guy in this picture don't look so bad either!!! (Especially for old people!!!) And I don't look so tall standing by him. For the past year, everytime I have my picture taken it's with SHORT people! What's up with that????

This was the room inside the building that we performed in. Joghi in the maroon shirt is president of the choir and he is the founder of the choir. He started it 14 years ago. Such dedication to keep something going so long.

The far door is the entrance into the building. The door by the stairs goes into the room where we sang. We sang to a packed house both nights. And they asked for an oncore both nights. We sang "When I'm 64" for the oncore the first night and "Oh Happy Day" the 2nd night.

This is the grounds to the back of the building. The men in white with the white hats were serving tea and coffee to the guests. We wondered around and took pictures.

Not all but some of the choir members warming up and doing a sound check. Jonathan behind me is our Australian choir director who won't let us say can't....We have to say Kant...with a soft A. I found myself singing with a bit of an English accent because of the choir director. This was the first night and we sang outside. We sang Fiddler on the roof and a man who sounded Like Tevji, introducted our song on top of the rock behind us. It was cute.

3 of the tenors....Madhu (our most favorite...in the middle with his great big smile!!! He keeps us laughing.)

Shakila and Maya both sang Alto with me.

Relaxing before the concert

Joe Koster from Switzerland is our accompanist. He did a great job and was lots of fun. You can see he pulled all his hair out working with this choir.

Baby Chicks

These baby chicks are running around West MarredPally which is one of the busiest streets in our neighborhood. We saw them playing alongside the road and had to snap a picture.

We've seen these little colored chicks several times. I. guess chickens in India come in all colors

Arent they just the cutest???

Apartment hunting

This is a little fire pit that was in a brand new apartment building that we looked at for Elder Stratton and Elder Raju. You can see the bricks and ashes sitting on a pile of sand.......

In this brand new kitchen. It's not cleaned up yet.....but it is brand new. We were surprised to see this fire pit.

We ended up taking this apartment for the elders. It's a cute apartment...

We have gone apartment hunting with several of the elders. Actually they do the finding and then we go and approve them. This is Elder Stratton (new missionary in India) and Elder Raju, 3rd Branch District leader but getting transferred tomorrow.

This is the apartment we found for them. All of the apartments in that buillding had beautiful doors.

We watched them make one of these doors. Everything is hand carved and takes lots of time.

I'd like some of these doors in my home....

Monkeys

This is a little game we play with the monkeys all the time.
When we are walking down the street they pay no attention to us. They will be sitting on the side of the street and we'll walk by and they don't care.


When I brought my camera out they scampered to get away. They do not like their picture taken. They would run and hide behind these pillars. (this was running) Then they would peak at us behind the pillars to see if we were still there.

This little guy came up and I caught a quick photo of him before he got away. It seems funny to us that they don't care how close you get unless you pull out a camera.

ESPECIALLY FOR ERIK

These pictures we took especially for Erik. He is the demolition man in the family. He has a company that destroys buildings. We wanted to show him how they do that in India. When we first arrived we asked each other, "Are they building it up, or tearing it down?" This is definately a tear it down. This is a building that sits next to our apartment building and we have watched the entire

process. We just didn't get any pictures of the building before they started. It was 3 stories high and these guys brought it down 1 hammer strike at a time.

Here they saw we were taking their picture and posed for us. I motioned that I wanted them to be working when I took the picture....not posing.

Immediately they went to work and their hammers were swinging faster than I had ever seen them swing. They guy in blue is climbing down so he can come and look at the picture before I leave.

Almost finished. All of rubble was loaded into trucks and hauled away. Such hard work.

Sirisha & the Traffic

At the tailor's with Sirisha. I was having a top made to wear with my sari. We are singing with the community choir this weekend and I will have my first experience at wearing a sari.
Next picture is the fabric store.

We're always talking about the traffic and how crossing the street is much different here. You walk diagnally and once you start you don't change your pace or you'll get ran over. The oncoming traffic judges you at the pace they see you walking.

Our dear friend Sirisha was telling us about her trip to the United States. She was in Salt Lake City (she's a translator) and she wanted to cross the street. She saw the sign that said "walk" so she started across the street. When she got part way across the sign read, "don't walk." So she quickly ran back and waited for it to say "walk" again. After doing this 2 or 3 times some nice people helped her get across the street. She said it was very frustrating because in India you just go. This story was hilarious when she grabbed her head and acted out the incident.