Week Ending February 24

Here is Grant with Rhada and Soni two darling girls from the Udayan Home in Mehrauli.  Tuesday night we talked about managing anger.  They are extremely well behaved and well adjusted and we love to be with them.

A mural on the wall of the orphanage.

Indians love to add color and bling to everything, including their trucks.  They are almost always painted and tasseled.  This one is especially glitzy. We liked the added effect of the artificial flowers.

This has to be the worst idea for a toilet I have ever seen.  The traditional Indian toilet is a hole in the floor with a place to put your feet on either side.  This seems to be a hybrid between that and a western toilet.  So you can take your pick????  My experience is that if there are four western toilets and one Indian toilet in a ladies room, the stalls with the western toilets will always be occupied and women will stand patiently in line to use them while the stall with Indian toilet stands empty.

On Tuesday we visited a couple of projects run by the Anchal Charitable Trust.  One is a school for under privileged special needs children located next to several slums in an industrial area in northeast Delhi. 

      Another project of this charity is a school for the children of migrant construction workers in Ramprastha Greens, a new suburb nearby.  This building is located near several construction sites and houses a school where children of the workers are educated while their parents are on the job.  

There are about 100 children in two rooms.  Pre-school age siblings are allowed to attend too otherwise big sister babysitters would miss out on their education.  (Can you see the little one on her sister's lap at the back of the room?)

Workers come from Bihar and Utter Pradesh in the winter to do construction work in Delhi.  They live in temporary shanty towns like this, next to construction sites.   Their children are either put to work or left to themselves while their parents are working.  Often the families return to the rural areas to perform agricultural labor in the warmer months.  As a result, their children are not enrolled in regular schools and do not receive medical care.  One goal of this NGO is to make parents aware of government services and to provide education and a safe place for the children during the day.

Ghandiji's Talisman

"I will give you a talisman.  Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test:  

Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you many have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.  Will he gain anything by it?  Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?  In other words, will it lead to Swaraj (self-determination) for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away."

(The girl holding her little sister is standing to the right of me)

Thursday we visited the Gandhi Smriti at the Birla House where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and was assassinated on 30 January 1948.  The above quote comes from the museum there.  Gandhi is a monumental figure in India but still, curiously, controversial.  Grant is standing at

the place where he was shot as he went for his evening prayer.  The Birla House is in the background.

                                      

Friday night we have the Ambrose family and Kunal Yadav over for a temple preparation lesson and dinner.  Seated next to Grant are Joy Ambrose and her daughter Jessica who just returned from the Bangalore Mission.  Sitting opposite them are Alex and Jason Ambrose.  Jason is waiting for a visa to leave for his mission in New Zealand.  Kunal, at the head of the table is a recent convert and is leaving for the Bangalore Mission in about a week.  We had a lovely evening talking about the temple and considering what a great blessing it is in our lives.

Saturday morning we arose early and flew to Hyderabad to attend an interesting interfaith luncheon at the Stake Center there.  Pictured here are Brothers David Wesley, Arvind Gosika, Rathnam Ganjayee, the Public Affairs Council.  Next to them is Manohar Mekala, first counselor in the Stake Presidency.  Next to him are Catherine and Angel (more about them below), next to them is Benjamin Raju, an attorney that represents Christian pastors in the courts, Vinod Dinakar Godala who advocates for Christians, Archbishop Dr. Frederick Francis (All India Christian Federation for Telangana State), Archbishop R. Harry Sebastian (All India Independent Churches Union), Dr. P. Permanas State Liaison Officer with the Telangana State Minorities Commission, Reverend John Basy Paul, Telangana Auxiliary Secretary, The Bible Society of India and John Gutty, President of the Hyderabad Stake.

Sisters Catherine and Angel are Little Sisters of the Poor.  They run a home for the elderly where they care for about 75 people.  They are a mendicant or begging order and run their home strictly on donations, no endowments.  They told us that they always have more than enough to care for their residents and that "We are rich because of God's providence."  They both received their "call" to this life while young women.  Sister Catherine was 17 and Sister Angle was 18.  

                                                                                                  

This morning we were pleasantly surprised when my sister Mary's neighbor from Murray, Utah came to our Ward along with her husband and three other couples.  They are all in India to attend the wedding of a family member.  They were like visitors from a different, long lost planet!  The hair, the clothes--everything was refreshingly familiar. 

And finally the latest photo of Charlie, our littlest angle.  He is growing and changing so quickly and we are so looking forward to meeting him!