Balwinder and Kiran in Bhaarat

We flew into London Heathrow and had about a 6 hour layover - Brandon was itching to get out of the airport because we have been to the airport a few times but never outside. I was apprehensive about it (of course...the hesitant one vs the adventurous one) but we walked in the cold (I still had my sandals on from India, not expecting to walk in cold...what is cold?!) and went to a cafe run by a friendly old Italian man. He directed us to a large park where we took a few photos. It had so many cute doggies off leash, large grassy areas, fountains, and statues. Since we still had time to kill, we decided to take the Deeraj Bhattacharya approach and just hire a taxi to show us some famous places within our time frame. Our friendly and talkative driver took us to Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and The Eye. Getting back to the train station from where we came from the airport, we decided to use up our remaining Pounds and bought some snacks we have never seen before. Ugh, as if we haven't ...

We woke up a little later and a little more tired after staying up and partying (no, not THAT hard). But Chris and Gabriel had already left for Chris's 8:30am public talk; 1 of 4 for today! We had breakfast and attended the 11am meeting and met many brothers and sisters from this 115 publisher congregation.  Angeline's mom and several sisters and studies from their congregation too because, as we later found out, they wanted to meet us. Many friends piled into Chris's house for another tasty meal. I passed around Jelly Belly's (again!) and it got 3/4 of the way around the crowd, then this 2.5 year old girl was just eating one after another! But she was sharing too, she even gave me and Brandon the last two! Took a nap and finished packing and said goodbye to Chris's posse for his third talk of the day. I knew I was going to be sad, but I didn't expect to start balling in front of everyone! We have just had an amazing experience with our brothers and sisters (and...

I tried on the half saree that sister Lizzy sewed for me and it didn't fit quite right...so...after Gabriel's wife Amutha kindly took out the seams we ended up going back to Sumaya's grandmother to fix it for us - check! Grandfather even gifted a hat to Brandon! He's so cute! Then I got a facial (first time) and my hair done in ribbon curls.  We made it to the wedding location late, of course (Indian Stretchable Time as it's put), but the bride was running late too so everything ran late. :) The stage was decorated with flowers and lights with changing colors. Chris gave the talk and the bride, groom, maid of honor and best man sat on the main floor in front of the stage.  Some commented on Chris's talk as being unusual for a wedding talk, but as a good thing - energetic, animated, and with bits of humor. He was hoping to make that a witness even to the witnesses.  The next room over had a large buffet and once the official reception time was over another witnes...

We exchanged stories this morning of how we came into the truth and had breakfast (and ladoo!).  Also Chris brought out a Bible made by the BSI that is romanized Urdu - weird!! This is Psalm 83:18: We slept a looong time and prepared our Watchtowers while the rest ran errands. We went down to eat lunch and it was just Chris's mom and Suseela, so we had to use our best Urdu and Tamil. Afterward we offered auntie some Jelly Bellys we brought from home. It was so cute watching her eat a mango and peach jelly belly. She asked, "this is to eat?" Awwww..... Today was just sleeping and passing time...when everyone returned we shared pictures from home and agreed to share each other's photos when we got home.  Tomorrow - the big day! Update on Job: his fever is gone and just has a lingering headache and some cold symptoms. He said he'll be much better for tomorrow. But now Chris is feeling sick... Current cumulative mosquito bite count: 19

Noodles again for breakfast! I was so happy...Angeline knows I love them, so I think they'll keep coming! Our plan for today was to first visit Sumaya's mom as a social return visit. We had to climb a metal spiral staircase to get there and once on the patio the main walls were painted bright green with doors framed in bright blue. I love the bright colors they use on their houses. Her parents (whom we had met previously) arrived as well as her husband. I brought the suit that Job bought me to attach the sleeves and it was so cool to watch Sumaya's mom and grandfather prep the manual sewing machine and use the large metal pedal used by both feet - there wasn't a proper place for the thread to sit so grandfather held it while mom sewed; Angeline said, "only in India would you see this kind if teamwork just to use a sewing machine!" While Sumaya, Chris, and Gabriel went off to do something else, Brandon and I were dropped off in a commercial area to do a little ...

Job told us he was woken up by mosquitos all night and didn't sleep until 3am - but he is banned by his family, as well as is Sandra, from leaving the house for fear of getting hurt right before the wedding (I was told this still lingers from superstition, but now it is more of a practical precaution - especially since Angeline said that every time she comes to visit, someone ends up in the hospital). Gabriel picked us up at 8:45am in a 10-seater bus and we slowly added more and more people on our way to the dam.  Before we reached there, we stopped at an aquarium; we joked it was the highlight of the day because it only took 2 minutes to see it all, lol.  And there were swings there, so of course I had to take a swing picture for my friends... Very steep stone steps led us down to the dam were people were washing clothes, brushing their teeth, and just enjoying the cool water on a warm day. We were following one of our hosts to a small outcropping of grass, but poor Brandon f...

(Sorry all, with these old concrete and marble buildings, wifi isn't as available as I thought it'd be) After a great breakfast, we set out to the countryside where Angeline's mom lives. But first we stopped by Sumaya's grandparents' house where she grew up. They also speak Urdu in addition to Tamil, so we were able to communicate a bit. Uncle Iqbaal was so cute; he had offered a certain "spicy snack" to another American recently and wanted to see how we liked it. He set out for the store on his scooter to get it for us! We had tea and biscuits and he returned with what looked like yellow corn chips and something Chris described as the Tamil pretzel. They were both good, but not spicy at all. Ever since we arrived here people worry that the food is too spicy for us - lol! I guess we've had good training from return visits and Punjab! When we arrived at Angeline's mom's place, we were also greeted by her aunt Lily, her niece Poppy, Poppy's d...

Because of poorly timed flights and layovers, we only got a couple hours of sleep here and on our way to Coimbatore. When we walked outside to meet Job and his former Bible teacher Chris, we looked around to find a tall figure among the crowd...I scanned left to right, then way back in the parking lot this arm shot up above everything else in sight. lol.  We got to chat a bit while we waited for Chris to come with a car since Job rode his dad's two-wheeler, as they put it. Up drove Gabriel, a good friend of Chris's, Sumaya, Chris's niece (who has an amazing story about coming in the truth), and THE Christopher himself. After spending the day with him, both Brandon and I think we looks, talks, laughs, and behaves like Mike Martinez!! (Mike, you'll have to meet your Tamilian doppelgänger someday!) We came back to the Chris's house (where we are staying) and met his wife Angeline, Job's fiancé Sandra, Chris's super cute mom (with whom we could speak Urdu), and ...

The meeting for field service was at Uncle Seetal's house today (at 8:45am, mind you!) but we hid in our room to finish packing and getting ready; besides Caesar's law says we cannot preach there. Interesting side note that usually the groups just meet in the field and they do not have a formal meeting for field service. But they have been trying to have formal meetings more now and the friends are appreciating it.  Today's public talk was a surprise: Brother Sanderson's Zone Visit talk at the India Branch. Soniya, Harpreet, and I sat in the back seat of the car with the flat screen tv behind us so we could use it to watch the recording via DVD (and I believe the chairman was Brother Syms). The attendance was 176, but the end of the month public meeting is usually larger since the Nava Shaher group meets with Phagwara then. I must admit I was happy to expect to hear some English, but I only understood a little of the talk since it was simultaneously translated into Punj...

I love how spiritually minded this family is. They always discuss the daily text together before breakfast over chai and biscuits. And you will find them reading publications or the Bible in their free time.  After breakfast and borrowing a suit of Soniya's, Uncle Seetal dropped me, Brandon, and Auntie Resham at a bazaar to shop for gifts. We spent some time buying items that a few friends specifically asked for (I hope you like what I bought for you!!) and a couple things for myself (that Auntie insisted on, ie: a salwar kameez and set of matching bangles). Auntie really fought for me when it came to a set of metal cups - after buying them Franklin said that we paid too much. So auntie took me back and gave the shopkeeper a piece of her mind and after getting a refund we took our business elsewhere and saved some money. :)  Go auntie! She saved us from other shopkeepers too in going to the good stores and keeping the begging children away. :( Much to our surprise, we...

We were woken up around 8am by the natural light escaping through the window curtains, horns, dogs, and the next door neighbor preparing breakfast in the kitchen. We didn't get to eating breakfast until 10am, but it was delicious: chai, biscuits, aloo paronthe with butter and curd. Auntie ji works hard feeding us at times other than the rest of the family eats. We took a walk around the block and met with stray dogs growling at one another over territory, small stands selling food (I saw a packaged bag called "Uncle Chipps"!), and stares from locals.  Uncle Seetal, Auntie Resham, and Kamlesh bhain took us to Science City in Jalandhar. We rode a flight simulator, watched a 3-D film, a laser light show, and watched a show in the planetarium. This park had many different areas including dinosaur models. Some were in bad shape with only one arm or no head at all. :(  We had thought about going to the remote translation office (where they do Punjabi language translation) but t...

Sorry, all. Only now do I have wifi...anyway... Crying babies galore on our London to Delhi flight! It was funny how the feel of our travels changed as soon as we arrived at our gate to board an India bound plane. The gate was too small to accommodate all the passengers, and when we were getting settled into our seats there were disputes left and right about who's seat was who's.  Brandon and I ordered chicken and so did our row neighbors (who were Indian), however we received chicken in a mushroom sauce with green beans and sweet potatoes, but they got chicken curry with roti! I was happy to eat my kheer, though. :) It was a pretty uneventful trip, except for me dreaming that I had started a Bible study, and a need for a doctor on board for a passenger. Lastly, we didn't expect to get sprayed with a disinfectant upon arrival inside the plane. I guess UK germs aren't friendly to India...?  We took two taxis to get to Phagwara, but talk about a crazy taxi ride! We had co...

Made it to London after an uneventful 9+ hour flight. Just ordered bangers and mash in Punjabi from our waiter, Sandeep. :) Had beef and mashed potatoes on our flight - even a surprise vanilla ice cream sandwich. Too bad it was stale and hard as a rock...ew.  We're trying to stick to India time, however it's 6:45am at home, 2:45pm local time, and 8:15 India time...I guess I just ate dinner.  Next is our flight to Delhi in about 5 hours...ZzZZzzzz...

it's so crazy that today is departure day...finally made it to 96% packed (we cannot e-check in nor print boarding tickets because they want physical proof of our identity) with a 30 lb backpack (imma die!) not to mention a carry-on day pack and my purse...how do i keep doing that? bags galore, i thought i had pared it down pretty good, but it weighs so much!! uh, girls are dumb... P.S. in case you don't know, Balwinder is Brandon's Punjabi name (Brandon is so hard to pronounce, he adapted our last name), Kiran is my Punjabi name (i usually say "Karyn" at the door, but it's interpreted as "Kiran" [and i like the meaning, "ray of sun"], and Bhaarat is "India") :D