Thursday

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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 shopping (again!). We even got to try butterscotch ice cream - it's quite common here. There were a lot of American clothing shops and pharmacies, so we unfortunately passed by a lot of businesses. 
It was about 5:30pm by the time we all were done, and we had to run to Gabriel's to get changed for a 6:30pm meeting. Sumaya and I were sitting in the living room ready to go and I teased, "the girls are ready before the boys!" She said, "yes, we are good girls!" Lol. ;)
The meeting was packed with about 150 publishers - although I couldn't understand more than "hello", "thank you", "very good", "water", "do not want" in Tamil from the stage, it was so nice to see the zeal of the congregation and the confident answers from the children. This was Gabriel's family's and Sandra's family's congregation.
So many friends came up to talk to us after the meeting, I was surprised. It was nice to see the love of our brothers. We even got to meet one of Chris's classmates from high school, so we got hear how they'd get in trouble together. :) 
P.S., they only used fans in the Kingdom Hall and you could see the mosquitos flying around. Near the service meeting they had gone, but the temperature was around 89 degrees inside!
Since the meetings are early they typically eat dinner after. (In fact, Chris made it sound like meetings are early because Indians typically eat late) We ate at a fancy place (and they had forks and knives - yay!) and had good food and good association. Melwin (Gabriel's 18 year old son) told us they watched the first half of Forrest Gump in English class! I told him they're all going to end up with southern accents! (Sweet Home Alabama, Job!)
Speaking of which...we found out Job is sick with a fever! Chris joked with him that he might have to postpone the wedding...poor guy, we hope he'll get better real fast!

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