The past few days have been unbelievable. They're the kind of days that make me so grateful to be here in India. They were full of highs and lows, but even the lows are things we can laugh about now. It's the laughter that brings us together and reminds us that we're human - we're working with humans, and you just have to roll with the punches.
On Thursday, Sarah went with Lauren to meet with a man who runs a sewing school and whose brother is a bag designer (Sarah owns her own bag business www.annebdesigns.com). so Julie and I were on our own for sewing. We started off the day by calling our auto driver from the night before (the really cheap one) and arranging for him to pick us up at 10:30. Around 10:15 we walked across the street to buy some paper and pens. The little shop that we frequent there is owned and run by a man named Ramsey who lives in our building. While we were making our purchase he said to us: "You went to Moula Ali last night?" and we told him we had, and he asked "What time did you get home?" So we told him that we got home around 8 or 8:30 and he said to us "Moula Ali is not a safe place. You should not go there! I wanted to stop you, but you had already left. There are gangsters there." We laughed a little at that later because we never once felt unsafe in Moula Ali, but it was sweet of Ramsey to be concerned about us.
The girls who were heading to jewelry met us at Ramsey's shop to catch an auto. The sewing and jewelry classes are close to each other so when we can, we ride over together. We told them we had an auto coming, but they were pretty anxious to get going, so we sent them off in their own auto. KK (that was our auto driver's name) arrived shortly after that and we hopped in. He immediately made a u-turn and started heading the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. I didn't say anything because sometimes the auto drivers take the back roads and if that were his plan, I could still make sense of his direction. But after a while it became apparent that he was not taking the back roads. I tried to confirm with him the directions and landmark I had given him and he bobbled his head and kept driving. Eventually it got to the point that we made him pull over to figure out where he was taking us. Turns out, KK doesn't speak ANY English and for some reason thought he was supposed to be taking us to Secunderbad train station. I swear he and I repeated our real destination to each other multiple times, but whatever. So we turn around and he takes us to the slums where we are supposed to be. we arranged for him to come back and pick us up at 4:00 after all our classes. We ended up being late for our first sewing class, and then we couldn't get the inside door unlocked. Thankfully we got the outside door unlocked so we could at least get to the sewing machines. But our chalkboard was locked inside the inner room, so it made instruction a little more difficult. The class worked well and did what we had planned, but were upset that we didn't let them stay longer to make up for the lost time. It was hard to explain that our next class was arriving and we couldn't transition the time of all our classes.
Our second class of the day was such a joy! All the ladies remembered to bring their fabric, which on Wednesday we had cut out to make little girl's frocks. I started off by showing them how to do a gather. It was a little difficult because they always want to cut their threads SO short, so they had a hard time understanding why I wanted them to keep the thread long. Once I showed them how to do the front side of the skirt they were all able to do the back side on their own. They were rockstars on their machines and I was so excited to watch them work and see that they understood what they needed to do and were remembering the techniques we had taught them.
In the mere 45 minute class all four of the women finished their frocks!
I was so proud and it helped me feel better about the day, which started off a little rocky. Unfortunately, it went a little downhill from there. Our third and fourth classes have a terrible habit of showing up at the same time, which would be alright (because there's a total of six of them) except that they are divided by beginners and advanced. The girls from the advanced class can be very distracting to the beginning girls and sometimes try and take over for them. Then there was a girl who showed up that hadn't been to class in a week. I called Sarah to see what I should do and she said to let her stay but observe how she does. Well...her sewing was a train wreck. None of her seams were straight, and her rolled hems were all twisted and uneven. None of the advanced girls brought their fabric, so there was literally nothing we could do with them. We showed them a picture of what the morning class had accomplished, so hopefully they will bring their fabric on Monday. It was also rough because a group of like 10 kids showed up and kept trying to come inside, or were peeking through the windows and honestly just trying to annoy us. They would yell out "Hi!" and then run away giggling. Then they would do that over, and over, and over...it was super annoying and distracting. Then some other girls from the village who are not in our class tried to come in and just sit and visit. There were so many extra people in the room that I got really frustrated. Finally we kicked everyone out who wasn't in our class and they tried to beg. They would say "Please Madame, please!" and give us these little poutey faces. But we were not having any of it. I admit it was a relief when classes were over and I could send everyone home.
Julie and I went out to wait for KK and bought ourselves a limca as a consolation prize for the day. KK never showed up and when we called him he didn't answer his phone, so we headed through the village to the main road to find another auto.
That evening, our cook made us a lovely dal. Then we all went out for ice cream. I guess there was a some sort of competition we didn't know about between all the countries, and we won! HELP said our team had the best pictures and were the best at remembering to use our hashtags (#HELPIndia, #IndiaMakersMission) and to tag @helpintl, so they treated us to an ice cream party! We went to this amazing place called Frozen Desert. Yes, desert, not dessert - it's not a typo, I can spell. Frozen Desert. Named such because the floor is entirely covered with sand. It was seriously the most amazing ice cream experience of my life. You take your shoes off outside and then get to enjoy the sand between your toes. The chairs are all wicker, and made by the owner! The tables are just giant slabs of rock. The ice cream itself was made fresh and served in the shape of roses! Not to mention it was absolutely delicious.
Friday morning I facetimed with my mom and Wesley for maybe 10 minutes or so before I had to get ready to leave. We went to Spurti, the boys' hostel that day. It was a little crazy. We tried to teach them division, but it was hard because a lot of the time they would just bounce from person to person to see who was more fun, so they never spent enough time in one place to really learn much. I ended up working one on one with a little boy whose math was very good. I think the biggest struggle was me having to come up with equations for him! I'm terrible at division. Thankfully all my equations ended up be real and solvable. Haha. They do this funny thing here for division. An equation would look like this: 18)9(2 So not only did I have to come up with equations for him to solve, but I had to remember to write them in that funny way. So really, I was the only one having trouble in that situation.
After Spurti we went to a little clothing shop to pick up some things some of the girls had ordered the other day. I saw a BEAUTIFUL kurta that was totally obsessed with, but the one I found was an XL. I asked the attendant if he had any in a small and he just started pulling out anything that was a size small. I tried to explain that I wanted that specific kurta, but he didn't get it, so I gave up. I'll just make it when I get home and then I can make it a dress instead of a kurta anyway.
We took an auto home instead of the bus because we hate the bus. We rode the bus there in the morning and it was horrible as always. There are just too many people and the fee collector always pushing his/her way up and down the aisles when there just isn't any room. So yes, we opted for an auto.
That night we went to dinner at a place called Swastik. Yes, that's right. Welcome to India where swastikas are a thing - EVERYWHERE. I guess they are actually a Hindu symbol signifying life. Allow me to show you how it works. On the left is the Hindu swastik, on the left, the Nazi swastika.
There is a difference, but even so it still makes us a little uncomfortable to see them everywhere.
That evening, after dinner, I facetimed with my mom again. Days seem a lot longer than they are so I felt like I hadn't talked to her in ages, even though it was only that morning. The girls made no bake cookies, so I had some of those when I got off.
Saturday we got up early to head out for our day trip to Charminar. A boy in the ward had arranged for a driver to take us so we wouldn't' have to worry about finding autos to take us to all the places we wanted to see. It was so nice to be in a vehicle that was closed in, had air conditioning, and didn't require anyone to sit on anyone else's lap.
Our first stop was Charminar. Charminar is a monument/mosque that was built like 500 years ago. Charminar is an Urdu phrase meaning "four pillars." The common belief on why Charminar was built is that it was erected in the center of the city to remember those who died of the plague. One of the security guards was very nice to tell us what he could. He said there were four arches in the corridors to represent the 4,000 people that died. When you go inside Charminar, you go up a scary, narrow, steep, spiral staircase located within one of the pillars and then are able to wander the upper corridors that look down into the open court below. It was really neat to look around the monument, as well as to see the views of the city.
After we toured Charminar we wandered around the markets for awhile. We saw some cool sites and found some good deals. We probably only spent half an hour to fourty-five minutes in the market before meeting our driver again. He then took us to a pearl shop, because the jewelry girls wanted to buy some cheap pearls. Of course, they were hoping for wholesale which was not what we ended up looking at, but pearls are still really cheap here. A pair of pink pearl earrings runs at about $12.5 USD. REAL PINK PEARLS. For twelve and a half dollars! It was crazy. But of course, I'm hearing it as 800 rupees, and in my current Indian mindset that was too much to want to pay. Haha, I'm going to come home and be SO cheap. I'll die having to buy anything at home.
After the pearl shop he drove us to a bakery that he said had really good cookies. Some of the girls bought some, but you had to buy a whole kilogram, you couldn't just buy one cookie. So actually, I think only two girls bought some. But they let us all try them. Megan bought a ginger cookie, which was good - but not like a gingersnap or gingerbread, which is what I was expecting. Courtney bought some chocolate and some butter cookies. The butter cookies were my favorite. They were so light! I loved them.
We went to the Salar Jung Museum next.
Sarah and Lauren got in a fight with the security guard because he wouldn't let them take their cameras inside. You had to pay 50 rupees to be allowed to take photos inside, and they hadn't paid. They insisted that they weren't going to take pictures, but the guard made them go put their cameras in a locker. Finally we got to go inside and look around. The building is HUGE, but I felt like the collections were kind of small - that is until I found out that everything in the museum was collected by, and belonged to just one person - Salar Jung III. In fact, it is the largest one man collection in the world. So while the individual exhibits may have seemed small, overall, it was an impressively large collection. We saw some really neat things like ivory carvings and ancient cloth embroidery. It was fun to look around, but it was also hot and muggy. The building didn't have AC just a lot of fans blowing around hot air. We found some fun things at the gift shop and when I didn't have the exact 30 rupees the man reqested I "ask my friend" (Julie) if she had it to spare me. I really wanted to be like "I don't know her!" because it was very rude of him to assume that just because we're both white, we're friends. ;P I ended up finding the 30 rupee and it was fine.
Our final stop for the day was Golconda Fort. It was also my favorite part of the day so far. Possibly my favorite part of my trip. Golconda Fort was built over 1000 years ago and was where the famous Hope diamond was mined and kept. During Golconda's prime, India had the only known diamond mines in the world, and many of them came from Golconda. The term "Golconda" is now used to describe diamond that contain zero nitrogen.
The fort covers nearly 7 square miles of land and actually consists of four forts, eight gates, four drawbridges, temples, mosques, apartments, and much more. The most wonderful thing about it is that you can climb all over it and explore every little nook and cranny. I've never made a habit of visiting ancient runes before, but I assume they don't usually let you roam free. Here, we were able to discover secret staircases, jump over crumbled areas, climb walls, the works! We took the stairs to the highest point of the fort where there was a temple and an extraordinary view! We had SO much fun.
One of the most ridiculous things about this trip was how often we got asked to take our picture with someone. If this is what it's like to be famous - I never want to be famous. We got to the point that we started refusing people...and then they would try and sneak pictures of us. I guess because I grew up in such a culturally diverse place I just don't understand the fascination. Why would you want your picture with some random stranger just because they are a different skin color? It is really that cool to say you met a white person? Apparently. So we are going to be all over the Indian facebook feeds.
In the evenings, they have a "light and sound show" at the fort. Mostly they just shine colored lights on the stones and narrate the history of the fort. While we were waiting for the light show we took pity on the adorable and sad stray fort dogs. We fed them bits of bread and gave them water to drink. I wish I could do this for all the sad, skinny, stray dogs in India.
We also got to enjoy a natural light show while we waited!
In the end, we only got to see about 10 minutes of the light show because it started to lightning and thunder and rain. Yay monsoon season! So we all ran to the car and headed home. The drive home was HORRIBLE. For being in such a fancy little fan, it was still just a stick shift and so the driving was really jerky. (Yes Dad, I know that means they're not driving it right, but there was nothing I could do about it) And then we got stuck in this terrible stop and go traffic and our driver did not stop softly - so then there was MORE jerking. When we finally got home, I felt so car sick I threw up. I don't usually get car sick, but there was just so much jerking and stop and go that it really hit me. So I came home and went straight to bed.
This morning a random man showed up at our apartment saying "water, water." We thought maybe he was here to check on our drinking water, but actually he came to fix the water in the back bathroom! (which is my bathroom) So now we have a working shower!!! (from 6am-9am) We couldn't be more thrilled. I can't wait to wash my hair tomorrow NOT in a bucket.
Today we had Stake Conference. The ward chartered a bus to take us there since it was about half an hour away. Julie ended up having to play the intermediate hymn...on the organ, which we had never done before. But she did a great job! There was a visiting 70 from Singapore who spoke. We got to talk with him afterward, and he attended BYU, so when he asked where I was going to school and I said UVU - he knew what I was talking about! Haha. He was really nice and gave a wonderful talk on family history.
The rest of the day has been very relaxed. We played nerts, and had our weekly team meeting. This week is Sarah and Courtney's last week, so we will be finishing up our sewing class. I can't believe it is already so close to being done! I am only here two more weeks. It just seems so soon. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to sleep in a real bed again.
On Thursday, Sarah went with Lauren to meet with a man who runs a sewing school and whose brother is a bag designer (Sarah owns her own bag business www.annebdesigns.com). so Julie and I were on our own for sewing. We started off the day by calling our auto driver from the night before (the really cheap one) and arranging for him to pick us up at 10:30. Around 10:15 we walked across the street to buy some paper and pens. The little shop that we frequent there is owned and run by a man named Ramsey who lives in our building. While we were making our purchase he said to us: "You went to Moula Ali last night?" and we told him we had, and he asked "What time did you get home?" So we told him that we got home around 8 or 8:30 and he said to us "Moula Ali is not a safe place. You should not go there! I wanted to stop you, but you had already left. There are gangsters there." We laughed a little at that later because we never once felt unsafe in Moula Ali, but it was sweet of Ramsey to be concerned about us.
The girls who were heading to jewelry met us at Ramsey's shop to catch an auto. The sewing and jewelry classes are close to each other so when we can, we ride over together. We told them we had an auto coming, but they were pretty anxious to get going, so we sent them off in their own auto. KK (that was our auto driver's name) arrived shortly after that and we hopped in. He immediately made a u-turn and started heading the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. I didn't say anything because sometimes the auto drivers take the back roads and if that were his plan, I could still make sense of his direction. But after a while it became apparent that he was not taking the back roads. I tried to confirm with him the directions and landmark I had given him and he bobbled his head and kept driving. Eventually it got to the point that we made him pull over to figure out where he was taking us. Turns out, KK doesn't speak ANY English and for some reason thought he was supposed to be taking us to Secunderbad train station. I swear he and I repeated our real destination to each other multiple times, but whatever. So we turn around and he takes us to the slums where we are supposed to be. we arranged for him to come back and pick us up at 4:00 after all our classes. We ended up being late for our first sewing class, and then we couldn't get the inside door unlocked. Thankfully we got the outside door unlocked so we could at least get to the sewing machines. But our chalkboard was locked inside the inner room, so it made instruction a little more difficult. The class worked well and did what we had planned, but were upset that we didn't let them stay longer to make up for the lost time. It was hard to explain that our next class was arriving and we couldn't transition the time of all our classes.
Our second class of the day was such a joy! All the ladies remembered to bring their fabric, which on Wednesday we had cut out to make little girl's frocks. I started off by showing them how to do a gather. It was a little difficult because they always want to cut their threads SO short, so they had a hard time understanding why I wanted them to keep the thread long. Once I showed them how to do the front side of the skirt they were all able to do the back side on their own. They were rockstars on their machines and I was so excited to watch them work and see that they understood what they needed to do and were remembering the techniques we had taught them.
In the mere 45 minute class all four of the women finished their frocks!
I was so proud and it helped me feel better about the day, which started off a little rocky. Unfortunately, it went a little downhill from there. Our third and fourth classes have a terrible habit of showing up at the same time, which would be alright (because there's a total of six of them) except that they are divided by beginners and advanced. The girls from the advanced class can be very distracting to the beginning girls and sometimes try and take over for them. Then there was a girl who showed up that hadn't been to class in a week. I called Sarah to see what I should do and she said to let her stay but observe how she does. Well...her sewing was a train wreck. None of her seams were straight, and her rolled hems were all twisted and uneven. None of the advanced girls brought their fabric, so there was literally nothing we could do with them. We showed them a picture of what the morning class had accomplished, so hopefully they will bring their fabric on Monday. It was also rough because a group of like 10 kids showed up and kept trying to come inside, or were peeking through the windows and honestly just trying to annoy us. They would yell out "Hi!" and then run away giggling. Then they would do that over, and over, and over...it was super annoying and distracting. Then some other girls from the village who are not in our class tried to come in and just sit and visit. There were so many extra people in the room that I got really frustrated. Finally we kicked everyone out who wasn't in our class and they tried to beg. They would say "Please Madame, please!" and give us these little poutey faces. But we were not having any of it. I admit it was a relief when classes were over and I could send everyone home.
Julie and I went out to wait for KK and bought ourselves a limca as a consolation prize for the day. KK never showed up and when we called him he didn't answer his phone, so we headed through the village to the main road to find another auto.
That evening, our cook made us a lovely dal. Then we all went out for ice cream. I guess there was a some sort of competition we didn't know about between all the countries, and we won! HELP said our team had the best pictures and were the best at remembering to use our hashtags (#HELPIndia, #IndiaMakersMission) and to tag @helpintl, so they treated us to an ice cream party! We went to this amazing place called Frozen Desert. Yes, desert, not dessert - it's not a typo, I can spell. Frozen Desert. Named such because the floor is entirely covered with sand. It was seriously the most amazing ice cream experience of my life. You take your shoes off outside and then get to enjoy the sand between your toes. The chairs are all wicker, and made by the owner! The tables are just giant slabs of rock. The ice cream itself was made fresh and served in the shape of roses! Not to mention it was absolutely delicious.
Friday morning I facetimed with my mom and Wesley for maybe 10 minutes or so before I had to get ready to leave. We went to Spurti, the boys' hostel that day. It was a little crazy. We tried to teach them division, but it was hard because a lot of the time they would just bounce from person to person to see who was more fun, so they never spent enough time in one place to really learn much. I ended up working one on one with a little boy whose math was very good. I think the biggest struggle was me having to come up with equations for him! I'm terrible at division. Thankfully all my equations ended up be real and solvable. Haha. They do this funny thing here for division. An equation would look like this: 18)9(2 So not only did I have to come up with equations for him to solve, but I had to remember to write them in that funny way. So really, I was the only one having trouble in that situation.
After Spurti we went to a little clothing shop to pick up some things some of the girls had ordered the other day. I saw a BEAUTIFUL kurta that was totally obsessed with, but the one I found was an XL. I asked the attendant if he had any in a small and he just started pulling out anything that was a size small. I tried to explain that I wanted that specific kurta, but he didn't get it, so I gave up. I'll just make it when I get home and then I can make it a dress instead of a kurta anyway.
We took an auto home instead of the bus because we hate the bus. We rode the bus there in the morning and it was horrible as always. There are just too many people and the fee collector always pushing his/her way up and down the aisles when there just isn't any room. So yes, we opted for an auto.
That night we went to dinner at a place called Swastik. Yes, that's right. Welcome to India where swastikas are a thing - EVERYWHERE. I guess they are actually a Hindu symbol signifying life. Allow me to show you how it works. On the left is the Hindu swastik, on the left, the Nazi swastika.
There is a difference, but even so it still makes us a little uncomfortable to see them everywhere.
That evening, after dinner, I facetimed with my mom again. Days seem a lot longer than they are so I felt like I hadn't talked to her in ages, even though it was only that morning. The girls made no bake cookies, so I had some of those when I got off.
Saturday we got up early to head out for our day trip to Charminar. A boy in the ward had arranged for a driver to take us so we wouldn't' have to worry about finding autos to take us to all the places we wanted to see. It was so nice to be in a vehicle that was closed in, had air conditioning, and didn't require anyone to sit on anyone else's lap.
Our first stop was Charminar. Charminar is a monument/mosque that was built like 500 years ago. Charminar is an Urdu phrase meaning "four pillars." The common belief on why Charminar was built is that it was erected in the center of the city to remember those who died of the plague. One of the security guards was very nice to tell us what he could. He said there were four arches in the corridors to represent the 4,000 people that died. When you go inside Charminar, you go up a scary, narrow, steep, spiral staircase located within one of the pillars and then are able to wander the upper corridors that look down into the open court below. It was really neat to look around the monument, as well as to see the views of the city.
(Above, left to right: Lauren, Sarah, Asia, Me, Megan, Courtney, Julie
Below, left to right: Julie, Me)
After we toured Charminar we wandered around the markets for awhile. We saw some cool sites and found some good deals. We probably only spent half an hour to fourty-five minutes in the market before meeting our driver again. He then took us to a pearl shop, because the jewelry girls wanted to buy some cheap pearls. Of course, they were hoping for wholesale which was not what we ended up looking at, but pearls are still really cheap here. A pair of pink pearl earrings runs at about $12.5 USD. REAL PINK PEARLS. For twelve and a half dollars! It was crazy. But of course, I'm hearing it as 800 rupees, and in my current Indian mindset that was too much to want to pay. Haha, I'm going to come home and be SO cheap. I'll die having to buy anything at home.
After the pearl shop he drove us to a bakery that he said had really good cookies. Some of the girls bought some, but you had to buy a whole kilogram, you couldn't just buy one cookie. So actually, I think only two girls bought some. But they let us all try them. Megan bought a ginger cookie, which was good - but not like a gingersnap or gingerbread, which is what I was expecting. Courtney bought some chocolate and some butter cookies. The butter cookies were my favorite. They were so light! I loved them.
We went to the Salar Jung Museum next.
Sarah and Lauren got in a fight with the security guard because he wouldn't let them take their cameras inside. You had to pay 50 rupees to be allowed to take photos inside, and they hadn't paid. They insisted that they weren't going to take pictures, but the guard made them go put their cameras in a locker. Finally we got to go inside and look around. The building is HUGE, but I felt like the collections were kind of small - that is until I found out that everything in the museum was collected by, and belonged to just one person - Salar Jung III. In fact, it is the largest one man collection in the world. So while the individual exhibits may have seemed small, overall, it was an impressively large collection. We saw some really neat things like ivory carvings and ancient cloth embroidery. It was fun to look around, but it was also hot and muggy. The building didn't have AC just a lot of fans blowing around hot air. We found some fun things at the gift shop and when I didn't have the exact 30 rupees the man reqested I "ask my friend" (Julie) if she had it to spare me. I really wanted to be like "I don't know her!" because it was very rude of him to assume that just because we're both white, we're friends. ;P I ended up finding the 30 rupee and it was fine.
Our final stop for the day was Golconda Fort. It was also my favorite part of the day so far. Possibly my favorite part of my trip. Golconda Fort was built over 1000 years ago and was where the famous Hope diamond was mined and kept. During Golconda's prime, India had the only known diamond mines in the world, and many of them came from Golconda. The term "Golconda" is now used to describe diamond that contain zero nitrogen.
The fort covers nearly 7 square miles of land and actually consists of four forts, eight gates, four drawbridges, temples, mosques, apartments, and much more. The most wonderful thing about it is that you can climb all over it and explore every little nook and cranny. I've never made a habit of visiting ancient runes before, but I assume they don't usually let you roam free. Here, we were able to discover secret staircases, jump over crumbled areas, climb walls, the works! We took the stairs to the highest point of the fort where there was a temple and an extraordinary view! We had SO much fun.
(Left to right: Julie, Megan, Lauren, Courtney, me, Sarah, Asia)
One of the most ridiculous things about this trip was how often we got asked to take our picture with someone. If this is what it's like to be famous - I never want to be famous. We got to the point that we started refusing people...and then they would try and sneak pictures of us. I guess because I grew up in such a culturally diverse place I just don't understand the fascination. Why would you want your picture with some random stranger just because they are a different skin color? It is really that cool to say you met a white person? Apparently. So we are going to be all over the Indian facebook feeds.
In the evenings, they have a "light and sound show" at the fort. Mostly they just shine colored lights on the stones and narrate the history of the fort. While we were waiting for the light show we took pity on the adorable and sad stray fort dogs. We fed them bits of bread and gave them water to drink. I wish I could do this for all the sad, skinny, stray dogs in India.
We also got to enjoy a natural light show while we waited!
In the end, we only got to see about 10 minutes of the light show because it started to lightning and thunder and rain. Yay monsoon season! So we all ran to the car and headed home. The drive home was HORRIBLE. For being in such a fancy little fan, it was still just a stick shift and so the driving was really jerky. (Yes Dad, I know that means they're not driving it right, but there was nothing I could do about it) And then we got stuck in this terrible stop and go traffic and our driver did not stop softly - so then there was MORE jerking. When we finally got home, I felt so car sick I threw up. I don't usually get car sick, but there was just so much jerking and stop and go that it really hit me. So I came home and went straight to bed.
This morning a random man showed up at our apartment saying "water, water." We thought maybe he was here to check on our drinking water, but actually he came to fix the water in the back bathroom! (which is my bathroom) So now we have a working shower!!! (from 6am-9am) We couldn't be more thrilled. I can't wait to wash my hair tomorrow NOT in a bucket.
Today we had Stake Conference. The ward chartered a bus to take us there since it was about half an hour away. Julie ended up having to play the intermediate hymn...on the organ, which we had never done before. But she did a great job! There was a visiting 70 from Singapore who spoke. We got to talk with him afterward, and he attended BYU, so when he asked where I was going to school and I said UVU - he knew what I was talking about! Haha. He was really nice and gave a wonderful talk on family history.
The rest of the day has been very relaxed. We played nerts, and had our weekly team meeting. This week is Sarah and Courtney's last week, so we will be finishing up our sewing class. I can't believe it is already so close to being done! I am only here two more weeks. It just seems so soon. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to sleep in a real bed again.
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