What Happened to the Monsoon Rains?

The monsoon rains should have been upon us, but they did not come. Apparently, the areas around Coimbatore has received some rain, but not the Monsoon rains. We haven't had any rain here worth talking about. We may be looking at a drought year.

We can tell that some places had rain because this area has been marshy at best since we arrived, but now it looks more like a small lake. This area is one of only a few areas that is green. While there are a few trees here and there, most of the city around our area is pavement and concrete. Most people do not have yards here, so lawns are mostly non-existent.

 A few places, like the Church grounds, have trees, flowers, and lawn.

Hearing the term "the monsoon rains" brings up visions of stormy weather, but actually, the rains are quite light. The mountains stop the heavier rains during this season. We believe that the heavy rains come in September. We will see if those rains materialize.



Because we have had no rain, we have been able to be out walking. While we were out, we bought a clock for 200 rupies ($4.00) from a small shop on the street that we take when we go to church. The shop is no bigger than 8 feet by 8 feet.We finally have something hanging on one of our walls. We hung it using a hook that sticks on the wall because we don't have a drill, and we don't know what type of anchor is required to hang things on the cement walls.

One of our outings took us to the post office. We walked the 1.5 km to the post office so we could mail a birthday card to our son. We finally found a store that sells birthday cards, so now we can send birthday cards to family members. But, it means a 1.5 km walk everytime to mail them.

Everywhere we walk, we see street vendors selling everything from fruit to clothing. The streets seem to be in constant motion. India is definitely a busy place. You can see some people crossing the street in this picture. Crossing the street is . . . interesting. People here don't have to go sky diving or things like that to get a rush; they just have to cross the street. Vehicles have the right of way - need we say more. On the bright side, the traffic sharpens one's awareness of one's surroundings.

We must also not only manoever around street vendors but around garbage bins, crowds of people at bus stops, parked cows . . . yes, parked cows. Oh, we have to go around parked cars, too.

Actually, we see more goats here than cows, but we come across them periodically. We saw more cows in Bangalore than here.

We see a LOT of bananas here. We particularly like the red ones and the mini ones. They are sweeter than the regular bananas, and the flesh of both have a pinkish tinge.

Whenever we stop by the church, we always stop in to see Brother Prakash. He is one of the security guards at the church gate. We ask him if we have any mail, and just about everytime, he says no. It has almost become a game. He will often say "no mail" and laugh before we even ask. We are waiting for a package that was mailed from home May 28th. Prakash is here with Elder Ram and Elder Kumar, the Zone Leaders.

Sister Tiefenbach is preparing a choir to sing for District Conference that will be held on July 28th and 29th. The choir is small, but the choir members are making good progress. They have even been able to learn tenor and bass for the chorus for one of the hymns.

Brother Raja (standing on left) and Sister Renuka (gold saree) and her sister prepared lunch for all the missionaries in Coimbatore. Brother Raja and Sister Renuka have a nicely decorated home. Most homes we have been in are not decorated in any way. Sometimes the main thing hanging on their walls is a huge calendar. When the members of the church prepare lunch, they prepare a LOT of food. For this lunch, they made masala dosa, chicken curry, rice (of course), vegetable fried rice, and a variety of chutneys (sauces) to go with the masala dosa. The masala dosa was our favourite. Dosa is similar to a thin pancake (without baking powder). The dosa is usually folded in half and will sometimes have a filling in it. Masala dosa has cooked, spicy potatoes in it.We also had dessert first. the dessert was gulab jamun. Usually, we haven't cared for it in the past, but this was very good. Elder Jurial took the picture so is not in the picture.

Sister Tiefenbach made oatmeal dosas. Sister Sonia had come over earlier in the week to share some recipes. Sister Tiefenbach taught Sister Sonia how to make oatmeal cookies, and Sister Sonia taught Sister Tiefenbach how to make dosas.









Elder Tiefenbach enjoyed the dosas.

We teach English classes on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons at the church. The Anand family in 1st Branch want to learn English, but they live very far from the church and can't travel to the church at those times. We decided that we would go to their house to teach them. One other family who is taking the lessons from the missionaries (the man in the white shirt at the front) also attended that night. Although the Anand family lives in the city, their area is a rural like setting. Their house, which has a tin roof is in a cluster of many houses. No roads or sidewalks divide the houses. Dogs, chickens, and roosters freely roam around the houses. Their house is a stark difference from the home where all the missionaries ate lunch.

We visited a family who had one-year-old twin boys. The mother is standing between two bag-type things that are suspended from the ceiling. These bags are the beds for the babies. Yes, that is right. If the baby is fussy, they swing the bag. The baby on the mother's left was fussing, so she was swinging the baby as we took the picture. These "bags" are like a hammock. We had never seen anything like this. This is definitely cheaper than the cribs we buy in North America. (The mother had just washed her hair and has a towel around her hair - just in case you wondering what she had on her head.)