First Week on Our Own in Bangalore

This is our new home for the next . . . well, we are not sure how long we will be here. We were asked to come to Bangalore for about two to two and a half months until the couple who have been called as the office couple get their visas to come to India. We live waaaayyyyyy . . . . up on the top floor of this house. The owners of the house live on the first two floors. The apartment is bigger than our apartment in Coimbatore, but it is older. There are things we like about this apartment over the Coimbatore apartment, and there are things we like about our Coimbatore apartment over the one here.

This is the dining and kitchen area. The door to our apartment opens straight into this area. We like the openness of this area. This kitchen does not have as many cupboards as our Coimbatore apartment, but it has a wonderful breakfast island that gives a lot of counterspace. We also have hot water available in the kitchen tap!!! We are thrilled about that. Hot water in the kitchen means we don't have to go to the bathroom to fill up a bucket with hot water to transport back to the kitchen. In Coimbatore, we had no hot water in the kitchen.

 

This kitchen as a free standing stove. From our experience, this is not common in India. Most people have  two burner stove that sits on the countertop. In Coimbatore, we had a four-burner stove. The stove here has an actual real oven. It is a gas oven, so that is a different experience for us. The oven is smaller than the ones in North America and Europe, but it is big enough to put a 9x13 pan in it. Sister Tiefenbach was busy preparing part of the Sunday meal on Saturday evening.

This is our living room; it is about twice of our living room in Coimbatore. The living room is to the left of the kitchen (if you are looking toward the cupboards) through a set of double doors. With the size of our kitchen/dining area and the size of the living room, we can entertain company quite comfortably. One of the things we like about this apartment is the number of pictures on the walls. All the pictures are based on gospel related themes. The picture in the living room is about Jesus teaching in the temple when He was a boy. You may have noticed the many large windows in our apartment. Every room has large windows, so we get a wonderful cross breeze throughout the apartment, making the temperature inside quite pleasant. Of course, we still need the fans, but so far, we have not used the air conditioner in our bedroom. We expect that when the temperature turns hotter, we will turn it on.

 

The front yard of the house where we live is small, but the woman of the house loves to keep plants and flowers. They truly add to the beauty of the house. The area in which we live has many trees. We live in an area that has mostly houses, and most of them put plants and flowers in pots along their driveways and in their courtyards. All the houses have walls and gates around them. Right outside the walls are the streets; sidewalks are found only on the main streets. But many of them don't have sidewalks either.

We have done a fair bit of socializing with other couple since we have come here. We went to The Only Place twice. Once, we went with Allison's and Smith's. The next evening, we went the ZoBell's, Allison's, and Smith's. The Allison's and ZoBell's come into Bangalore every 7 1/2 weeks to meet the residency requirements, so we will see them often. We hope to have their registrations transferred to their respective areas where they are working, so we don't have to fly them in so often. Here we see (left to right) Elders Smith, Tiefenbach, and Allison.

 

To get to The Only Place, we take the metro, as we mentioned in our blog last week. The metro is a clean, modern train. Here we are returning from our second evening this week at this fabulous restaurant. From left to right are the Smith's, Allison's, and ZoBell's. If you look carefully in the window, you can see us in the reflection.

The Smith's have been in India for about four weeks. They will be serving in Bangalore. They are from the Toronto area. They received their visas in about 2 weeks. We don't know why two other couples from western Canada are having difficulty getting their visas. The Loewer's are supposed to be in Bangalore on April 23rd, but they have not received their visas, as far as we know. The Leary's have been waiting for many, many months and have been temporarily assigned to work in our city with our son-in-law preparing documents for digitization. Our son-in-law works for FamilySearch as a camera operator.

 

 

We work hard in the office, but we always have time to talk with the missionaries. The Assistants to the President, Elder Ram (2nd from right or 3rd from left, if you prefer) and Elder Barlow (left), are in the office most days or for at least part of the day. We always have an extra warm smile when Elder Solomon (right) (our fellow Canadian) comes into the office and when other missionaries who served in Coimbatore and now serving in Bangalore come into the office. We met Elder Aeshamalla (2nd from left) when he was serving in Erode, so that is almost the same as Coimbatore.

 

Elder Ram has not changed. He is still . . . playful. We don't know what he did to Elder Aeshamalla, but whatever he did, Elder Aeshamalla moved fast!!! The other Elders know what Elder Ram did, but they did not share that with us. Maybe, we don't want to know.

 

We had quite an interesting experience (miracle, if you know the slow wheels of bureaucracy) this week. The ZoBell's (to our right) needed to come to Bangalore this past week to meet their registration requirements, and they needed to begin the visa renewal process because their visas expire the beginning of April. Normally, we should begin visa renewals 60 to 90 days prior to expiration. Well, they came to Bangalore and went to the FRRO (foreigner regional registration office) to find out what documents they needed to renew their visas. Upon obtaining that information, Sister Tiefenbach prepared their documents. The next day, they went to the FRRO to deliver the documents. At first, they were told they have the wrong visa and would have to go back to Canada (that sounds familiar). After a bit of explanation (and prayer), the people at the FRRO stamped their passports with their new visas and gave them a new registration for Bangalore. When Sister ZoBell phoned Sister Tiefenbach to tell her the news, Sister Tiefenbach thought that they must have misunderstood. But, when the ZoBell's returned to the office, we saw the stamp in their passports and the new registration. We couldn't believe it! Brother Sunil (works at our office) said that never before in the history of the church has an extension been done that fast. Allison's have been waiting for at least 6 months, and we have been waiting 5 months. The Allison's have been told their visas are ready to be picked up. They will pick them up on Monday.

 

 

We had many late evenings at the office. We have been busy with paying the bills; making sure the missionaries get their bi-monthly payments; making sure rents, phone bills, and other financial obligations are met;  getting leases for missionary appartments; preparing documents so all the transferred foreign missionaries get registered; preparing documents to get the foreign missionaries out of the country to renew their visas, get back in, and regisiter in their assigned city; and getting the couples into Bangalore to meet registration requirement and to renew visas. Fortunately, this week our late evenings were always followed by good food and good company.