As Summer Draws to a Close in Coimbatore

As summer draws to a close and the schools re-open their doors from the one month break, work begins on re-doing a roof before the monsoon rains come. These men are almost finished removing the old roof. They later built up the centre peak so that only one roof covers all four sections. Previously, the roof had two peaks. We do not know whether the home is one house or two. We have tried to figure this out, but we have not been successful. The week has now ended, and the new roof has not been started. The rains are supposed to begin late next week, so hopefully, they will finish before that. We can monitor their progress from our apartment balcony.

Some men were cutting the grass in the green space in our apartment complex. These men worked several hours cutting the grass with their shears. This is not the way we plan to cut our grass when we get back to Canada.

We stopped on the way home from picking up a few groceries to check out the trucking business here. We see many small trucks that deliver goods to stores, but we also see this type of delivery system. Interestingly, the drivers do not tie up their cows. They simply leave them as they go into the shops to conduct their business. As soon as the driver jumps back into the wagon, the cow begins to move. 

We spent one afternoon in a part of Coimbatore called Vadavalli. We went with Elder Aruldoss and Elder Bean. Elder Aruldoss is from India, and Elder Bean is from Utah. This area is more rural than the part of Coimbatore where we live. We took the bus there. It was our very first bus ride in India. We do not take the bus  on our own, but we had the elders to make sure we didn't get lost. We met with a family in Vadavalli and left a gospel message. We saw some wild peacocks while we were there, but we did not take pictures.

We were fortunate to get a seat on the trip there and on the way back. Each way cost 13 rupies per person, which is 26 cents. The trip there took about 45 minutes, and the trip back took a little over an hour. Buses are very cheap here.

Elder Tiefenbach decided that his second haircut was needed. This barber charges the young missionaries 50 rupies ($1.00), but he must think we have more money because he charges Elder Tiefenbach 60 rupies ($1.20). Very nice looking harircut!

One of the assignments we have been given by the mission president's wife is to inspect the elders' apartments to make sure they clean them. The day we went to this apartment happened to be Elder Hodgson's birthday. We knew before hand, so we made a cake for him. He was happy to have something special for his birthday. His last birthday was spent flying to India from Utah, and he felt sick. He was born in Australia. His mother is from India, and his father is from England. They have lived in the United States for the past 14 or so years, so he considers himself to be an American. We were happy to make this day a better day than his birthday last year.

This past week, we began to teach English classes. We hope that more people will come as they come to know about the classes.