The Christmas Challenge

This year we will be in Singapore for Christmas along with two other couples on our BGR team. That's 7 people total. The gals and I have decided to make this a fun and challenging Christmas by picking a "theme" and figuring out fun and whacky ways to intermingle the theme with our normal Christmas traditions. Last night we came up with a list of twelve possiblities ranging from colors, fruits, animals, and flowers. We drew one from a bowl and guess what our 2009 theme is: LEMONS! I know we will have fun thinking through that theme and a challenge finding white elephant gifts, food, and decorations that we can incorporate into our festive Christmas dinner. I will be glad to hear from any of you if you have ideas! This is going to be fun. Rick and I are headed to Greece tonight so I know what I will be looking for while I'm there - lemons!

Wish I had a picture...

I forgot to tell you about our trip to the butcher in Delhi! My friend wanted to buy some chicken so we stopped by her butcher to pick up some. As we walked into the small shop there were two men sitting on the floor up on a wide ledge on the right. THEY were the butchers. But the most fascinating thing is how they were holding the knives. EAch man held a big butcher knife between his BIG TOE and the next toe. He used his hands to postiion the chicken as the knife cut it up. Yes, from where I was I could see their feet and they LOOKED clean to me! They could cut chicken up faster than anyone I have ever seen. And that's what they do all day - sit there and cut up meat for their customers!

Wish I had a picture...

On to Bangalore

One of the best parts about visiting Bangalore was seeing old friends that we were with in West Africa for many years. They gave us a great tour of the Bangalore Hospital where Rebecca Naylor served for so many years. There's a beautiful painting in the foyer of the hospital. It is Rebecca Naylor doing surgery with Christ standing behind her telling her what to do. It was very beautiful.

Bangalore was alot cooler than Delhi so we enjoyed that change. We stayed at a guesthouse on the hospital compound.

One of the most interesting things about our entire trip was visiting a project that BGR has been involved in there. An Indian couple have about 200 slum kids come to their house every afternoon after school for tutoring and a hot meal. This is the kids' only meal of the day! Their ages range from 4 - 12 (as far as I could tell). They were so well-behaved. The couple is doing a great job ministering to them.

Lori

Akshardam

Sorry, on the last post I sent you to the Akshardam site. We also visited there but it is not to be confused with the Red Fort.

Anyway, one other thing I wanted to mention about the red fort is that we had the most wonderful guide there. He spoke many different languages. In our little tour group, there was also a couple from Israel. He could call the names of places in English, Italian, German, many others, and HEBREW! He was also very entertaining. When we first "hired" him to give us the guide, he told us that we were VERY lucky. He kept telling us that all through the tour - how lucky we were to have him.

At the end of the tour, he offered to read our palms - but no one wanted that done in our "party".

We walked to the nearby "cafe" and had Mountain Dews and 7-UPs.

That night we ate at the Indian restaurant down the street from where my friends live. It was delicious but VERY spicy.

The Red Fort

One day my friends took us to the Red Fort in Delhi. It was built in 1639. It took nine years to build and cost 10 million rupees (over $200,000) which back then was an astronomical amount! Half of the money was spent on the exotic palaces inside the fort. The fort is build of red sandstone and is octagonal in shape. A wide moat surrounds the fort, which was originally connected with the river and was always filled with water.

There was great shopping in the fort and I loaded up on goodies for my children and upcoming grandbaby! He will have lots to take to show and tell one of these days!

For pictures you can go to www.akshardam.com.

More later.

Old Delhi by Rickshaw

I certainly enjoyed my trip to India but one of my favorite parts was riding through Old Delhi in a rickshaw. Now, this rickshaw was pulled by a man on a bicycle so at least he wasn't just pulling us on foot. Still, my friend and I settled back and let him do all the work while we gazed at the sights. It would have been difficult (if not almost impossible) to get through those narrow streets in a car. And it would have been even more dangerous to try to walk them on foot. So it seemed that rickshaw was the only way to go.

We stopped here and there and did some shopping. The rickshaw driver told us that wherever we stopped and bought anything -he got 1%. I guess it is a way for the shop owners to get them to get people to stop and buy from them. Anyway, we picked up a few things and were glad to let the rickshaw driver in on the deal.

We stopped and ate at a local Indian restaurant and had the most delicious NAAN (a flat bread) that I have every had. It was hot from the oven and delicious. Now, alot of the Indian food is a little spicy hot for me but I always manage to find something I can enjoy. And besides the "spiciness" I always try and taste a little of everything.

After our Rickshaw ride we headed back to the area our friends live in. We had a spectacular dessert while were were in Delhi. It is called gelobjamun. I know that doesn't mean much to you but BOY - was it ever good. It tasted like a Krispy Kreme donut hole right out of the hot grease! Yum, yum!

More later.

Trip to India

Rick and I just returned from a week in India. India is the seventh largest country in the world. Bound by the Great Himalayas in the north, it tapers southward into the Indian Ocean.

India is a union of 28 states and 7 union territories. (Union territories are governed by an administator appointed by the President of India). Each state/union has a unique population, culture, heritage, festivals, food, etc.

We visited two of the largest cities in India: New Delhi (in the north) and Bangalore (in the south.) Over the next few blogs I hope to share with you some of what I saw and experienced.

Hang on to your hat!

January 3

Today we headed for the Singapore Science Center. They have an Omni-theatre there that is extreme. The theatre is round and the entire ceiling and halfway down the walls is the screen. We watched a 40 minutes movie on the Ocean and it was incredible. You almost felt like you were IN the water with the fish!

Afterwards we went to a Magic Show and then an exhibition on how magic is done. Then we just explored the Science center. I'm sure we didn't see it all, but it was fantastic anyway. I think that might be something I will want to do again. I think the movies change from time to time. Will watch the paper for what's next.

We ate supper at New York New York - some "American" food for these kiddos. (We ate Asian for lunch!)

We are making tons of memories!

Second day of the new year

Yesterday we actually stayed home and rested! Ha! PLUS, one of the local channels was running an all day marathon of the first season of HOUSE. There were a few commercials but they were short so we got a full dose of HOUSE and are ready for season 2!

Today we went to Chinatown. The Christmas decorations were already down and Chinese New Year Decorations were up. It is the "year of the ox" so there were plenty of oxen around! But the Chinese market was a favorite. I think Ross and Chelsea really enjoyed it. It reminded them a little of the African markets they are used to. They even did some bargaining. We came home with lots of goodies from there and will definitely go back before Ross leaves at the end of January.

Ross had a Megaburger (4 pieces of meat on three buns!) from McDonald's. Yum, yum.

We also took them to where we first lived in Singapore and to have coffee at the little coffee shop near there where we used to get on the internet! The lady there remembered us and wondered where we had been all this time.

We also took them to IKEA - which is a home furnishings/decor place. I think there is one in Atlanta. It is a neat store with rooms decorated to show you how you can set their furniture up in even small spaces.

Made it home about 6pm and I think everyone is pooped!

Tomorrow is Saturday. I'm not sure of the plans but will certainly let you in on the adventure!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all from Singapore!