Calimist Fire and the Power Rangers

Russell has quite the imagination and likes to tell stories at night. They are quite long and most of the time I am sound asleep on their bedroom floor by the end of it. For the sake of our family record-keeping one night I decided to transcribe a story he was telling to Merinda and I.

The readers' digest condensed version is:

• These exotic animals, superheroes, and fish gather for an epic battle.
• A mighty clash of good versus evil (or baddies versus goodies) ensues.
  
• The good guys win.

The story seems to me like a mash-up between some superhero cartoons he must have seen, (except that we don't have any) and the epic battles of ancient Hindu literature (which we have never told him about). If you've ever read the Indian literature like the Ramayana, it's a lot like this. Fantastic creatures with casts in the billions doing epic battles in a clash between good and evil. I wonder if there isn't something in being heaped in with piles upon piles of colorful people that inspires this sort of thing.

There is also a girl-eating, piano-crushing, swimming character named "Celimist Fire" that Russell invented with the help of Brandon one day. I can't explain that one.

So for those of you with the time and courage to read on, I give you "Calimist Fire and the Power Rangers":

Once upon a time there were these power rangers. A red power ranger, a purple power ranger and a red power rangers. Four power rangers. There was another power ranger a white power ranger. And there was a yellow power ranger.

They all went to a city called America. We've been there before. There were spiders. They didn't drink their blood, but they did get their swords.

Then Batman came. Spiderman came. Superman came. I saw them came. He was the baddie. There were all the goodie. The one with ice on it, he was called White Ice Man. And they were all fighting and it was a party-fight. Ice Man freezed them, Spiderman tied them up with webs, and then Batman punched these webs, and then Powerangers chopped it, and the red one was the leader, and then all of them zoomed over them and the spiders died.

That's the first scene of the story. And then the next scene is in water. And there was the killer whale and shark and the fish. The mean fish. And then all the fishes that were scary and evil in the sea. And then all the fishes that weren’t scary and evil and the sea and then all the goodies and baddies had a big fight. And then eventually they didn't have killer whale. And then the killer whales and sharks and scary things were on the goodies team.

Then the goodies teached the other goodies to be the best fighter. And then somebody dropped in the water the scary fish. And then (this is really scary, mom this is the scary part). Then a boy and a mom dropped in the water ahead of the thing that is poisonous. The mom dropped on it and died and the kid dropped on it and died. And do you know what they did? They came back alive and swimmed.

And then they saw....the killer whale!!! And they were on both teams. They were on every team in the world. The goodie team and the baddie team. And they were on the submarine team and the boat team and all the teams in the world.

And then they were Calimist Fire. Calimist fire is like a T-rex except it is black. Did you know that Calimist Fire can swim? They can break everything. Everything except a piano.

[Mom: Why won’t they break a piano?]

Because Calimist Fire don't actually like music. And then all the Calimist Fire in the world were swimming.

Calimist Fire likes boys, they see some girls, and then they can break pianos, except for lights, they can break anything except for lights. Know why? The lights make things light and he loves light. He actually breaks pianos. He thinks that girls play stupid and boys play good. The only thing that he can break is light.

And then what happened is all the Calimist Fire in the world came, all of them, and they all jumped in, and they were all black. (Did I mention that all Calimist Fire are black, except in the winter when they turn brown.) And then there were different colored ones black ones and brown ones (the brown turn black in the winter) and the blue ones, and all of them jumped and all of the animals in the sea went under the water.

At first, do you know how they float on water, they lay down. First they jump down, and they get straight, first they are crawling, and then do you know what they have to do, they get straight like this [he demonstrates], and then they move their hands like this and tip over like this: Shhhhhhh. And their blades help them swim.

And then, do you know what they saw? All the animals squished together on top of the water, and all the turtles were on the top of the water, and all the things that were under the water and can't float stayed under the water.

And here is the really scary part. One Calimist Fire sees another Calimist Fire, but they noticed the baddie Calimist Fire just do nothing, they don't have any superpowers. The goodie ones can do anything in the whole world, except die. Calimist Fires if somebody shoots fire at the place where they got bit by a shark, do you know what happens, they get stitched together.

The next thing they climb up on top and then you know what they do, the jump on top of the tree, jump on top, and then they are so strong that they shhhhh the tree so they fell down, and then (this is really scary) the whole world turned into hot lava. And everyone in the world died except for the Calimist Fire!!

And then they guy was printing something and then it was nighttime, and it was the baddie which was Freeze-Man!! And he can only freeze one thing and that's the police. And he was printing something. And they all said freeze! (and this is really funny) and then let me take a drink (and this is really funny) and he freezed everybody (and this is kind of scary) and he didn't freeze everybody. And they pointed their guns like this and the Calimist Fire fire, and he came in, and this was cool, he turned into hot lava, and turned into a gun, and turned into fire, and then he was fire-man. Magic, huh? And the fire-man was made of fire. And then do you know what he did? And if fire-mans touch people then they die, and he touched the freeze man and he died.

And then the Freeze-Man came back alive (and this is scary) and then the Freeze-Man freezed again. (and this is really funny). And then he turned back to Calimist Fire, a black a Calimist Fire. And then Power Ranges came and Superman came and Batman came. So Superman carried Batman, Calimist Fire carried Spiderman (all the super heroes were friends with Calimist Fire) Calimist Fire don't eat boys they only eat girls, but they have friends with girls, 5 girls. They don't ever see girls in this story.

Have you heard this story before? It's a difficult story.

And then somebody Evil-Maaaan. His name was Evil-Man-Hot-Lava. And he was on freeze-man's team which were the baddies, and all the baddies in the world came and none of the baddies have superpowers except hot-lava-man.

Calimist Fire can turn into a baddie, but he doesn't in this story.

But then hotwheels police came and batman police and superman police came and spiderman police came and and the most scariest one the Calimist Fire police came. And they broke the baddies house. Except for their lights.

The End.

Mt. St. Mindy Calmed

Another Pulitzer Prize winner I love is Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. Early in the novel Lyman Ward greets his new bride Susan and brings her to their new home in the West. She finds the place beautiful, he is charming, and she is excited about her new life. Later in the novel, after many years and hardships, she travels East and returns back home. He picks her up and they travel home in nearly identical circumstances. Yet this time she finds him repulsive and the place depressing. For some reason those parallel scenes were very poignant to me. They show that no matter where you are, what truly matters is your point of view, the feeling in your heart. If I am at peace with myself, it doesn't matter where I live or what people do or say around me. I can take the angle of love, beauty and joy in any circumstance if I but choose to.

So that brings me to today--Sunday. I often call my mom after church on Sundays so she can hear the hilarious/traumatic/unbelievable things that happened in our branch and how I dealt with them. It usually runs along the lines of an embarrassing tantrum in sacrament meeting, giving an impromptu lesson, some shocking hygiene or mosquito moment, or someone coming home with me from church to see the breakfast dishes and legos all over the floor. But Mom's not in the right time zone at the moment (she's holding Janielle's beautiful new baby Camberly in Texas!), and the Pulsiphers have gone home, so the blog will get the Sunday de-briefing.

I had a typical Sunday. But the way I felt about it inside was atypically cheerful and mature. Maybe Mt. St. Mindy will become inactive very soon after all.

1st Moment: Late for Church
Though I try very hard to arrive early at church, unfortunately I wasn't able to tear the boys away from their legos early enough or anticipate the last-minute requests for apple juice from Graham. I gave them a good lecture on the way to Church about how we need to do better Sunday mornings getting ready in time, and they all said they would try harder and I think they meant it. When we pulled up to the church, we parked behind the cars we knew belonged to the mission president and two members of the district presidency. Perfect. But I walked in without shame and we sat down in the front, knowing that I had tried, and at least I had come. It helps that Pres. Taylor and other priesthood leaders are often so kind and complimentary of our family, so I didn't feel like they were judging me in my less-than-perfect arrival.

2nd Moment: "I Want the Most Water!"
When the sacrament water came to our row, Isaac looked for the cup with the most water in it and took it. Then Russell started SCREAMING, "Mommy, I wanted the most water!" I tried my best to whisper calming things, but he just kept on screaming. So I picked him up and walked out of there. But amazingly enough, I didn't feel that rage building up in my heart which I often feel at such moments. We went into the Primary room and talked calmly about what the sacrament water is really about and how it's not okay to be loud during sacrament because you draw attention to you and away from people thinking about Jesus. Then we said a prayer, got a nice big drink of water and went back in. And the rest of sacrament was pretty uneventful as far as attention-drawing kid moments.

3rd Moment: "I'm Going to Put My Wife on the Spot Here"
I had the wonderful opportunity of attending the 1st Annual New Delhi Young Women Camp this weekend. It was fabulous in so many ways, and I love each of these beautiful five girls who attended from our branch. The one on the far right, Niharika, was baptized just last week. She has been coming to my seminary class and church faithfully for a few months, and it has been beautiful to see this girl who doesn't go to school and didn't have any friends grow in confidence and make friends. Carolina, the girl on the far left was once the only active young woman, but has recently become inactive. I was so happy she came to camp and I think it gave her just the boost she needed to propel her back into activity.

So lucky me, Rich asked me without warning to come up and speak about the experience of attending Camp. Thankfully I had felt a small impression in the car on the way that I would be speaking in sacrament, so I didn't feel too shocked. As I started to stand up, Russell whispered in my ear, "I should have brought my testimony glove to help you, Mom." So I started with bearing testimony of those five basic things--Jesus Christ, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Thomas S. Monson, Restored Gospel. And the Spirit carried me after that to speak about the activities of camp, how they strengthened our girls, and how proud I am and how proud our Heavenly Father must be of our beautiful girls. When I sat down I felt like I had said just what the Lord intended for me to say. I'm grateful that I was able to be in the right state of mind to be an instrument in the Lord's hands at that moment.

4th Moment: "Bhoomika Will Play"
Since Elizabeth and Andrew went back to Rexburg, I had thought I would be the one doing the Primary music again. But when I went into the Primary room I found Sis. Mickelson playing beautifully. She asked me to stay so she could lead the music while I played, but later she said I could go because Bhoomika was prepared to play "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet." Bhoomika is this sweet 11-year-old whom the missionary Sis. Daniels worked with to teach her to play the piano. I started teaching her lessons a month ago with the intent of helping her play in Primary, but I hadn't anticipated that she'd be ready to go so soon. What a relief and joy!

5th Moment: "Sister, While the Iron's Hot, Let's Have Mutual"
Since I wasn't needed in Primary, I was able to go up and check on Graham in Nursery and found him with his two teachers Poojah and Dolly with the lesson manual opened and three other young adults in the room all doting on Graham (What nursery in the Church has five teachers for every kid!?!). One of them was Tamanna our Young Women's president, who had missed camp but had heard enough about it and was excited enough about the girls who had come that she said, "While the iron is hot, let's have mutual this week." We have not had a mutual activity for around six months. In the end, we decided to change the time of Seminary Saturday for the activity, which I really don't like to do. But I was able to flow with it and recognize that it's most important that we don't lose these girls while they are on fire. I'm so grateful for Tamanna and her inspiration and efforts as a Young Women's president.

6th Moment: "Walk in the Light"
Yesterday at the close of Camp we watched the General Young Women Broadcast, but the DVD froze up just before President Eyring's talk, so we all decided to watch it in our branch Young Women classes today. I love Henry B. Eyring. He never minces words and those words are always drenched in Spirit, depth and power. I think my favorite words he spoke this time were:
"I promise you that within the next few days you will feel the illumination of the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Ghost in your everyday life. When you walk in the light, you will feel at that moment some of the warmth and the happiness that will finally be yours when you are welcomed home again with the hundreds and perhaps thousands of others whom you will bring with you, who have walked in the light because you did."

So here's to a day where I was able to keep Mt. St. Mindy under control and share and partake of the light of those around me freely. Happy Sunday.

Just Another Great Day

Just got this e-mail from the kids' school. They send these sorts of things out more often than you'd think.

The Olympic Torch Relay is currently scheduled to pass through New Delhi on April 17th and there is a possibility that tear gas may be used if the situation calls for it. While the Chinese Embassy is not immediately adjacent to AES we will be monitoring the situation closely. If gas is used we will keep students indoors. We also have a plan to hold all students at school for what we call a "controled release". If this became necessary you would be notified by email, phone and our website. What is important is that your child is safe. Again, our hope is that it is a peaceful demonstration and tomorrow is just another great day at AES.

And wherever you are, you have another great day too!

Mt. St. Mindy Erupts Again

When I was in college I spent a semester in Nealtican, Mexico living in a village near an active volcano named Popocatepetl. My first day there I noticed there were evacuation maps and notices spray painted on walls all over town. So the next morning when I woke at around 5 am to a siren and a man shouting "Eeee-gas!" at the top of his lungs, I was sure the volcano had erupted and it was time to go. I jumped out of bed and hurried down the ladder from my bedroom to find everyone in my host family still fast asleep. Hadn't they heard the alarms?

It turned out that this "alarm" was just the guys who went around town every morning selling gas canisters for water heaters and stoves with a car alarm announcing their arrival. A lovely wake-up call that eventually I learned to awaken to without panic. When they said I'd be living in a Mexican village, I'd imagined I'd wake up to a rooster, but like most things in life, the place wasn't exactly the way I pictured it!

I still remember vividly the panic I felt my first morning there, wondering what in the world I was thinking coming to live next to an active volcano a gazillion miles away from home and family!

(A photo of Popocateptl, which did actually erupt ash a month or so after I arrived)

When I moved to India, the biggest surprise was not the active volcano a few miles away (there are none to my knowledge), but the volcano in me that suddenly became active when I became faced with corruption and cheating seemingly on every turn because I'm a rich foreigner, an easy, uninformed target. That volcano hasn't been very active lately, but yesterday the Cutler Compound's peanut gallery got to witness yet another (apparently entertaining) eruption.

In our neighborhood we also buy gas by the can for our stove just like those good 'ol days in Mexico, but it comes on a bike or in a small truck and you call and order it. We pay a company $9 about once a month to refill our empty canister while we use our second one, so we are sure to have an extra one handy if we need it. In the last few years that we have lived here we have occasionally, for various reasons, found ourselves without gas for a few days, and become quite handy at microwave cookery and pestering the gas people for another canister. It's a very odd feeling to not be able to boil water or scramble eggs for days at a time.

Margaret has mentioned a few times lately that the gas canister sometimes isn't as heavy as it should be when they deliver it, but I hadn't thought through what to do about it. Yesterday the gas guy came to deliver a newly-filled gas canister and I asked him to come inside with the canister so we could weigh it on our new scale (Thanks, Pulsiphers!).

The canister has the weight of the canister printed on it (16.3 kg in this case) and it's supposed to have 14.2 kg of gas in it (also printed on the canister), making what should be a total of 30.5 kg. The gas-wallah put the canister on the scale and it weighed in at 25.

I tried, with Margaret's help translating, to tell him that this wasn't acceptable, that this canister was only 2/3 full. He acted like he didn't know what we were talking about, but he left and brought back a new canister and his boss. We put it on the scale and this time it weighed 27. I repeated calmly (to the boss this time), that this canister was not full, and we needed a full canister.

When he looked at me blankly, I took out a piece of paper and wrote the math on it:

16.3 + 14.2 = 30.5

I pointed at it insistently as my voice started to rise, and my blood started to boil. He looked at me like I was crazy. Anil our driver then came in, asked what was going on, and started laughing. I asked him what was so funny. He just kept laughing.

And then I starting boiling over with anger. I said (okay, shouted) something like, "Maybe I'm just a stupid American and I don't understand things, but I can do the math and I can see that you are cheating me." After Margaret trying to translate back and forth for a while (though she never translates everything--I really should learn Hindi better), and nobody doing anything, I wondered, was I missing something? Most probably.

But eventually the guys went back to their truck and brought a third canister, which, miraculously, weighed a little over 30 kg, about as much as it should. I won! Sort of. I don't think you're a winner if you find yourself shaking for a 15 minutes after you've yelled and screamed enough to get your way. I asked Margaret if she ever has this problem. She says this happens to them often, but they don't have a scale to prove it, so sometimes they just have to take the canister anyway.

So I know all you math-minded people out there are computing that this gross injustice probably adds up to a max of $3 a month, but over 2.5 years that's $90! It's not a ton of money, but it's something. I'd rather choose to give it to the poor people in India than be swindled out of it. That money could send a girl in Delhi to school for 5 months. But maybe I would have better karma if I'd just let it go and not let it get to me.

For all I know, the gas company in Texas was cheating me in more sophisticated ways. The difference is that in Delhi I get to look the corruption in the face and choose whether to take it or not. Someday I plan to live in a place where the gas comes to me in a pipe and the corruption lurks deeper, where it never gets over 90 degrees in the summer and it snows in the winter, and nobody stares at me like I'm an animal in the zoo.

But until then, we may have to keep enduring occasional eruptions of Mt. St. Mindy. Let's hope eventually this volcano of my temper enters the inactive category.

Visiting Jordan & Israel

It just so happened that Rich had a business trip to Tel Aviv, Israel at the same time as the kids' Spring Break. So we decided to tag along! I must say I'm slightly embarrassed to post this blog, because we feel rather spoiled to have taken yet another trip to a really cool place. But the Middle East is really close to us here, sort of like taking a trip to New York from Utah, and about the same cost. Add in a free ticket for Rich and three free nights at a fancy beach hotel, and how could we pass up the chance?

Day One: Delhi to Amman, Jordan to Petra
Our flight left Delhi at 4am, so the kids slept a few hours before we left our house at 1:30 am, but Rich and I didn’t. When we arrived in Amman around 10am, we rented a car and drove south to Petra, through dismal desert towns and beautiful mountains and valleys. It was fun to imagine the children of Israel walking through it.

It’s very similar to Southern Utah in its topography. Our scenic drive took much longer than we had planned, so we didn’t arrive to our hotel until after dark, and stayed at a hotel in Wadi Musa next to Petra.

Day Two: Petra & Dead Sea
We went to Petra the next day, which was so amazing. It’s basically Zion National Park, but an ancient civilization carved greco-roman facades out of the rocks and caves to make a city. It’s spectacular. We rode horses into the park, then walked through this long corridor called the Siq, which is very much like the Narrows at Zion, but no water.


As you exit the Siq, you meet the most amazing sight--the Treasury carved out of a huge wall of sandstone. It's the one in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", except that there's a much smaller room inside than what is shown in the movie:
We rented a donkey midway through the day to carry our tired boys.
The donkey came with a delightful Bedouin man named Ali who turned out to be a great tour guide and gave us great insight into this hospitable indigenous people that live all over Jordan in tents. Ali and his donkey carried the kids who needed it up 800 steps to the gigantic Monastery:

Along the way, we found a spot where they were selling sand jars with your name written in sand inside. Isaac and Russell decided to spend their hard-earned good-attitude dinars on this fun souvenir:We wish we had been able to stay another day in Petra—we felt like there was so much more to see and explore there.



But this was a business trip after all, so we went back north. On the way we dipped our toes in the Dead Sea, which was surprisingly beautiful and clear:

Day Three: Madaba, Mt. Nebo, Bethany-beyond-Jordan, Fly to Tel Aviv
Since it was Sunday and we couldn’t find an LDS Church meetinghouse anywhere in Jordan, we decided to go to Mt. Nebo to do our own sacrament meeting, the place where Moses looked out for his first and last view of the Promised Land before he died or was transfigured. It was a little disappointing—too many crowds and too much haze to actually see the Promised Land, and there was construction and generators running to add to the noise. But then we moved on to Bethany-beyond-Jordan, a recently discoverd site where they believe Jesus was baptized and John preached, and we felt a nice spirit there.
It was so quiet and calm. Graham tried to swim in it, but luckily we caught him before he fell in!

We then flew to Tel Aviv, where we stayed in a super-fancy hotel (on business now!) on the Mediterranean Sea in Herzilya, just north of Tel Aviv. We had a wild taxi ride from the airport from a guy that barely spoke English, but turned out to be from Argentina, so I got to brush up on my Spanish. He said he had emigrated to Israel ten years earlier to escape the corruption of Buenos Aires and that he felt much safer in Tel Aviv. Isaac had a 24-hour flu bug that had started on the road to Bethany-beyond-Jordan, which produced many lovely vomit situations in transit, so it was nice to settle down in the hotel and let the staff there wash the linens after every vomit!

Day Four: Living the High Life at the Dan Accadia in Herzilya
Rich went to work the next day and we hung out on the beach and tried to eat without breaking the bank.
We found McDonald’s and a grocery store in a nearby mall, and that was pretty much happiness, together with the sandy beach and the playground (too cold to swim though—Russell kept telling us he was sucking in the cold to take it back to Delhi!). We were surprised at how modern and western Israel was, especially as compared to Jordan. Every place we travel I feel more convinced that we live in the craziest place ever though. Maybe I need to travel more to find something even more crazy. Maybe not.

Day Five: Nazareth, Haifa & Mt. Carmel
So the next day, I was going nuts knowing that we were a short drive away from millions of biblical places. So we rented a car and drove to Nazareth while Rich worked. I was scared to death to drive by myself in this place where most things are written in Hebrew, the cities themselves tend to be rather labyrinthine and I was still unsure about security issues. On top of that, Graham had caught the flu bug, so we said a fervent prayer, I gave Isaac the map and a vomit bag and wipes for Graham, and off we went. It turned out to be quite easy to get there, and Isaac and Graham handled the vomits quite well.
In Nazareth we only went to this place called Nazareth Village, which was a very nicely done re-creation of a farm during Jesus’ childhood.
The kids were totally riveted the whole time, and we learned so much about the symbols used in the scriptures—vines, sheep, shepherds, winepresses, olivepresses, scripture scrolls, synagogues, etc.
Our private tour guide, Rani, gave us nearly two hours of his time and was so sweet and patient with the kids.
I decided to skip all the other sites in the town because it was a pretty wild place, and Graham was still sick. Instead we drove through Haifa and Mt. Carmel on the way back home. Haifa had these gorgeous Bah’ai gardens and a domed golden tomb of a Bah’ai leader whose name escapes me. He saw Mt. Carmel and was so entranced by it that he asked to be buried there. We saw two brides come out of the gardens all dolled up like princesses—sort of like Temple Square, but much more glitzy! The drive back “home” from there was so beautiful with the city on the cliffs and the beautiful sea on the other side.

Day Six: Jerusalem
The next day we headed to Jerusalem, which was about 1 hour away, but it took about an hour to find the hotel and a parking place! Jerusalem was amazing. I hadn’t really internalized all the layers of people and history and religion that are embedded there until we saw it ourselves. My favorite people to watch are the Hasidic Jews all over. And tour groups from America and Europe everywhere. By the time we got out site-seeing it was 1:00, but we had time to see about all our stamina could handle in one day. Our first stop was the Garden Tomb.

Just outside the Tomb, a crafty and drunken pick-pocket pretended to stop someone from stealing something from our backpack and we believe took Rich’s cell phone out of his pocket. Oddly enough I just called the phone and talked to the fellow, who was still drunk and couldn’t understand that I wasn’t in Israel anymore. He said he needed the money. I hope he did. In retrospect, I wish I’d had the goodness in me to speak more kindly to him.
But thankfully, we were not yet aware we had been swindled until later, so we were able to fully enjoy the quiet reverence of the Garden Tomb, which was possible to feel despite the hordes of tour groups there. Then we walked around the Old City walls to the Garden of Gethsemane, which was beautiful and simple.
Then we entered the Old City, a labyrinthine cobble-stoned treasure trove which we repeatedly got lost in. We walked the Via Dolorosa, which was said to be the road Christ walked with His cross, and tried unsuccessfully to get in to see the Dome of the Rock (it was closed for the evening for Muslim prayers). Then we stopped on some steps by a playground for some snacks and ended up sharing the snacks with some local kids.
This seemed like a good situation until they started throwing dried tree nuts at us. We asked them to stop, they just kept throwing. A little eerie, so we left.

Then we made our way to the Western Wall.
It was a very spirit-filled place, especially right up next to the wall, where people came right up to the wall and prayed, sometimes inserting slips of paper with their prayers into the crevices of the stones. In some ways, though, it felt like a rock concert with all the Israeli youth dressed in black hanging out in groups all around and the rabbi announcing things on the loudspeaker. The Jews believe this wall was the western retaining wall of the Second Temple, the only remaining part of the temple after it was destroyed. So they consider it a holy place in absence of the actual temple, where the divine presence always rests. They divide the women from the men, so I had the opportunity to go over to the women’s side on my own and witness the fervent prayer happening there, and offer some of my own. I hope with all of my heart that someday we can all agree about religion and rebuild the true temple, or true temples all over the world and that all will recognize the power contained therein. The suffering and longing of generations of people is very palpable there.
From there we tried somewhat successfully to see the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but our friendly neighborhood guide brought us to the top of the church to look down through the windows and we couldn’t quite find our way to the ground floor of it. But by then everyone was pretty exhausted, so we wandered back to our hotel, and snuggled in one bed together with Graham in a crib, trying to rest up for our flight home the next day.

Day Seven: Tel Aviv to Delhi
We woke up early and drove our rental car back to Tel Aviv to go through the amazingly thorough security checks before we boarded the plane. We had a six-hour layover in Jordan, where they shuttled us to the Queen Alia Airport Hotel where we dumped our bags, had a cafeteria meal and lounged around our room for a few hours before heading back to the airport.
A few movies and video games later (okay, six hours of that), and we were back in Delhi. Rich and I sure enjoy having our own room again!
We felt so lucky to have a quick glimpse of the Holy Land to ground our future study of the Bible in some visual pictures of the lay of the land. A great blessing for me especially, since my brain doesn’t seem to retain history and geography well without a connection to a story or an experience. It ALMOST makes me ready to volunteer to teach seminary again next year so I could study and teach the New Testament in depth, but I think I better leave it to our new capable missionaries Bro. and Sis. Mickelson who have much more time and far fewer kids at home than I do.

I'm Off to Jail for Two Years

Today I received a legal notice in the mail from the electric company that said, among other things, "On account of dishonour of cheque . . . it is evident that you dishonestly and intentionally issued the aforesaid cheque with a knowledge that the said cheque would not be honoured on presentation. For the above acts, you have made yourself liable to be prosecuted. . . and liable to be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years or with fine which may extend to twice the amount of the cheque or with both."

In short, I bounced a check. Gotta love the hyperbole.

The amazing thing is that if I cough up the cash within 15 days, this grave and serious error will cost me a mere 200 rupees--around $5! Not bad for intentional dishonesty and fraud. I guess in India nobody ever bounces a check by accident. But I can handle the accusatory tone with that price tag!