Hi Everyone!

Another week has gone by and all is well in India. It is the beginning of the Ganesh Festival, which lasts 10 days. We are told that this is day and night partying with lots of music and drums and firecrackers and that every society (neighborhood, apartment complex, etc.) takes their Ganesh idol to the water and bathes them. This is a really big deal in Mumbai, where thousands head down to the Arabian Sea to see Ganesh get wet. Interesting. The biggest impact that it has had on us is that there are special stages, platforms, and Ganesh huts put up all over the city blocking the roads. The roads were bad enough, and now they are narrower and full of holes that will probably never be filled in after the bamboo poles for all the banners are taken down. I wish we had pictures to send -- maybe we can get some this week.

We had Bro. Mutamala from the Mission Presidency stay overnight with us last night. He was here in Pune visiting the members and checking on the city. We have been given permission to have home meetings 3 times a month. We'll still go to Mumbai for pot-luck Sunday.

We got the vacation schedule for Hannah's school this week, so we are working on plans for our trip in November. Hannah has November 2-12 off from school for Diwali (an Indian holiday). We think we will go to Bankok, Tailand. Our job this week is to find interesting things to do there for 10 days. The plane fare is not too bad, so we will have some John Deere money left for hotels, adventures, food, etc. It's only 4 1/2 hours there by plane. Anyone want to meet us there????

I heard a rumor this week that there is a Parsi woman just down the road that sells beef. Mary (the housekeeper) offered to take me there. Hannah can't wait. Doug must be craving meat, because when we went to the market on Saturday, he had to buy some lamb. Sorry, I just couldn't go with him to that part of the market -- it smells bad on the outside, I can't even imagine the inside! We learned to make tortillas, so maybe there will be beef tacos this week!

The weather is turning hot again -- the monsoon is nearly over and there is another hot period before the cool weather sets in for November and December. I wonder how cool cool really is!?!

I sent Ella-marie her package last Friday, so watch for that. I hope you can send us pictures!

We are all well and doing fine. We love you and miss you much!
Lucinda

p.s. Group picture of my team building experience last week. The guy in the middle is from Moline and he was there to help us.