Hi Everyone --

I feel bad that I didn't write last week -- there was plenty to write about too. I guess this week's letter will be twice as long!

When we got back from the US our geyser (an instant hot water heater) wasn't working in the kitchen. When I tried to turn it on, it tripped all the breakers. The electricians from John Deere came on Saturday and looked at it and changed the thermostat and it seemed to be working ok. It heated the water. I also asked them to look at our solar tank on the roof. It seems that we are supposed to have hot water all year round with a heating coil in the tank as well as the solar panel. The heating coil was burned out, but they were willing to go get another one and install it on Monday. All afternoon on Saturday, I would go into the kitchen and maybe do some dishes, or other clean up work and turn on the geyser and it would get so hot it would blow the attaching hose and hot water and steam would go all over. This happened 3 times on Saturday and 3 times on Sunday. Doug kept trying to encourage me that it would now work after his next fix and I would try it and it would blow up on me. I only got scalded on my hand once, then I was done. I started heating the water in a pan on the stove and now I really feel like we're camping! The John Deere guys came Monday and took it away to get it fixed and it's been a week and we still haven't seen anything of them. However, they did get the new heating coil in the solar tank and we have LOTS of HOT water for showers whenever we want it! That is such a great blessing!

Then on Wednesday everything was fine with our Internet until the evening, and then it was dead. I called the place on Thursday morning and after talking with 5 different people at 5 different phone numbers, they finally said they would come out and fix the broadband. The telephone was still dead. Two nice young men came and looked everything over. We went on the roof and the one guy called the other guy and told him the line was cut! It wasn't just cut -- there was 8 feet of wire missing! Where did it go? Who did that on my roof? It was there yesterday, what happened to it? The worker just shrugged his shoulders and they twisted together another piece of wire and got the broadband working. I decided my Nancy Drew skills were not up to this level of mystery. Now these two workers could have fixed my telephone too, but they didn't have a complaint number. I would have to call the office -- but which number? -- and let them know it wasn't working and then they would come back. I tried yesterday, but their computers were down and asked if I could "call after some time." The phone is still dead, but the broadband is working. We look for small blessings here!


Yesterday was a big day -- it was the day we went to get our piece of furniture we chose and had refinished before Christmas. We were very excited. It is a very nice piece and it looks nice in our living room. They put together all the pieces that were broken and hanging off the furniture. They put in nice beveled glass. Did we get it for a good price? Probably not. But we like it! We also were looking at their other things and found a fun trunk with brass fittings and carved boxes inside. We decided to get that for Doug because he has always wanted a chest like that. Did we get it for a good price? Probably not. I decided I was tired of being ripped off and it's probably our last purchase from them. It will be done in 6 weeks, but we forgot to get a "before" picture of it. I hope you can imagine a broken, dirty, dusty, rat poop covered wooden box with 2-3 other chests sitting on it. What a fun place to shop!

All my friends are leaving India. One left before Christmas, another left this last week, and two more leave next week. That leaves me and Hannah and Heather. But Heather is still in the US from Christmas and won't be back until the 2nd week of Feb. It gets pretty lonely around here. We do have new neighbors moving in next door from England. We haven't met them yet, but there are 3 kids and a mom and dad. Maybe that will work out nicely. We need to work on our networking skills and find some new friends!

I guess that's all for this week. We hope everyone is NOT freezing. It's been 85-90 degrees F. here. That is one thing I have been able to appreciate since we've come back.

Love, Lucinda