Recovered or not, the work goes on. The District meeting was held in our living room since there was still uncertainty about meeting in our church building. We discussed the need to help spouses of members who did not speak English, or did not speak it well. They do not come to church because they cannot understand what is going on. There is a possible opportunity here for Cindy to take on a challenge that could really help the group/branch. The elders had ordered lunch, which we gladly paid for, and we ate an Indian dish, briyani, which had rice, meat, and vegetables, and was not too spicy. A member who caters, brought it over from Delhi.
In the afternoon, we rolled up our sleeves and got after the cleaning which did not stop until Thursday afternoon. What a job! I wore the skin off of the top of one of my toes from working on the floor scrubbing the marble base row and adjacent floor. I’d get about 5 feet and my wash water would be brown. I also wore the fingernails off on my right hand from scrubbing. I have a new appreciation for those who work on their knees.
The cleaning continued for 3 days, dawn to night, with breaks to eat. It was unbelievable the dirt and grime that had collected in a house that sat unoccupied for over 2 years. We have a chandelier in the living room and it was a light brown, just covered with dirt and grime. Once we cleaned it up, it is beautiful. It was one of the little things that collectively changed the whole atmosphere in our new home. By Thursday afternoon, our feelings about the place we lived in had completely changed and it began to truly feel like our home. We then began the final step to clinch the deal, putting our things away and emptying our luggage and putting it away in the back room.
We did have one misadventure on Wednesdy when we lost the water in our bathroom. I called the property manager and he got a “plumber” to come over. He showed up with a screw driver and what looked like channel locks, nothing else. I shouldn’t comment though, because he did get the water restored in the bathroom. From what I observed after he left, it appeared he removed a couple of small clogged sediment screens from somewhere which apparently let the water flow again. About an hour after the plumber left, we then lost the water in the whole house, and then began the comedy of errors. Knowing that the water flows from tanks on the roof, I went up to investigate and discovered that both were way low. The elders had told me they filled automaticly and I had heard a pump run very early several mornings. After another call to the property manager, I now understood that nothing was automatic, the pump to fill the tanks on the roof had to be turned on manually. I finally located the control box and turned it on. After a trip to the roof to be sure the tanks were filling, I resumed cleaning and forgot about the pump. About an hour or more later, I remembered the pump and headed back to the roof to see how the tanks were doing and found water flowing onto the roof from an overflow pipe and about a 2” deep lake. Fortunately, the roof drains took care of it once I hustled back down and turned the pump off. We were blessed to actually have the week free from calls or anything to interrupt us other than a few water problems.
We actually live in an upper class neighborhood and this is a nice home once we got the inside in shape. We live downstairs and the elders live upstairs above us. They are feeling pretty good about having Sister Tanner living downstairs. It is amazing how resourceful they are. We
mentioned how difficult it would be to make a good apple pie without the hard, tart Granny Smith type apples and we had not seen any in any of the produce stands or markets. The next day a grinning Elder Godi appeared at our door with a bag of Granny Smith apples.
Looking up our street
9/26/08 – Friday
After the putting away and arranging tasks were completed, in the afternoon we decided to venture out on our own to do some shopping. We couldn't find the Sector 40 market the elders had told us about. After walking quite a ways and deciding we either missed the street or were going the wrong way, we climbed into a pedel rickshaw and told the driver "Sector 40 market". Then commenced a tour of the neighborhood as the driver only made left turns (right turns in the states). We wound up at the C-Sector market and there was a dry cleaners there, so what the heck, I dropped off the pants I had brought along. We then took an auto-rickshaw and told the driver Atta market and we were off again. We got some groceries and returned and felt pretty good about our brave new world adventure.
After the putting away and arranging tasks were completed, in the afternoon we decided to venture out on our own to do some shopping. We couldn't find the Sector 40 market the elders had told us about. After walking quite a ways and deciding we either missed the street or were going the wrong way, we climbed into a pedel rickshaw and told the driver "Sector 40 market". Then commenced a tour of the neighborhood as the driver only made left turns (right turns in the states). We wound up at the C-Sector market and there was a dry cleaners there, so what the heck, I dropped off the pants I had brought along. We then took an auto-rickshaw and told the driver Atta market and we were off again. We got some groceries and returned and felt pretty good about our brave new world adventure.
This is our bathroom and shower and the "geezer", ie, hot water heater for the bathroom is in the next picture. The kitchen has a separate geezer for hot water and we have another in the bathroom off a spare bedroom that has become our laundry room. We actually have a small washing machine there that works pretty good. We bought a rack and set it up in the spare bedroom to dry clothes on.
This is Sister Tanner's kitchen and her "Easy Bake" oven. To the left is the 4 burner propane stove with the top down.
Our dinning room and table.
Living room with an air conditioning unit on the wall to the left.
Bedroom
Elder Tanner at work. What you can't see too well is the HP5610 printer, a wi-fi router, a small UPS on the floor that actually works, and a PC with no power cord.
I couldn't pass this up. The actual connection for the cable running into our home is in there somewhere. All in all, we have some pretty sweet digs once we got things cleaned and set up.
Getting the curtains/drapes hung was the finishing touch. I won't go into the whole story, but Sister Tanner went with Amy Smith to a fabric place and picked some great material for the drapes and curtains. The "stictcher" that we hired to sew them did a terrible job and Sister Tanner was ready to cry when she saw them hung, which is putting it politely. We went back to the fabric place and the owner came out with his top stitcher and they just shook their heads when they saw it. They also asked where the rest of the material was. Seems our first guy took us for about 10 meters of fabric on top of the lousy work. It all came out well as the second time around they came out great, just cost a bit more to have it done a second time and replace the missing material. Lesson learned, don't try to save a buck when you don't know the game. But the upside is that we now have someone we can trust and are working with him as a possible source for materials for several of our humanitarian projects. It's all good in the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment