Visiting Guests from Maryland

We have 4 guests from Maryland staying in our city with us. It has been a very fast and full week. Even our children have gotten involved with them! We are grateful for there work with Bill and for Mount Airy's gifts to us! We've been able to share our work and vision together and are looking forward to another full week with them.


Nafisa is enjoying all the attention these days, too. Danielle's school just had a concert tonight where she shared some Indian music and poems in various local languages. We are so glad she is part of a good local school where she has made some really good friends.

More in the week to come!
Bill for the fam

Cast From Maria's Perspective

Hi!
Well,
I got my cast off yesterday and it was so scary! We left Joseph, Danielle and another guest in the car while Ali, me and my dad went into the doctors office. They directed us immediately to a room and one of the guys there put a piece of tarp under my cast. Then he got out a box with a drill sort of thing and a circular bade on the end. he used that to first slice one side of the cast and then the other. It was so scary! I was on the bed and holding Ali's hand and my dad was standing there watching. Every time I moved suddenly for one reason or another, Ali would practically yell, " Did he cut you!?". After about he fifth time she did that she made my dad nervous and he told her to stop. I was so scared! Finally he was finished and he pried the cast of my leg. I am not going to describe my leg to you because it was really gross. It looked dead! Anyway, we were then transferred to another room and waited there for about forty-five minutes. We were so bored! (while we were waiting we : threw coins around the room, sang songs, and gave each other a makeover)[NOTE, Maria did NOT give me (Dad) a makeover!]Finally the doctor came and looked at it a bit. then he put a bandage(you know those stretchy kind) and said I needed to keep it on when I was up and about, I could get it wet now, I could put weight on it gradually, as I felt comfortable, AND... that I should come back in two weeks for one last x-ray... And that is what happened. I can't wait to actually walk on it but now i am a Little uncomfortable with putting weight on it.
later,

Maria

Our Family Happenings

Merrilea and Nafisa are away this week in Delhi for a meeting leaving us at home alone. Maria and Joseph and Danielle are busy with school work and playing around in the evenings. From 1-5 Monday – Friday a tutor comes over to help them with their schoolwork and to correct their assignments. She even reads books to our kids which is great!

Maria is to get her cast off on Friday! She will be relieved. She’s been sleeping in our guest room downstairs as climbing stairs is a bit much.

We have a team visiting us from Maryland next week and then in October we have another joining us from South Carolina. We should be pretty busy for the next month!

Today, one of my closer friends here had heart by-pass surgery in our city. He had 5 blockages! He’s out of the surgery and in ICU now. The next 2 days should tell us more. Two other friends and I went to the hospital to donate blood last Monday for the doctor to use for this surgery. We’d appreciate your prayers on his behalf. It is great to know that the country’s #2 hospital for cardiology patients is here in our town.

Things here in India are gearing up for festivities. The Muslim month of Ramadan begins next week and many Hindu festivals will have been going on and several more will occur in October and November. Just like we have holiday sales in stores every fall around Thanksgiving, they do it here around these festivals/holidays.

The daily temperature is running back up into the 80’s and will remain that way till mid November where it ought to dip back down to the 60’s at night for 2 months. Rainy season continues here and we’ve had literally double the normal amount of rainfall. It is amazing how much water accumulates in a short amount of time. Streets turn into rivers for several hours.

More Next Week
Bill