Republic Day 2010

Wow, this is going to be a long post.

Once again our kids were out of school. Yesterday January 26th was Republic Day here and we actually did quite a few things. To start out the day Adarsh Vista (our community here) had a flag raising ceremony and a parade for all of the kids. They divided the kids up by street. Our street decided to dress up in the traditional Indian dresses from around the country. One street had all bicyclist, one was "Go Green", another dressed in Orange and Green, and another street had the children pulled on a cart by a cow. They paraded up the main road in our complex, and then back to the clubhouse where everyone met for breakfast. We missed the breakfast because the Elders Quorum and Young Men from our branch were having a cricket match and Alan wanted to participate in that.

Indian Flag

Our Security Guards

The next few pictures are the parade. By the time the kids from our street walked to the gate, one of the parents had a jeep that they took and gave them rides back down the parade route.

Ethan really wanted to ride his bike in the parade. He zoomed by so fast, I wasn't able to get a picture of him.

Ellie Maddie and Shauma

Coming back from the gate
Maddie has made a cute friend that lives 2 door down from us. Her name is Shauma. She and her brother, Kaveil, ride the Indus bus with our kids. She is in 1st grade, and Kaveil is in 3rd. He loves to come to our house and play Wii with Ethan. When the parade was over, ViJay, our driver was excited because the sign that Maddie was holding was Andra Pradesh. The place he grew up.

After the parade we went to the ITI Fields and played cricket. Well, the EQ and YM played, we learned how to play.


Our Elders Quorum and Young Men

The little boy in the front on the right is Kevin. He is 8 years old and was just baptized. We went to dinner at his family's apartment that day. He is a very cute kid and showed Ellie, Maddie and Ethan how to play. He and his dad, Jerry Lewis, walked Ethan to the bakery to get a treat while we were watching the match. His dad is the one in the very middle of the picture with the blue shirt and sunglasses.

ViJay giving Alan a few batting tips. He was pretty excited when we told him he could come play too. He loves cricket almost as much as Alan loves any other sport!

Maddie taking a turn batting.
ViJay helping Ethan to "bowl" or "pitch"

After practicing for a while, they let Alan play in the game. (They take it pretty serious) I think he said that he scored 6 points, and then it was his teams turn to go into "the outfield" (not sure of the cricket terms)
They put Alan in "right field" as he put it.

After the cricket match Alan and the kids went back home and I went to a District Relief Society Service Project/Talent Show

It was at the 2nd branch. They actually have a building with chapel and accordion doors and all. It was nice to see an actual LDS church here.
They put together Hygiene Kits for an Orphanage, and then they had a talent show. Most of the women sang songs, and most of them were in Tamil or Telugu. I didn't understand most of what was said, but there was one really funny lady that got up and for her talent she told the women how to impress their husbands. Most of it was makeup tips, or home remedies for acne, but the funniest one was exercising while cooking. She demonstrated how to get rid of the fat that hangs over your saris.

All in all we had a really busy day yesterday, and we learned a lot. We were able to get to know our neighbors and our branch a little better also.