We went to a couples conference in Nepal last week. It was the most amazing trip. The hotel we stayed at is the the one you see at the very top of the mountain. We had the most spectacular view of the Himalayas from this sight. We got to watch the sun set and rise from the balcony right out from our room and at about two o'clock in the morning we went out to watch the meteor showers. There weren't too many shooting stars but the night time sky was just so beautiful from this vantage point.

Fred refused to pack his winter coat. He was making fun of me for taking mine but I said, "We are going to the Himalaya mountains so I know it's going to be cold. You'll be sorry." Then he said, "You're the one whose going to be crying when you have to pack that big coat around everywhere." Anyway, it started getting down right cold after the sun went down. He was really worried about going out to watch the star show but I dug around in my suitcase and produced a couple of my little sweaters which he was glad to layer over his T shirt. Then he put his white dress shirt over the top of those. Next I made a turban for his head out of my pajama bottoms. He was pretty comfortable after that but looked pretty funny. It's a good thing turbans are common in these parts although not so much in Nepal. Poor Fred.

My little friend San San Nu lived with this woman and her servant girl for two years while she was trying to get her papers to immigrate to America. San San asked me to check on the girl once in a while so went over the other day. San San worried about this girl because she was a slave of sorts. There are many like her in the city who are brought in to work for wealthy people in the city. Agents go out into the villages and find boys and girls. The rich people pay the agents for the servant but the servant never sees any of the money. The masters then provide food, clothing, and other bare necessities. The slaves are kept locked up in the homes and rarely let out of sight. When they want to go back home, they are given just enough money to go back. At that point, their families don't want them back and there is usually no where to go. It's a real disaster if the girl becomes pregnant by the master or master's family member. She becomes a real outcast.

This girl doesn't speak any English so I'm at a loss to know how she is doing. It's a very sad situation.

One time I heard my brother in law Dan, whose has traveled around the world many times, say that he could tell where a person was from by the shoes he was wearing. The men here in India wear very strange shoes. It's hard to tell from just pictures although we have one with Fred's foot by it so that you can tell how long they are. They all wear these kind of shoes with the square toes and they always at least two inches too long for their feet proportionally. Although people seem to have fairly big feet even though they are for the most part short. Someday I will get a picture of the beautiful footwear the women have.

I'm always fascinated by the construction workers and their methods. The women work just as hard as the men. Their bright and beautiful clothing helps to brighten up the city for sure.

Elderly Sikh neighbors of ours all dressed in their military costumes and riding their beautiful white horses.

We took a trip to Jaipur in Rajastan. It was really fun and we saw lots of sights. It's called the Pink City and it is aptly named. Everything has a pink or terra cotta tint to it. We saw it earlier in the day and then again at evening time. We got some good pictures of the castle at both times of the day. I got some when it was all lit up and so beautiful. My favorite scenes were the water buffalo who actually looked flourescent green from the moss. I loved the castle in the lake. It was built out there but I'm not sure how the royal family got to that castle.

We also saw camels dressed up and waiting for people to come ride them.

In the third picture down you will see two women washing clothes. They are getting their water from the metal water tanks. Notice the little child standing by the woman on the left. It is winter time here although it still feels hot to us. Everyone is bundled up especially the little ones. Many are wearing their winter hats.

On the trip we saw a lot of fields under cultivation and many camels pulling carts with heavy loads. We also saw some hills which felt good to our eyes. We haven't seen any hills since we left home, so we had to get some pictures of these.

The next few pictures down are of monkeys. Some are far off in the distance so you will have to search for them. We saw a lot of the little creatures in Jaipur. We also saw a lot of pigs running in the streets but could never get a good picture.

This looked like the Great Wall of China. It completely surrounded the fort. The king lived at the castle fort with his twelve wives. Each wife had her own living quarters which could be individually viewed and accessed by the king. It was an interesting place to see.

Amber Fort In Jaipur (11th century)

Two Cobras in Jaipur (The Pink City) A Romany (Sinti)

We shop quite often at a market across the highway from us. It's probably about a mile's walk for us. There are open spaces in the middle of the market. Originally they were supposed to be parks but this is all that is left of them now. The little children playing here seemed so happy. But if you make the picture big you will get a better view of what their playground really looks like.

More pictures of construction workers and there little children.

I saw this cool rocking chair and had to take a picture. Does anyone remember the rocking chairs I made with willows? I asked my brother Grant if he thought I should get some kind of a copy right on my chairs if I went in to business and sold them. He said that I probably just needed insurance. I asked why that was and he said that just in case on of the willows came lose and whacked someone in the eye. I could get sued so it would be a good thing to get some insurance. I'm sure my daughter-in-law Daisy remembers the one I gave to her well. She was rocking her new baby Laura when suddenly the chair collapsed and they both went tumbling to the ground. I think this one in the picture looks very sturdy though. I'd like to try to make one when I get home. Don't worry, I won't gift it to anyone.

Sidewalk cooks are so artistic and creative with their presentations of food. Sometimes their food smells so good and looks so good that we are tempted but we've been warned and I think eating side walk food may have been one thing that made Elder Weeks sick when we first came here. The Elders got him to eat at the sidewalk vendors and Elder Weeks said it tasted like sewer water whatever it was he ate.

Can you find Grandma in any of these manican pictures?

We see people rolling leaves then stringing them along with a few flowers and creating leis. This one was being trampled on the ground but still a fairly good example. At first we couldn't figure out what all the baskets of rolled up leaves were being used for.

Guru Nanak was the first Sikh prophet and it was his birthday. A huge celebration was taking place and people were out by the hoards. Temporary tents and tables were set up all along the streets. Smoke was thick from all the fire crackers. The fire bombs have the loudest most deafening boom. It will be a surprise if our hearing isn't totally damaged by the time we get home. Check out the Sikh woman holding the knife. She is praying over the food. Also look at the family on the bicycle rickshaw. The little boy is sitting on the driver's seat. Pretty funny sight.

It was the birthday of one of the Sikh Gods and we were in the middle of a huge parade when suddenly Elder Puri and Elder Petersen appeared. They are both very tall Elders and really stand out in the crowd. Elder Puri had a grandfather who was a Sikh. All the rest of his ancestry is Scottish. He comes from Scotland and has the cutest accent. He's the one on the left of the picture. Elders Puri and Petersen are two really nice elders. They used to live right across from us through our little neighborhood park but they have been moved now to be more centralized in their working area. We miss them.

This was a man carrying two rifles in his left hand with one strapped over his shoulder. We see a lot of armed men here. Our Branch President said that the Wild West has come to India.

The construction people usually have their little children right out there with them. It is so cute to see the little ones just playing in the dirt having fun without any toys at all. These little guys were playing with bricks and one had a brick balanced on his shoulder. When the mother in the background saw that I was taking pictures, she came over and tried to get them to pose. She was also trying to get them to put their bricks down and stand nicely. They couldn't understand what she was trying to do and the little one in the red started crying and ran to tell his mother. I felt kind of bad for interrupting their fun playing just for a dumb old picture. It turned out to be quite the drama.

We are just overwhelmed at times by the sad sights we see here. The next few pictures are of crippled and deformed beggars. We try to give them some Rupees whenever we can.

I have been very interested in this cook and his methods of doing things. This day when we passed by and looked down to his camp cooking area he was wringing some vegetable out of it's juices. He had them tied up in a mesh bag. The bag was hooked onto a spike and he was twisting it so tight that what ever was in the bag was really getting wrung out. He wasn't saving the juice either, just letting it fall and splash into the mud.

The next time we passed by there he was asleep laying alongside a huge pile of onions that he had just peeled and chopped. He must have been so exhausted or maybe he was drinking on the job and just passed out. I've never figured out who he is cooking for but he has some interesting ideas about food preparation.

I love taking pictures of the horses and other animals of all sizes pulling wagons and carts right down the middle of highways in busy traffic. It's feels so much like we have gone back in time. Sometimes we will see a rider on a horse just galloping along with the traffic. It's quite an incredible feeling. I really love it. I wish America was a little more slow paced like this. At first I was just incredulous at the way people would step right out in traffic and cross a highway on foot. Now I do the same thing. If I don't make it quite all the way across, I just stand there with vehicles whizzing by on both sides of me and wait for an opening to go. I'm absolutely fearless now. I'll probably get killed when I get home. Cars go a lot faster than here. At first I marveled at the little children out on the streets begging and peddling. I couldn't believe the little ones were right out in the traffic but I guess they just get so street smart and they learn to stay away from the tires.

I was getting a picture of the cow and the dogs eating out of the garbage on the side of the road. I happened to click two pictures and when I looked at them closer I noticed the man in the background. He must have seen me taking a picture and look what happened. I didn't even know he was there. Isn't this the funniest thing?

Here we are at a District picnic activity. Fred looks pretty skinny in this picture. I was just figuring out that he weighs only thirty pounds more that I do now. This is really a shocking development for me. He has always weighed almost one hundred pounds more than me and now he is almost the same weight. His blood pressure is almost as low as mine and his pulse is even lower sometimes. This is a bit unsettling to me. I'm tempted to start feeding him ice cream again but then he would get sick and lose a bunch more weight. Sometimes I wish I could get sick and lose weight like that. Usually when I get sick I even eat more.

This was one of the funniest signs yet. The faded part says For Dogs Only.

This little beggar baby had the most unusual hair. Blow the picture up big and take a look at the hair. It probably has never been combed and it was all ratty. Many times the babies will be totally naked except for a little strap around the top of the hips as this one has. Sometimes the beggar people are the most handsome of all.

This little boy had the most horrible looking leg. It looked like it had been broken and the bone had shifted up overlapping the top part of the broken bone and then had healed that way. It really looked a lost worse than this picture I got of it. The strange thing was it didn't seem to hinder him in any way. He didn't even limp.

We were taking our four mile hike to the Defence Colony the other day and almost tripped over this poor fellow laying on our path. Suddenly we were looking down at his practically naked rear end. It wasn't a pretty sight either. We couldn't tell if he was dead or not but about one half hour after we first saw him and we were passing back by that way he had changed positions so we know he wasn't dead. Most of these people laying on the streets like this are drunk or on drugs.

Happy Halloween! Believe it or not we found a real little witch at our market the other day. She was posing as a sweet little old beggar woman wearing white instead of black. She even had her little trick-or-treat bucket with her. Her besom of destruction had lost all of it's sweeping twigs and the wart on her nose was disguised as a jewel. If you check out the women in the background you will see that she cast an evil spell on them because of their great beauty and turned them into stone. Click twice on all of these next three pictures to see them in all their detail.

This was a Turkish, Iranian, and Russian girl who lives in Uzbekistan. She and her mother were at the Connaught Place market when we met them. We struck up a conversation and I asked her if I could get a picture. Then I showed her my paintings which I keep on my camera. We invited her and her mother over for dinner but haven't heard anything from them since. I got her portrait done just in case. She was an interesting looking girl.

These are some pictures of beggars. I thought I would group them together. The first is of a man with a cleft palate and a poor crippled and deformed leg. Take a close look at the man on the wheel board. His arms are sure developed but his legs look like skeleton legs. He was going along pushing his bucket with his head. I don't know if he really needed to do that. He might have been able to sit up but this posture looked a lot more pitiful. We gave him 10 rupees. We have been giving to almost all the deserving looking beggars lately. It makes us feel so much better. At first we thought we weren't supposed to because they might follow us home and then we would have a big problem. But we decided that we felt too terrible when we didn't give them something so now we give. It's a much better feeling.

Just before Duwali, there was some kind of holy day where the women all dress up in their very finest clothes. They then go out and gather with their friends. Sitting in a wide circle, they have a holy man read from the holy book. Then they pass big plates of food around. This food isn't eaten at the event but taken home to share with their families. The women fast for the whole day and after dark they go out with their husbands to look at the moon, a candle is lit which they do some kind of motion with and wish their husbands good health and happines for the next year. Then the husband feeds the wife some food. I know many of the ladies in these pictures.

We see this woman feeding the dogs almost every morning on our way to basketball practice. It looks like she is just feeding them bread crumbs. The dogs really seem to love her though.

This is a family that lives just around the corner from us. We have passed them quite a few times but never took a picture. They seem like a happy bunch but they live right on the edge of a busy highway. I don't know how these people survive. Take a close look at the terrible little tents they live in. The woman hanging out the clothes is barefooted in those rocks. We saw the older little boy carrying a big basket of potato peelings and other refuse from the camp up a steep and long stretch on the side of the road from his home. We watched and when he got to a certain spot he stopped and dumped the contents of his basket over a railing. I have no idea of where they get their water or go to the bathroom because there is absolutely no privacy. It's just amazing to me how these poor creatures live. They seem happier than the people that live in the horrible excuses for apartments though.

This little woman was carrying a bag of rocks. Usually they have a cushion of some kind to protect their heads but she was carrying that heavy load with no protection at all. At first we didn't know what was in the bag but when I realized it was a bag of rocks I had to have a picture.

I'm probably going to title this painting, "Girl on a Motorcycle." She was such a beautiful girl and she gave me such a big smile. It's really hard to paint beautiful girls, babies, and little children. Men are much easier because of the hard lines in men's faces. It took me a long time to get this one where I wanted it. I stayed up until three thirty in the morning working on it but when I got up this morning, I could see some major problems. After Fred left for his early Saturday meetings I got right back to work on it. Let me know what you think.

Here is another monochromatic sketch I did of a girl riding on the back of a motorcycle. I'm trying to put some color on now but it is looking really messy and I may have ruined my painting. If it turns out in the end I'll send you a shot of it in color. I thought it would be fun to see a painting in stages. Sometimes the first sketch is so good I don't want to go any further but this girl had some beautiful color in her outfit so I'm going to try to capture it. My teacher Jackie Goodyear said no matter how good you get at art it is still really scary sometimes and even the best artists lose confidence.