I didn't get a good picture of this meal but you can kind of see what it was. The main dish was cooked up by our Afghani friend Merry. It is eggplant with garlic, onions, and tomatoes. I served it with rice, vegetable plate and lentils. I cooked too many lentils and now we are eating them for a few days straight. Maybe I'll just freeze the rest so we don't get too tired of them. The eggplant reminded me of the French recipe for eggplant called Rattetoue. I think I spelled that wrong. Anyway Roxi made it several times after the kid movie came out by that name. Here's how Merry made it.

Cut the eggplant up into strips and fry in plenty of oil. Fry onions and garlic in a separate pan. Layer first onions and garlic, uncooked tomato slices, then the eggplant. Salt and pepper in between each layer. Cook covered over a low flame until everything is tender.

It's fun to be an artist in the kitchen. The first picture is a vegetable tray of shredded carrots and raisins, cucumbers, onions, and a tomato flower. The next picture was our meal last night.

Going around clockwise: lentil soup, breaded cauliflower, shredded carrots and raisins, tomato flower, spinach with natural mozzarelli, fried scones cut into triangle shapes and lentil soup.

I've decided since I painted that picture of Elder Partsch, I had better paint one of all the Elders that I have been personally acquainted with and who are leaving in the near future. This is a portrait of Elder Godi. I didn't get his full name in the photo so it turned out to look like Elder God. That's alright though because he is probably the most spiritual Elder in the mission. He is a little older than the rest and a really nice, nice young man. He's also serving as the Branch President of one of our little branches here.

Two little beggar children with their fake hands. When we first saw one of these burned diseased hands we just about lost it but then realized fairly quickly that they weren't real. We have been trying to buy some of these hands. When we ask the beggars if we can buy them they just look at us. Nobody ever seems to be around to interpret for us. We think it would be fun to buy a bunch for our grandkids for Halloween.

This is another new saree. It's cotton which makes me look a little fluffy but it's the best for wearing in this hot weather. This saree has the prettiest embroidered red flowers on the fall in the back.

Stir fried vegetables with a plate of raman noodles. Decorate with tomato flowers and green peppers. Simple but looks fit for a king. We also ate fried mushrooms on the side.

Our little friend Bindia and another teen aged girl out selling beaded necklaces.

A bicycle rickshaw guy with a baby parrot on his shooulder.

I'm not sure where these little kids got this big piece of chocolate cake but they were sure enjoying it. The little girl actually had a little plastic spoon but the boy was just eating the frosting with his fingers.

Two colorful guys at the market.

It usually takes at least three guys to use a ladder.

These men were washing and drying scarves and other fabrics-- camp style. Fred and I thought it was really interesting and almost like a dance the way they were drying this particular scarf. They would flip it up, catch the air in it, close it, open it, then flip it again. It was so beautiful to watch.

I told Kasci that I would put some pictures of dinners that I serve on the blog so that she could get an idea how to use food as an art form. Cutting vegetables into different shapes can really make that plain old vegetable tray exciting.
This was our dinner the other night. Lentil soup. spinach, scones I made from my old french bread recipe, and the vegetable tray. We eat almost strictly vegetarian at home and we are doing fine. Meat just isn't that appetizing to buy here when you have to go to the market with all the flies, smells, rats and unsanitary handling of the meat.

We went to a fashion show tonight that our little friend Dolly Arjun performed in. Her fashion design school performed a native dance and it was so good. Anyway, this is another saree that I wore. It's a light weight cotton but very crispy and sheer. It's very cool clothing for this hot, hot weather but I still feel like I'm wearing a formal. I wish my camera was picking up the beautiful weave and colors. It's sort of a white on white with little red centers in the floral design. The trim is almost maroon with green and gold in the stripe.

The fabric and sparkling print on this saree is so beautiful. I feel bad that the camera didn't pick up the colors that well.

Cows. A common sight in the middle of the city.

This is Elder Partsch. He and his companion Elder Christensen were over the other day. He was waiting for Elder Christensen to get some work done on our computer. Elder Partsch is a really good artist and he had been saying that he wanted to learn my painting techniques and wished he could take a class sometime. I said, "Hey, now is a good time to take a class." He said O.K. so I took a picture of him with my camera and then proceeded to get everything set up for him to do a self portrait. When I handed him the brush he said, "Oh no sister, I won't do it. You just demonstrate for me and I'll just sit and watch." Anyway, that's how I ended up making a portrait of Elder Partsch. Now, all the rest of the Elders are going to have their feelings hurt if I don't paint a portrait of each one. Do I have the energy? That's the question. Elder Partsch is a Samoan Fire Eater.

These are the construction workers at the Frank Anthony school. They live in tents right there on the school grounds and their little children are running free as little beggars while the little rich kids are sitting in the sweltering class rooms watching the fun going on outside their classroom windows. Both sides are wishing they could be in the other's place.

Side walk tents and open air homes under over passes and wedged between buildings. It's amazing how these people survive under these conditions. They are really tough.

People do love their animals here. This animal ambulance is probably picking up sick street dogs. Veterinarians doctor them up, then let them go back out on the streets. Weened puppies are also picked up, neutered, given shots, then given away for pets. If there are no takers, they are let go again out on the streets. We see people, especially one lady who is out every morning with a bag full of eats for the street dogs. She feeds all dogs she sees along her way. We see people feeding the cows also, sometimes out of their car windows, and of course people throw a lot of food out of their house windows for the birds and other lucky animals who happen to be in that vicinity at that time.