How many monkeys can you count? I counted six. You might find more. There were monkeys everywhere at the Agra train station. We even saw some jumping in and out of a water tank. The creepy part is that it was the tank right above the restaurant. Water purifiers are not that popular here so you can imagine all the monkey business that is floating around in the water people are drinking and washing dishes with.

This is a little beggar at the railroad station who really touched our hearts. I'm hoping our new mission President, who is a doctor, will know who we can get in touch with to possibly help this little boy.

These beggar children made friends with Fred and he bought them all some bananas. They seemed happy to get something to eat. They just live at the railroad station. All of them orphans and nowhere else to go. We asked one little boy who took care of him and he pointed at an older beggar girl who seemed to be in charge of all of them. She was really bossing them. Notice the one little boy. He has his shirt stuffed full of plastic pop and water bottles. I suppose he was going to take them and get some cash for them later. One of the other boys and he were playing. His friend was dragging him around by the collar and those plastic bottles were making a lot of noise. It was making everyone laugh. Even children in these horrible circumstances seem to be happy and they no how to play and have fun.

This was the last little face we saw through the window as our train pulled out of the station. He ran along side the train for as far as he could. It was all we could do to hold back the tears. Poor little fellow.

Grandpa finally got to ride an elephant.

Bhuda Dev our church guard found this beautiful cockatoo in a tree at the church. He risked his life crawling out on a limb to get it. He's the same fellow that was feeding the street dog. His little cockatoo didn't survive either. San San felt so sorry for him so when we were going to take Mrs. Chowdry's dog to the vet, San San asked him if he would like us to bring back another street dog for him to take care of. He said that everything he tries to feed dies. He's not going to try to take care of any more animals. San San said, "These people are so superstitious about things like that."

Fred came running in for the camera, yelling for me to hurry out an see the monkey. He was a very large monkey just sitting there on top the car parked across from our gate. He very patiently waited for his picture to be taken then did a few antics on the fence and other parked cars before he settled on a banana vendors cart and helped himself helped himself to little snack.

I had a hard time getting a good picture of this auto rickshaw hauling a big long box down the highway. It reminded me of times when I would try to haul a long board in my little car. This rickshaw was weaving in and out of traffic and was making it very difficult for me to snap a photo. We've seen them hauling newspapers, produce, equipment of all kinds, and furniture.
The mission office sent us a bed (double mattress and heavy wood bed frame) for our spare bedroom. A man riding a bicycle rickshaw hauled it all the way from the office about six miles away and over the most congested highway. I was impressed.

This is a newspaper stand, Indian style.

You have to get out early in the morning before all the men leave for work in order to get a shot like this.

This sweet little grandma was sitting out by here son's food stand. I couldn't resist getting a shot. Blow this picture up and take a look. I think she has only one tooth left in her head.

This girl is a sample of the beauty we see every day. I wish so much that I could practice my portrait painting here. This is an artist's paradise or in my case hell because I don't have the time or tools to work my hand at it.

You should be able to count six dogs in this picture. Most street dogs here look like this. They are yellow, black, or white with black spots. I think they have all been cut out of the same pattern. Rarely do we ever see puppies. I think they must be grown dogs when they are born. Several people have said that the puppies are gathered up, given shots, and then given away as house pets. It must be true because most of the house dogs that I have seen look just like the street dogs except bigger and fatter. Some people have different breeds though. One of our member ladies had a Saint Bernard puppy about four months old and it was already huge. She had a jacket on it when we went to visit at her home. The next week we got the sad news that her dog had died. No Duh!

This is what you call a dog pile. There were more dogs laying on the other side also.

Fred took this picture of a Sihk Holy Man. He looks so clean in his pure white clothing. Check out his golden slippers also.

The school kids are all studying like crazy this time of year. Every school is testing right now. Fred got a shot of this girl riding to school with her books open on her lap, cramming, cramming right up to the deadline.

Dinu, Dibit, and me as we share some fun times together. These girls are from Arunachal Pradesh, a Northeastern Indian state. Their father owns a rice plantation and their mother owns a road construction business and she also runs a school. I bought a sewing machine and I'm teaching them how to sew. They are so excited about making some frocks.

People feed the animals all the time. We've seen bird seed carefully put out on a ledge of a building and bread and other scraps being thrown out of windows but this was a first. People in the vehicle were reaching out of their windows and feeding this cow and they rolled slowly down the street. I just wasn't able to catch a good picture.

This is one of our many vendors that come by our door every day. Each one has a different chant but when you try to get a picture they stop and pose. Fred finally got this man and the music he makes as he pedals his way through the neighborhoods.

On a busy street right out side of a Hindu Temple was this man milking a cow. The cow was more of a holstien mix but not a Brahma. I have heard that the milk from a Brahma cow is sacred but I wondered if the milk from this cow might have been sacred also. I've seen nothing but the Brahmas here. We have been told that they wash all the statues with in the temple with cows milk each day.