Three months in India

We've been in Chennai for three months ... ja! Sorry, but Portuguese expresses the feeling best. Here are some photos of our first few weeks in India.

We love our yard. It's both beautiful and functional, with lots of space for running and exploring.

View from the balcony

Another view looking down from the balcony

Samuel with some of our coconut harvest

Our cut from the mango tree -- 100 mangoes!

What we did with our cut from the mango tree

Statue of Ganesh at our front gate

We didn't have a car for the first six weeks, so we did a lot of travel by autorickshaw. Samuel is now obsessed with rickshaws and motorcycles. EVERYONE here has a motorcycle. There are probably more "two-wheelers," as they're called, than there are cars. And that's saying something.

Headed out for grocery shopping

The maintenance crew left this rickshaw unattended in our driveway. Irresistable!

Typical traffic ... No livestock in this photo, though, so not entirely representative

We live 10 minutes away from the Indian Ocean. Johnny would correct me: It's the Bay of Bengal.

At Elliott's Beach

We always draw a crowd of friendly spectators

Johnny turned 8 at the end of July and was baptized that weekend.

We had a Star Wars party in the backyard. The kids ate all kinds of food, made light sabers, played pin the ear on Yoda, and destroyed a Death Star pinata. And we all survived.

The missionaries came for Johnny's birthday dinner and gave a message about baptism

The big day!

At church

Johnny is in the third grade at the American International School of Chennai. Evie will start preschool in a couple of weeks at an Indian school called Alphabet School.

First day of school

On the playground

We met Secretary Clinton when she made a quick stop in Chennai after negotiations in Delhi.

Sam and his friend Noah waiting for the secretary to arrive

The secretary with some of the consulate kids. That blur in the bottom right corner is Samuel making his escape.

Wildlife here is abundant, and loud, and often of the creepy, crawly variety.

At Guindy Snake Park

Lots of deities are human/animal combinations

Samuel admiring a slug. Everything here -- ants, birds, snakes, wasps, all manner of bugs -- seems HUGE.

Our HHE (shipment of our household goods) still has not arrived due to a mixture of miscommunication and incompetence that will not be discussed here. In the meantime, the kids are finding that boxes make fabulous toys.

If our shipment ever does get here, it will come in boxes like this one. (This is our neighbor's.)

It's been a good three months! There's been some culture shock and the normal adjustments that come with moving, but we've been really happy over all.