Mumbai Shopping

Saturday shopping in Mumbai at the West Andheri Market.  Many thanks to Caruna, Sharon, and Shubishish for being our tour guides and price negotiators.  They saved us many, many rupees.  It was a hot day but many of the shops were inside or under an awning so it was tolerable.  It was crowded and noisy but we did not let that deter us from the many items we just had to buy.  Lunch was at McDonald's and the menu included such things as a Spicy Paneer Chicken Sandwich and a Chicken Maharaja Mac.  The only non-chicken item was a veggie burger and a Filet-o-fish.  Atfter lunch, we hit some specific booths to ensure that we would be able to find items that we felt were necessary, rather than just perusing.  All in all it was quite the successful trip.  After a quick refresh at the hotel, Pastor E and Matt Whitehead (who had just arrived in Mumbai) went with us to one of the high end malls out near Goreagon.  The malls here all have security gates to pass through, just like at the airport. No X-ray scanners and you get to keep your shoes on, but you do pass through a metal detector and get wanded.  There were some pretty fancy stores in this mall, but due to traffic being so congested, we were really short on time so we hooked up with everybody at the coffee shop and had lattes.  Abishek brought over some of the guys that attended the Youth camp which was quite a fun surprise to get to see them one last time unexpectedly.  We departed the mall and went to Pastor Shirish's home.  There were many visitors at their home and it was a lovely evening.  Joe and Marilyn James from Indianapolis and Alan and Carol Lowne from New York were there.  Joe and Marilyn are originally from the PNW and Alan and Carol are originally from England.  They are on a ministry trip throughout India and are headed to the central and eastern parts of the country.  It was nice to meet them and get to chat for some time.  Ujwala prepared a wonderful dinner and dessert for all of us.  We had deliberately limited our lunchtime food intake and it was a good thing.  There was plenty of delicious food for us to gorge ourselves on.  Our India family has taken such good care of us; accomodating to every need, making their homes our homes, and making sure we didn't have a chance to go home skinnier than when we came.  Too soon the evening had to end, 9:30pm which really is too early according to India standards, but we had to travel back to the hotel which could take a while depending on traffic and some of the team were heading out pretty early for church services.  The last few days have been filled with so many goodbyes.  It is so bittersweet as we are all looking forward to the happy hellos from home.  Such an emotional roller coaster but definitely worth the ride.