I was going through some of the pictures my mom and dad took when they picked me up from my mission and I was very homesick for it. And since I've never posted any of my mission pics before, I decided to do so now. I know it seems like a lot.....but there are MANY more I could post, this was merely a few from my last two weeks there.
This is me standing in my backyard. We lived on the top floor of a three story house. Our landlord and his wife lived on the main floor and their son and his wife on the second floor. When you get married in Mauritius, you build on top of the boys' parents' house.
This is what I saw every morning when I looked out my kitchen window. I got so that I could ignore the roosters cockadoodle-dooing every morning.
This is also what I saw from my kitchen window. This is the home of Karine and her husband Mimi and their son Nicky (you can see him riding his bike on their balcony). Karine is one of my favorite people. She was baptized without her husband who didn't really care for that sort of thing. His family lives in the basement and they live on the second floor. His brother and wife are building on top of them. You see that tin shed in front of their house? Mimi is a mechanic and he runs an auto shop. That's his shop.
This is Karine and Mimi. They are so cute!! I love them!!!
A typical sight walking through the streets of Mauritius. This is a fruits and veggies market. It was there everyday, with the exception of thursday and sunday, when you would see no food out for sale, but clothes instead.
Ah...the ocean! You can see me there with that straw hat on. It was torture. My parents and my landlord and wife wanted to go swimming. So I got to go and sit there and watch as I wasn't released from my being a missionary until I got home.
This is my landlord and his wife. My companion, Kelly McBride (some of you may know her..she's from Calgary) started calling them Papa and Mama Gopaul. They were truly like our mom and dad there. They took such good care of us. And it only made sense that we called them that, seeing as how we lived on the third floor of their home...we were family! And no..that's not Papa Gopaul's hair, it's a shadow...he was totally bald on top!
This picture makes me laugh because Mama Gopaul is posing for my mom to take a picture of her praying. She is Hindhu and this is where she prays every morning. Every hindhu here had a shrine in the front of their house. So did Catholics actually. Little statues of Mary with candles burning. I love Mauritius!!
The Pointu Family. They are so cute! Sharon, the oldest girl, would go out with us everyday on her school breaks. To go to discussions and to go tracting and what not. She was amazing! This is the last time I had dinner there. :( They made my favorite meal!! Curried chicken and beans with rotis! Ah...how I miss it!! So good!
The Bosquet family. They were the leadership of the church in Mauritius. Dorianna who was 17, was the primary president. Thomy, 21, was young men's president. Sister Bosquet was Relief Society president, Brother Bosquet was the branch mission leader and Stephanie, 27, was Young Women's president. They had a daughter, Sophie on a mission in Congo and both Thomy and Stephanie had already served missions in Haiti and Africa. They are such an amazing family. The two younger boys are their non member cousins. They came to church every week though and all the activities. They loved it!! Oh yeah...last summer they were finally able to be all together for once and had saved enough money to go to the temple in South Africa to be sealed as a family! So exciting!!
Joanna! She is a character. Her best friend is Dorianna Bosquet and she was baptized while I was there, after many years of attending church and various activities with Dorianna. This is a park where we had many of our discussions.
Joanna swinging on vines.
Dorianna, me and Joanna. I love these girls so much!! We had so much fun together! They would also come with us to many discussions. I miss them tons!! Dorianna is actually at BYU Hawaii right now.
Man, I love Mauritius. Look at this cute little Hindhu lady in her sari. My dad stood beside her so we could see her actual size. So cute! These little ladies are everywhere! I always thought that they looked like they would break in half at any second, they seemed so frail. But they're so strong. They walk everywhere, take the bus all over, carry tons of groceries, garden etc. Most of them don't speak French either...just creole, so if you talk to them, they just nod their heads alot and ramble in creole. It's so funny! I just realized that she looks really young from behind. But she was probably around 70 years old. All the ladies dye their hair black. It's very rare to see a white haired lady.
Little kids waiting for the bus to pick them up from school. Every school had uniforms and kids would go to school at age 3. They loved practicing their English with us. Since Mauritius used to be a part of Britain before it became independant, English is still the official language of the country and school classes are in English for kids. Not the best English, but English nonetheless. Since most kids only spoke Creole or French at home, every kid would go to tutoring after school because they wouldn't learn anything in school. In fact, tutoring was mandatory. Isn't that horrible? Going to school, then tutoring afterwards, everyday and even on saturdays and sundays sometimes.
Every month there was some sort of Hindhu holiday or celebration. I loved learning about all of them and what they meant. I can't actually remember the name of this one or which one it is. It's been awhile. But there were times when they would all build little temples and carry them from wherever they lived on the island to the sacred hindhu lake and pray and offer sacrifices (just fruits and things like that). And other times when they would flush all evil from themselves by peircing their mouths and tongues with things so that they could not utter anything evil. I watched this happen once, so painful. And the moaning and screaming that was involved...it was a little bit scary actually. I loved the culture of it all though.
Who wants their back pierced?
Convenient way to carry your snacks hey? I think these are guavas or limes.
Junior was our taxi driver. The buses would stop running at a certain hour in Mauritius and the area was too big and dangerous for us Sisters to walk, so we had our own personal taxi driver at night. He was so funny. His father was a member, and Junior "can't remember" if he was ever baptized, but he remembers coming to church as a little boy. He never actually was baptized, but he loves to tell stories. His excuse is that if he came to church again, he would distract all the ladies from learning about Jesus, because they would all flock to him. :)
This is me with two of my nieces at the airport when I came home. It was so good to see everyone again!
My beloved grandparents and me at the airport. Isn't my grandma cute? I sure miss her!
Well, sorry for how long this post is. I got a little excited I think. I loved my mission and I miss it SOO much! I can't wait for the day when I can go back and visit. Which will be a long time because it's VERY expensive to fly there. Not to live there, just to get there! One day...
