Random

Two things I never had a chance to blog about: 1. a 37 degree Celsius Thanksgiving; 2. Swaminarayan Mandirs in Africa.

1. on 25th Nov 2010, Jyoti spent her first Thanksgiving ever away from Rochester. It was a sad affair, as neither Kandlikar girl was home this year. But we did manage to gather our new Botswana family together for a large, football filled, Thanksgiving feast (no Turkey Trot, I'm afraid). Jyo was stuck late at work, so I was given the task of preparing our portion of the meal. I decided to replicate the apple crisp Jyoti had made the week before, and I also threw together a chipotle creamed twice baked stuffed potato skins.

In case you were wondering, the chipotle was indeed imported from Philadelphia. :) The list of friends we made is long, and we had tons of delicious food and lots of veggie stuff for us. Mouth watering, no?

2. Botswana does have a sizable Indian population (though nothing compared to Durban, I'm sure). We managed to make friends with one family who -- random! -- are Vadtaldham Swaminarayan from Amdabad. There is not a big enough contingent to have a Vadtaldham mandir here, but we did go to Satsang when BAPS swamis came from India/Kenya on 1st Dec. The mandir is small but very pretty, and it was really nice going to the mandir here. Here is a view from the side:

And the nar narayan swaminarayan murthi: