Amazing Charitable Project

Here's a story about England that will warm your heart...
A couple of months ago a friend of mine told me about this project he'd heard about in Africa. The goal was to bring water to African villages. The solution was to build children's merry-go-rounds which doubled as water pumps. I may have mentioned it to some of you.

I was drinking a bottle of water I got from a gas station a couple of days ago and happened to read the label. The product is called 'One.' And to quote the label:

"A Message In A Bottle:
We think One will leave a better taste in your mouth than other waters. Drink it and you won't go thirsty. Simple. So is what we do. All our profits go to building unique roundabout powered wells in Africa. As kids spin on the roundabouts water is pumped out of the ground, providing free, clean water to people who desperately need it. Love it!"

http://www.onewater.org.uk/index.html

http://www.playpumps.org/

Check out the links. The first tells about the guys who came up with the idea to make money for charity by selling water. The second tells about the pump itself and has a cool video telling about the pump and showing one in action.

Grocery Shopping

Happily, grocery shopping is much the same, with a few interesting differences.

We found a couple of really nice stores that are major chains here, Sainsbury and Morrison. A lot of similarities, both brightly lit and very clean with good selection.

They sell beer, wine and hard liquor in the store.
Eggs are not refrigerated and they are separated by "free range" and "barn", they are all brown, and the packages are mixed in size. No 'extra large' or 'small' like the states.

Cheese seems much more popular here, there is very little of what we call 'packaged' cheese (Eg. pre-sliced) but entire aisles of cheeses, many I've never heard of and I used to work in a cheese shop. It's really fresh and good too, Shirleen put some in a salad the other day and it was fantastic.

Fish is also big and the variety is amazing. An entire aisle of just fresh fish.

We are always encountering things we've never heard of. Tonight's candidate is "rumbledethumps" which (according to the package) is a Scottish dish containing potato, cabbage and cheese. It looks like sort of a casarole. (nope, didn't buy it)

Lots of lamb on the meat aisle, obviously the English raise sheep.

Indian food is very popular. Indian restaurants are very common, also referred to as 'Curry houses.' You see a bunch of packaged Indian food in the grocery store. But you also see Mexican, Italian, and Oriental, just like in the US.

The cashiers all have chairs, they do not stand. And you bag the groceries yourself. I'm still not used to that, it starts to pile up and then I realize, "oh yeah, I'm the bag boy!"

Road Show Video #1 - Ballet

The Ward talent show (aka Road Show) demonstrated that some of our new ward friends have great senses of humor. This is a very funny bit done by one of Amanda's Young Women leaders and another sister. One serious ballerina, one much less serious. Enjoy!

Family Milestone - September 30 2007

John Jr was able to excercise his newly received priesthood by passing the sacrament Sunday. His parents were very proud!