Trip to Shillong

The trip was supposed to take 2 1/2 hours but it turned into an 8 hour ordeal. When we got to Shillong we noticed that the Khasi people dressed quite differently.
We arrived at a place where they had a nursing station and dispensary and the couple who looked after part of the operation was Margret and Philip Ho. She was from Tenn. or Kentucky and he was from Tibet. They met in the states when he went over to study. Their daughter and her family live next door in the same compound so they get to see their grandchildren everyday. They have fantastic flowers growing on their place. The poinsettia tree was in full bloom. Philip told me they get 1000 inches of rain in a year. The house picture is where Ray and Ellen lived for a few years. The school is the next couple of pictures. The upper balcony area is where there were some apartments and Cecil and Lavine Bailey lived in one of them. Ray said that Lavine objected strenuously to having to use a honey bucket so he took on the task of digging for an outhouse facility. (That area is now cemented over and is part of a basketball court---it was all jungle in those days). The traffic jams were caused by the hundreds of trucks loaded with coal going toward Guwahati with hundreds of the same trucks returning for another load. Besides the massive traffic jam we saw various sights. In Umsning we were able to get out to stretch our legs and view the work of the meat-cutters in action. One shop was butchering a pig and the next a cow. You can see the cows head on display by Ray! Ray had to cancel about four meetings with people in Shillong and we were only able to visit the Ho couple and they graciously fed us before we left. We left about 4:30 and got back at 11:00 which was six and a half hours. Total time on the road=14 1/2 hours to go 200 km. My recommendation is to not go there until they have finished twinning the highway!