3 Nephi 17:7 Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have any that are lame or blind..... or leprous... or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.

We spent a lot of time this past week being with those that are sick or meeting with people who take care of sick people.  I chose this scripture because I thought of the compassion that we must share as we have opportunities to serve, whether it be in our own families and others amongst us.

The day after Thanksgiving we had the opportunity of visiting the Khadka family.  I visit teach Sarahda, she does not speak any English, we take Rukmina to translate. Her husband, Ganesh has just returned from Saudia Arabia after two years.  He went there to work and is now hoping to find a job somewhere in Nepal. Their little Ruth calls Kent, grandpa and comes and sits with us at church when they are there.  She'll also bring a piece of candy for us occasionally.  She is so cute.    They live about a 45 minute taxi drive away from us.  When we get to their house they are all snuggled in their bed trying to keep warm in their one room home.  Ruth has the chicken pox again, Sarahda said this is the third time she has had them, about the same time each year.  Kent and Ganesh give her a blessing.  We love this little family, they have so little and yet when we go they always feed us and are so grateful when we come.  A few weeks ago Sarahda brought me a new warm sweater to church, on this day she gives Kent a hat she made. I left her some money and asked if she would make some for me to take home.  She didn't want me to leave the money but I insisted.

  

Sarahda, Ganesh and Ruth with the chicken pox

Kent with his new hat and Ruth

On Saturday we had a YSA Fireside, yeah, only young single adults came.  We're making strides in this endeavor to separate the YM/YW from the YSA.  We were pleased with the turn out.  I'm hoping one day to get them their without a promise of dinner.  You would never believe how they eat.  

Bikkie, Pretti and Jessica

Mya, Carol Remmp, Gonga, Upendra , I can't remember the next young man's name and Greg Remmp

On Sunday we're off on another adventure to the Amanada Ban Hospital which means Peaceful Jungle Hospital.  I thought it was interesting but not surprised that they put those with leprosy way out of the city.  It is about an 1.5 hour drive to the jungle in a taxi that we hope makes it up the hills.  The drive is sort of like driving up Little Cottonwood Canyon, but the roads are not paved, just dirt and bumps.  We're going to go and visit Lagan, the woman that we met at READ Nepal Leprosy clinic a few weeks ago.  She had asked us to come, "annu:.  We promised her we would visit her.  Carol and I and our cute didi's, Rukmina and Laxmi went together.  We talked about taking her some food since the hospitals don't provide food for patients, their families must provide that.  This was a such a great day for us.  Rukmina and Laxmi made food for her, since she didn't have many teeth left, they were very careful in their preparations for her, dahl baht, zag, some ground chicken dish, and something else Nepali.  I had brought some curd that I bought a few days before in Bhaktapur.  Rukmina also brought her a very warm shawl and a warm hat, Laxmi had also brought a hat and Carol brought a warm Nepali blouse.  It was a very good thing, she was only dressed in a very light gauze wrap and her bed was next to a window.  She has not had to have her leg amputated yet.  When we got there they were dressing her foot, so we didn't get a chance to look at it, but the nurse told us that the doctor was going to wait a couple of weeks before he made a final decision, it was starting to heal, but the nurse felt like she would still have to have it amputated.  Lagan was so excited to see us, she cried and in Nepali, she said "you came".  We went back to her bed with her and let Rukmina and Laxmi put the warm clothes on her and fed her.  What wonderful sisters these two woman are.  On our way out Rukmina said, "I want to stop and get her some juice,"  I told her that I had an unopened carton of juice we could take, she said no, she wanted to buy some from her.  I had thought about going and buying a warm shawl for her and then Rukmina told me she was taking one for her. How easy it would have been for me to go and purchase one, for Rukmina this was a sacrifice for her, but she also knows with sacrifice comes blessings.  I'm glad I did not deny her those blessings.  Carol and I will pay for the taxi.

Rukmina putting the shawl on Lagan

Rukmina making sure Lagan gets all the food they brought.  We did find out that they do feed these women dahl bhat but that is all.  I kind of felt bad as all the other women watched us fuss over Lagan.

Lagan Devi

This cute little girl followed me around all afternoon and sat on my lap.  Lagan told us to give her some of her food.  She is the daughter of one of the patients there.

Laxmi, Rukmina and Lagan

Lagan kept saying "two mommies" to Carol and I.  I asked Rukmina if that's what she was really saying and she said, "yes, because you are taking care of her, like her mommy did."

Rukmina, the nurse and the mother of the little girl

Now everyone here wants a hug and their picture taken.

These women all have leprosy and are patients here, from what I could see most of them had their hands affected by the disease.

This cute girl was about 14 years old, and she spoke very good English.

Whenever you take a picture you must make sure you show it to them.  They love having their pictures taken and will always thank you.

The nursing staff didn't want to be left out

We then asked if they would show us their operating rooms, I hope you're all thankful for the modern world you live in and when you go to the hospital, you know that they are well equipped, and clean.  These people in Nepal do a lot with very little.

I loved this sign above the door "quality and dedication are our testimony."

This is a carving in the hospital that was made and donated by a baker from Rotterdam. " It depicts the suffering of Christ as many with leprosy have suffered, it shows Christ victorious as those with leprosy have become victorious and bear fruit in society."

Monday, Kent and I spent the day in the office organizing, computer work, and making sure our calendars are up to date.  It's been a busy month and December is looking pretty much the same.  

On Tuesday we have an appointment with Dr. Ashish and 2 doctors from Sweden who are working on an HBB study.  Because  LDSCharities is paying for the training and equipment we have been invited to attend.  We'll be glad when this study is over and we can proceed in a more appropriate way for the church to be recognized and we can organize this project a little better.  This is the Parapokar Maternity Hospital that delivers about 25,000 babies a year.  Figure out how many babies that is a day -  that's almost 70 a day!!!!

Here the new dad's wait - it's kind of a revolving door - in they go, out they come

New mom trying to find dad

A few weeks ago we met a doctor at this hospital, he had a stack of files on his desk and told us that the week before over 100 babies had died.  That is why HBB is so important, that is why the study is being done.  That is why we are meeting with so many important doctors and ministries that we need to show that this will help newborns in Nepal.  We are working to get this into the curriculum so that all incoming nurses and doctors will be trained.  On Wednesday we went and met with Dr. Nina at Save the Children.  A worldwide INGO that is interested in what we are doing and gives us some very good contact names that we should meet.  She was very helpful.

Today is Thursday, it is very cold - in the house about 55 degrees,  the weather outside is nice but we decide that we need warmer clothes and so we went shopping.  I want some heavy warm black socks that I can wear with a dress, since I have to wear a dress most of the time.  We both are looking for warm sweaters and some warm heavy socks to wear when we are home in the office, Kent's feet are freezing.  We wander the streets of Ashan Bazaar and find the back streets of Thamel, where we find everything we need and more.

There are many little alley ways that open up into these squares where one will usually find various temples, today we found a square with mostly Buddhists temples or stuppas.

This square is also the playground for a nearby school, it must have been recess when we walked through because there were lots of children playing.

Here's the school

And here are the children running in and out of all these stuppas

Aren't these little guys cute - the children here all start preschool at about 3 years old?

It  must be wedding month also because we saw 4 different weddings today, this one was in Ashan Bazaar

First the marching band

Not sure what these guys do - maybe some kind of a wedding blessing

Next comes the groom on his way to pick up the bride - from what I understand this is an all day all night affair - lots of music and partying.  I think we're going to be invited to one in the next couple of months.  Again we saw four of these today.

These guys are plum tuckered out and needed a nap

This is such a common site around here!

When we were walking around this square this young man started talking to us, he was a student at an art school and asked if we'd like to come and see his school and of course his art.  His name is Chandra and he showed us this piece of art he had been working on for 6 months.  This is very common Tibetan art that you can find in Nepal.  The work and the colors are beautiful and very intricate.

Chandra and his art

Of course the art teacher wanted us to buy a piece.  We told them that maybe before we left to come home we would come back, but he told us that these pieces of art of very calming and would help us relax while we are here in Nepal.  

Here's my new sweater, my warm knitted socks and a shawl to wear to church

I also put up our little tree,  Christmas will be different this year......and next.  They don't celebrate Christmas in Nepal.  It's a regular old work day for everyone. 

 One day things will change in Nepal, people will come to know about Christ, about His compassion and love for his children.  I would have loved to have shared the message of the gospel and the hope that Christ gives to each of us this week with Lagan.   I would have loved to have told her that one day she would see her husband and that she would be made whole..  But in the mean time, I will try to make a difference, I will be His hands here in Nepal for now.

I Did Not Climb Everest, But I Touched It With My Heart

The title of this post came from a quote I saw on a t-shirt on our flight over Everest.  It was an amazing experience, the pictures in the post do not even come close to seeing it with my own eyes.
On Monday, November 19, our plan is to fly over Everest. We got up at 4:00 AM so we can be out the door by 4:45.  We were a little concerned about finding a taxi at the time of the morning but since we live right across the street from the hospital  SAMASYAA CHHAINA no problem!  We're on our way to the Trihuvan Airport.  We've arranged for our flight with someone who knows someone.  We didn't even have to pay for this flight until a few days after we'd gone.  We get to the front of the line and someone comes and gets us, takes us to the front of another line and really takes care of us, we assume it's because we know someone who knows someone else, anyway after we've gotten the first class treatment, he wants $$$$.  So much for thinking we're special, just another white face who they think has $$$$$.  We've been looking forward to this trip for quite awhile, the air has not been very clear and even on this morning we're not positive we're going to see Everest.

On our way to Everest flight

This cute little guy was waiting in line in front of us

Once we got through the clouds look what we saw...........

This was the first time since we arrived that we were able to see the Himalayan mountains

Our little plane

We all got to walk up to the cockpit and look out the front window of the plane

The peak of this mountain is Choba-Bhamre (Holy Mountain)  19,581 feet

Here it is.....Mount Everest on the right also call Sagarmatha  29,028 feet

I just finished reading Into Thin Air, pretty amazing book, pretty crazy people who risk everything just to say they made it to the top of Everest, thus my title:  I did not climb Everest, but I touched it with my heart.

The next day is the festival Tihar, Kent really explains this festival in his blog, I'm just going to share the fun stuff.   The first day we worship the crow, I threw a garland around Hari instead.  He felt so honored and thanked me, he loves marigolds.

Tihar is sort of like Christmas with lots of lights and Halloween all rolled up into one festival.  We decorated our doorway to get ready for the children who would come singing for candy and coins, (the big boys wanted the paper money)

We had 3 different little groups of boys, the later it got the bigger the boys.

On the night  the lights were turned on downtown we decided to take Hari, Rukmina and Hitson to dinner, we all picked our favorite restaurant and drew one out of a hat, Rukmina won, we're going to Fire and Ice for pizza.

Looks like Remmps had the same idea, with Jessica and Laxmi

This is dinner,  pizza and fresh fried potato chips (Kent's favorite)

After we walked around New Road to admire the lights, not quite like Temple Square but it was fun.

All the shops paint the doorways so that the goddess Laxmi will enter and bless their homes with health and wealth, some go way out....

Others are not quite as fancy, this man has a little red trail into his store so Laxmi knows to "come in"

Now this one, I asked the shopkeeper about the swastika, he said, "you know the Germans, it's a swastika,"  I told him "that is not a good sign"  I came home and looked it up, it is the sign of the 4 "L's" for good luck.  They don't even get it.  We see a lot of these swastika signs around and people do not understand the meaning, be it good or bad.

On Wednesday the 14th, we spent the day at home on the computer and skyping the church in Salt Lake to get some more information about an agricultural project we're thinking about doing with our branch.  We had a lot of questions.  Right now we're getting ready to write up our projects for next year.  It takes a lot of time, back and forth talking with S.L. specialist, finding out costs of things, and making sure we have the correct government approvals.  What would take an hour or two at home making phone calls takes 3 or 4 days because we have to go and have face to face with many people to get questions answered.   

Thursday is the last day of Tika, it call Bhaai Tika or brother's tika.  Families gather and sisters give their brother tika, and brothers in return give their sisters a gift.  Rakesh has invited us to his wife's mother's home to participate in this day.  You know how I keep saying I feel like I'm back in the day of Abraham, well, this was another one of those days......

This is Sunila's mother (Sunila is Rakesh's wife), these are her brothers, one is 80 something, the other is 70 something.  She prepares by putting in a leaf bowl a candle on 4 corners, she then takes a small pitcher of water a sprinkles it around them 7 times, she then takes a little container of oil and a leaf and then brushes the oil around 7 times.  She comes back, they remove their Topi's (hat) and she sprinkles oil and water on their heads, shoulders, and knees.  Is this sounding a little familiar to anyone?   She then gives them a tika on their foreheads with 7 different colors.  

She then places a garland around their necks, they then are given a tray with curd, spinach, and a small fish that they must eat.  This is for good luck.  Brothers then put tika on the sisters forehead and give her a gift, usually money.

These are the sisters now giving tika to the brothers, if a sister does not have a brother she may give tika to a cousin.  There are 3 sisters here but only two brothers, the other one is a cousin.  They call them cousin brothers  and cousin sisters all the time.

This is Sunila getting tika from her brother

These are Rakesh's children, Rashisha is giving tika to her little brother Jerrik, she's being so careful.

Sunila is feeding Jerrik the curd which he kept gagging on, but he needs to finish the whole thing.

Now it's Kent's and Greg's turn

Kent giving Sunila tika, we knew a little about this before we went so luckily we had bought Sunila a little gift.  Bangles, a woman in Nepal can never have too many bangles!

Eating the curd, fish and spinach for good luck.

Now the interesting part of this ritual is, once again, no one can really explain why they do certain things or what they mean.  They know some of it is for good health and wealth but that's about all they know.  We came home and looked it up, very interesting.  Kent wrote more about this festival in his blog.   We then were served lunch, dahl bhaat, chicken, pickle (when they tell you pickle, it is not what we know to be a pickle, it is a very, very hot and spicy mixture of I don't know what, but if anybody wants me to eat pickle, I politely decline).  We also had mutton (goat meat) and a few other tasty items.  After we ate they gave us something called "pon."  It is a leaf filled with sweet spices, it's supposed to be a breath freshener after a meal.  Carol took hers apart and ate the inside, wrong, you have to eat the whole thing at once.  So she had to eat another one.  I couldn't fit the whole thing into my mouth so I just slowly ate it.  It actually wasn't too bad.

I almost forgot after they finish the tika ceremony they give the brothers a tray full of goodies, candies, curd, fruit.  Here is what Kent came home with

The bowl is a hand made pottery bowl of curd (yogurt), it is very yummy. I made yogurt pancakes, yogurt banana bread and then I tried washing out the bowl for about 1/2 hour until Rukmina came in and said "no sister, you just throw the bowl away."   What a very interesting day we had.  Friday was spent grocery shopping again a 3 hour job, working on the computer and getting ready for the Sabbath, the next day.

On Saturday we had 54 visitors from an INGO from the states.  We met up with Chante who had brought us some things from home,  thanks to all who made sure we got those things we needed.  They filled up our little chapel, no extra chairs at all.  The Nepali's love it when visitors come.

On Sunday we had an appointment with the director of the hospital we are working with, with HBB.  We had somethings to get cleared up before the doctors come in January.  We have quite a bit to do in the next 8 weeks.  We then rushed to the YM/YW/YSA conference where Kent and I were asked to speak on "The Light of Christ" through service.  

On Monday, we are having a Relief Society conference.  All the women come dressed in their saris.  What a fun tradition!

Rukmina dressed me for the Woman's Conference in her beautiful black and gold sari, bangles and all. Somewhere I have pictures of her dressing me in it.  It is about 5 meters of fabric that they pleat and  wrap around you, that's about 5.5 yds of fabric and make sure you have plenty of safety pins.  

On Tuesday, the 20th we went to meet with Keshab and Uma, a new investigator family.  They have 2 children and last week their daughter Sweata was baptized in India.  Her cousin-sister, from India is a returned missionary and Sweata went to visit and get baptized.  Hopefully they will all be baptized in the next couple of weeks.  Carol, Laxmi, Rukmina and I all go together we want to have a kurta-surwal made.  Keshab owns a sari and kurta shop.  I bought fabric for 2 kurtas, Carol bought fabric for 2 kurtas, 1 sari and some warm pajamas, Laxmi bought fabric for 3 kurtas and Rukmina bought fabric for 1 kurta.  Carol commented to Keshab as we left, "see how the Lord is blessing you already,"  He smiled and told us he was grateful for our business.

Keshab and Uma, aren't they a cute couple?  They have a sewing center around the corner where we all went and got measured for our kurtas.  I paid about $5 for the sewing part of my kurta and about $20 for the fabric.  That is 2 kurta's (tops) and the surwals are the pants.  Can't wait to see them!  Later that night we went to the new U.S. Ambassador to Nepal's home.  Oh my what a home, I felt like I was anywhere but Nepal.  It was a very interesting meeting.  People got to ask questions.  He was a very nice man.  On our way out,  we got outside the gate and I thought I would take a picture, not a good idea!  I had two security guards come up to me and made sure that I deleted the picture.  It was kind of weird, they watched me take the picture, I don't know why they waited until I was done.  

Yesterday we went to Bhaktapor to visit an inactive member.  Suman is a returned missionary but not active and he and his wife just had a baby a few weeks ago. Hopefully, he will come back to church and bring his cute wife and new son.   This is who I made the baby blanket for.  

Bhaktapor is very old city where Suman lives.  I'm not going to show you all the sights because Kent is going to do a blog about this old city, but again I felt as if I were visiting an ancient biblical city as I walked around and went into his home.  It was four stories, old wooden windows, clay floors and very small and very cold rooms.  This new little mother had her baby all bundled up and laying on a blanket on the floor with the sun shining through a window to keep him warm.  I do not know how they live the way they do, they are amazing and I pray for them everyday. They gave us warm sweet buffalo milk to drink, it was very good.  This city is also where that good curd comes from in the pottery dishes.

Today is Thanksgiving, it doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving, Carol and I went over to the church to throw away lots of old stuff that isn't used anymore, old manuals and teaching aids.  We have to go back to do some more tomorrow and clean up our mess before church on Saturday. After, Kent and I went to the printers to order some HBB workbooks for January and did a little grocery shopping.  I have to fix dinner for the YSA fireside at our home on Saturday.  We then went to Mike's with Elder and Sister Remmp for our Thanksgiving dinner.  They were preparing a traditional dinner for those who wanted turkey and pumpkin pie.  We spent about 2.5 hours eating and enjoying each others company and talking about kids. 

 Appetizer, tomato soup, deviled egg, tortilla chips with guacamole,and carrots, radishes, goat cheese and cucumbers

Turkey, potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, veggies and corn bread muffins, I forgot to take a picture of the pie.

Good Food and Good Company

The only thing missing is family, but how grateful I am for my family and for the love and support they show us while we are away.  I'm so grateful for modern technology and that I can call and see them almost face to face, to see my grandchildren and know they won't forget me because we can visit almost anytime we want.  Next week I will put up our little Christmas tree, it will certainly be different this year, I'm sure I'll be homesick but I am grateful for this opportunity to be in Nepal.  I'm thankful for our Heavenly Father's children who manage to live everyday without all the things I have been blessed with and they do it without bitterness and without complaint.  They are amazing and I will continue in this work because I know "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" each and everyday.  I am learning that I can do hard things, and I can be happy and thankful while doing them.  I'm grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ for the blessings and opportunities that are mine because I know He lives and I know He loves me.