Matthew 6:21 For where your Treasure is there will your Heart be also.

I've always loved this scripture, those things that we put time and effort in are those things that become important to us in our lives, those things that we truly come to love.  This week this scripture has taken on a little bit of a different meaning to me. This week we have spent much time with Elder and Sister Treasure from Hong Kong.  They are area humanitarian specialist who have come to give us some training.  This is their 4th mission in the Asia area.  We learned many things from them this week and had a lot of fun while we were learning.

Friday, September 14th
We met at the Raddison hotel, yes that's the real Raddison and it is a lovely hotel, you feel like you have left Nepal and gone to another country. We met in the lobby with Treasures for about 3 hours talking about humanitarian efforts in Nepal.  When we do humanitarian projects they are broken down into 3 areas, Major Initiatives, projects that usually cost over $25,000, projects like water projects, wheelchairs, neonatal, etc., Area Initiatives, projects under $25,000, sight impaired, sewing centers, cyber centers, projects at READ Nepal (I'll explain this one later) and then there are small projects that are under $2,000, humanitarian kits, school kits, newborn kits.  Each of these projects require different church approval and sometimes take a while to get approved. We talked about the process of initiating these projects.

In the afternoon we all went with Rakeesh Hamal to look at the sewing centers the church has helped with and the cyber centers that LDSC has also helped with.  When we were in the MTC they told us about the importance of having a "Champion" in regards to our different projects.  Rakeesh has been the LDSC Champion for many many years.  He is an amazing man.  When we first got here and went to Pokarah for Helping Babies Breathe, he had made sure that we had good dependable vans (w/air) and very good drivers, he also called to alert us about a bandh (strike) that was going to take place the day we were supposed to leave and he suggested that we leave the night before so we could get out before the bandh started.  He watches out for the missionaries all of the time.  He is involved in almost everything in Nepal, government, humanitarian, sports, you name it Rakeesh has some influence.  He is taking care of our VISA's,    something that he doesn't need to do, he's just a wonderful man and everyone knows him.  A little side note, his older brother is the most famous movie star in Nepal, the Brad Pitt of Nepal, he almost rode home with us from Chitwan because of the monssons he couldn't get a flight, but the sun came out and he flew home.  But I'm sure we'll get a picture with him some time.

Sewing Center in Pokarah (most of these women are disabled) remember all these sewing machines are treadle machines

Elder and Sister Treasure, Rakeesh

Fiskars, these are not, these scissors are about 15" long

Kent watching these blind women knit, LDSC has funded this sewing program at one of Rakeesh's sewing centers, they have made beautiful sweaters, scarfs, etc.

 Later that evening we went to Foodland Restaurant with Rakeesh, three ministers of different government ministries, Rempps (the other humanitarian missionary couple) and the Treasures, we visited and talked about various projects that LDS Charities have worked on.  The minister from the Health Ministry talked about having the same couples for 5 years instead of changing every 18 - 23 months.  We laughed, but he was serious!  Elder Rempp asked him if he had grandchildren, he did not so Greg explained how difficult it was for us women to leave our grandchildren.  He didn't seem to get it! Dinner was interesting, for appetizers we had french fries, chicken momos (bones and all), fish sticks (they weren't very good either) dinner was rice (of course) dahl (of course) and a few other things I couldn't identify.  It was a nice evening and it was good for us to meet these gentlemen, especially since they will be hopefully approving our VISA's in the next few weeks.

Dinner at Foodland with Government ministry, Rakeesh, Rempps, Treasures and us

Saturday, September 15
Church today, next week I get to start teaching the English class before our church meetings begin

Sunday, September 16
Today, Rempps, Treasures and us met at the Radisson for a yummy breakfast.  They always want to know if we'd like coffee, we tell them "no" but we would love hot chocolate.  The first day of training at the Radisson one of the waiters went and made hot chocolate especially for us, it did not have enough sugar and Carol told him it wasn't quite sweet enough, he was so nice, every morning there after,  we didn't have to ask for hot chocolate, he just brought it to us and it was perfect.

Nepal has many many different festivals and this week is Teej, (Woman's Festival) Someone from one of the organizations had delivered a gift for Carol and I, Nepali, green and red glass bracelets and several glass binidis, these are the little red ornamental jewels they wear on their forehead, unlike the Tikka, the red powder dot that they wear on their foreheads, which is a Hindu blessing.  That was kind of a fun surprise.

Rempps, Treasures and Mendenhalls at breakfas

We then left to go and see Raj Kumar Shah, another amazing little man.  Raj has leprosy and has opened a clinic, READ Nepal where others with leprosy can come and be treated without having to pay.  In Nepal, as I'm sure with other third world countries, it is believed that a person with leprosy has committed a serious sin in a previous life and so just like in the bible they are cast out of their homes and families and very much shunned by society.  Raj met a Dutch doctor who treated him at a hospital and helped Raj to eventually become a pharmacist.  Raj is a Christian, also unusual for this country, his favorite story is of Job.  Raj believes in the welfare principal of being self sufficient.  Those who come to his clinic are asked to work to pay back for some of their care.  He also has a little sewing center that the church has helped him with, and we're also working on a little chicken project with him that we hope to have completed in the next month of so.  Some of the things that go on at this clinic besides the leprosy care are a little shoe shop where special shoes are made for those with leprosy, a garden, beehives, they make little briquettes out of sawdust and paper for cooking/heating in the small villages outside of Kahtmandu, he also has a place where those who have no where to go can stay.  Raj also has kidney failure and is on dialysis.  He goes to work and just hooks up an IV bag for dialysis.  He's married, his wife has leprosy in her hands, and has two children.  Next month he is taking us and the Rempps fishing, fun huh?

Greg Rempp, Hossen and Kent at READ Nepal

Leprosy on Hossen's foot and leg

Kent and Kanchi

Kanchi

The briquette makers, they also have leprosy

Goma, the nurse is wrapping with leprosy bandages.  Sister Treasure brought  bags of bandages that a Young Women's group made at Girls Camp in California.  These bandages take about 40 hours to make - one bandage.  If they don't have new bandages, they just wash out the old ones and reuse them, YUCK

Isn't she cute?  She stands about 4' has no teeth.  In Nepali she told Kent she was going to die before he could get her picture.

Raj and his son, notice Raj's hands

After visiting READ Nepal we walked over to the Pashupati Temple and Bagmati River.  A little history lesson, Pashupati is where the Hindus cremate their dead - the deceased  must be cremated within 24 hours.  The oldest son lights a stick that has been placed in the mouth of the person who has died.  If they have no son, they buy one for this occasion.  The males of the family must shave their whole bodies and they must wear white for one year as they are in mourning.  If a young wife loses her husband she can never marry again. It takes about 4 hours for they body to burn and then the ashes are then brushed into the Bagmati River, where the street children are allowed to dive in and find the jewels and gold of the deceased.  The family of the deceased must pay about $350.00 to have their loved ones cremated.  They must pay for the wood to burn, now if you have a lot of money in Nepal you are cremated up the river a little, sandlewood is used for fuel, (it doesn't have any odor) and you pay $800.00  They are not allowed to use any fuel like gas, petro, etc. Very interesting, there are also monkeys running everywhere.

    

Pashupati Temple is the one in the middle, it has huge beautiful silver doors.  Only Hindus can enter

Real live bodies burning, I guess not  live bodies

The orange stuff on the platform are marigold leis

After we spent the afternoon at READ Nepal and Pashupati we went back to the Raddison and had dinner at The Olive Garden and Outback Steakhouse combined.  Probably just knock-offs.  Anyway, I had a picture of Kent in front of the Olive Garden sign and another with him eating a nice rib eye steak, I can't find it.

The next two days we went to Chitwan.  We left Monday morning about 9:00 after having breakfast again at the Raddison, it is so nice to eat really good food!  Rakeesh wanted Treasures to see a couple of the sewing centers that the church has helped with.  We had a really nice air conditioned van, again Rakeesh makes sure that when we're traveling we are as safe as possible and I use the term "safe as possible" loosely, for when traveling to Chitwan the roads are extremely dangerous and it had been raining for 3 days with no end in sight.  The drive is supposed to be about 4-5 hours it took us 9.  There were several places where the mountain was washing away onto the road and it had to be cleared  to be passed.  This is the same road we took 3 weeks ago where all the trucks were breaking down.  Also a bus and van had side-swiped each other knocking powerlines onto the road and the bus went off the side into a ditch. We waited about 1.5 hours at this accident before we could move on.  Now us three ladies, of course, had to use a bathroom, Rakeesh even took care of this for us.  He went to one of the homes on the side of the road and asked if we could use their bathroom.  So the three of us, get out in the pouring rain, go into the backyard of one of the homes and they take us to a little shed.  You can imagine the rest yourselves.  We did feel much better.  We stayed in a pretty nice little hotel in Chitwan that night, I even got an American movie on the t.v., that  was first.  We had planned on taking an elephant ride the next morning, we got up and left by 5:45 to go and find the elephants.  It's still pouring rain, we get to the Chitwan reserve and it's just too wet for a one and a half elephant ride so we decided to skip it and do it the next time we're in Chitwan.  The Treasures have ridden on elephants before so it wasn't any big deal.  We went in a little cafe and had breakfast and decided to walk around a little before heading over to the sewing centers.

This is a little family fishing, there are crocodiles in this river

As we're walking we spy this wild elephant across the river, sorry we could only get a picture from the back

These dingos were following us around as we walked along the Narayani River

Yes, it's still pouring

These are the elephants we would have been riding.

We walked through the forest and had loads of fun in the muck.  Kent had to pull me out of this a couple of times.  Sister Treasure fell in it.

Don't even ask me why I'm smiling

YUCK!  Kent has a leech on his neck and it sucked on him pretty good!  There were 7 of us and 5 got leeches, not me or Carol

We went back to our hotel, quickly took showers and checked for more leeches and off to the Chitwan sewing centers.  

This is one of the sewing centers, Diane Treasure, Rakeesh, me, Carol and Usha.  Usha has a disability.  She was trained at one of the sewing centers in Kahtmandu and now she is in Chitwan training others with disabilities.

An interesting story about Usha.  Her in-laws have not been very kind to her, and her husband would always side with his mother.  A lot of it had to do with her disability.  Once she learned to sew and was bringing in some money for the family, her status in the family went way up and she was respected more by her in-laws and therefore her husband.  It's a Nepali thing, I think.

This pretty girl is sewing a stuffed animal.  Notice both the tikka and the bindi on her head.

This woman in the wheelchair also has her own sewing shop, I've forgotten her name.  She is also in an LDSC wheelchair.  A few years ago her father passed away, her brother who by tradition should have been the one to care for his mother said, "I'm out of here, you need to take care of mother."  They had no income, Usha trained her in one of the sewing centers and now she brings in the income to care for her mother and herself.  Her mother told us with tears in her eyes, how proud she is of her daughter.  They live together in the back of this little sewing center.

Time to head back to Kathmandu - another long and rainy ride.  It was a little less adventurous on the way back.  We got home after dark and just went to bed.

The next day was Wednesday, again we met with the Treasures for breakfast and some more instruction and training on how to enter projects into the church's CHaS system.  Later that night Rakeesh took us out for a Nepali Cultural dinner at Nepali Chulo where we all received tikkas as we walked in, ate dinner sitting on the floor and being entertained by traditional Nepali dancers.  It was really a fun place to go.

It's a good thing Treasure's are going back to Hong Kong tomorrow, I'm exhausted!  They were fun and were really encouraging and excited about the things that we're working on here in Kathmandu.

Friday, Elder Krishna Nepali from our branch left on his mission.  He is a very quite young man.  He is the only member of his family who is a member of the church.  We went to the airport to see him off.  He is going to the MTC in Manila and then to New Delhi for his mission.  His father came a long way to see him off and told Kent that he was very proud of his son and new that God would watch over him.  In the past the senior missionary couples have taken the young missionaries and got them ready to leave on their missions, buying them everything they needed from their own personal funds.  We have been told not to do that, the church has funds to pay for those who can't afford it and the branch has a mission fund to help them get ready.  It was a great opportunity for our branch to step up and help this young man which they did, we were so proud of them and what a great opportunity it was for them to serve and sacrifice.  Our Branch President told us that his father came up with 20,000 rupees, and gave it to President Bishnu, what a huge sacrifice for this father, that's a little over $200.00.  President Bishnu said "I have no idea how he did it".  I know he will be blessed for this tremendous sacrifice.  We just found out tonight, that Elder Nepali missed his flight, when missionaries leave they must have enough money with them to pay for a flight home (essentially it's emergency $$$)  he didn't have it and somehow, someone came up with the money and he flew out 2 hours later.  Whew!!!!

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Elder Nepali at the airport with his father.  What a testimony to me that our Heavenly Father loves us and knows each one of us