Christmas is not celebrated very much in Nepal, Christianity is fairly new here and people don't know the extent it is celebrated in other countries. We've seen a few Christmas trees and even a moving Santa Claus that only lasted a couple of days because of all the dust. Santa's beard got pretty dirty.
These lovely Christmas trees were taken out of the box and sat in front of the door. I don't know if you can tell but the leaves are still all squished up, they either don't know or don't care to straighten the branches. These trees replaced the dusty Santa a few days ago. Notice the marigold garlands on the right still hanging from Tihar last month. Almost all of the shops on our street are open, there is just a garage door that they pull down at the close of the day thus all the dust.
We've spent a lot of time at the computer this week, getting ready for a HBB training in a few weeks and writing two more visits for next spring and fall. Putting these projects together on paper takes months of phone calls back and forth with Salt Lake and Hong Kong, making sure we have government approval, visits to hospitals and government ministries. Sometimes it gets tedious and discouraging because we have so many different people giving us different information. It's a good thing that we have other activities to break up some of our days.
We were invited to a wedding on Friday. A neighbor down the street told Rukmina to make sure that "Sir" and "Maam" came. On this day the party is at the the bride's parents home. The wedding starts out with the band marching down the alley in the morning.
Here comes the groom to the brides home. These flowers are all stuck on the car with scotch tape. I wonder what that does to the paint job.
The Groom pausing from his cell phone for a picture - wonder who he'd be talking to on his wedding day?
These women are actually laughing at me, which I'm very glad I don't have a picture of- the band came marching down the alley again - men were in the front of the band dancing. We went out to watch and I got pulled into the mix and was dancing with all the men. These women thought it was funny!
These two girls were watching me make a fool of myself and I grabbed them and we then went marching the opposite direction of the dancing men.
Saturday at church, Kent taught a leadership class on the new youth curriculum for next year. Carol will teach Saturday and I will teach the week after. This is going to be very difficult because there are no manuals, this will be a whole new different way to teach the gospel, teaching as the Savior would, engaging the youth in the discussion. I'll have to let you know how it turns out. In the past 4 months we've been here we have sat in the investigator class. For four months they have taught "The Plan of Salvation" . Two weeks ago Kent encouraged the teacher, who was a young woman getting ready to leave on her mission to move on to the next lesson. He helped her plan during the week and she was prepared and ready. The lesson was going great and all of the sudden we hear "the plan of salvation." There are no Nepali words for "plan of salvation" so that was very clear to us. She kind of looked at us with a sheepish grin and moved on with the lesson on Faith. They do understand the plan of Salvation very well, I'm just not sure about the other principles of the gospel.
Sunday we had the Khadka family for dinner. Rukmina insisted on making most of the dinner, she told me, "they like Nepali food," I know they like Nepali food by how much they eat but they eat it everyday and I thought I could make something different, change is nice once in awhile, but she insisted. She did let me make rolls and a carrot cake. They did enjoy the dinner, there was not one thing left. I made almost 3 dozen rolls for 8 people, they were all gone and Kent and I only ate two. We had bought little Ruth a small Christmas gift, I asked if they celebrated Christmas at all and they said "no". She was pretty excited!
I told her she could pick an ornament off the tree to take home. Remember she had chicken pox a few weeks ago, she had mumps when she came this day. Poor little thing.
Rukmina, Saradha, and Ganesh.
Ganesh has a smile on his face all the time. He will start a new job on Monday and he will be able to stay in Nepal. He has been in Saudia Arabia for 2 year working as a painter to support his family.
Monday morning we have a missionary breakfast meeting with Rempps at Kilroys. Breakfast meetings are the best. Kent had steak and eggs, yuuuuummmmmmmm.
When we left these guys were sitting in the alley, playing Bob Marley songs, Kent wanted to join in. Yes, there are alleys everywhere!
After jamming with these guys for a bit I decided that I really need to do something with my hair. Carol, talked me into going up to the Radisson Hotel to get my haircut. She's been going to the barber shop instead of the beauty salon because all Nepali women have long hair and she's afraid they won't know how to cut short hair. She's been pretty happy with how they've done her hair, so I figure what the heck, my hair will grow back if I don't like it. A couple of days ago I saw a sign that read Beauty Saloon, I'll have to get a picture the next time I see that one.
The best part of the haircut is the 15 minutes head, back, and arm massage. I'll go back there!
On Tuesday and Wednesday we spent those days at home in the office working on the computer, skyping . We found a new Vietnamese restaurant that is in walking distance. The food is good and cheap. When we went in the waiter wanted to make sure we knew that they had another restaurant not too far away that was much better. I'm not sure telling that to customers is a very good idea. We thought the food was great but we'll have to try out the other one for the "better food." On Wednesday, we were tired of staying home and went to Thamel and ate at Kilroy's again. We sat down and one of the waiters came up to us and said in his Nepali English, "where's those other guys?" We thought that was pretty funny!
"Where's those other guys"?
Kent's had it for the day. They had a fireplace at Kilroy's, they lit it for us because it was a chilly, I tried to get a picture of all the smoke, we could hardly breathe but the momo's and fish and chips were good.
This morning I got up and started to get ready for the day. We are going to the airport to send Anu Llama off on her mission to Bangalore, India. It's a little cold this morning,
This is the temperature of our bedroom
I take a quick sponge bath, this is my new method for showers. We have a small water heater on the wall that we can plug in (when we have electricity) did I tell you that the power is off 11 hours a day now? But it heats up so hot you can't get in without first degree burns, you also can't turn on the cold water at the same time so we've decided that this is how we'll bathe for the next little while.
Anu Llama at the airport
She's terrified, she hasn't been a member of the church for very long, she's never been on a plane, and never even left Kathmandu.
Anu's mother on the left. She does not speak English and I went to talk with her, to tell her, her daughter will be a wonderful missionary, that she'll be safe and that God would take care of her. She then started to cry. I told her I had sent 5 children on missions, I knew how she felt.
Kent said that when he hugged her she was just trembling.
Anu Llama, sweet sister, wonderful missionary, most important, a Daughter of God
After we sent Anu off today we decided to go with the Rempps and try a new place to eat, the Hyatt hotel.
Yes, they actually have a Hyatt hotel and as we pulled up to the Hotel in our rickety taxi, we felt like we were far, far away from Kathmandu Nepal.
The entrance to the hotel
Greg wants to go back in a few months and take a dip in the pool
In the lobby of the hotel
They even have a beautiful Christmas tree, a little lopsided but the best we've seen so far.
This is what the few we've seen usually look like.
Don't these look good - this was dessert. They actually looked better than they tasted, but lunch was very good.
Kent's Mincemeat Pie
Greg's Strawberry Tart
Carol's Pistachio Something?
My Black Forest Cake
And this beautiful truffel - didn't taste like anything. We tried to figure out how they made it to taste like nothing.
After we ate dessert, Carol and I stopped at the restroom - HOT WATER, neither of us wanted to leave we made Kent and Greg go in so they could remember what HOT WATER felt like.
After this yummy lunch I was thinking about my life compared to the Nepali people, how blessed I am, and many times I wonder why I have so much and so many of them have so little. This morning we were looking up statistics regarding Nepal for one of our projects. The average yearly income for a working Nepali is $1,092. I've taken some pictures of the people on Bansbari, that's the road we live on.
We see this little lady on the street every day. She sit on the ground and serves milk tea to her customers. This is how she makes a living.
This man is selling roasted peanuts in his little cart. This is what he does every day to support his family.
This young man every day with his cart sells these little crunchy like things filled with a hot spicy broth. The school children will frequently stop and buy these. Rukmina says they are too hot and spicy and that I wouldn't like them. I've watched them make them and I think she is right.
Occasionally we'll buy fruit from this man, I can get about 20 bananas for less than .50. You wonder how they can possibly make a living.
This man is selling some vegetables off of his cart. That is the first pumpkin I've seen.
"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!" the Ghost of Jacob Marley speaking, "at this time of the rolling year," the spectre said, "I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!" .... "That is no light part of my penance," pursued the Ghost. "I am here tonight to warn you, that you have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer."
As we all celebrate Christmas, wherever we are, may we remember the "business of mankind." May we not get so caught up in worldly "things" that we forget those around us, who may only need a smile or a kind word. We are all children of God whoever and wherever we are. He loves each of us. He sent His Son, born of humble circumstances and then died for each of us that we all might live again as brothers and sisters. I have seen first hand what humble circumstances are and I am grateful to have a better understanding and love for my brothers and sisters here in Nepal. This experience is teaching me the "business of mankind" and I will be blessed forever because of it.
Have a very Merry Christmas Everyone!
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