Nepalis - Poor in Pocket, Rich in Heart

This comment was made to Jeff and Keith, our wheelchair trainers, who came a couple of weeks ago when they were leaving the airport in Qatar.  I loved it!  A truer statement about the Neaplese people could not be spoken.  Another funny comment they were told at the airport in Paris was that they were "forbidden" to travel as wheelchair users together without someone who could assist them in an emergency.  They explained that they had traveled this far together and Jeff, who can walk a little, explained that he would assist Keith in an emergency.  They still told them it was "forbidden".  Jeff said I will show you how I will be able to assist Keith, at that point the airline gave in and told them to go ahead.  Whew!  Luckily there were no emergencies on the flight over or on the way back.

President Sackley (our mission president) Jeff Griffin, Keith Barney, and Kent 

President and Sister Sackley came in 10 minutes before Jeff and Keith, they were here overnight for branch business

This peer wheelchair training was a first for the church and we were lucky enough to be able to facilitate it here in Nepal.  Eric Wunderlich in the church offices is over wheelchairs and he has a lot of confidence in Rakesh and felt that it could be done successfully here and it was a GREAT success



.

We first had to let Jeff and Keith know what the streets of Nepal were like.

What the toilet situation would be like at the venue for the training

Then we got six of our branch members to help with translating all 17 modules that would be taught, about 240 pages worth of translating.  Four of them had never done any translating before but Rukmina, Sajana, Maya and Smina all did a great job, especially for never having done it before.  They all said that it was very hard and Rukmina told us that her head hurt everyday from working so hard on it.  But they all said they learned so much in regards to those who live in wheelchairs.  And for all of them the extra money was a great blessing.

Jeff and Keith arrived on a Friday, we met them along with the Sackleys at the airport and took the Radisson van to the hotel where we thought we'd let them rest a few hours, since they had been traveling almost 36 hours.  We met and talked with the Sackleys for a couple of hours while Jeff and Keith took a short nap. Sister Sackley and I made a quick trip to Folk Nepal for a few souvenirs.

We then came to our house and Rukmina had made a wonderful Nepali dinner.  The next day was Church and we had arranged for Jeff and Keith to do a fireside for the branch.  They shared their stories.

Jeff is a seminary teacher at Murray High School, he's awesome!  When he returned from his mission in Spain, he was working to earn money for school.  He would be playing football at Ricks College and was interested in girls.  He and a friend were going to strip and paint an old barn.  They had two tiers of scaffolding and a 30' ladder on top of  that to be able to reach the top of the barn.  The scaffolding collapsed and Jeff and his friend both fell to the ground.  Jeff landed a perfect gymnastic "10", unfortunately his spine took the brunt of the fall.  Jeff can sort of walk, or better put, he can stand.  He is married to Emily and they have 4 children and live in West Jordan.


Keith on the other hand can not stand.  When he was 14, he and his best friend went hunting.  Keith was accidentally shot in the back.  The two did not remain friends until a few years ago when both their wives got them together, they are once again best friends and their families spend a lot of time together. Keith has been teaching at the "Y" but has taken a new position at BYU Idaho.  He is married to Trisha and they have 3 children and he is the proud grandpa of 1 grandson.


These guys are amazing, they have such wonderful attitudes and shared so much with the Nepalese trainees that came to our training.  This training was a Master Training Course.  We had 20 wheelchair users from throughout Nepal who came to the training and will then go and train others about the things they learned.

President Bishnu welcoming everyone to the training

One thing we've seen in Nepal because of the living conditions things are pretty difficult here and many wheelchair users and very dependent on others.  This training taught them how to be more independent.  Some of the things they learned about were mobility issues, how to get around on their own, even in Nepal.  How to transfer from a wheelchair to the floor, to a chair, to a toilet, etc. on their own.  They talked about health issues, intimacy issues, they learned how to go up a ramp on their own, they learned when and when not to ask for help, they learned that they could live a full life in a wheelchair.  They even played basketball with the Nepal wheelchair basketball team.  These next pictures are of the 4 days of training.

Transferring to a bed

Transferring from a chair

How to maintain and care for their wheelchairs

We had 2 guys from the army that had been shot during the insurgency in Nepal in 2006

Keith refereeing

Jeff won a gold medal in the Olympics in Athens.  He played basketball.  The two guys in front of him in the green shirts are the army guys.

This was so fun, they just had no idea of what could be possible in their lives.

We've had some great feedback already from this training, they are so excited to go and teach others what they learned.

Kalpana (our interpreter) and Keith

Kent and Kalpana

Everyday we gave the trainers a bag of goodies that would help them train others, which I know is a very American way of doing things, but it was fun and they looked forward to it everyday.  On the last day we gave them LDS Charities shirts that we'd had made.

And then we had a party, singing and dancing, it was fun and my camera quit working.  There was a woman who came and danced, she had only one leg.  It was pretty amazing.

Jeff and Keith wanted to take our interpreters to dinner

Kalpana and her husband and Sunika

Jeff and Keith had a few extra days so we took them around Kathmandu to see some of our favorite places.

We went up to Bouddha Stuppa where Jeff spied a Jazz hat

Rakesh said, "I thought they would come and would not be able to do very much in Nepal but they had a good time."

Wherever we went the children would gather around and watch these two happy, amazing men.

KFC in Kathmandu

With Hossan from the Leprosy Clinic

Pashupati Holy Men (or not so Holy)

I love this picture, just the three of them, the cow, Keith and Jeff watching the bodies burn across the river

We even got some shopping done - in the pouring rain

Keith, our good friend and van driver Boudda, and Jeff at Nagarkot, we were hoping to see the mountains, too many clouds today

Funny, Jeff

Namaste, Jeff and Keith

The best part of our mission is when we're working hard on our projects and meeting amazing people!

As soon as Jeff and Keith left we had to move to our new apartment.  We now live on the 7th floor of the Prestige apartments. Rakesh walked in a few days ago and said, "when I come in here I don't feel like I'm in Nepal."  I guess that is a good thing but maybe not so good.  But it feels a little more like home.  We have hot water everyday, I don't have to boil the water to wash the dishes and we won't have to be buying cases and cases of drinking water.  We do however, feel a little removed from the reality of Nepal but after 11 months I think it's okay, we just have to walk through the gate and we're back.  We have a little more electricity here, when it is load shedding they turn on the generator from 6:00 - 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.so we don't have to climb the 140 stairs to our apartment.  During the winter months when there is a lot more load shedding we're going to have to really plan our days according to the electricity, but we do have ac and heat and I have a nice kitchen that I like to cook in.

Didn't bring a swimming suit so I don't think we'll be doing much swimming but there is a gym that we use with a hot tub, they just haven't ever filled it with water.  So Nepali.

We will now start on our next HBB project which will hopefully be next February, the plan is to have our replacement couple come while we are still here, kind of like what we did.  Dr. Clark and his wife have been called on a mission to Hong Kong so we will also have a new doctor on board.  So hopefully the little bit we've learned and the progress we've made with the government, will be of some benefit to Dr. Visick and the new couple. We'll see how well we can pull this off.

We still have closing ceremonies for wheelchair distributions, computer training, JAWS for the blind and sewing centers, so there are still many things to do.

We spoke in Church yesterday, we talked about the importance of our Branch being ready for the day the missionaries are allowed into Nepal.  In 1974, President Kimball said, "I see no good reason why the Lord would open doors that WE are not prepared to enter," he went on to say "that the door to nations will open when WE are ready for them."   The Nepali people may indeed be poor in pocket but they are rich in heart. They love us and we love them, unconditionally.  We pray that they will be bold and share the gospel with their families and their friends that this little branch will grow.  We watched the Worldwide leadership video last night, I'm so grateful to be a part of this marvelous work to have this opportunity to share the gospel by our actions and in the help we offer to this country.  One of the wheelchair users who came to our training came to church the Saturday after the training, he told Jeff, "I want to see what you guys are about."  He said he would come back.  Maya, who helped us with our training, talked to him and asked him what he thought about our church, he liked the focus of family.  We are so blessed, I hope someday he'll understand we're all family.