Another week of novel and fun experiences.
For fun, we ordered pizza from our favorite pizza place for the first time since we’ve been here. It’s nice to know that in Kathmandu it works to do online ordering/delivery! We also ordered a Caesar salad — our first real lettuce in Nepal — it’s not readily available, and if we find it, it’s hard to know how thoroughly we would need to wash (decontaminate) it!
Because we have lots of downtime when there’s no pressing project or record-keeping work, we often get to play tourist. On Monday we went on an outing to see the nearby 143-foot-high statue of Lord Shiva. Quite impressive! Taller by 35 feet than the Anjaneya statue in Vizag. Liz Christensen from the branch came with us on the spur of the moment — at Taunya’s invitation. She was very grateful for the invite and had a great time.
Tuesday night, to thank Manoj for all his help getting our visas, we took him and his wife Rachana out to dinner at a nice restaurant, and had a wonderful time enjoying the company and the great Indian and Nepali food they served there.
On Wednesday Kiran called to ask if we wanted to go see where they were making the benches and desks for our school furniture project. We did! It was fascinating to see the furniture maker in his shop and the end result (minus legs — they will be welded on after delivery to the schools — less effort and more efficient to transport them unassembled).
We learned on our way to go shopping on Friday (September First) that it was Manoj’s birthday. He is 41. (Also, Happy Birthday, Dad! He would have been 97.) That evening, Manoj brought us momos Rachana had made for his birthday celebration. She gave him a very cool present that their son Rimul helped make (earlier this week he surreptitiously asked for and we gave him a picture of us) — a framed collage with pictures of the last ten couples he has served, with a shot of the two of them in the middle. “I am so lucky to have you” was her sentiment, and it goes both ways!
We spent Friday evening preparing flash cards and keyboard images for this week’s music lessons. Our after-church sessions went fairly well. Taunya ran them through notes recognition and playing exercises, I taught more conducting techniques. Albeit slowly, most students are getting better. One boy really wants to learn how to conduct. One mom (of three of our students) really wants to learn to play the piano. Afterwards she expressed to me how grateful she is that God blessed their branch with a couple with musical talents who were willing to share and work with them. That makes me want to work harder at providing more value to them!
While discussing with Krishna (our landlord) some computer issues we’ve been having, it seemed like such a minor thing compared to another problem we’re facing, this one involving people. We must deal with life’s little irritations as best we can, knowing that they can prepare us to deal with life’s bigger challenges if we’ll let them. Especially if we seek the Spirit’s guidance. Like for example, how to add more value to music lessons!
We also discussed with Krishna our people problem, and he had a great insight. The interesting part of his offered solution was that he prefaced it with “I have an idea,” then added offhandedly, “God gave it to me” — and why not? He’s a Hindu, believes in God, and God’s Spirit can inspire those who believe, even if their belief is not the same as ours! We who frequently don’t know what we’re doing are so grateful for those nudges, those “sudden strokes of ideas” — indeed, when we feel “pure intelligence flowing into us” — it is such a great blessing to seekers of inspiration everywhere, and a wonderful, tender mercy from a loving Father and Savior!
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