Author: Taunya Neff

Last week Rick touched on Tihar, the festival of light, which started on Saturday. The festival continued until Wednesday and it was interesting to be able take part in some of the celebrations. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were national holidays so we couldn’t do much work.

Here are the traditional daily celebrations:

1-Crow; the messenger of death of the god Yama. Crows are fed special treats on rooftops to appease them and to ward off death and grief for the coming year.

2-Dog; honored and worshipped by offering special treats, giving tika and garlands. It celebrates the special relationship between human and dog and the need for a dog in passing through the gates of Svarga.

3-Cow; people show their gratitude to the cow for their gentle nature and all they give by feeding them treats and worshipping them with tikas and garlands. On this day Lakshmi is welcomed into the home with rangoli and footprints that lead the way. Lights are draped on houses and small oil lamps are placed around the home because it is believed the goddess won’t visit a dark home. She is worshipped with chanting, prayers and offerings to bring wealth, prosperity and good health. 

4-Ox; worshipped and celebrated because of the labor it performs in the agricultural communities of Nepal.

5-Bothers and Sisters; ceremonies are performed to bless and create a protective barrier with water, oil and a special colored tika and a makhamali flower garland. Gifts are exchanged as well.

We joined our landlord and his family as they worshipped Lakshmi. They created several beautiful rangoli with a path for prosperity to come to their home.

Sati, the family dog was honored. His name means “friend”. He’s a pretty good dog and we enjoy his friendly greetings but not the deposits he occasionally leaves at our doorstep!

Even street dogs are honored…

One evening we had music and dancing on our neighborhood street.

We saw the lights in the surrounding area from the rooftop.

There were rangoli all along the way as we took our morning walks. Some were quite elaborate.

As with all things, the fun of the festival came to an end as did the late night singing, dancing, chanting, shouting and fireworks. It was nice to be able to get back to work since we will be leaving for Thailand on Monday.

Our trekker, Will, returned from a successful adventure and spent the night before leaving Kathmandu. We went through Pashupati on our morning walk on Friday and saw lots of monkeys and other interesting things.

 

 

With people back to the office and ready to work on Friday we were able to tie up some loose ends on our Helping Babies Breath training that is rapidly approaching. We also made some headway on some other projects. It is good to be working and useful. It’s what we want to be doing.

Luke 9:24 says, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We will think of you eating turkey with all the trimmings while we enjoy a nice plate of Pad Thai!

 

 

 

Late Friday night I was awakened by what I thought was an earthquake. I looked at the time and told myself to remember and then went back to sleep. When I awoke in the morning I wondered if I had dreamt the whole thing, especially since Rick didn’t feel it. I checked online and learned that there had in fact been a 6.4 earthquake in Jajarkot that was felt in Kathmandu (300 km away) and even in New Delhi. Sadly there has been a lot of damage and loss of life. They are still working to get to the village areas that were cut off by landslides and so expect the death toll to rise above the current 157 people. The government is organizing relief to the affected areas. We are looking at the possibility of helping, perhaps with semipermanent housing. We’ll see what is needed and what we can do. We feel safe in our apartment that was built to US standards and withstood the devastating 2015 earthquake that killed over 9000 and destroyed cities near the epicenter.

We were shaken this week when we learned that one of our projects was rejected. We knew going in that it was a long shot, but it still hurt. We made an appointment with the partnering organization to share the news in person but that was made more difficult because they invited us to lunch. Declining the offer would have been rude so we let them know over a delicious organic meal. We hope to be able to propose another, less costly and more directly beneficial project with them that will be approved.

This morning while playing badminton at the park, as we usually do, a woman in uniform informed us that we were not allowed to have the net tied between two trees. Ok, we have been playing in the park for five months. She apparently didn’t speak English and must have thought we didn’t understand, although she made it perfectly clear especially when she so “kindly” started taking down the net. When I asked if we could play without a net she seemed to indicate that we could not and a woman nearby answered in English that in fact we are not allowed to play badminton AT ALL. I don’t get it, but we will comply. We went outside the park to an area we discovered last week that is an open field and has a basketball court. There was a group playing cricket in one part and another playing volleyball so we went a safe distance away and started batting the birdie back and forth only to have a busload of young men start to play soccer. Time to head home. I felt really annoyed and disappointed. However, we will be unshaken in our efforts to get regular exercise and we will find a place to play badminton.

I wonder if Clapping Man will be allowed to continue his aerobic dancing in the park. He is wearing headphones and is a very exuberant dancer. There are many other people exercising in the park as well. They do yoga, calisthenics, martial arts, and Tai Chi to name a few.

I only took five pictures this week! None of which is very noteworthy. I’ll share three.

I’ve named a few of the dogs we see regularly. We have Scout, Mutt and Jeff, Scruffy and Bently. They don’t recognize their names yet and I don’t think I can come up with names for them all. (Today’s count was 46.) Some of them are pretty cute and some are quite sad with their mangy hair, wounds, sunken eyes and ribs showing. Our driver says they are trying to address the issue by picking up the female dogs and taking them in for “family planning” surgery.

I thought this chicken on the sand pile was funny. It looks like the guy shoveling sand wondered why I was taking his picture.

   

We had a guest from Utah stay with us before his trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp. He is the son of our friends still serving in India. He let us know today that he is having a great time and shared a couple of pictures.

     

This week has been busy with figuring out the details for submitting our wheelchair project and planning for the next neonatal training which included figuring out the messed up and inadequate budget. It has been rather tedious with too much time sitting at the computer.

Here are a couple of monkey pictures in case we don’t spend much time at the jungle park in the future.

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I felt pretty discouraged several times this week. I know that life has ups and downs and that what I was experiencing was minor especially in light of the effects of the earthquake. We can be shaken by the challenges of life but with our foundation in Jesus Christ we can come out on top.

Hebrews 12:28-29–“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for God is a consuming fire.”  (NIV)

Who knew that we would celebrate our 43rd anniversary in Pokhara!?! Not us, even in our wildest dreams, especially since we had never heard of Pokhara before coming to Nepal. It is actually a well known city because it is near the Annapurna Range of the Himalayas. Many trekkers come to the area from all over the world. We saw more tall, pale people in three days than we have in the last 9 1/2 months combined. It felt really odd.

We were able to take a day hike to Australian Camp and Dhampus, about 9.2 km. The trails in Nepal are mostly paved with stone and have many, many, many steps. The hike was listed as easy so we decided not to rent trekking poles. That was a mistake we won’t make again. We probably went up 4000 steps (that actually may be a conservative estimate) and down 5000 that were even taller steps. I realize we have not been hiking in just over a year, but we do walk everyday and have some stairs and hills so how could our quads and calves be sooooo sore?

The trail took us through forests, fields and villages.

One of my favorite experiences on the hike was these boys sharing some village dancing and singing. They were doing it on the trail with the hope that trekkers would pay a token amount to pass. We were happy to contribute.

We enjoyed beautiful vistas of terraced rice fields and the Pokhara valley on our hike.

The following morning we got up early to see the sunrise on the Annapurna Range from Sarangkot. It was spectacular and we felt lucky to have timed our trip with almost perfect weather.

The next stop on our half-day tour was the Peace Pagoda. It was built by Japanese Buddhists to promote world peace. We went right after the sunrise and were able to avoid the crowds and see the mountains before they became obscured by the clouds that tend to shroud them around noon this time of year.

We then went to Devi’s Falls before going back to our hotel for breakfast.

After breakfast we walked down to the Phewa Lake and took a boat ride out to a little island that has a small but important Hindu temple on it. This temple is one of four that faithful Hindus make a pilgrimage to in their lifetime.

It was a wonderful trip, a nice getaway but it is good to be back “home” and back to work. We feel so blessed to be here and having so many different experiences, learning new things, being challenged both mentally and physically and hopefully making a difference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week we flew into Janakpur, near the India border, so that we could visit the four schools in Rautahat where Latter-day Saint Charities-Nepal and CHOICE Humanitarian donated desks and benches. We were there to do the official “handover” ceremony although the furniture had been distributed a couple of months earlier. Visiting the sites is part of the “Monitoring and Evaluation” aspect of each project. We found the furniture to be very well built and being well used!

Upon arrival in Janakpur we were met by our hired driver and he took us to see two temples in Janakpur. The first, Ram Mandir, was built in 1882 and is the oldest Hindu temple in Janakpur.

We then drove a short distance through town to the Janaki Mandir which is believed to be built on the spot where King Janak found the infant Sita in the furrow of a plowed field. (Sita became the wife of Rama who is the avatar of the god Vishnu.) This amazing structure was built in 1912 and is an important pilgrimage site for Hindus in Nepal and India.

The first thing we did when we entered the plaza was take a couple of photos and then we were inundated with people wanting to have their picture taken with us. We haven’t experienced this “rock star” scene here in Nepal and it reminded us of our time in India. Kiran, our associate from CHOICE, was rather shocked by the experience and became the primary photographer.

This region of Nepal is called the Terai. The plains stretch from the east to the west along the southern part of the country. It has a very different feel to it than in Kathmandu with the people and culture showing the influence of their close neighbor, India. One of the traditions of the area is Mithila painting. It originated in the 7th century with women painting their homes with murals and designs. The tradition has been handed down from generation to generation and is a lovely folk art tradition.

We stayed at a hotel in Bardibas, a city along the highway on the route to Rautahat. We were disappointed in the accommodations but it had A/C and was clean enough, no bed bugs and the bath towels still dried us even though they had holes. The food at the hotel was mediocre and we didn’t try to eat in the villages where the schools were. We were prepared to some degree with a small jar of peanut butter, crackers, granola bars, fruit and some moong dal so we didn’t starve.

The following day we headed out early and drove almost two hours to the first school. We traveled through the villages and as we got closer we noticed probably a hundred kids walking to school. Upon arrival we were swarmed with students wanting to see these strange foreigners. This particular school has around 1500 students and 19 teachers!! Some of the classrooms have no more room for desks and many students stand at the back. Hopefully they rotate so they don’t have to stand all day. We were impressed with the students’ desire to learn.

Ceremonies are a big deal here in Nepal. They first introduce the guests and honor us with a garland or scarf and a tika. The mayor, deputy mayor and chief administrative officer attended the ceremony. The school principal spoke as did the mayor, Kiran, Rick and the CFA. It started pouring rain during his speech and he dismissed everyone to take shelter so the ceremony was cut short.

We went around to see some of the classrooms and the furniture and to see how they manage with the challenging number of students and not enough space, desks or teachers. We then met with the leaders and they expressed their appreciation to us and discussed the additional needs they have. One of these is that they have only six toilets for the whole student body. Three for the girls and three for the boys. That’s just crazy. We have a new project to provide additional furniture to schools in this area and hopefully CHOICE will be able to put another project together to address the latrine needs at this school as well as one or two of the others we visited.

We were honored at each school we visited. The students were all so well behaved and very curious about us. I think even some of the adults were intrigued by us, so much so that while applying a tika on Rick’s forehead the man either got overly excited, was nervous or just thought the pale guy needed more color!

Rick looks annoyed in the picture but he just had food in his mouth. Note the powder on his hand and pants. I found it hard to take him seriously because I felt like laughing when I looked at him especially when sweat made the powder run down his cheeks and off the end of his nose. I realize I look pretty amazing too!

We have another new project in this region providing equipment and supplies to help meet basic healthcare needs. We visited two government health posts that are part of this project.

It was a long and tiring but good day. We returned to our less than amazing hotel and mediocre food with a greater appreciation for it after seeing the humble circumstances of the village people of the Terai.

 

 

If you read Rick’s blog from last week you’ll remember that he mentioned our trip to visit schools in Rautahat. Well, because of a teacher protest against new legislation tens of thousands of teachers made their way to Kathmandu so public schools were closed causing us to postpone our trip. We were disappointed but maybe it won’t be in the upper 90’s with 80% humidity when we reschedule.

As the weeks have passed I have noticed and photographed many contrasting things, coming to think of these juxtapositions as typical Nepal. Most of these photos are of clothing but it applies to everything. Beautiful flowers growing by the garbage pile, the discolored, crumbling wall surrounding a home faced with gorgeous tile work, a yummy bakery shop with piles of junk under the stairway leading to the entrance, just to name a few.

Walking around the neighborhood and along the busier streets to get to the store or the park we see people dressed in a wide variety of outfits. The combinations and differences are fascinating.

They range from interesting combinations of prints to totally coordinated kurta outfits.

Black plaid “pajamas” (that is the name for the pants worn with kurtas and tunics) are common as are the more color coordinated native Nepalese attire.

Here we have a little family dressed fancy and some women dressed in their finery on their way to celebrate teej at Pashupati. And yet another trio walking along the footpath (sidewalk) on an average morning.

A trio of men showing the wide range in clothing found here.

A few fun fotos for you to compare and contrast.

I find the colorful combinations charming. That they wear scarves even when sweeping the gutters or buying a bit of produce is so fun.

We live next door to Blooming Kids International Pre-school. Our building is the taller one in the background. From our side of the school we have a nice view of the tree sized marijuana plant next to the playground! Seems a little incongruous to us.

A change of focus but still part of our daily outings…Baby monkeys getting a ride on their mama’s back is just so entertaining. One morning after attempting to get some good photos at the park I was surprised that upon leaving I saw the human equivalent. The sight made me chuckle.

Just suppose we hadn’t made our way to Nepal and had missed these enthralling encounters…

 

Well, it’s second Sunday here in Nepal. Or perhaps first Monday. With our sabbath on Saturday we are always a little confused the following day and often think Monday is Tuesday. It is all part of being on the other side of the world in a strange new land.

We have not taken a liking to many of the vegetables they eat here – snake gourd, bitter gourd, lady fingers (okra), bamboo, hot chiles, eggplant and various “greens”. We eat them when prepared for us, usually in a curry, but don’t cook them at home. Mostly we eat tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, carrots and cabbage – after thoroughly washing of course.  Fruit is also a bit of a challenge. We have enjoyed some good watermelon, grapes, bananas, mangos and pomegranate, but miss strawberries, raspberries, huckleberries, good apples, and citrus fruits. We will give the persimmons that our landlord gave us a try and would like to try a custard apple.

We had a free day amid our paperwork and meetings this week so decided to go to the Garden of Dreams. It is in central Kathmandu and is a delightful place of refuge from the busyness of the city. It was built in the 1920’s by Field Marshal Kaiser Sumsher Rana and originally had six pavilions that represented the six seasons of Nepal. Basanta (Spring), Grishma (Early Summer), Barkha (Summer Monsoon), Sharad (Early Autumn), Hemanta (Late Autumn) and Shishir (Winter). After decades of disuse and deterioration it was renovated but only half of the original buildings remain.

Returning home one day Rick spotted this most unusual caterpillar by our front door. It is a Baron caterpillar and turns into a brown butterfly.

The monkeys at the park were especially entertaining this week. Here are a few pictures…

As we walk through the neighborhood area with every step it is apparent that we are in a foreign country. We greet people and pass the same ones frequently enough that we are friends in passing. There are so many shops that we wonder how they can earn a living. Some don’t have a lot of overhead to eat up their profits though.

Amid the exotic creatures, unusual fruits and vegetables, and beautiful flowers we are all just going about daily life trying to do our part in making the world a better place whether on this side of the earth or the other. I’ll end with a quote from a plaque in the Garden of Dreams-

 

 

We have stayed close to home the last few weeks. With all the rain and the many trips regarding our visas we haven’t been able to go visit project sites or go on excursions. This has led to some fun pictures from our walking routes. Early in the week we got to see a rainbow. It always makes me feel like there is hope regardless of what is happening. Just add a bit of light and there is beauty despite more rain.

Our driver did take me and my new friend Liz — she and her family are with the US Embassy, attend church and are new to Nepal — to a shopping area near Kathmandu Durbar Square where we did a little souvenir shopping. The “singing bowl” shop was my favorite. I was amazed at the number of bowls they had in their little shop. What is a singing bowl? – “The singing bowl is a metal bowl, struck by a mallet, often used in spiritual or religious settings to invoke meditation or relaxation through the resounding vibrations and pleasant sounds it emanates when played. They can also be used in sound therapy to induce healing and treat various illnesses.” It’s mostly a Buddhist thing and is often associated with Tibet and the Himalayas.

These pictures are outside of the park we regularly walk to. The demolished buildings had little shops that had snacks and tea and fresh juice. It was a place that people gathered and had a nice sense of community and we were shocked to find them knocked down. We don’t really know why the structures were demolished but perhaps they were not built legally or they are planning to build something new. It is not uncommon for buildings to go up without the proper permits or even owning the land.

We decided to buy a net to improve our badminton skills. Here is our first attempt at putting the net up. It worked out OK but when we returned the next day someone had taken the sticks down. We found two trees that actually worked better except when the sun got in our eyes.

The city is working on removing the masses of wires on the poles and will eventually put them underground. For now I think they are getting rid of those wires no longer in use. It is a huge project.

The Project…

Some other interesting pictures from around the neighborhood…

 

 Typical street scene outside our residence.

After many phone calls and trips to various offices, it was time to go to the office of immigration. It took 3 1/2 hours on Wednesday but Rick finally got his non-tourist work visa!! Of course they couldn’t possibly take care of mine at the same time. It only took 2 1/2 hours on Thursday to process mine. We thought this “guard dog” at the bank counter at the immigration office was too funny. He is actually just a fat street dog which is not very common.

What did we do to celebrate? Had Baskin-Robbins ice cream of course.

What is a week without flowers?

As we walk around we see trash in the gutters, dead rats and dog poop on the road, piles of bricks and bags of who knows what along with many other not so pleasant things — but Nepal is a beautiful place and we just keep looking for rainbows.

 

We are continuing to settle into our new flat (a child from church informed me that they don’t have apartments in Nepal!) and create a better working office space. Rick turned our TV into a huge monitor for his laptop and bought a wireless keyboard and mouse. Then we were able to replace our very old desktop with a new laptop for the office and now Rick is cleaning off and saving information from the old computer. Meanwhile I continue to remove the extra stuff out of cupboards and either get rid of it or box it up. We had been storing a bunch of boxes of equipment for the Helping Babies Breath program in our spare room and were able to move all of that to the new storage room where the other HBB goods are being kept. We definitely feel more organized and in charge now. It is good because we have work to do!

It is raining a lot, more than it was a couple of weeks ago, and things are rather soggy. It takes our laundry about 24 hours to dry on the drying racks inside. It is quicker outside if I time it right. I try very hard to not do a second rinse while the clothes are hanging on the line!

Rick went out to the Kevin Rohan Memorial Eco Foundation site on Tuesday. It was the last day of the last humanitarian expedition group from the United States. The groups were able to complete the first level of the clinic. There are still brick walls to construct between the concrete pillars but the locals should be able to do that with the remaining materials the groups provided. I was disappointed to miss the outing because I was sick. (Actually I find it ironic that I got sick because a few days before I was expressing gratitude for our good health on our mission. Just doesn’t seem right…)

Between the rain and my being sick we hadn’t been to the park to play badminton for a few days and were disappointed to find the big Granddaddy tree had fallen down. It was sad but the rhesus macaque monkeys were enjoying their new jungle gym.

Friday we renewed our tourist visas as they expired on the 13th. We are still going through the process of getting our non-tourist work visas. We don’t have to worry about our visas expiration date now but Rick is not able to fully act as country director without the work visa.

Random photos–

Dejunking and recreating our flat to better suit our needs has been rejuvenating. I think that as we eliminate clutter from our minds and our lives we are better able to feel the influence of and be directed by the Holy Ghost. I know that as we serve here in Nepal we need all the help we can get!

As you can imagine it has been another week full of new and interesting experiences. We have found the best way to navigate our week is with faith and prayers. We rarely know what our schedule will be, with a few exceptions, and always need to be ready for anything. Hence previous blog titles like–Go with the Flow, Trust in the Lord, Expect the Unexpected, and One Step at a Time. Plans come up suddenly and are changed at the last minute. We often feel out of our element and inadequate but we just keep putting one foot in front of the other and then we find we have walked through another week.

We went to dinner at the home of the director of CHOICE Humanitarian here in Nepal. The food was very good but the entertainment afterwards was a delightful surprise.

We had office work that occupied some of our time this week but we were able to go the Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital to donate two Bubble CPAP machines. At this hospital they deliver an average of 80 babies per day! When babies are in respiratory distress they sometimes have to be sent to another hospital because of a lack of equipment. Hopefully we will be able to do more in the future. We will continue to provide training through the Helping Babies Breath program as well.

Stated like that the donation seems pretty straightforward, however it was anything but…! Dr. Kalpana set up the appointment with the hospital director not realizing that our liaison, Ranjan, was not going to be in town. Because the appointment could not be rescheduled Rick and I had to take care of things. After confirming our afternoon appointment with Dr. Kalpana we went to CHOICE and looked through the poorly labeled boxes they had picked up from customs and put in their overcrowded, disorganized storage room. No one was available to help that knew what we were looking for or where to find it. We found two boxes and brought them back to our apartment thinking we were ready to go. I had a thought that we might need a letter of donation so we asked our supervisors in Hong Kong. While awaiting a reply we tried to find a sample letter we could copy, to no avail. We contacted one of the HBB doctors in Utah and waited. The information we received from Hong Kong was unclear. Ranjan drafted a possible letter that we decided to modify and use. The next problem was that the Wolfgramms had left and locked the office and we needed to use the printer. Fortunately our landlord’s son knew where to find a spare key.  After hearing back from Dr. Mike (11:45pm Utah time! and 45 minutes before we needed to leave) we found that one of the boxes was the wrong thing so had to return it and find the correct one. Part of the challenge was that the Wolfgramms were using our driver to visit a project so we were waiting on a substitute driver. Fortunately he came 15 minutes early so Rick didn’t have to speed walk in the rain to CHOICE while I waited for our driver and directed him to the office. We headed over to together find what we needed. Of course the power went out while we were searching in the windowless storage room so had to use Rick’s phone flashlight. After silent prayers and multiple small miracles to overcome the challenges thrown in front of us we were able to get to the hospital on time and find our way to Dr. Kalpana’s office having only been there once. The “donation ceremony” was a success.

Work is progressing on a new home that we can see from our apartment window. The process of construction in concrete and use of manual labor is fascinating.

 

Another outing arranged by our friends Sunila and Sugam, took us to the office of the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens where we met with the Minister for a brief courtesy visit. It is helpful to have connections with people in high places. His assistant assured us that he will be happy to help with anything we need, particularly our visas. Good to know.

This is the Wolfgramm’s last week here and we have gradually been taking over everything. Rick signed his first check as Country Director. It was delivered to our accountant but had to be returned because Rick abbreviated ‘associates’ in the payee line. The bank won’t accept it unless it is written out. These details are important to know. Besides assuming new responsibilities this week we went out to Simply Momo for a farewell dinner. They have a surprising variety of momos–buffalo, chicken, vegetable, fried, steamed and sauces varying in spiciness. It was very tasty.

At church on Saturday we were blessed to have a visit from our mission president and his wife. It was so good to see them again. I was surprised to find myself missing our time in India a little. They both spoke in Sacrament Meeting as did the Wolfgramms. It was surprising to find myself in charge of Primary since no leaders were there. Yikes!! It was just the pianist and me but since there were only six children it was ok. After church we had an unexpected linger longer in honor of the Wolfgramms so we cancelled music class. Something added, something taken away.

It has been quite rainy here with about an inch of rain per day. We are still able to get out and exercise although one day we needed our umbrellas for our walk and bailed on badminton. It was raining mostly at night but has changed to off and on daytime downpours. Everything is lush and green and the flowers are pretty. No surprise there.

 

As usual we had new experiences this week. We are constantly amazed at the unique approach to things here in Nepal. Having never applied for any type of US visa I don’t really know the process, but getting a non-tourist work visa here in Nepal is quite involved. On Monday Rick put together the 24 documents (49 pages of paperwork) and we headed over to the Social Welfare Council Office to get a signature and leave a copy so they could “recommend” Rick for the visa. (I will be added as a dependent.) We needed to stop to print the paperwork and make 4 copies. Our driver suggested the copy shop next to the SWC office and we agreed since it was convenient. Here are photos of the copy shop:

We had plenty of other paperwork to do this week as it was the end of our fiscal year. We are still getting the hang of the computer programs and the process. Hopefully we will be up to speed by the end of the month. We also had to address some issues pointed out to us by the SWC review we had last week. It all takes more time than it seems like it should.

Our driver, Manoj, and his wife Rachana invited us and the Wolfgramms over for dinner to celebrate Sister Wolfgramm’s birthday. They prepared some yummy food for us that included curried mushrooms, sesame chicken and a fried bread that was very tasty. A typical dessert here is rice pudding and Rachana’s is especially good.

We didn’t have any fun field trips this week but we did attend the wedding of our landlord’s housekeeper. She has been with the family for 13 years and is really a part of the family. Krishna (landlord) had to approve the marriage and provide the ceremony. It was held in the back garden and lasted about two hours. Three if you take into account the priest was an hour late. We appreciated that it was the short version! There are many steps involved and mostly no one understands what the priest is saying. The people in the wedding party really dress fancy and the whole event was splendid. They had the food “half catered” which means that Krishna bought the raw ingredients and it was prepared on site. We enjoyed rice with beans, chicken, mutton (actually goat), potatoes with pieces of gourd and spices, cooked greens and jeri with yogurt for dessert.

On Friday our cleaning lady invited us to her home for lunch. She really went all out in her preparations and it was delicious. I know she has cooked for previous missionary couples so maybe we will have her prepare food at our house upon occasion. It was really nice to meet her husband and get to know them both better.

This evening we were invited to dinner at the home of some friends from church. Again we enjoyed delicious food and good company. Four Nepali meals in one week! The Nepali people are so kind and generous.

And lastly, perhaps there is a reason to not have massive rats nests of wires on poles…