A letter from Nepal.

I got word from one of the orphanages in Nepal... they are safe!  
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As soon as I heard the news of the earthquake I messaged Pastor Luke and a few others. As the hours of silence turned into days I become more and more concerned that things might not be OK with them. Best case scenario, they are all ok and have been busy helping others, or they just don't have power... 
Worst case scenario... well... I am still hanging onto the best case scenario dream.

I still haven't heard from those who actually live in Kathmandu valley where the epicenter was and as the days pass I don't like the silence. The ones in Kathmandu frequently send group emails to all of their ministry supporters... So it seems like they should send a quick note that they are ok... Tell us something? That seems to be the logical thing. But still we hear nothing from them. One of the missionaries there is actually a US embassy representative. She told me that she agreed to be a representative for the perk of having a two-way emergency radio in case of a disaster. Hopefully they just don't have electricity.

One day while riding around Kathmandu on the back of her moped she explained that they have been warned that every 75 years Nepal has a major earthquake. At the time they were on year 79. Scientists from around the globe had been saying 'when it comes it will be big'. There were signs/billboards all over Kathmandu, the ATM machine's screen savers said "be prepared" laid over pictures of rubble. Many knew it was coming some day. The sad thing is that their architecture does not lend to "being prepared". And even more sad that the religious beliefs of most there believe that karma is karma. If the gods find favor you will be ok. If they don't there is nothing you can do to stop it... So while the Christian missionaries had a storage container in their fenced-in yard full of water, batteries, food, and clothing I would venture to guess 99.5% of Nepalese people don't have that.

(An interesting difference in the US and Nepal earthquake preparedness... they are told in case of a quake to get outside or to the rooftop, where we are told to stand in a door way. They know their buildings won't hold up so they assume being on top as it comes down is your best shot at survival.)

I read a report today suggesting that 80% of Kathmandu residents are living outdoors terrorized by aftershocks. If their homes are still standing they are afraid to sleep in them until the ground quits shaking. It breaks my heart. Kathmandu, the capital city, wasn't what you would call an industrialized city in the first place. To see more about what the city was like before the quake check out my blog from my visit last year. 
life in Kathmandu

So today when I woke to good news from Pastor Luke I felt a sense of relief. Pastor Luke lives a long way from Kathmandu. (six hours by bus up a winding mountain road in Chitwan valley.) Here is what he had to say. (I fixed a few grammatical errors to make it easier to read his excellent but broken English)

Earthquake:
Praise the lord! By the grace of the living God our family and children are safe. Thank you very much for your heart for us and for your precious prayers. We experienced very terrible shocks of big earthquake. The ground shakes many times more than 85 times and still not in control completely. We are staying outside of the home on the church grounds. My pastor friend and all the believers were in the church. The church building was completely destroyed and the rescue team has not been able to rescue them yet. I have heard many children of God are missing and many houses of believers were destroyed. Still we do not have all details of believers so we are still praying for them. According to local report more-then 3100 people are death, and around 7,000 people are injured and under the medication. One christian brother died near our home. and 13 houses of our believers from branch church were destroyed. I am trying to collect other details and reports of the churches and believers from many different places. There are many more villages where rescue team are not reached yet so many people are waiting medical help, food, drinking water, clothes and basics important need to survive. We magani church ministries continually praying for basics needs for Christian victims of this big disaster. therefore, we are expecting your precious prayers and helping hands to show the love of jesus Christ in this critical condition, lets do whatever we can even it may be small but it means lots in this situation..... in christ pastor luke magani church ministries Nepal

So they are alive which is great... but as you can read they are in distress. Please pray for them with me.
Also pray for those we haven't heard from yet. Pray for those in villages who are currently unreachable due to landslides. The roads, already in poor condition, are few and far between in Nepal. Many people walk a days journey to get to the nearest road already. It seems so hopeless, yet we know that our God can use all things for his Glory. One night while in a cab, lost in Kathmandu, Ali, my friend, played the song "Build your Kingdom Here" by Rend Collective on her ipod. It says...

Build your kingdom here, 
let the darkness fear, 
show your mighty hand,
heal our streets and land, 
set your church on fire, 
win this nation back, 
change the atmosphere, 
build your kingdom here 
we pray

I have such vivid memories riding around the dark city for what seemed like forever, lost. But hearing that song and praying that God find a way to heal their streets and land. Let the darkness of false gods and idol worship fear our mighty God. Praying to win this (that) nation to Christ. Change that atmosphere. "Build your kingdom here!" I prayed over and over.

I can only hope that out of the ashes and rubble that God's love will rise and be known in large numbers. That the 'less than 1% of the population' who are Christians stand together and minister to the 60% Hindu and 40% Buddhist peoples. Let something strong and beautiful come out of this nation which is now hurting and weak.

Bucket List #3: Everest In Nepal

For as long as I can remember I have have been fascinated by Mt. Everest. Why? I can't say I am actually sure. I don't remember ever not being intrigued by it.

So when I knew I was going to Nepal for Reach Out Orphanage Ministries I could only hope that I would at least get a glimpse of the mystic Mountain. My naivety hoped to be able to see it from Kathmandu... I mean it is the tallest Mountain in the world right?! Wrong.  While it is the tallest it is wrapped in the midst of the tallest mountain range in the world. While it is taller... it isn't that much taller.There are a LOT of mountains blocking any possibility of seeing it from Kathmandu valley. 

My second hope was to be able to take a taxi or tourist day trip to somewhere close enough to say I stood at, or at least near the base of Mt. Everest... Turns out that idea is laughable also! 

We asked around and soon realized the only ways to see the Mt. was 

1.  A two week trek to base camp (yeah on your feet)... uh, not going to happen on a 10 day trip... or ever for me... period.
2.  A two hour bus ride to an overlook only to have someone point to a tiny peak between to equally small peaks. Furthermore depending on the weather you probably wouldn't be able to see it anyway...Uh...  No thanks. 
3.  Take a 1 hour small plane ride along the snow capped line of the Himalayan Mt range which circles at Everest...  Ummm... Yes please!  

As we weren't in Nepal to sight-see we figured this was the quickest way! And it was an early flight so we would be back in the city by 9:30ish leaving us plenty of time to do other things we needed to do. 

And so we did.

 EARLY one dark morning Amanda and I ventured out to the streets of Kathmandu to find our ride to the airport.  That in itself was a bit of an adventure. After finally making it to the airport our flight was delayed by about an hour and a half due to fog. 

While frustrating to wait I was appreciative that they weren't going to take us out there if we weren't going to be able to even see the mountain! When our flight did finally take off it was still SUPER foggy on the ground... I was a bit skeptical but before long we were above the dense fog and flying along side the most breathtaking mountain chain I had ever seen. 

 And there it was! After about 20 minutes in the air it was there! While we could see it out our side window the pilots let each of us stand hunch in the cockpit for a straight on view! It was stunning!  I said to the pilots, "How lucky you are to see this beauty everyday!" He just grinned and nodded. He either didn't understand me or was thinking 'yeah, yeah i see it every day!"

 God surely outdid himself with this mountian range! The pictures DO NOT do it justice. There is just no reference for how big it really is. The picture above is just the part that was above the cloud line! Truly amazing.

 If you don't feel small well, just go for a peek of Everest sometime in your life!

 For about 15 minutes we were within view for it. When we started turning around to go back the pilot made an announcement. "Due to inclement weather in Kathmandu we will be landing elsewhere".

HUH??? ... Seriously!? What?

No joke we landed at a TINY one-room airport. We weren't sure if we were going to have to take a bus back to Kathmandu or what? We looked at a little map of all the airports in Nepal. Based on the location of Everest on the map we figured out where we were. The last 7 hour bus ride we were on was to a location a bit closer to Kathmandu than we were now... if we were going on a bus it was likely going to take us longer than 7 hrs.
Poor Ali was back in Kathmandu. By this point we should have already been back with her at the apartment. We had no phone to call her and let her know where we were and that it was likely going to be a while.

 We soon learned we would be flying back to the city. We were just going to have to wait out the bad weather.  So we went to the snack stand, got a snack and waited. We did end up meeting some other westerners who allowed us to use their phone to call Ali. Thankfully it was only about an hour wait!  And we were off again.

  This was a view of the runway through the cockpit.  

We did learn that when a small plane (or at least this small plane) looses altitude quickly due to turbulence a very loud alarm sounds! One that sounds like something you expect to hear just before crashing because of engine failure! :/

 Traci not like this. 

Amanda and I both grabbed each others hand... no one else seemed to notice or care. 

SHEESH!!!

And there we were approaching Kathmandu for landing only about 4 hours behind schedule.
Can you make out the mountains in the background? Yeah me neither, but they are there hiding behind the smog.

This was the third unexpected thing checked off my bucket list within three days! Not bad!

Sights and Feels of Nepal

This post is merely some of the interesting things I saw along the way...

The dog couldn't resist the smell of this meat shop... I however would be fine to never smell it again. ;)

Now this is a "FRESH" meat shop... Goat-to-go or the basket to the right had live chickens!

Motorcycle shop out side our apartment. I thought of my cousin Chad when I saw this!

This is an embroidery machine found at many 't-shirt' shops in town. They were beautifully crafted.

Lights coming on in the streets... while the power was on.

A temple in the middle of the markets.

One morning (Amanda and I were waiting for a ride to the airport to go see Mt. Everest) we were out before dawn. This woman was starting up her fire. I am not 100% sure but I think she was making some sort of food to sell. I am also not 100% sure but I think she slept here... was this her home?

While we stood and waited for our ride many vans like this one drove by. They would stop and a man with a bandanna (probably for the cold) would open the door step out while yelling something in Nepali pause for a moment then get back in shut the door and drive away. This seemed to be part of their "public transportation" system. We stood in the dark and cold for a long while before we asked a cabbie to use his phone to call the person picking us up... I was glad we finally called because our driver was on the wrong corner... We would have been waiting for a long time.

Construction: Hammers, chisels, cement mixed by hand, breaking large stones into smaller stones by hand... That's one heck-of-a-way to build a retaining wall!

Many of the cabbies had Hindu prayer wheels on their dashes.

This was the breaker box to our apartment... outside in the stairwell... We were told if the power wasn't working  properly to come out and flip these up and down a couple of times... We were told that usually worked...
That didn't usually work!
Of course the power in Nepal is only on for about 6-7 hours a day at intermittent times.  When the power was actually on we only had one outlet, and one light in the bathroom which worked. We became good friends with flashlights and lots of blankets! :/

These are the electrical lines running up our street. The first day we were there all the lights worked in our apartment (when the power was on). The second day (and the rest of the time) only one outlet and one light bulb worked. We were told it was probably messed up because they had been "working" on these wires!  Supposedly the workers know where all the wires go... But they will also cut multiple wires at a time and then splice them back together saying they got all of the "splices" done correctly with the correct wires... Apparently this is common which makes electricity even more hay-wired across the city.

This is a view from the rooftop of our apartment.

There is no industry in Nepal except tourism. Therefore there are no jobs for the young generation. ALL over Kathmandu you can see signs like these; Study in Japan, Study in USA, Study in Australia... An estimated 1,000 young Nepali's are leaving Nepal every week many never return to bring industry back to their country. That is alarming!

The US charges $160 for Nepali's to apply for a tourist VISA into the US. That is A LOT of money for the average Nepali who may only make $1 a day. The US gets hundreds of these applications a day. I was told they only accept 4-5 of them. :( That is a lot of people naively throwing the US government money for nothing.
 One day I went to the 'DMV' with one of the missionaries there. She needed her licenses renewed and had to go get her picture taken. I was shocked at how crowded the place was. Cheryl pointed out all the US VISA applications tucked under their arms. These people were there to get their pictures taken for their application. It was crazy! There were at least 50 people there at that moment trying to get a US VISA. Cheryl said it is like that all the time.
I talked to many Nepali while I was there. Most of them were interested to hear about the States and/or were excited to tell me that they have a family member who made it there. I would say "Oh cool, have you ever been to visit?" The response was always the same. "No, I can't get a VISA". Several told me they knew it was because they are too poor. "The US thinks I couldn't possibly be coming to 'vacation'... I am too poor. They think I must be coming to illegally hide."
 That made me feel sad.

I have always been fascinated by Asian architecture. Even though this is a temple to false Gods it is constructed beautifully.

Pigeons love the architecture too!

The Hindu culture has many false gods and statues. They are everywhere.

Rickshaw anyone?

The local markets were full of beans,

dried fish, flower necklaces,

and clay pots.

Need a haircut? No appointment necessary! :)

marionette versions of false gods.

Fresh fish! :/

The street vendors really are beautiful displays.

The dogs appreciated it too! haha. Your not going to see dogs running through Harris Teeter anytime soon.

Buddhist prayer flags. Nepal is 60% Hindu and 40% Buddhist.  Less than 1%Christian or "other".

Buddhist prayer wheels.

A few Buddhist monks walking through the markets.

Construction at it's finest! I am not sure what they were doing, but they were definitely doing it "by hand"!

In the evenings lots of people sat on the streets around small fires to keep warm. (remember there is no heat there) This young guy almost melted his cotton candy! YIKES

I hope this post gave you a small glimpse of Kathmandu. It really is a fascinating place! Filled with kind fascinating people. There is much work to do for the orphans and the people of Nepal but I believe God is opening doors there to do just that!

Nepal: Phase II- And Then we Rode an Elephant

 After spending a beautiful day with Trust Home and Pastor Luke we were going to be heading back to Kathmandu the next afternoon. The bus back left mid morning (if I remember correctly it left around 11:00). Pastor Luke had mentioned that if we were staying longer in Chitwan we could have gone on an Elephant ride through the jungle. All three of us (Amanda, Ali and I) were bummed. How cool would that have been? Even though that was definitely not why we were in Nepal we all were a little excited about the idea of riding an elephant. For me personally that would have been something to check off my bucket-list!
As we were entering the gates of the hotel that evening Amanda noticed a sign that said "6:30am elephant ride"!!!!
So after a few phone calls and a few "we're only in Nepal once"'s we were lined up to go for a ride the next morning!
We were told to be up at zero-dark-thirty to get some breakfast and make sure we got to the place on time.
I slept in my clothes that night for two reasons...
1. My pajama's were not going to be warm enough.
2. I figured not having to change clothes in the morning would allow me to sleep a few more minutes.

Yep I slept in my clothes... Don't judge, it was COLD! Besides I definitely wasn't sweating!
So early in the morning the three of us got up, brushed our teeth. Using our flashlights we came down the three flights of stairs in the dark... And it was DARK. We tried to remember where the "restaurant" was. We fumbled around in the dark and then realized if there weren't lights on, it probably wasn't open... So we stumbled back to the steps in front of the hotel and waited.
Things we learned while we waited:
-Nepal is definitely not on "U.S. time". We waited for about an hour in the dark before any other lights started to come on.
-Elephants are very quiet. Several passed by on the street while we waited... It was alarming how close they were before we knew they were there.
-Dawn is one of the coldest times of day!

We can now say we saw the sun rise in Nepal! For a while we thought maybe we would get to see the sunrise while riding an elephant... however before we ever left the hotel the sun had been up for quite a while! ;)

Anyway... Finally we were off and headed deeper into the park.

Again we took a bumpy ride. This time it was in the back of a truck. Yep it was definitely COLD. Are you detecting a theme?
After being tossed like a salad and having bumped my head a few times we arrived!

We greeted our elephant and 'driver'.
We were told the morning was the best time to sight rhino's, tigers and crocodiles! OH MY! ;) I was excited as a child on Christmas morning. We asked Pastor Luke if he was excited too.. He politely laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

We loaded onto this majestic beast super excited. "OK", I was thinking, "This isn't the most comfortable seat in the world, but it will do."

About 2 minutes into our ride I realized, while still every excited, this wasn't going to be a smooth 2 hour ride! Riding an elephant is nothing like riding a horse. The only similarity is that you have to find the rhythm of both animals or you risk being thrown around your entire ride. An elephants 'gait' is NOTHING like a horses. I eventually found myself not being thrown around quite so much. (I was understanding why Pastor Luke wasn't as excited as we were).

Our elephant was hungry. It was actually amazing to watch him rip limbs out of trees and chew while he walked... Breakfast-on-the-run!

While we didn't see any rhino's or tigers we did see a variety of deer.

It was a foggy morning which made it all seem magical. It was cool to see a heard of animals slowly appearing through the fog.

These guys had impressive antlers.

We paused here in hopes of seeing rhino... not this morning.

Lots of birds though. It was so quiet and peaceful out there.

We saw several peacocks.

While we didn't see any tigers, I am pretty sure those were tiger scratch marks. (seriously google what their scratch marks look like). I am going with there was a tiger in the vicinity! ;)

On the way back we passed these ladies washing their laundry in the river.

Thanks Mr. Elephant for the ride!

He did such a great job we tipped him. Seriously Ali put the money in his trunk and he handed it to the driver! So cool!

It was bumpy and a bit chilly but so cool! Definitely worth getting up in the dark for!

On the way back we saw a wild elephant wading in the river near our hotel!. This picture was actually taken from our balcony! Another bucket list of mine was to see a wild elephant! Two in one day! Pretty awesome!
Before long Pastor Luke made a few phone calls and we loaded into the taxi to go to the bus 'station'.  I was a little worried that we were late but have learned when Nepalis aren't worried we shouldn't be either. We were driving down a narrow dirt road between two rice fields when we stopped.
Strange.
Then the bus coming our way stopped too. Pastor Luke said, "Here is your bus!" Really? In the middle of the rice fields? So we got out of the car and loaded onto the bus. Off we were and headed back to Kathmandu! ;)

Again the views were breathtaking!

This is a foot bridge crossing the river to a village.

Potty break along the road! ;)

In this picture you can see a small black dot above the river. That is a cart on a pully. I would guess one or two people could fit in the cart. They then pull themselves across the river attached to the cable it is suspended from. There were a dozen or so of these along the 7 hour road. Most of them didn't even have a cart. You just latched onto the cable somehow and pulled yourself across, no bucket, not cart... Just you the cable and the raging river below... No thank you! :/
I can't imagine this being how you get in and out of your village!

We made it back to Kathmandu safely and headed back to the apartment to bathe with our cold bucket of water. (We did eventually realize we could boil some water and have warm water to dump on our heads... That helped us not be quite so miserably cold!).

By the time we got back Ali's phone was out of minutes. We went to the local store and bought some more minutes as we didn't want to be without cell phone use.

We became very familiar with this guy! I am pretty sure he was amused by us. haha

(more Nepal to come soon.)