Sunset at Sunset Beach: White Pictures

7 kids, 8 match-y outfits, 9 thousand pictures!

Ok. Maybe 9,000 is an exaggeration but we do take a lot of pictures! I mean... who wouldn't with this crew?!  

Yep. My sister and I are that silly. We still try to color coordinate the kids outfits each day. Here is a shot from each evening of vacation. 

Cline's VS Skimboard

The skimboard seemed to win this day!

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!

I love our backyard!

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!