Back in the grind:)

Hey everyone... thanks for praying me home! travel was uneventful... just the way I like it.

I got in Tuesday afternoon and called work to discover they already had me on the schedule for Wednesday night! No time to recover from jet lag!

But after sleeping all day Wednesday to be ready for noc shift, they called me off cause the census was low. I did work Thanksgiving night only 3 pt's and one of those passed at 0620 just as I was wrapping up my shift.

Friday, I slept a few 6 hours and got up and caught the ferry to go spend Thanksgiving with my kids at the best steak house in Seattle. Tonight I worked another 12 hour shift. and guess what... Im on again tonight! So already back in the grind!

Heard from Megh Raj my overseer tonight. They started on the retaining wall today! So they have buldozed the site for the 4th time and actually started construction! Hurray!

A loving Christian family has been found for little Grayson... he has an additional name of Samuel and will probably have more new names when ho goes to live with his new adoptive family. right now he is in the foster care of 3 American and German women that share a house together. He is a really good baby I'm told... by the 2 who don't have night feeding duty!

Look for an invitation really soon for my Jolly Nepali Christmas Bazaar! I should know dates by Monday.

More to come soon!

Dawn Didi

On My Way Home

I am sitting in the KAL lounge in Seoul Airport waiting for my final flight on this trip to Seattle. I now qualify for "prestige status" so can access a lounge with free WIFI, comy seats, and a  free buffet!

I have met Lindsay, a midwife from Colorado who was just climbing Everest base camp so we are chatting and have much in common.

 

I should be home later this afternoon! My flight arrives in Seatac at 12:30 and Dianne is due to pick me up from the airport if all goes well!

Travel from Dadeldhura to Dhangadi was uneventful and I had a wonderful evening there with Balram and his family, went to church the next early am with them and had a great Yeti flight out to Kathmandu on Saturday... it was even on time for once. I had 2 days of crazyness getting wool ready to send back out to DDLand visiting the shop that carries some of our products and got a good order from tem. The rest was spent speeding around on the back of a motor bike getting my errands done.

Yesterday I was late to the airport but the lines were long and it would haqve not changed a thing to be any easrlier soooo I made the flighjt and the rest is a breeze!

See you all soon I hope ...

Pray me in this last leg of the journey! Thanks so much!

Dawn Didi

Here is the last letter I wrote you from the land of impossible internet service/ challenges... gotta warn you it's wordy... but oh such great mind expanding information! Enjoy!

I'm here at the Utse again in Kathmandu and will fill in blanks later... too exhausted to elaborate any tonight but am safe! Thanks for your prayers!

 

 

Well here we are again without internet connection… for all the money we paid we sure aren’t getting very good service with World Link! Heard the boss man was supposed to show up today but no one saw him! He is here for his Tihar holiday… what a pain… hopefully they will improve whatever it is on their end that keeps konkin’ out!

I am starting to feel the pressure… making lists of all I need to pack and wrap up before I leave here day after tomorrow. It is a really long list already! But it should be doable if I don’t get too many interruptions… oh that’s right – interruptions are my ministry. Pray I will handle them gracefully.

It’s complicated by the fact I still don’t feel well. Seem to get a fever every night for the last 5 nights! Just today developed a little dry cough… no other symptoms! Weird huh! I just feel my energy sapped. It took me 45 minutes this evening to walk back from the bazaar which normally takes an easy 20. It ended up getting dark on me and I didn’t have a flashlight. Half way up all the power went out so where I had been trying to maximize the experience enjoying the Tihar lights (it is called Festival of Lights)… I now had to pick my way through the dark at the end and I was a half hour late for dinner at Krippa’s.  But Yo Nepal Ho! and she forgave me, fed me and we had a great evening together.

I did accomplish a few things over the last 2 days, however.  I told you about the earthquake that shook a whole bunch more dirt onto our building site didn’t I? Yah - NOT good!  Can’t work on moving that dirt till the “lights” have faded after the holiday ( which ends tomorrow!!!)

Today I quietly went to the CDO myself… yes it is Tihar… but a little birdie told me I would find this dignitary lounging in the sun outside his office and I did. I met with both the new CDO boss and the old CDO who I had met last spring who treated us and our charity cause with great favor. They graciously gave me their ear for 15 minutes. Praise God I again found favor in their eyes and have their awareness and understanding if not support here.

On a happier note, got Jo with a vehicle, and his driver, Sant ( who has called me “mom” for years and still needs your prayers!) to drive me down to the bazaar and beyond with a large piece of foam in tow. We delivered it to BB, a paraplegic man who obtained his injury via a gunshot wound to the back by the Maoists during the war a few years back. The Nepali Gov. has given him a tin shack to call home and he has become a believer as has his wife. She pushes him uphill over a mile every Saturday so they can come to church. What, 3 years back, my Uncle Don donated 3 waterbed mattress for the 3 paraplegics. You may remember my ramblings of getting the 2 girls out of their old beds and  into their new beds and the way the Lord worked during a water shortage to provide enough to fill those 2 for the girls.

Well  BB carefully wrapped his in a sheet and tried to keep the rats away from it. Last spring I asked his wife how it was working out and she replied they didn’t know where to put it or what to do with it! (Imagine having a priceless gift and hiding it cause you didn’t know how it could save you!) He had to go to Kathmandu In April, for treatment cause his bedsores were so bad! So while he was away, Doyl, Dr. Pfrom the UK,s father, David and I went down and fitted his existing wooden bed with sides to hold in the water mattress, a larger horizontal plywood surface,  and adequate support on the legs . Actually they did all the work while I held the tools and pretended that I was really useful! So we got the frame ready!

Saturday at church this week, his wife ran up to me and said he’s coming home today! He has been in Kathmandu for these last 7 months and he has had 4 surgeries and is now healed. I said “good so he will love his new bed tonight!” her face fell. I don’t know how to put the water in the bed! She said.

I told her I would come after the honorary 83^rd birthday garden ceremony and work party for my father…say 4 pm?  The party went late and by 4 pm I was running a full blown fever and could barely walk a block let alone a mile each way. So it got postponed a few days… yo Nepal ho! He has lived 5 or so years without a waterbed so what’s a few more days.  So now we got it in the bed and filled and after my excursion to the CDO’s office I swung by for a follow up. I found him in the center of the bazaar with some friends and when he saw me the proverbial Cheshire Cat grin lit up his face! I teased him… you slept in a new bed last night and loved it, didn’t you!?!

IT WAS FUN! He said…rockin’ and swaying!

 let’s go see how full you got it! So we wheeled through the bazaar together. They had it exactly filled right… I showed them how they could tuck in sheets or whatever and reviewed not to bring anything remotely sharp near the thing nor let children play on or near it.

She asked “can 2 people sleep on this at the same time?” You betcha! ( or the Nepali equivalent came out of my mouth awful fast and the wink I gave her was received with full comprehension!)

 I had my last 2 butterscotch candies in my pocket… I left them on their pillows… I’m sure a gesture they have never received before.

Oh also got laundry washed in warm water today as we had enough water to create pressure for the gas geizer to work! Got a late start to that though so it is still on the line overnight!

Went down to the Dharmsala and collected most of all the items the girls have been working on : ear muffs, infinity scarves, monkey hats, revamped mitts, Knitted Christmas stockings and newborn bootie/mitt sets amongst other things. It is all lying on my guest bed waiting to be packed tomorrow.

So my time here has come to an end already! In a little over 24 hours I’ll be coming round the mountain one more time.  We will celebrate N’s Birthday… is this 16 or 17? 17!!!She will also leave here on Friday and go to K-du with S’s oldest daughter who will be starting college. So the 2 girls have the abominable bus ride to endure. I will NOT feel guilty about the generous gift my friends slipped me on my exit out of town to enable me to avoid the never ending bus ride and take the flight from Dhangadi to Kathmandu on Saturday!! I WILL NOT FEEL GUILTY!

This gives me a night in Dhandadi with my friends, Balwa and Chandra, Krippa’s folks.  I hear another friend, David Bhatta has a flight out of the same airport 20 min before me… he has just lost his father after a long struggle. He is from Chicago (well Nepal originally...Dumada infact) and his daughter Melanie, an RN, has been working here at the hospital in Dadeldhura the last few months. If you would, pray for them during this time of loss.

Also pray how God would use me at this airport… last two times He healed airport policemen from my praying with them and you praying back home!

I know, I know… once again way too wordy… but there is just so much to tell!

Once I’m home I’ll try to send a few pix… it took over an hour to upload 5 pix to my daughter to post on our blog! Hey so you can check that out if you have a minute!  www.daretocareinc.com

Don’t know when I’ll have internet next to send this… guess you’ll know just slightly after I do!

Dawn Didi

Amazing... we have internet tonight!

11/8/2012

The incompetent bloke that has been messing around trying to get it established for the last full 10 days stopped me in the market tonight with a grin on his face like he had really accomplished something! he was confident it is working now. By the time I got home from the bazaar the power went out before I could check it! 

We have this thing in Nepal called "load shedding" where for a given amount of time each day they divert the electricity for an unknown reason. We can plan on 2 hours per night to have it shut off. In Kathmandu this happens on a schedule and can be anywhere from 2 -14 hours per day but at least there IS a schedule for various sections of the city. Here it makes no sense... either why they do it or when it is off. Some days it is from 6 PM -8 PM others 8-10 PM and sometimes stays off for several hours beyond expected!

We have a saying here: You can have running water, flushing toilets, electricity, internet access and hot showers... you just cannot have them all on the same day!

Today seems to be internet AND electricity day... so you lucky folks get to hear from me! And yes... those of you who were concerned about my technical abilities... I do know how to write in a word document and save it and copy/ paste when I have access! That is not the problem... it has been getting World link to provide consistent service... and not just the moments before the loadshedding is expected!

SO yea! we have internet tonight... but not so much on the water.

In fact no water for 3 days... but I went past the church on the way to get veggies from the market this evening and the pipe in the church lot was disconnected and water running freely all over the church lot... doesn't seem quite fair! Maybe I'll go to Debbie's or the Guest house for a shower if we don't get water by morning. I did get Thirtha to hook up a gas water heater for me though so next time we do get water and enough pressure to run it I should be able to get a HOT shower!!!!

Tomorrow, bright and early, Megh will be waking me to meet with an engineer he found to give us final direction on starting the building. Megh met me in the bazaar tonight also and said " Didi, our land is bongo" ( crooked) It was all I could do not to laugh as everything in Nepal is Bongo! And we already know this! He is concerned that our lot is not square. I reminded him that we have internal dementions that are square but not to the road, just square to the land we have to work with. So hopefully this engineer can allay our fears and reassure us we are ready to take the next step and build this retaining wall! Pray for us... and squareness!

We need much prayer as it is in our weakness He is shown to be strong... He certainly has an opportunity here cause Megh and I both feel like fish out of water... clueless, really, about what we are doing.

But God has given us a Tharu Construction manager who has built hundreds of houses and the 5 I know he has done in this little village alone, have all had their owners rave about his work and honesty. SO I hope that means we are in great hands. I have to believe we are and not allow fear to criple our efforts. We are proceeding! Forward!

My heart has been tugged on this week... Last Saturday while I was in Dumara (a village near where I grew up about 8 KM away), the hospital was shut down with protestors, largely the husband and family of a woman who died about 3.5 hours after giving birth to a handsom baby boy. She had been bitten by a green snake in Doti on Thursday PM and came straight away. She apparently bled out post partum as a result of the venom. Baby seems fine - in fact adorable!!!!.

The father demanded money from the hospital and created an all day hulla involving a lot of police and it culminated in jeeps full of people and police driving from here up to the CDO's office about 5 pm as I returned from the village, for hopeful resolution.

About 10 pm that night the loud protesters walked by our house here on the ridge, shouting but dissipated as we prayed. The next day they tried to call a bhundh (block) on the road to Doti but the police opened it a few hours later. The hospital remained open but referred all difficult cases out to protect themselves.

The following morning again, there was a mass of people hovering around the HDCS (hospital) office...I just watched and prayed. An hour later a decision was reached... there would be no payout (Yea! Dr Doug for standing ground) and the baby would be turned over to the Hospital to be adopted out. Father signed papers... he doesn't want the child as it would limit his ability to remarry as a new wife would never want a male child that had supremacy over her offspring.

SO OOOO the hospital now has this gorgeous baby boy in apparent fine health who eats like as baracuda! and I have named him... Grayson (a male expression for Grace), Timothy, Ashish (which means blessing). Who knows what other name his adoptive parents will give but it is what I can do for him now. And hold him and luv on him!

At least we can choose a Christian family for him and when he is 15 he gets to choose who he wants to live with... his biological father or his adoptive parents!

My heart is really tugging on taking him home with me but learned tonight that the Nepali Government does not allow international adoptions. And technically he is not an orphan though certainly abanboned! So guess I better not get too attatched as taking him is not an option unless I could be instrumental in getting him out of Dadeldhura to another part of the country, which is the urgent goal.

The paraplegics have been madly knitting everything from sweaters for Dr M to baby booties and tiny mitts for Grayson. They are excited we are breaking ground tomorrow on the actual building. I have also been teaching a woman from JG to knit. She has been abandoned by her husband and has 2 very malnourished kids: 2 and 4 and a 7 yr old who seems ok and is in school. She cuts grass for a job  leaving the 2 and 4 yr old home alone much of the day while she works. So these are like ferrell children and the whole family badly needs your prayers.

Also got to treat the kids who do the caregiving for our 2 paraplegics to new warm clothes for winter and that was fun to see their little faces light up. one is 9 and the other 16.

Well time to crash... Megh will be knocking on my door before I know it to come down and talk with the engineer!

Hard to believe a week from now I will be leaving here and heading home to my parallel world in the US!

So much to do... so little time!

Please keep those prayers coming... I love that you have my back!

Dawn Didi

I knew this trip would not be easy but REALLY?

11/4/12

OK ... I knew this trip would not be easy but REALLY?

It seems it has been nothing but challenges!!!!

Last I had a chance to send you an update was over 10 days ago in Kathmandu. A day later my mouse froze up on my notebook (obstacle#1) and I couldn't get it to work. Finally the clerk at the Hotel Utse desk plugged in their mouse and I got 2 emails out before it quit. The next morning at breakfast I had a German and 2 American IT guys trying to get it working to no avail. Finally when the shops opened Friday morning, I took it to a little cyber shop and the guy puttsed with it for awhile and started telling me to go across town to where they might be able to help me. I explained my bus left for Dadeldhura in a few hours and I didn't have time to run around... He asked " you tried the battery right?" "No" I replied... so we took out the battery and replaced it again and WALLA!

So that works but I still had yarn to buy, and baking soda for the bakery to buy and finish packing and a few other errands before getting to the bus park. So priorities... no time to write emails!

By the way, I had a great time with Yam Devi, designing and ordering a bunch of new jewelry options for the Brick maker women to produce! The ladies are thrilled to have new orders and work!

I was infinitely frustrated cause all the shops were closed for the Deshain holiday (obstacle #2) and I could not buy yarn or groceries to bring out here. Finally one of the shops in Thamel that sells sweaters, took me to their factory and let me buy 10 kilo of their wool (rejects) but it is not in the colors I needed so is mostly blacks and neutrals... it has put a definite kink in our style in terms of developing the products we hoped for out west.

5 days wasted sitting around K-du was about all I could take... fortunately I got a bus ticket on one of the first buses headed west after the holiday. It was an AC bus so had to pay extra for that... though who needs AC on a night bus in October in Nepal... it's more like you need heat! So I bought a big blanket like shawl for that and it kept me warm on the trip.

Now, I asked the Lord for a good seat mate, one who would not throw up on me, and for protection on this long journey. He heard me and gave me a package deal...an army captain, 29 years old with beautiful blue eyes (rare for a Nepali) and a buff body ( irrelevant I suppose) who within the first hour asked if he could call me "MOM"! LOL!

He was pleasant company and took every pain to protect me and insure my comfort and anticipate my needs. He is determined to find me on FB and converse if I can ever find Internet access! Actually I feel honored to have his respect and have agreed to pray for him, his wife and his new baby boy, 1 month and 6 days old as of our travel date. Please pray for him and his family as well, as we may never know how God is working in his heart and life though such an innocent contact!

He called me last night from the Barracks to check on me and assure me he is still my "Son".

Obstacles I have experienced since arriving safely last Saturday continue to arise

Here are a few... some resolved and others still pending for the miracles we are praying for but expect!

#3:It took 5 days to find a dozer and Tipper truck but it finally arrived last Thursday. It took 10 more hours to clear away all the rock and debris and mud from the landslides onto our construction site! But it looks pretty clear now. There were several precarious moments where disturbing the face of the mountain brought down more slippage and we were in fear for the house perched ( on no foundation... just stilts) above. But the dirt seems dry and the house still standing. There were a host of observers holding their breath. It is still precarious so join me in believing there are 10,000 angels holding up the face of that mountain!!!

I met with Megh (my master overseer for the paraplegic facility building project) and Pastor P tonight about our next plan of action. We all agree we should build a big retaining wall ASAP. Tomorrow we will meet for prayer at 9 AM and then are inviting a Korean engineer to come assess our situation and get us back on track with our building plans. Obstacle #4 is the last engineer quit his job at the hospital ... the one that promised to daily supervise this project pro bono! so he has left town! Bummer!

But we trust God has an even better plan and engineer in store for us...one who can advise us exactly how to build this wall. (I am wondering how much experience Nehemiah had in construction before they took on rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem??? I have none and this is quite daunting for me... but I told the Lord I was available... so here I am!)

Obstacle #5 : The hospital is facing huge challenges with the families of patients who die demanding that the hospital pay them huge sums of money! Earlier in the week a lady 30 years old came with a huge abscess on her face. After waiting weeks to come and trying all kinds of witch doctoring to no avail her jaw was swollen shut so the staff gave her Ketamine for an anesthetic and lanced the abscess... a procedure that is done often here. In her case no one could have anticipated that she had a fistula ( passage) all the way though into her mouth and the pus drained down into her mouth and she aspirated it and died several hours later. Dr D spent 8 hours at the Chief District Office refusing to pay their demands and even offered to shut down the hospital if they wished but took a firm position. That scene has quieted but I'm not sure resolved.

Yesterday AM a woman came and delivered her baby boy... to complicate it, she had been bitten by a poisonous snake in her village a couple days before and so bled out postpartum and died. Her family started a scene with a lot of shouting and threats and demanding money from the hospital. The hulla went on all day and involved the police intervening and eventually a whole crowd moving from the hospital up to the CDO's office again. Last night at about 10pm the loud crowd passed our house yelling and shouting but it quickly dissipated as we prayed. Today about 12 police have stood guard outside the hospital so at least it remained open. The family tried to close the road to Doti but I heard the police made them reopen it. This kind of irrational behavior is clearly NOT from the Lord. Please pray for peaceful resolution as it is hard to walk around wary of volatile tempers. Pray for peace and resolution to the confusion.

Obstacle #6: Our water supply has somehow been damaged and we are only gettting a fraction of the water in our 1000 liter drum that we should. Apparently the general expectation is that we would pay a bribe to get it fixed at the municipality... we choose not to do that so are praying we can get it resolved above board.

Obstacle#7: I have tried to get World Link to supply us with internet access here... alas it has not worked most of the last 5 days in spite of my paying in advance for a whole year! The young guy they keep sending out clearly does not know what he is doing... but twice was able to get me on while he was here but by the time he was over the ridge the connection was lost and irretrievable! HUMMMMMM

What to do? Just at the start of this letter I miraculously had a connection but within 8 minutes of typing the power went off so now I pray I can save all this in a draft and get back on later!

Well it is time for me to go across the way to have dinner with the optometrist that programs our radio programs in Dotiyali, the local language. We air 3 x week for 15 minutes gearing the message of love to illiterate women and children. Please pray for this vital ministry. For most of the girls and women here it is the first time they have ever been told they matter and are loved!

I so appreciate all of you praying me up!!! Don't know what I'd do without you!

Blessings!

Dawn Didi

PS  #8...did you know you cannot save an email to draft if the electricity is out? so copy and paste to Word! and now here it is some hours and a great Nepali meal later I am going to quick send you this before there are any more obstacles!

Safe in K-du!!!! Over 20 hours ago..

10/22/12

Safe in K-du!!!! Over 20 hours ago...

One of my Nepali "Kids", B…... met me at the airport as well as the vehicle from the Utse Hotel so I was instantly in good hands. I made the mistake of laying on top of the bed and covering with a comforter... un-showered and in my travel clothes for a "Nap" ....that was 4 pm yesterday this time... unhuh.... woke at 4 AM realizing I had missed dinner and was able to still go back to sleep for 4 more hours! So guess I was more crippled by jet lag than I thought! My flights all went smoothly for a change and other than having to wander the hallways of the bowels of the LAX airport for what felt like miles, I have little to report for travel adventures yet (although my toes will never be the same after the premature hike! Must be the shoes!). I feel rested now though!

It is a big holiday called Deshain here now so 80% of the shops are closed and I cannot buy what I need. So I may have to stay here in K-du a couple days longer than I had planned. Bummer... I am in a hurry to get out west and get going on the foundation of the building. But YO Nepal ho! It runs on its own time and it rarely matches up with my time!

I am off to see Y.., the manager of my beading ministry now. It is an all day affair as I have to take 3 different forms of local transportation and walk a fair bit through the narrow streets of Thamel, Kathmandu to catch the first micro bus. But I know my way and just gambling on the holiday schedules will be the tricky part. I will be placing a big order for more jewelry made by my ladies who work in the brick factories as their day jobs! They will be soooooo happy!

The yarn shop is closed today... I will have to check on the cheese shop and electronic shop fixing my water heater coil.

So off for a day of accomplishing whatever errands I can. I will update you when I have concrete plans for catching the "deluxe bus" west!

Keep those prayers coming please!

Dawn Didi

Help us raise $20,000 to complete the construction!

5/2/12

Spontaneity is a good thing! Right! So even though it is short notice come on by! Well Mom needs a great unique gift so.... either bring her on over or come select something special for her at this one of a kind Boutique/ Bazaar! (See Attachments).

And it is doubly beneficial because the proceeds all go to help the 2 Paraplegic girls in Nepal, have a new wheelchair accessible home! We have broken ground just 2 weeks ago on their new facility!!!! Hooray! Help us raise $20,000 to complete the construction!
My Mary Kay consultant, Tish, is donating the proceeds of her month of May profits to this worthy cause too! How generous! Please check out her link at www.marykay.com/TishHolmes or call her in Port Orchard at 360 - 871- 1685 if you can bless Mom with her favorite Mary Kay supplies.

I'll be having a Dare to Care garage sale in June and a Chili cook-off fundraiser with silent auction in July! All to do what I can, to raise awareness and funds for this worthy cause!

What could you do? One friend agreed to host a golf outing... What creative way can you contribute? Time? Energy? Auction items? Phone calls?
I look forward to seeing you this summer.

Above are 2 fliers for this Mother's Day bazaar... please help me get the word out!

Didi

Paying the Piper

4/26/12

... bad meat on the trip out in Bhurditola ...now I pay the piper... una/uba( both up and down!) x 4 days I'm now too weak to pack... must find the energy by tomorrow... flight at 3 pm to Korea!   Please pray me in.

Scheduled to arrive in SeaTac at 12:30 on Saturday...heard I have a flat tire to look forward to... Looking forward to my own hot shower (assuming Manchester Water gets my water turned back on today!) and very own bed!