Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Hello from St. Charles, IL

So happy to report a successful board meeting on Sunday, August 10. We have approved five main goals we wish to focus on in the next year with Dare to Care.
  1. We will initiate a new project building a church in Sheshia, Nepal, helping a leprosy community with a well, tools and seeds, and improving their medical clinic.
  2. We will continue to support the Serve Life Orphanage in Kathmandu. We have 19 children in this orphanage, 10 of which still need sponsors at $30.00 a month.
  3. We will continue to monitor and support the five poor women in their micro-businesses. Two of these women are paraplegic and very needy.
  4. We will encourage a group of beaders we have worked with from the brick factories in Kathmandu to network with our beading entrepreneurs in Dandeldhura and teach them their skills.
  5. We will also continue to sponsor the function of a ministry that provides food for the homeless and hungry patients at the hospital in Dandeldhura.
Dave is anticipating a return to Nepal in October to supervise the building projects in Sheshia. And Dawn hopes to return to Nepal in February for a few months.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call us.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Bhundh

Hello everyone!Happy New Year! Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying God's richest blessings this new year! It's hard to believe we're into 2008 already!

I had a marvelous Christmas in Papua, Indonesia, compliments of my parents who invited me to join them in an all expenses paid trip to visit my sister Di and her family there for Christmas... who could refuse an offer like that! So we were there for three weeks and really enjoyed all but the heat! ( Sorry, I'm not into perspiration!!!)
It was really fun to watch Di's 3 kids ( ages 15,12, and 8) enjoy Christmas and I had always dreamed of going to Indonesia. It was beautiful and so far I haven't come down with either Dengue fever or Malaria! So all in all, I'm really happy I got to go!

On the trip back Mom, Dad and I traveled together as far as Singapore and as it was the day after Christmas there was "no room in the inn" at the transit hotel so we sat up all night in chairs in a coffee shop. They split off and returned to the USA and I returned to Kathmandu exhausted. I managed to stay awake and fight the jet lag until a reasonable hour to get back on Nepali time.

Two days later I decided to go to Kaski Pokara to visit a Nepali friend and her husband for New Years and left by tourist bus thinking I was really going to enjoy the scenery and the 6 hour drive along a beautiful river. "Lunch was included". Two hours into the trip we came upon a "bhundh" or road closure. It was rumored it was due to an accident. So we sat on the bus and waited and indeed several "ambulances" roared by presumably to the scene to help. After an hour of nothing we all got off the bus and milled about the road along with the passengers of hundreds of other busses and trucks and private vehicles. Pretty soon the ambulances roared past going the opposite way ... and got our hopes up... Not long later all the vehicles started their engines and people ran for their respected vehicles with great anticipation!!!! We were finally moving !!! We roared forward ourselves... about 10 meters and then again came to an abrupt halt. Clearly after another hour, we were really going nowhere. This was repeated at least 4 more times so we advanced about 40- 50 meters in an eleven and a half hour period! Finally we learned: the accident was 3 days previous and local villagers decided to protest the death of the involved by sitting in the middle of the road surrounded by big rocks they had dragged into the street and by burning tires. The " ambulances " were bribed by officials or the wealthy to skirt the scene and transport them up to the site of the "bhundh" and then they would walk to the other side and arrange the same on the other side of the obstacle! Clever HUH!

We finally actually got to move forward but by the time we actually got going the line of traffic had backed up for 20+ KM's in either direction and to pass oncoming traffic on those narrow winding roads took 2 hours @ 5 - 10 KM's/ hour to get to a point where traffic could move normally.

At midnight we finally got to where we had been scheduled for the free lunch! Wonder of wonders they actually came up with it too! By this point we were all famished and dehydrated and really impressed the tour bus delivered!

Twenty minutes back on the road burst our bubble as we came upon a second "bhundh"! Another accident, again several days before and same scenario. This time we got in the queue and hunkered down to sleep in our seats for an undetermined amount of time. The next morning we discovered that this time we were within walking distance of a little town and it was the site of the situation so we walked about, bought chai and oranges and hard boiled eggs and killed time for the next half a day till the Bhundh finally lifted @ 11:30 AM! Once more everything lurched forward and we ran for our busses and snaked our way forward. You have to understand that as these big vehicles pass each other or oncoming traffic they have exactly 4 inches of room between them as they move! One is strongly advised NOT to stick any apendages out the windows!!!!

Thirty-two hours after I left I completed the 6 hour bus trip and arrived weary but safe in Pokara on New Years Eve! My friends were raring to go to attend a huge festival in the center of town and as I was already a full day late I dared not disappoint them in our celebratory efforts. We welcomed in the New Year and as we crashed about 1 AM at their home I wondered if any of us could really expect to get up to see the sunrise over the snows of Mache Puchade ( Anapurna Himalaya range) as planned. I certainly had doubts that I could!
I was proved right and we slept in vowing we would do that "next Time".

Carol arrived on queue the next Wednesday. ( The return trip to Kathamndu was boringly uneventful.)
We shopped for a day as well as scurried around to immigration offices for my visa, the bank ( where they didn't want to do my transactions with out my passport and I had to do a lot of fast talking to explain that the immigration office held my passport and I couldn't retrieve it till after the bank closed!) We also sent Carol's biggest 2 suitcases ( Alright... a lot of my ministry stuff was inside them) with a kid that was going to Dadeldhura by bus, bought a sewing machine for the ministry and visited the orphanage!

The next morning we confirmed our flights to Dhangadi and set out for the airport only to be told our names were not on the seating list and there were no extra seats. after a full day of waiting in the airport we were put on a different flight to Nepal Ganj instead and told the airline would provide a taxi for the next 4 hour leg to Dhangadi! So off we went, now with Yeti airlines who provide a small twin engine prop plane that looked like it was made of aluminum foil. It had 23 jump seats 9 of which were filled. Carol tripped and went splat as the first to board the aircraft and fortunately hurt only her pride... we will have to travel a different airline next time as she refuses to ever show her face ( or her backside) there ever again. ( Is there a Yak available anywhere???)
The flight was actually very beautiful and we needed every bit of the cotton offered for earplugs. We had an otherwise uneventful flight to our non destination and a smooth transition to the taxi followed by the bumpiest ride ever on to Dhangadi. One cannot fathom the joy of bouncing along, dodging cows, goats, the man on the pink bicycle, potholes and the ever elusive, slow moving buffalo carts laden with straw 3 stories high.

The rules of the road is everybody, including all oncoming traffic, straddles the white line in the middle of the road. The key is timing... as every vehicle driver calculates if he has time and juice to pass the bullock cart and 6 bicycles before getting creamed by the oncoming lorry who must also clear the bus he is passing, and the 3 goats and the dog in front of it before getting back in his rightful lane so as not to cream said first driver! It is all calculation and timing... and defensive driving and so very exciting when accomplished at dusk. Our Taxi must have honked his horn 3021 times in the first 20 minutes. This usually means a) get out of my way you stupid person ( cow, goat...) or b) move over I'm passing you or c) I see you coming straight at me but I'm NOT moving ( cause I can't... the buffalo cart prevents me from moving into my own lane so YOU better MOVE NOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Ah yes... we made it to Dhangadi in 3 hours instead of 4... and I tipped the driver an exorbitant amount of $1.83 just for knowing which speed bumps he could take at 105 km's per hour and which he really needed to slow to 5km's per hour!

A night in Dhangadi and a 4 hour trip up the hill on Sunday put us "Home" where we will be the next 5 months ( Lord willing!) This is already so lengthy, I'll stop here for now and wish you well! God Bless and keep those prayers coming!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Safe Arrivals

Just wanted you to know Carol arrived in good condition yesterday. We obtained my 2 month visa today and purchased a sewing machine and are in good shape to fly to Dhangadi tomorrow. Our plan is to pay a few bills and
try to head up the hill yet tomorrow afternoon.

All is well here!

I'm at an Internet cafe in Kathmandu....I don't know what the internet access will be like on my return to Dadeldhura as the hospital is closed and at least 36 of my friends are with out jobs and a way to support their families! Please pray for all of them and for a way I might be able to encourage or help them!