Grand Opening

5/29/11

Well it is official!!!!! We had our grand opening today!!!!!! We overcame a ton of hurdles over the last few weeks but it is for real... all the hard work and prayers have paid off and we are indeed "open for business"!

The first obstacle was the scorpion just outside my bedroom door as I exited this AM! Yah... nice surprise... and not the least of many today! The scorpion was dead... squished! Did I step on him in the night when I was up to the loo? He was not there when I went to bed late last night... or should I say early this morn when I turned in totally frustrated that I could not get my sewing machine to work after hours of fiddling with it! Well suffice it to say a dead scorpion is better a wake-up call than a live one any day, and I claim Psalm 91... maybe an angel squished it for me knowing how bleary eyed I am on any given morning not to mention my sleep deprived ones!
At 8 I was up saying goodbye to T… D... the owner of the bakery. He got word yesterday that his brother- in- law died, so he and Pastor P… (Who was to officiate our opening ceremony) had to go to the Madesh (the grueling 5 hour drive down the mountain) for the funeral and to comfort his sister.
By 9 we (all 5 kids, S…... myself, and a few extras) had packed up all her baking stuff and transferred it down to the bakery a steep 200 feet down the hill below. C… (14) had gone to all the hotels and banks in town distributing fliers and invitations. He arrived back and heaved my small oven and later the shelving unit down this same "cliff" single handedly. For the next 2 hours I arranged all her supplies, pans, spices, pots and towels. We washed almost everything (why not start fresh) scrubbed and cleaned the whole kitchen. Then S…… showed up ready to bake 6 chocolate cakes and 5 coffee cakes for the "opening". I called P…… and invited myself over to borrow her sewing machine and proceeded to her place to whip up 5 pillow cases, 2 bench cushion covers and 2 curtains. That took till 2 pm as the power went on and off several times!

I came out of her house to find the carpenter shop had nailed my "ply board" to the top of the table (converted old door) but had not taken it two shops down to be painted as I had requested. All 5 of the men in the shop were sitting around drinking tea! Hummm...

At the Spray paint shop (yeah you got it ... 2 doors down) they had spray painted all our iron furniture (3 tables and 12 stools) and it was still not dry. This was to have been painted 3 days ago and "guaranteed ready by 10 Am today!" they painted the tops white like I asked... and the bottoms black like I asked... in that order. Oops... there was wind today! all the black speckles of black blew into the white still wet paint and so yah... it's not exactly the look I was going for. The spray paint dude assured me that if I go ahead and take it, he will come by tomorrow and "touch up" the white. I reminded him my father delivered him by C-section 38 years ago and so technically he owes me and my family his very life.(no pressure though) He assured me he will be coming to fulfill his promise to make his job right. We smiled and said "namaste". We will see if he makes good on his word. I still have his 50 bucks.

So C…, his dad, and a few other recruited kids carried their own furniture 1/2 km to the bakery and I arranged it all while putting last touches of polka dots in strategic places, painting a last flower or two, screaming at C…'s dad for using the wrong paint to touchup the ceiling and apologizing, then asking him to redo it with the right paint, supervising last minute cleanup and staging and blowing up the balloons I brought from the US for the occasion. At 5 I dashed up to shower and change. Oh yeah... the ceremony started at 5! But this is Nepal and only 10 people were on time so I got my shower in ok. About 30 people were singing when I came back down the hill 13 minutes later and we proceeded with the formalities... speeches, thank yous, honoring the dignitaries that showed up, a message explaining why we chose the name "Manna Bakery", the unveiling of the cloth sign over the door in both Nepali and English " Manna Bakery and Tara Bucks Coffee House" ( some of the guests actually got the joke!) and finally the ribbon cutting and ceremonial tying of aprons, S…. on mine and I on hers. We then invited all the guests to come in and look around and have cake and coffee. At that moment D… arrived in a gingerbread costume and stole the show. Also in his wake G….. D.. arrived totally drunk and obnoxious (he is a chronic alcoholic who worked at the hospital for 35 years till his disease took him where no man should go... where he cannot hold a job any longer) He made a scene and D… hugged him in his costume (I 'm sure it was the equivalent of seeing pink elephants for G…..) and escorted him down the stairs and off to the side. We gave the Dignitaries the first pieces of cake and G….. a close second to shut him up and hope he would go away... no such luck... he sat on the side of the road creating a "hulla" till it poured rain 2 hours later and he hobbled away. The rest of us enjoyed our cake and coffee with gusto. The Nepalese thought I made the coffee too strong and called it "Teeto" (bitter) and I was told later half of them threw it out!!!! I put 5 teaspoons of instant in a 25 cup kettle! With lots of milk and sugar! Guess it is good I won't be making their coffee here in the future!

Bottom line... It was a lot of fun! The P… kids were great little servers and had fun and want to be "trained" tomorrow how to be waiters. S….. was very busy and very grateful and everyone thought it was great and are looking forward to coming often to hang and eat.

Tomorrow we start early with real business, baking bread and cinnamon rolls by breakfast, soup of the day for lunch, cookies and cake by 3 when the kids get out of school, and pizza by request.
Doyl took some Pix...So did Ruth...if I get internet again I'll try to get some up on Face Book or send a few your way! By the way thanks for your prayers. He got our WIFI going and you are benefitting as we speak!

Now if we can just get those legs on the oven even... our cakes won't be lopsided!
Thanks for praying us through this amazing experience!

Dawn Didi

PS only one of P…'s own kids, A….. is home... their 3 daughters are in K-du studying. They have taken in 5 extra kids, all relatives of some sort who needed better schooling opportunities. C… and his brother M….. are 2 of these. Their Dad cannot afford to keep them here in school and has no job. It was agreed Dad would help out at the bakery full time in exchange for the chance to keep the boys here in school. However "dad" has also been drunk the last 2 nights... not sure this will work out! M….. fell and broke his arm this week! They are all great people but need your prayers.

New born baby boy is doing well. I got his pix but will wait till I can get faster uploads to send you a pix!