Yo Nepal ho... Yo Naya Nepal ho!

3/28/12

Hello friends and family!

I finally have internet again after 15 days and 3 trips to the Nepal telecom office followed by a plea to D… to reassess my settings. Turns out the problem was in my system not the ADSL by the NTC... can it just wig out in cyber land with no-one touching it? Anyway, as long as I use my Ethernet cable I seem to have service... Will have to ask D… to check the wifi again as it still gives me grief!

Not much to report on the new paraplegic process... Yo Nepal ho! It seems to take forever.
R…. just stopped up to my apartment... asked for 6000 NRS to pay the "Map tax" His buddy, J….(not really an engineer but has lots of experience in drafting architectural plans) has drafted the plans and he had a guy with him who will take my money, the plans and the widow, S… (who donated the land) now and go get the city approval to move forward! So this is good news eh?  We have also given the 2 men who own the land on either side of the lot we will build on, "notice". They have 15 days (according to R….) to 35 days (according to 6 others in the community) to formally object to the project or contest the land stakes. So R….. the engineer foresees starting the dozer within the next 7-10 days! I hope he is right but yo Nepal ho... so you never know.

The 2 paraplegics are getting ancy... I have asked them to knit/crochet and save the equivalent of money for one big window each. I feel they need to have a vested contribution to the cause that costs them something - not just have it all as a hand out! So they are adjusting to that thought! Hummmm. One took it well and the other had a lot of objections! Yo Nepal ho! I told them both to just think it over and pray about it till I have an actual budget on all the projected cost.

A few of the fun things around town... J…., Dr. B….., and I got the chance to go up to Baitadi and visit the couple for whom I decorated their wedding with fir boughs from the jungle with 1.1/2 years ago. It took 4 hours up in a local jeep (3 pukers in the back wuk wuking over our shoulders and 2 people literally sat on my hip squishing us all the way up). Coming back down we had comfortable seating... till Korpe (26KMs from here) when the driver announced it was the end of the ride! We stood around for about 10 minutes as he led us to think he would help us arrange further transportation back to Dadeldhura and trotted off like he intended to do so?!? He never returned but a fellow traveler suggested there might be room in a local lorry (truck) just coming through from Bajhang. He chased after it... not hard to do, as it was cruising slowly though town at about 5 km's/hour. He beaconed to us that it did have room so we climbed aboard (no easy feat for this old lump!) and had an easy slow ride over all the bumps all the way to our choke (intersection) ... only took an hour to cover 26 Km's but we were "king of the road" in that big thing... and no one puked on us!

Another fun event... the hospital had its first ever TB awareness fun run! Not at all a Nepali concept... but everyone seemed to have fun. It has motivated a few of the staff to run at 6 am every morning now... interesting! (I am not one of them alas!) D…l came in first place for the men and a Maoiti lady running in fancy flip flops came in first for the ladies!

I really enjoyed having J…. here with me for 6 weeks and Dr. B…. her with both of us for 10 days. They have both left now... J…. for K-du and B…. for Dehli. It is very lonely and quiet here and I sure miss them. Pray for them and their futures as god leads them where HE wills.

Well time to head to the bakery for "soup of the day".

 
Keep lifting me up before the throne of grace with your prayers! I so need them!

Please keep praying for the additional funds that will be needed for this building ... I hope to have a better idea of the budget needed after tomorrows meet with R…... now that the plans seem close to "approval". I'll try to keep you posted... as cyber connections remain!
Yo Nepal ho... Yo Naya Nepal ho!

Blessings!