5 March, 2011

What a week it has been. Some days we think we are catching on and understanding our responsibilities and other days we feel like we are standing in front of a fire hose going full blast.Today is Saturday and the Sabbath here in Nepal. It was Fast and Testimony Meeting today and what a good experience it was to be in attendance. The church here is really a first generation church and the testimonies borne today were just wonderful. People shared how they lives have changed since they found the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They said how before they knew about the church their lives just didn't have meaning and they weren't happy. Now all that has changed. They love the gospel and the gospel makes them happy. Even though the church isn't recognized here in Nepal, they are good examples to those they meet and share their feelings with those they meet and bear their testimonies. They can do that. As 'international service volunteers' we can't mention the gospel or bear our testimonies, except at church.

I'm sitting here at the computer and Gene told me to come up on the roof with him for a few minutes and enjoy a little sunshine. I had been up to a couple of the roof balconies, but he took me clear to the top. We snapped a few photos and I wanted to share a few views from our rooftop.

Looking South

Little alley's everywhere

Prayer flags and laundry hanging everywhere...

Notice the cow on the street -

Friday, March 4, 2011

Another beautiful day in Nepal. We have pretty much been at home in the office all day. It seems like we work all day, from the time we get up till time to go to bed. I’m not sure this is really how it should be. Rakesh Hamal, Our NGO Partner with some water projects and wheelchairs, came about eight o’clock am. I think I've said it before, but he is such a good guy to have on our side. He knows a lot of government officials and always goes to bat for Latter Day Saint Charities. He gave Gene some pointers and some help for the next meeting on Monday with the Social Welfare Council. He said it would be good to show the Power Point Presentation. We couldn’t find it and so spent a lot of time trying to locate it. We finally hooked up the old computer and did find it, but somehow it was in a read only file and we couldn’t copy it onto our laptop. Somehow, I did manage to get it to the portable hard drive. I’ve got an email in to Chad to see if he can walk me through what I need to do to get the power point just on the laptop.

We did talk to Elder Sackley on Skype today. He has a new assignment as Area Executive Secretary. The couple serving in that position had some serious health problems and had to return to the states. Elder Sackley has been helpful to us and said he will continue to be a resource. It will take several months before they can replace him as area welfare specialist.

We did have power for a couple of hours this afternoon, so I looked at my recipes and decided we had the stuff to make some oatmeal muffins. So I thought I would try out the toaster oven and see how it works. I turned it on and decided the temperature gauge was in metric so I had to look online to find a conversion chart. I did find one. And I’m happy to say, the muffins turned out pretty good. Really good, in fact. We haven’t seen much in the way of bread here. It’s course textured and seems very dry. The slices are about five inches squares, and there aren’t many slices in a loaf. I told Gene today as we ate our peanut butter sandwich, it sure was a dry one.

While at the store, I did find some raisins. They were just sealed in a little clear plastic bag. I just couldn’t bring myself to buy it. I could just see those raisins lying in the sun to dry and who knows what…..They didn’t look like they were processed in  factory and I know we need to be pretty careful what we eat here.

The power went off tonight at 6:00. It will be quite a long night. We are so grateful for this little 13 watt fluorescent bulb here in the office. Tonight I’m on the computer and Gene is reading a book. President Hinckley’s Autobiography was here and he had never read it, so it’s a good read for him. I’m hoping that Chad will call us and help us with the Power Point thing.

Loxmi and Rukmina went shopping today looking for Gene and I a mattress. Loxmi is our guard, housekeeper and counselor in the Relief Society. Rukmina works for the other missionary couple and she is the Relief Society President. When we asked them about a mattress, they said they would shop and find the best price -that when store owners saw white faces, the price goes up. They will find a mattress and negotiate a price and then take me to see it. They did find some options. Most of the mattresses here are just like a 4" foam pad. Elder and Sister Deppong have a nice regular American type mattress and that's what we are looking for. These ladies said they found something they think we will like.We are anxious.  

The other Senior Couple, Elder and Sister Deppong

It was about 8:45 and we were starting to think it was time to go to bed and thought for sure that Chad would have gone to work or school by now. Then I saw his name pop up on the computer and thought it must be Konnie. Then Skype started to ring. IT WAS CHAD! He had got our email and got right back to us. We told him about our problem getting the power point presentation loaded on the computer. He was able to take control of our computer through the team viewer program and soon had the presentation on our desktop – and in a format where we can edit and add to it. We are soooo grateful! We have spent a lot of time and worry about it today and it didn’t take long for him to make things just right. I look at that as a real miracle. I surely don’t understand how that works, but we are so grateful it does. I’m sure Chad will bail us out more than once. Thanks again, Chad!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

I woke up to the sounds of dogs barking. There are really a lot of dogs around here.  After a bit they quieted back down and I dozed off again. We got up about six.We got on our knees together and petitioned our Heavenly Father for his blessings today. Gene is a bit concerned about the meeting with the Social Welfare Council. I’m concerned for him. He had put some papers together to take but after our prayer he thought perhaps he should take the big black binder that Elder Borland had put together.

Before he left we submitted two water projects to Hong Kong. The area presidency had approved them, but we had to make some adjustments for the increased cost of hygiene kits. We will see how that goes.

Elder Deppong went with Gene to the meeting. I thought about them and wondered how it was going. About 1:00 PM, Harri and Rukmina, Sister Deppong and the van driver picked up Loxmi and I and we rode out to the airport to see Elder Adhikari off on his mission. He looked sharp in his white shirt and suit. We are so happy for him and know he will be a good missionary. He is just so excited to go and serve.

Elder Yak Nath Adhikari, ready to depart to the Mission Field

His Father, nonmember, his brother and cousin came to wish him farewell

When we got home, Gene was here. I was glad to see him. He said he felt good about the meeting. He said the Council had a lot of questions, but when he pulled the black binder out full of information (and most of them already had a copy of the binder) the questions stopped. They would like a progress report on each of the projects and would like a representative from each project to meet again on Monday to review the project. Whew! Gene will contact the partners tomorrow and see if we can get a progress report submitted and be ready to go to the meeting.

We got an email from Elder Sackley. It was a bit of sad news and glad news. They are being relieved of their present assignment. I guess a new couple will replace them. So it will be us a new couple, struggling with another new couple. I have to say that we have been blessed and given inspiration and we are so thankful for that. We will miss Elder Sackley. He sure was a friendly face on Skype. We did email him about the computer and monitor and are waiting to hear if we can keep the monitor.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

We spent quite a bit of time trying to gather things together for the meeting with the Social Welfare Council tomorrow. It was a challenge. Finally, I reminded Gene that we hadn’t had prayer. We went upstairs and knelt together. Gene offered a beautiful prayer and when we came back downstairs, things started falling in place. We so need our Father in Heaven to help us and we surely rely on the gift of the Holy Ghost. We just feel so inadequate.

When we found the papers we had been looking for, we knew we needed to take at least five copies of each to the meeting so we went for a walk and took them to the copy center. They couldn’t print right away because the power was off – so we said we would come back.

We called Deppong's to see if they wanted to meet us for lunch. They said that sounded good. We said we would meet half hour later at Nina and Hager’s. We came home and it was soon time to walk over there.  Gene assured me he knew the way. Well, we got lost. There are so many alley’s and they all look about the same. Really, they are like cow trails, they wander all over.Since it is a holiday today, there were a lot of kids on the streets. We ran into a few groups that would pull a piece of twine or thin rope across the path and want a few coins to pass. We didn’t really have any money and went on our way. 

Not too long and we could see the US Embassy through the trees. We knew we had gotten off track. We kept walking. Then again, we met some kids with a little rope. We asked them where the Embassy was and they pointed ‘that way’. We did give them a little money and asked if one of them would show us the way. One cute boy about 9 years old, got on his friends bike and showed us the way. When we could see the main street, Gene gave him some money and told him that was for him and thanked him for helping us.

Deppong's were wondering where we were by this time and called us on the phone. We told them we would be right there. We had lunch at Nina and Hager’s and visited with Deppong’s. 

 

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

We had a local electrician come this morning and hook up a light that runs off the inverter. And he only charged about 500 rupees(about $7). That will be worth it’s weight in gold. I’m not sure why Borland’s never did that. This office is always dark, even in the day time. There is a window, but the desk is in a dark corner. I did talk to Brent a minute this morning and he said it’s the first time he has seen us in the light.

You can't imagine how this little 13 watt has helped our long dark nights

We looked over the lesson for our English class. Deppong’s have a meeting with some other NGO’s  and so we are taking both classes today. We were a little apprehensive about how that will go. It turned out all right.  We had about thirty five students in the class. There is a Nepali holiday tomorrow, so there is no school. We are okay with that. We thought we would get together with the Deppong’s and go over a few things. They have wanted to talk to us and with no school tomorrow it would probably be a good day.

We came home and Loxmi said that a man wanted to come and set up the new computer. The computer was delivered yesterday and we were happy there was a monitor included with it. Now, they say that a mistake was made and the monitor shouldn’t have been delivered. We will check with Hong Kong. We were so hoping for a new monitor. This old one takes up so much desk space.

We got a phone call from the Social Welfare Council. I answered the phone, but  couldn’t understand the woman. It seems like I am calling upon Loxmi a lot to talk on the phone and translate what they want. She said something about a meeting with the SWC concerning the water projects coming up. We knew there was a meeting in May and we surely aren’t ready for one on Thursday. Loxmi took the information. Gene then called Rakesh Hamal and he will help us and will talk to SWC and straighten things out. We are sure glad he’s here to help us learn the ropes. We feel like we are getting a baptism by fire.

We cooked some chicken pieces with some potatoes and carrots for dinner. You would think I would lose a bit of weight. This morning I had a cup of hot chocolate. Then the dinner tonight and that’s it for today. We are really only eating one meal, maybe a piece of toast for Gene in the morning. The funny thing is, I don’t really even feel hungry. I know we need to eat better to stay healthy.

Jessica came over to work on her laptop, plugged into the inverter. I came in to do a little stuff on the computer also and the power all went off. We don’t understand why. The inverter looked like it was drained down. Maybe the power isn’t on long enough at a time to fully charge it up. A few minutes later Gene looked at it and said it looked like there was plenty of power. So, here I am again, on the computer and the new little light is on and it’s great. The power will come on at 8:00 and be on till 11:00pm. Then in the morning from 6:00 till 10:00. But it’s a whole new world with this little 13 watt fluorescent bulb in the office.

We have had problems with the inverter again. It kept flipping off. I don’t know why. Maybe there’s a short in the power strip or the power box. Or maybe there hasn’t really been enough power on to fully charge things. Whatever, it is a challenge.