Thursday, March 10. 2011

What a special day. Gene got up early to work on his talk for Sacrament Meeting and also a lesson for Priesthood. I lay in bed and read my scriptures and played with my IPod using the wireless internet connection. Then I got up and he was still intent on his studies, so I went back upstairs, not wanting to disturb him. I washed my hair. (I guess I should say again, how thankful I am for a little bit of natural curl. With no power much of the time, I’m not sure what I would do. Most of the time now, I just let it air dry. I guess I should say that I think I toasted my hair dryer one day by plugging it in the electric outlet. Anyway it’s not working and we haven’t replaced it)

Gene came upstairs and I asked him what the plan for the day was. We talked yesterday about the importance of going to the bank and also getting started on our visas.  We got ready and walked over to Deppong’s. It’s about a 22 minute walk and it was nice to get out and enjoy some air. Notice I didn’t say fresh air. There is a lot of pollution here in Kathmandu, but it was good to feel the sunshine and warm temperatures.

While at Deppong’s, Rakesh called and asked them if they would like to go to the Cyber Center. She asked if we would like to go to. We did and he picked us up and we went over there. It’s a center training disabled people how to sew, how to use JAWS, a computer program for the blind, wheelchair distribution and also a Braille newsletter. It was interesting to see. Rakesh isn’t LDS, but there were pictures of the Provo temple on the walls. He has been in Provo and seen the temple. There was also a sign telling about LDS Charities. The Cyber Center does a lot of good and we were happy to get a taste of how it operates.

Elder Esplin, Rakesh Hamal and Sister Esplin

Sign telling about Latter Day Saint Charities

Young man who has received a wheelchair from LDSC

Rakesh had pictures of the Provo all around the Cyber Center

Rakesh asked where we would like to go. We asked him if he wanted to go to lunch and he declined, but said he would drop us off wherever. We decided we would like to KFC or Pizza Hut. They are located right together. When we got there, we decided we have chicken a lot, so let’s have pizza. The place was nice and quite big. We went in and were seated. This man came over, saw our LDSC tags and said “missionaries?” We really can’t answer questions about the church and can’t say we are missionaries. There is absolutely no proselyting  allowed His question caught us off guard. Gene said we were with LDS Charities, doing humanitarian. He again, said “missionaries” and then Gene repeated about doing humanitarian work. Then the guy said ‘Mormon’. And then we said ‘Yes’.

All because we were dressed as missionaries

He was just so excited. He said he was a member. We told him there was a branch in Kathmandu. He just couldn’t believe it and was just so happy. He was close to tears. We were all so touched. We took his name and telephone number and told him we would have a member of the branch presidency call him and tell him how to find the church. Elder Deppong gave him his card with his phone number. His name is Kim Korea and he joined the church in 1976 and has been living in South Korea. He is here in Nepal for a couple of years. He is married and has a family. He was just so thrilled to hear there was a branch right here in Kathmandu.

 I can’t express our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for allowing us to be instruments in his hands as this contact was made today. It’s really reinforced to us the importance of dressing as missionaries. We do stand out. This dear brother would never have recognized us but for the white shirts and ties and the dresses on the sisters. It make all the difference. Our badges for LDSC are a little different, but still if you know what the missionary badge looks like, this is close. We look forward to seeing and getting to know this good family.

When we got home, Elder Ko from the Hong Kong office called and he and Gene talked for a good hour. They went over quite a few things. Gene is really learning a lot quickly. He is doing great and he keeps reassuring me that we will get through this. About June, things should level and we can just enjoy keeping track of the projects and teaching school.

Gene left at 5:00 for Priesthood Executive Meeting. He still wasn’t home by 7:00. By this time it was dark and I worry about him, out alone . When he got home, he did say crossing Ring Road in the dark was a real challenge. He had just a small little light but needs to take something bigger with him next time. I was glad to see him come in the door.  

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

I slipped out of bed just before six this morning. Gene was still sleeping and I let him be.  The power was on, so I came down on the computer for a bit. It wasn’t long and he was also up. I looked at the English lesson some more, trying to get it in my mind. Gene worked on organizing more papers and again, trying to get familiar with projects and things in preparation for the Final Evaluation by the SWC,

We finally got through to the school and yes, classes will be held today. Gene told them we would be there. We left about 11:45 am. Traffic is always a mess. Lots of cars, buses, trucks, and of course motorcycles. There’s one intersection that is always bad and we were again hung up there for a while. We wondered if we should start leaving a little earlier for school.

It seemed that there were a lot of kids in class today. There’s really too many for one class. If they think 25 kids in a class in the USA is hard, we had at least 36 and it was a challenge today. It seemed that many of them were preoccupied with something else. I don’t know if it was an assignment for another class, a test coming up, or what but a lot of them were working on whatever it was. Gene said they seemed a bit restless today and that could have been the case. It didn’t help that I still have a bit of a cold and never can talk very loud. I guess things went okay but I was quite drained by the time school was over. It was good to get in the taxi and head home.

It’s been a little cloudy and a few rain sprinkles today. And with that, the temperatures have been a bit cooler. Still grateful for the fleece jacket we both brought. I’m sure it won’t be long and it will be too hot.

This afternoon, I pulled out the folder on things to do to get a visa. That is something we need to get on right away. I guess it’s a lengthy process and our tourist visas expire in a month. I’m not anxious to do it, but it’s got to be done.

Ali called this morning and she got her passport application sent in yesterday. Right now, she is planning on coming to Nepal with Brent and Clay, perhaps Jason too. It will be fun to have them and we look forward to it.

 

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I’m feeling a bit of pressure this morning and feeling pressure to know and do stuff we know nothing about. And I feel like there’s no support for us anywhere. With Elder Sackley’s new assignment, who can we turn to? Gene is feeling okay about things, but I wish I felt better. We got up about six and Gene was right down in the office, looking through files, trying to find some of the information the SWC team members were looking for last night. There are a ton of files and it’s difficult to file all that into our memory banks let alone remember where the information is located.

I did make some raisin bran apple muffins today and they turned out great. I might get the hang of this little toaster oven after all.

I spent time this morning working on my talk for Saturday and also working on the English lesson. We still don’t know if we have school tomorrow or not. I guess we just plan to go. This afternoon, I told Gene we needed to get out of the office for a while. We changed clothes and walked over to Nena and Hager’s. There’s a bank ATM there. When we got there, the ATM wasn’t working. We walked up the street to a little grocery market and bought some paper cups, a little flour and a couple of ramen noodle packages. We will try them out.

Loxmi said she was cooking dinner for us tonight and Jessica is giving our family home evening lesson. Rakesh Hamal was coming at 6:00 to visit about last night’s meeting. I asked Loxmi if we could eat before because we had an appointment with Rakesh. She said that would be fine.

About 4:15, the phone rang and this guy said he would like to stop by. Gene told him that would be fine. Gene walked down the alley to meet him. He was a gentleman that we had met at KTC and also at the meeting at the Clarion Hotel concerning the Five Village water project.

We welcomed him to our home and he explained to us that Mr. Giri had been relieved as chairman of the Chapakharka Water Project committee. Mr. Fatik Thapa is the new chairperson and Mr. Gorakh Bahadur Bogaii is the Project coordinator. The water committee did made a visit to the site and are working on an agreement. They feel confident that they can come to a mutual agreement and complete this project.

The District Development Committee, The District Water supply and sanitation office, the Users, Committee and SDRC will meet soon and hopefully sign an agreement. Then he will get back to LDSC. He was hopeful that the project could be completed in a couple of months. We assured him that LDSC was committed to the completion of the project. We really think this is a bit of good news and would love to see this project completed. It’s been ongoing since 2006.

Loxmi and Jessica had dinner on the table and we had a wonderful Nepali meal. There was a rice dish, some potatoes, some kind of cheese, dipped in a batter of some kind, a chicken dish, carrots and peas and even ice cream for dessert. It was very good. I had heard she was a good cook and I know it’s true. She said she would teach me some Nepali cooking.

Rakesh did come and visit with us. He filled Gene in on what transpired in the meeting with SWC committee members last night. He also explained to him some things we need to do to make this final evaluation go smoothly. He is a huge help and again, I don’t know what we would do without him.

After Rakesh left (and the power was out and we were in in the dark) Loxmi and Jessica came back over and Jessica gave our Family Home Evening. Her lesson was on Lehi’s dream and the tree of life. She did a good job. We enjoy them a lot and appreciate all they do for us.

After they left, Gene and I went up and changed clothes and read for a little bit till the power came on at 8. It will be on for three hours and hopefully will charge up the computers and the inverter.

Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully, things will look up. Today I realized that Satan is trying to discourage me and I’m not about to let that happen. We love it here and what’s more, as we think about Heavenly Father calling us to do a work here, I remembered the quote “Whom the Lord calls, He qualifies.” Gene is so good. He’s positive and knows we will be able to meet this challenge and move forward.

Monday, 7 March, 2011

Today is Alison’s birthday. Wow! I remember holding that beautiful little girl in my arms and was just in awe of how beautiful and precious she was. She had black hair and was just so cute. After four boys, we were thrilled to have a daughter. And we continue to be thrilled today to be her parents. She has truly been a joy and a blessing to us. We’ve thought a lot about her today, especially since we are so far away in Nepal. Two years from now, we will have to celebrate big time. Thanks, Alison, we love you so much.

We got up this morning and after scripture study and pulling out the exercise band we received at the MTC, did just a few exercises. We need to do that more often so we can stay strong and healthy. We did see that Brent was online and since it’s Sunday evening in the states, we called him on Skype. I told him I would like an update of his day house hunting yesterday. He said he hasn’t really seen anything that he’s ready to make an offer on.  He returns to Phoenix and starts his new job the end of March. Way to go Brent!

I had a cup of hot chocolate. Then realized that we would have power from 9:00 till 3:00, so decided to try making a loaf of banana bread. I didn’t have quite enough bananas, but went ahead. I’m still learning on this Celsius  toaster oven. I looked at the conversion chart and it said to bake it at 180. I looked at it part way through the bake time and it was dark brown on top but still doughy on the inside. I turned the oven down. It didn’t look real pretty, but didn’t taste too bad. Next time I will bake it at a lower temperature.

My first attempt in the toaster oven -

We got ready to go to school and teach English. Deppong’s said they would teach every other week, so we are taking this first week. Shyam came to pick us up in his taxi. We got out to Ring Road and wow! Traffic was a mess. Shyam said it was some Buddha Sherpa gathering of some kind, but there millions of them (or so it seemed) and they thought they owned the whole road. They kept indicating for the taxi to move over. There were lots of motorcycles with the people wearing some kind of sash across their shoulder. Then there were big trucks with people crowded in the back. The trucks and banners and signs on them. I’m not sure what that was all about, but it sure made for one big traffic jam. We were quite late getting to school but I guess that’s life in Nepal. English class went well. I think we could really enjoy that. I guess there is another holiday tomorrow, so we won’t be going.

We came home and Gene found out that the meeting with some of the members of the Social Welfare Council will be held here at our office. I’m glad we bought cookies yesterday. Gene hurried and called the partners who were coming to represent their organization.  They will be here. Gene isn’t too worried about this meeting as there will be others here to answer questions the SWC might have.  People expect to have a refreshment, so we will serve cookies and Coke and Sprite. Hope that good enough. That’s what we have. It should be interesting.

The meeting has finished and I think Gene is glad it’s over. We were without power so it was pretty dark by the time it finished.

A couple of team members for the final evaluation were here as well as Partners of LDSC and Dipak, the auditor for LDSC. Again, most of the meeting was in Nepali and a lot of it was directed to the partners. They did ask Gene a lot of questions.  And a lot of the time, he just had to say that he would have to look that up, we haven’t been here long enough to go through all the papers and information.  Gene is really feeling like there is a lot of work ahead of us, and he said he needs to talk with Hong Kong and clear up some things with them as well. He thinks we are going to have our hands full for a while. After the final evaluation in May, things should settle down for us a little bit. I hope so.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

We had Skyped with Elder and sister Deppong before we arrived here in Nepal. They told us we really would want to buy a new mattress. Sure enough when we got here, we knew that would be necessary. The one here looked like to hammocks side by side but not as soft as a hammock. So today we took our housekeeper Loxmi to pick out a new mattress. Loxmi and Rukmina had done some footwork for us the other day and found some possibilities. Today we went back to a couple of the same places. We did find one that looked pretty good. It’s 8 inches thick and looked to be the best option. It was the most American looking one of all the ones we saw. They will come tonight (but remember we are in Nepal)and measure our bed to make sure it’s the right size. Our bed is a little odd size being 72” by 75”. So, the mattress will have to be custom made. Their factory isn’t that far from our house so that will be good. They said it will take about a week to make it. We also ordered a mattress cover and a bottom white sheet. I’m excited. It will be nice and hopefully it will help us get a good night’s sleep.

By the time we had finished shopping it was time for lunch so we took Loxmi and went to lunch at Nena and Hager's. We enjoy going there. It's mostly sandwiches and stuff, but it's nice and clean and the food is good.

 Tonight we were without power after 4:00 pm. Those nights are long. We decided to watch a movie and Gene said let’s take the computer up on the bed, so we did. We watched Baptists at our BBQ. It was great! When it was almost over, the battery on the laptop decided it had had enough. We had to bring it down to the office to finish the movie. Again, we appreciate Craig and Tracey for doing that for us. It helps with the long nights. You can only read so long.