Friday, March 18, 2011

Today we have worked here in the Humanitarian Office all day and we have accomplished a lot. We sent the Chanute Agreement to the Trust and an request for project extensions ready to take to the SWC. We needed to copy our passports and put them in our packets for our visa applications. That took doing just a bit as they weren’t copying very well. I finally got a pretty good copy and now the packets are ready for the next step. We have made phone calls and send emails and had GC come with his applications for Education help. We then got it sent to President Jackson.

Rakesh had given us invitation to attend a program to be held at the Nepal Academy launching th GP Koirala Center for – Democracy, Peace and Development. The RT. Honorable President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav was going to inaugurate the foundation. Yesterday Gene said that we weren’t supposed to get involved with anything political. I had thought it would be okay, but during the night, I felt like we probably shouldn’t go. We had enough going on that we opted out. Elder and sister Deppong did go and took Rukmina and Harie with them. 

A bus driver at heart -

 Walking home one day, Gene just could resist getting behind the wheel of this old bus sitting off to the side of the road. Who knows how long it had been there...

Later in the afternoon, we decided to walk over to Nina and Hager’s and have a sandwich. We had walked a block or so and this man on a bicycle said ‘good afternoon’ to us. He is a Nepali but speaks fairly decent English and I think they like to practice their English. He was going the same direction we were and walked along beside us for a way. Come to find out, he is a neighbor of ours. He sure would like to go to America and wondered how much it would be and how he could find a job there. Oh, if it were just that simple. Every day, we count our American Citizenship as a very real blessing.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Gene called Mr Panta at SWC and he said we could come and pick up the letter concerning our visa after 11:00. Loxmie said she could go with us. We called Deppongs to see where to go after we get the letter and he said he would be glad to go with us, it would be a good refresher for him as well.

We got a taxi and picked him up and then went to SWC. The letter was ready. We took it downstairs where they stamped it. (they also gave us a copy for our files). Then we headed over to the Ministry of Women and Children Social Council. Wow! Was I ever glad we had Loxmi with us. The place is called the White House and It is a huge white building and complex of buildings. You have to drive around to the back and then there is a line. We had to call ahead to have them put our names down so we could get in.

There were so many people in line, all crowding to get to the front of the line. No kidding, I felt like a sardine squished in a can. They were mostly men and they were pretty aggressive as far as crowding in and thrusting their arms forward with their cards in hand. For some reason, I felt for my name tag and it was gone. I was a little dismayed, then looked down and could see it on the ground, the badge and the magnetic back. A young man behind us, saw my predicament, and retrieved the badge for me. I was grateful and tried to convey my thanks.

Loxmi, finally got what we needed. I don’t know what we would have done without her. She was a lifesaver. We finally got through that part and was able to gain access. We went into the building and gave the paper to the man behind a glass window. There was one man in there with a Brittney Spears t-shirt on. Interesting! All the government buildings here are so far behind the times. Much of the time, they don’t have power either. And we haven’t really seen any computers at all. Everything is done by hand. The buildings are dark, all concrete, no pretty painted walls. It was just dark and gloomy.

Anyway, the man stamped our paper and told us to go to the Ministry of Women and Children. We climbed some dark, creaky stairs and went to the office they had told us. A man came in, looked at our papers, asked for some others (which Gene thankfully had) and then told us to call them in three days. It was a whole lot easier to exit the compound than it was to enter. We came home. This has taken over four hours to accomplish and over 750 in rupees in taxi fare. Again, we were glad for Loxmi and her help. I can’t imagine trying to do it, especially since we don’t speak the language.

Tonight Browns Skyped with us concerning their trip here in April. They are wheelchair specialist. They will be evaluating other NGO’s so we will be on their agenda. We feel like we already have a great NGO in Rakesh. I’m sure they will talk with him too. From there, we will just see how it goes.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I slept pretty good last night and this morning woke up feeling much better. I’m happy about that. I had some energy today and that was certainly lacking yesterday.

Rakesh stopped by this morning with an invitation Launching the GP Koirala Center for – Democracy, Peace and Development. The RT. Honorable President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav will be there to inaugurate and grace the function.  Gene afterwards said that we need to be careful and not get involved in anything political, but we think it would be okay to attend. Rakesh gave us invitations for Deppongs as well and also some to take someone with us to interpret.

Hip, Hip, Hooray! Our new mattress came today. It feels so good and looks much better too. They haven’t brought the mattress pad and fitted sheet yet. Gene just signed for the mattress, so I’m sure they will be back, so they can get paid. We are looking forward to a good nights sleep tonight.

We spent the morning working in the office. About 2:30 pm we decided to walk over to have lunch at Nena and Hager’s and also stop at the ATM and get some money. Gene often tells me I would be fine to wear pants, but today, just felt like I should wear a skirt. So he said if I was wearing a skirt, he was putting on a tie. So he did. We walked a bit and then Deppongs pulled up alongside us in their taxi. (Shyam was the one to see us. He is our regular driver going to the school and back) They asked if we would like to go to lunch with them. We decided to try the little pizza place by Bhat Bhetani for lunch. It wasn’t Pizza Hut or Frederico’s but it wasn’t bad. We had a good visit with them and caught up on a lot of stuff. By the way, we were glad we were dressed in Missionary Attire.

Good News! Today, we got an email from Elder Ko saying it would be okay to hire someone to write the Final Evaluation. We are so happy to hear that. That really takes a load off. Now we just need to get the Partners to get us all of their paperwork. Gene called Rakesh and told him the good news. He has someone in mind who can help us.

Gene is gone to PEC again tonight. I’m trying to catch up. I’m also trying to fine tune my talk for the Relief Society Birthday Party to be held on Sunday. He came home about 6:15. He said only President Bishnu, Hari, and Elder Deppong and he was there. So, it was a short meeting. President Bishnu did say he didn’t know if there would be many there on Sunday because of the Holi Celebration, so just might hold Sacrament meeting only. I am always glad when he gets back.

We had some macaroni and cheese for dinner – it wasn’t bad. Then we decided since we had power till nine, we would watch a movie. We pulled the power strip from the computer in the office, took it and the computer into the front room, pulled our chairs up close to the computer and watch “Barnyard”. We both enjoyed it.

Tuesday, 15 March, 2011

It’s doesn’t seem like there’s quite the sense of urgency that we have felt. I guess because we are waiting for Mr. Panta at SWC to call us about our visas. And then we can’t really do anything on the Final Evaluation until we get the progress reports from our Partner organizations. We have emailed them and asked for them, so hopefully we will get them soon. Another thing we are waiting for it the Final Evaluation form itself. The Team Leader said he would email them to us and we haven’t seen them yet. I know he is out of town. I suppose one of these first days we will be under the gun again.

We walked over to the copy place and picked up the copies we were having made. I enjoy the walk. It’s really getting a feel for the culture here as there are car, busses, taxis, motorcycles and about a million people on the streets. We are getting a little better at crossing the street, but it’s not something that I enjoy doing very much.

The wiring around here is interesting......

to say the least.

Deppongs are teaching school this week. I just hope we can get through till August. About 45 kids is really a challenge to teach. It’s really difficult to reach them all and give them the individual attention they need. We aren’t sure what will happen next year. Deppongs definitely don’t want to teach. I don’t think Gene and I would mind, but if we are doing it on our own, three days might be a bit much. Perhaps we could work something out where we could teach two days with fewer students.

Gene and I walked over to the bank ATM to withdraw some rupees. It’s going to have to be an almost daily thing in order to accumulate enough to pay for our visas, the rent, Loxmi, trips to sites and other stuff. We are reimbursed for a lot of it, but still a thousand rupee bill doesn’t go very far. And everything is done in cash here.

I haven’t felt the greatest today. My stomach has been rolling around and I think my system is rebelling a little bit with our diet. We had Macaroni and Cheese for dinner with a few grapes and a piece of bread. The power is out until 8:00 pm. Gene and I are sitting with our little 13 watt bulb. Me doing my journal and he is reading some Humanitarian Mission kinds of information.

Monday, March 14, 2011

This morning we got up and even fixed a bowl of oatmeal with raisins for breakfast. It wasn’t as good as oatmeal at home, it had a bit of a strange taste. Even with raisins and sugar and cinnamon I’m not too anxious to have it again.

Karin, one of the representative with Choice Humanitarian, came this morning about 8:00. We talked about getting progress reports on the projects they have been working on to include in the Final Evaluation Report. Karin is a very nice guy and I think we will enjoy working with him.

We got busy and wrote our letter to the SWC stating that Country Directory would be in Nepal through the five year agreement. Then Gene and I took it in to Mr. Panta. He read through it and said okay, we would come back on Wednesday and he would have the letter ready so we could proceed to get our visa.

We returned home and then walked to the copy center to have some copies made. It’s good to get out and walk. On the way back we stopped at a bakery and bought a loaf of bread. We haven’t been terrible impressed with the breads here. We are hopeful we can find some good ones.

The rest of the day has been spent again, going through files, and making up a checklist for the Final Evaluation. Rakesh came tonight and he and Gene talked about some of the items that need to be completed. Rakesh had also ordered business cards for us and had us proof them. They will print them and have them ready for us on Wednesday.

Loxmi and Jessica came over for Family Home Evening. Gene gave the lesson on the ‘Whisperings of the Spirit”. It was a good lesson and we had a good discussion. Loxmi brought some rice pudding and I had made some brownies. After they just stayed and visited. We enjoyed them a lot.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

We spent the first half of the day making sure we had all the papers we would need to get our one year non tourist visa. We went through Borland’s packet. We had to copy a lot of stuff as we need to have five complete packets ready to go. There were papers we each had to fill out and a five page form that Gene had to fill out. It seems that we used about a whole ink cartridge and a whole lot of paper.

We called Mr. Panta at the Social Welfare Council and he said he would be in after 2:00. So we went down, stopping at the bank on our way – for more rupees.  The ATM was down so that didn’t work out. Then we walked over to SWC. We had taken Loxmi, our housekeeper with us. She understands the language and we don’t always know what they are saying. We were glad we had her. Mr. Panta at first thought there was a problem, that our visa’s had expired. How could that be, we have only been in the country three and a half weeks. She helped get that straightened out. Since the agreement with SWC runs out before our visas would expire, he asked for a letter stating that there would be Country Directors here to finish the agreement and that when our time comes to go home, another Country Director would be here to replace us. Gene told him he would get the letter for him. That was our progress today. Then we were on our way home.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Gene and I talked in Sacrament Meeting today. My topic was the Plan of Salvation and His was “How I prepared for a Mission.” We had GC the Elder’s Quorum President translate for us. I felt like things went well and many people told us they enjoyed our talks and that we had done well. (What else are they going to say?)

We had a large number in Sunday School and they do it in Nepali and English. We did enjoy that. Relief Society was all in Nepali. The teacher was a young sister who had been on a mission. Even though it was in Nepali, it was good. The Spirit was there and she had a lot of participation. The topic was Sacrifice.

The man we met at Pizza Hut wasn’t there today but the Relief Society President had talked to his wife. They live over an hour away. I’m not sure if they had something else going on or not, but they did say they would be there next week. I look forward to seeing them again soon. I’m sure they will be a wonderful asset to the branch.

After church we met a young American who was attending today. He is working for Choice Humanitarian. Small world! He is from Sandy Utah and his name was Tyler Cline. He has been here for a few months and will be here another six weeks or so. His father is coming over to do a little trekking with him before they return home. He is living with a family way up in the hills and sounds like he is really enjoying Nepal.

President Bishnu picked Gene and I up about 3:00 pm and we went out to the airport to join others in welcoming home Sister Priti Khadgi from the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission. On the way we saw  people running along the street. President Bishnu said it looked someone had died and sure enough, we saw about six men carrying a body wrapped in an orange shroud from head to foot. There were flowers draped over this person. I gather they were on their way to do a cremation. It’s a very sacred place here in Nepal.

When we got to the airport, Priti was already through the luggage thing and was outside with her family. We did meet her. We can tell she is a special young woman and will be an asset here in the branch.

We came home and read for a bit and then cooked some chicken, potatoes and carrots. It tasted really good to us, about like one pot in the Dutch oven. I told Gene to close his eyes and imagine he was in Island Park. I guess Kathmandu is a close second. 

The power is off again. I’m not sure what we will do till time for bed. We do read quite a bit. I've really been glad for Kindle on my Ipod Touch and have read one book on it. It was great! We can be on the internet, but if we do too much of that, the inverter goes off. However, we are grateful for the little things.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Elder Ko wanted us to write him an email detailing all that we talked about yesterday. So that’s what we did yesterday morning. It took both of us most of the morning to compile it, trying to make sure we didn’t leave anything out and that we said things in the proper way.

It was good to get that done. We also talked to Elder Ko about getting a letter indicating we were Country Directors so we can proceed with our visas. I know they have talked about not using that term anymore, but the General Agreement refers to it and Gene suggested that when they redo the agreement, they make the change at that time. We were very happy latter in the day to get such a letter from Hong Kong stating Gene and I are Country Directors. Now we can start on the visas and none too soon.

Deppong’s called to see if we would like to go to Shangri La Hotel and eat at their buffet tonight. We told them we would like to go. Debbie said about 4:30. We walked to the ATM by the Embassy and they picked us up there. When we got to the hotel, the buffet didn’t start till 6:30. Debbie was apologetic but we said no worries. We decided to go to Mike’s and it was fine. We both had Mexican. It wasn’t like El Sol or Café Rio, but it was okay. It was dark when we got home and we were happy to be here, even if the power was off.