Friday, May 27, 2011                                                      Pleasant day, weather wise, partly cloudy

I got up early and did my two mile walk video. I brought that and had forgotten about it. Gene and I run the stairs every now and again. He’s much better at doing it than I am. We don’t really feel good about getting out and walking. There are just so many people, so much traffic, and rough streets and roads. I do miss being able to walk and I know Gene misses his walks out towards Crow Mountain. We just have to make the best of what we have.

I finished the Book of Mormon again this morning. I'm loving it more each time I read it. I've though a lot about how lucky we are to have it in our native tongue. Little things we take for granted. I guess I've been thinking about it since the translation team was here a couple of weeks ago. The Branch members here were so excited to be able to read as part of an 'ecclesiastical review' 2 Nephi 4 -6. What a thrill for them to be able to read it in their native Nepali. 

Laxmi came in and asked if we had heard news. I said ‘no, what’s going on?’ She said there is a strike again today and that there had been a taxi burned not too far from here. Also in Bhaktapur, a bus had been burned. That seems pretty senseless to me and what does it accomplish. I guess some people seem to think it’s a good way to send a message – and to whom? And all this because of the Constitution. Some want it and some don’t. And there are so many political groups here in Nepal. No wonder they can’t come to an agreement. This was supposed to all be in place by May 28^th. There’s a bunch of political unrest in the country. We wonder what’s ahead.

The following photo shows what a 'Strike' can do to this city of three million people. And this photo was taken after the busiest part of the day. This is Ring Road, not far from our place and visable from the top balcony of our house. Traffic comes to a standstill. You do see a few motorcycles, but hardly ever a taxi or a bus.

Ring Road - During a 'Strike"

 Because of the strike we are at home today. There have been a few emails we needed to respond to, but overall it’s been pretty quiet. Elder and Sister Deppong are hosting a get together for Usha and Tseten, a young couple in the Branch. We will help celebrate their engagement tonight. Hopefully, the strike will be over and we can go. We are going to eat (pot luck) and then dance on their balcony. That’s a bit of a culture shock for Nepali’s. They don’t ever show affection between men and women, but Usha wanted to dance, so dance we will.

When you can't find Chocolate Chips - Improvise

I wanted to take some chocolate chip cookies. I have yet to see chocolate chips anywhere. I did find a big package of milk chocolate, bought it the other day and decided I could make chocolate chunk cookies. I used the recipe with instant pudding in. The only pudding I had was chocolate, but oh, the cookies looked and tasted good. I think they will be a hit.

 Thursday, May 26, 2011                                                   Dark clouds early, then clearing and warm

This morning Deppong's came over about 10:30 AM. We invited them to be here when we met with READ Nepal. (Rural Education And Development Nepal)It's an NGO  working to alleviate poverty and illiteracy in Nepal (and other countries as well) The two women from READ Nepal were even a little early for our meeting and I was impressed. That doesn't happen often. We were impressed with them and their organization.  They have a 20 year successful track record and they are a non profit organization. We liked what we heard. They talked a lot about sustainability and that important to LDSC. They wondered if we would like to be involved with them in any of several different ways.

They told us the Burnett’s had taught English at their center and that is something we might be interested in. (Burnett’s were missionaries here back in 2006) I know Deppong’s don’t want to be involved in English, but we might. They are going to contact us next week and Gene and I will go check out their offices and center and then make a decision. We did talk about if we did teach English, how many students and how many days a week. Those are decision we will need to think about.

Then we went to lunch with Deppong’s. We went to The Lazy Gringo, a Mexican restaurant. It was quite a long ways away, but it was good. It was nice to have a burrito that tasted like a burrito. And the chips and salsa were also good. It’s a place we will go back to.

  

Wednesday, May 25, 2011                                                                           Partly cloudy, warm

Today has looked like we could get a few showers, but nothing has materialized. This morning we walked over to Bhat Bhateni’s to see if they would exchange the clippers. There is a customer service area, but we have never seen anyone in there. We asked the girl at the door (there is a person there who puts any packages or bags in a locker. You are not allowed to take them in the store) about customer service and the said it doesn’t open until 12:00. Wow!  We didn’t want to wait and have to come back. A man came to see what was going on and he took the clippers to another office and soon we had a gentleman helping us. They didn’t act like they do that kind of thing very often, but soon we had a receipt good for the amount of the clippers.

We walked upstairs and found another pair. This time a brand we were familiar with – Wahl – we hope they are better. They were the same price and we were happy about that. While at the store we picked up a few other things and then walked home.

It’s been another quiet day. We have entered some projects in Chas that were long overdue. We have also tried to organize some of the files and folders in our church email account.

Rakesh stopped by for a minute but other than that, another day without much going on. Tomorrow we are supposed to meet with Read Nepal so it will be good to have something going.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011                                                            Showers early, mostly cloudy, warm

We had heard there could be a strike today but it looked like there was some traffic on Ring Road. About 9:00 am. Gene and I walked over to Bhat Bhateni’s to see if we could exchange the hair clippers. There wasn’t a lot of traffic. Debbie had called and said she heard the strike would start at 10:00. We thought if we got there early, the store would probably be open.

When we got there, it was closed. We came back home and checked the email. There was email from the Embassy. It reads as follows:    A number of groups, including the NCP-Maoist and the National United Struggle Committee, announced nationwide strikes on May 24, 2011. Various groups have also called for strikes for May 26 - 29, 2011.  In the past, similar strikes, or "bandhs," as they are referred to locally, have been successful in completely shutting down vehicular movement and businesses. U.S. citizens are strongly urged to avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations.  If the strikes materialize, U.S. citizens are advised to monitor the situation closely on local media outlets, and to stay in your homes and hotels and not move through the affected areas unless absolutely necessary.

Today, is the quietest day we have had so far. And we are looking for something to do. There isn’t even emails from Hong Kong. I’m sure with General Authorities there, we won’t hear much from them. We have done some reading and listened to some conference talks