11 July 2011                                                                                                         Partly cloudy

I can't believe another week has gone. It seems like I just wrote and here it's time to do it again -

We struggled a bit getting our English lesson ready for today. It was on the Wh words, When, Where, Why, who, What and How. Most of the class time we had them role playing and actually class went pretty well. They do have a bit of a hard time thinking on their feet, but they enjoy getting up in front of the group. I had also made up a word search and they are always a hit. When you hand them out, they are all intent on them and there wasn’t a sound. Seemed pretty good.

10 July 2011                                                                                         Partly cloudy, few showers pm

Christopher Patch called us this morning. He and his family are leaving the US on Tuesday and will arrive in Kathmandu on Friday evening about 5:00 pm. He will be here working for the Embassy for a couple of years. The Embassy will pick them up, but I told him we might be at the airport to welcome them as well. They would like to attend church on Saturday and wondered if we would be able to meet them and show them where the church is. We were looking at Google Maps with him on Skype and I think we’ve about figured out where he will be living.

We meet Pres. Bishnu about 10:00 am near the airport and then went with him and another fellow, Pratik,  from CHOICE Humanitarian and went out to Dhulikhel. They were pouring a ring on the water tank and Gene asked if we might go and watch them. Bishnu wanted to see it as well, so we went. It’s about an hour drive from here. I enjoyed the scenery and the countryside. The concrete pour was interesting to watch – There were no large trucks or small trucks for that matter, anywhere on the site. It was shovel the gravel in buckets, carry the buckets to the mixer, where they dumped it in, poured in the cement and water and mixed it up The concrete was mixed in a large portable mixer, dumped in wheelbarrows, and then wheeled to the tank and shoveled in. Boy, it was a lot of hard work.. Those guys worked hard and most of it was volunteer labor, members of the community who would benefit from having water. Always part of the agreement is that the members of the village donate a majority of the labor for the projects. This water tank will hold about 100,000 liters and will benefit about 110,000 people. We are happy to be a part of it.

Shoveling gravel in buckets to carry over to the mixer

Concrete is mixed and wheeled over to the tank

It's dumped and shoveled where it needs to go -

Two more rings to pour and then the cap -

Gene and President Bishnu (CHOICE) discuss progress

The view beyond the tank - those are rice paddies growing -

 About 12:00 we were ready to leave the site and head back. Some members of the committee wanted to take us to lunch. We hesitated knowing President Bishnu is so busy, but the committee members won out and we did go to lunch.  I have to say it takes Nepalis a long time to eat. First they brought out some nut mixture, then 15 or 20 minutes later, here they came with a couple plates of French fries, another 20-30 minutes, here come some little vegetable patties and again half hour later, they brought out some mo mo’s. It all tasted good to us, but by that time, Pres. Bishnu said that he had to leave – he had a meeting in the city. It’s hard to say how long we would have been there. We hadn’t got the main course yet. We returned home after a fun day. It was a interesting day. I think Gene enjoyed it a lot.

The Social Welfare Council called and said they would like to meet with us on Wednesday at 11:00 am. This is about The Final Evaluation. Yippee!   We are excited. We’ve waited a long time. We don’t know what the meeting will entail. Elder and Sister Deppong will go with us. We look forward to this and hopefully we will be able to finally check this off the list.  

9 July 2011                                                            Mostly sunny, few clouds no rain for a couple of days

It’s the Sabbath day here in Nepal and a good day it was. We love attending this branch. And today Pesident Bishnu made a couple of important announcements. The first was to be very careful about using city water as during the monsoon season it becomes very contaminated. He said to be sure to put it through a filter or boil it good or better yet, use bottled water. We will be extra vigilant. The other announcement was an exciting one. President Bishnu said the Sacrament Prayers have been translated into Nepali and are awaiting approval from the First Presidency and then they will be able to use them. Pres. Bishnu read the prayers so those Nepali Saints who don’t understand much English can hear what the prayers are about. That will be so exciting for the members here.

I taught Relief Society today. The lesson was on Tithes and other Offerings. Sajana translated for me and it’s really quite fun. I felt like things went well. The sisters are pretty good to participate and share ideas.

I wrote a long email to family and friends. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done that. It will be interesting to see who responds. I did write about our trip to READ Nepal  and seeing some lepers and how they so appreciate the crocheted leper bandages. It wasn’t long and my sister Allene was chatting online – she is the Humanitarian specialist in her ward and was so excited. She wanted to know if her ward could make some bandages. I told her that would be great and that some of our kids were coming in October and could bring them over. She said this is just what she’s been looking for and couldn’t wait to get to church and share our experience with the sisters there. That would be great. I hope it works out.

8 July, 2011                                                                                           Partly Cloudy, nice temperatures

It’s been a pretty busy day. We both exercised this morning and I always feel better when I do that. We did talk to Brent for a few minutes. He just returned home from Cannon Beach and we wanted to hear how that big dust storm affected his neighborhood. He said things weren’t too bad – that it did look like there was a lot of dust everywhere but nothing too serious. We are glad for that.

Then it was a bite of breakfast and into the office where we spent most of the day. Gene was working on the Pres-Consensus forms for the Trust and I helped him type up some of it. He also called Mrs Thapa today and she came over and we settled on a 10% increase in the rent for the house here. She had asked for 15% so we were happy she would settle on 10%. We signed the contract today and it is good for two years, so we won’t have to worry about another rent increase.

We did go to Nina and Hager’s for lunch. We haven’t done that much lately. Gene thought we would draw a little money from the ATM there but it was out of service. We did buy a little frozen chicken and a couple small packages of regular sugar. It’s a little hard to find regular sugar here. Most of the sugar looks like rock salt. It’s a bit expensive to buy about two cups at a time. Oh, it would be nice to have a 25# bag.

7 July 2011                                                                                  Mostly cloudy few light showers

When I woke up, Gene was already up. That was about 5:20 am. I came downstairs and he was working on his lesson for Young Men’s. He said he just couldn’t sleep. I went back up and read my scriptures and when I came down, I got on the computer.

Wwe talked to Clay and Alison, both in Cannon Beach. Sounds like things are great there. The weather has been very nice and they have had a lot of fun. Won’t be long and they will be headed home. Brent was headed to the airport to go home and Clay and family will start back on Friday and Paul and Ali will leave on Saturday. Brent did call us from the airport. He just missed ‘the mother of all dust storms’ in Phoenix on Tuesday. It sounds like it was a bad one. In fact, we talked with Jason and he said it was 10,000 feet high and 100 miles wide with lots of wind and sand blowing everywhere. Jason said when he got up to go to work the next morning, his truck was covered with mud and dust. He said his pool was awful and he had been trying to clean it a bit. He said there is sand everywhere.

Gene said that we needed to write a letter of introduction for the DDC (District Development Committee) in Kathmandu for Choice Humanitarian. We’ve also made up a little profile of LDS Charities on the Scrape Book program. We will take that information with us when we meet with them later today.

About 10:30, Deppong’s picked us up and we went to the Cyber Center for their graduation. Rakesh had asked that a Member of Parliament come and when he went to pick him up, two members came. It was a nice day as we mingled a bit with the graduates and watched some of what was going on there. These people are all disabled in one way or another. Many of them being blind and have now had training in the use of computers. Other blind people have learned how to sew, others knit and crochet. Some of them are physically disabled and are in wheelchairs. They have also received the computer and other types of training. The ceremony was actually quite short, which was a pleasant surprise. Now hopefully some of these people will be able to get a job. At the same time, we know it will be a challenge as the unemployment rate here is about 45%.

The instructor with lady learning to sew

Members of Parliament checking out the new software

Some of those receiving diploma's - Happy Day!

Rakesh took us over near Choice’s office where Pratik came and took us to the office. We chatted with Bishnu and his staff. They doubled checked the packet for the DDC Kathmandu that they work with (and LDS Charities). This information is stuff the DDC wanted before signing the form for the Social Welfare Council. We went with Pratik and took it to their office. It was in a fairly new large building. Gene and I looked at each other as we walked up the stairs. There was a strong bathroom smell and it wasn’t pleasant. One of those smells of Nepal.

The man in the office was very nice and accommodating We got the papers signed and then we caught a taxi and came home. We had a piece of bread and peanut butter to hold us over for a bit. Gene went to PEC and then President Bishnu picked us up and took us to his home for dinner. It was very good. Nothing spicy and quite a variety of vegetable dishes, soybeans and mushrooms, an apple and mango fruit salad, chicken….lots of stuff. It was an enjoyable evening.

We came home and were ready to drop into bed. It’s been a busy day.

6 July 2011                                                                                       Mostly Cloudy, nice temperatures

We got up and went to Bhat Bhateni’s early. Gene likes to beat the rush – and we did. We did find some carrots so we bought a couple of packages. I understand that now for a few months carrots are going to be hard to find. The season is over and the next crop will be on about February. I feel like we finally have a few things in the cupboards but it’s still hard to know what to fix. We are enjoying the flour tortillas we bought, even if it’s with a fried egg and some salsa on them.

Panna, our monitor for LDS Charities, went to Hattikor a couple of days ago and he came this morning to give us a report. There are a few things that need to be completed before we release all the money. Rakesh didn’t think we needed another inspection, but we are glad we did. We sent an email to the Trust itemizing the items needing attention.

Gene has worked on charts and financial stuff for the Agreement. I’ve had a quieter day. I’ve looked at my Relief Society Lesson and done some reading. I decided I should pick up ‘Jesus The Christ’ again. I do want to complete it before we go home and that’s not going to be a problem. I am enjoying it.

This afternoon Gene asked if I wanted to cut his hair and I told him I would be glad to. It’s the first time we’ve used the new clippers we bought. The! They were nice! We had bought one pair and they wouldn’t cut hot butter so we took them back and changed them. These are Wahl brand and they were great. We will leave them here for the next missionaries.

Today is Ellie’s 2^nd birthday. Oh, I would love to give her a birthday hug! Alison sent a picture of her and Scott riding the bumper cars in Seaside. She looked like she was having a blast. She is getting so grown up.

5 July, 2011                                                                                       Few showers, partly cloudy

Today, Gene worked on the Agreement and I worked on my Relief Society Lesson. I think I have it pretty much outlined. I did make some chocolate chip cookies and was happy to have something to serve if someone came today. And I’m glad I did. President Bishnu, from Choice, came and we talked about the things the SWC is wanting included in the Agreement. It seems like a lot of hassel to all of us, but what do you do. 

Rakesh came this evening and he liked the cookies as well. I did sent some home with him and he was happy about that. Gene had asked him to come to go over the items SWC wants. We haven’t heard from Karishma and hopefully he will put a little pressure on her to get this in. Karishma did sent us a couple of CD’s with photos of Chanute and Hattikor. The photos were great.

We walked over to the market to get a few veggies. It’s getting harder to find carrots and they said from now until February, the carrots aren’t very good. That makes me sad as we use a lot of carrots. Laxmi brought in a vegetable she had grown that wasn’t familiar to us. We looked it up online and discovered it’s called Luffa and when young is very delicious. We will have to try them out.  This evening Laxmi came in with a few carrots she had found from another vendor. She said they are expensive and I told her that was just fine. I also told her if she sees more, to get some for us. I’ve found if your rinse them with water, put them in a plastic bag in the fridge, they keep lots longer.