20 January 2012                                                        Power till 8:00 am and then 2 - 5 PM

Since we weren't going with Deppong's, we weren't in any hurry to get up today. In fact, it's been pretty quiet today. Gene still isn't feeling tip top and my ear is driving me crazy. The last couple of days, both ears are affected. Gene said we need to do something about this situation. We will have Dr. Clark look at it tomorrow at church and possible Pres. Jackson as well. He is an Embassy doctor and our mission president. Between the two of them perhaps we can get some help. 

This afternoon Laxmi and I walked over to the tailor's to pick up Sabhadra's clothes. She has gone to the village and Gene thought it best that we just go get them. Well, they weren't ready. They said come back next Wednesday. Then we walked way down to the other tailor and they weren't ready either. I guess it's a good thing we went. A remindeer to them that we are anxious to get them. The second shop also said they would have them the middle of next week.

We did walk over and try a fairly new restaurant close to us. We had pizza and it was pretty good. It's close enough we could go get one and bring it home. Almost like 'take-out'. Yeah!

I did bake some peanut butter cookies this afternoon - I have a happy husband!

19 January 20, 2012                                                    Power till 9:00 and again 3:00 – 7:00 PM

This morning we were checking online, email, etc. Gene asked me if I had printed off the schedule for English today. I hadn’t and thought I should email it to myself so I could print it off on the other computer. I couldn’t find it. This was about 7:30 am. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t saved it. I hurried and did my hair and then AGAIN, prepared for  English.  Gene is getting a bad cold but still went with me. We walked out to get a taxi. They have a bit of a racket over at the end of the little alley. We have been paying 150 to 200 rupees per way. They were saying there had been an increase in the price of fuel and wanted 200. We were happy it wasn’t more than that.

English went pretty well. For the most part, they seem to know the material….but like KTC, they often have a hard time with the speaking and writing. Sometimes I feel that we ask them to write in their notebooks a lot, but I guess that’s how they get better.

BB taking apart the panels to refurbish them...

Whoops! One piece of glass broken in pieces....

Notice the delivery vehicle bring two pieces of new glass.

 We came home and had a little lunch up on the roof. It’s just warmer up there. It wasn’t long and Debbie called. Gene had decided he didn’t want to go to the airport to pick up the doctors coming for Helping Babies Breath. And anyway,  BB’S Electric was coming to finish the repairs on the solar panels. There are two pieces of glass that need replacing. One broke and the other cracked clear across when he put it back on. Gene asked him to replace that one as well. Gene said they were probably quite old and quite fragile to work with. In the end, it cost us 5500 rupees.  A hot shower will surely be worth it.

Today is the day the doctor’s come for Helping Babies Breath. They are Dr. Rob Clark and Dr. Bell from USA. Debbie asked if I could come over and help her with a couple of things on her computer. She needs a ‘test’ for the training tomorrow and can’t find it. She uses a magnifier and I’m sure it’s difficult for her. I decided even thought Gene wasn’t going to go with them, I would go.

Gene did walk with me to get a taxi and we rode to Deppong’s. Then he walked back home. I was able to help Debbie. We did find a test, but it was in a PowerPoint presentation format and was 37 pages long.She was looking for something that was seventeen questions.  I suggested we type a bit of it up and if it was the right one, I could type it tonight and send it to her. We did that. We emailed the presentation to me so I could work on it if need be.

Dipak came to pick us up at 3:30 pm. Then I find out that their plane had been delayed and their flight wasn’t actually scheduled to arrive until 5:30 pm. I’m thinking ,’then why are we going at 3:30?’ I guess because when Brown’s came we missed them at the airport, waited and waited and finally Brown’s called wondering where we were and they were at their hotel. Debbie didn’t want that to happen, so we sat in the airport and waited, about freezing to death, for more than two hours. It was nearly 6:00 pm before they exited the airport.

From there we went to a hospital across the street, the Kathmandu Medical Center. It was huge. We went up to the NICU nursery. They warmly welcomed us and the doctors were able to gown up and went in. We could have too, but Debbie and Ollie had already had the tour and about this time, I’m really feeling like a 5^th wheel. And to make matters worse, I can hardly hear what anyone is saying today.

So it was more waiting…They were also able to see labor and delivery. I wonder what their thoughts were. When we left the hospital, we drove to the Himalayan Hotel where they were staying. They checked in and then we had a bite to eat there. Dr Clark mentioned they needed the test and Debbie showed him what we had typed up. That was what he wanted and they needed it first thing in the morning.

One good thing and it worked into the dinner conversations quite naturally. That was the trouble I’m having with my ear. I had told them about Gene’s hernia surgery and my ear surgery. I asked Dr Clark if he knew anything about ears and he smiled and said ‘yes’. He said he would have a look and see what he could do. Oh, I hope so. It’s worse and now both ears are giving me trouble. I’m really struggling………….

We came home and I was able to get the test in a format they could use and sent it to her. Alison had seen I was online and called on Skype. I told her I would call her back when I finished this for Debbie. It was about 9:45 am.  I did try to call her back, but Skype just kept ringing. I was just getting ready to send her a text message when she answered. She said she was in the bathroom and Ellie came in and said, ‘Grammy’s here, Grammy’s here.” Pretty cute! After visiting for a few minutes,  I’m ready to get in a warm bed hope to get night’s sleep.

18 January 2012                                              Power till 10:00 and again 5:00 pm till 8:00 pm

I don’t know why but I woke up about 2:30 am. I lay there trying to go back to sleep until about 3:30 and then read for a little while. Have I said lately, how much we love our IPod Touch’s. I can read without waking Gene. About 4:30, I tried to go back to sleep, but no luck. So I got up just after 5:00, turned on the heater and about 5:30, Gene got up. I was surprised.

Laxmi was a whirlwind of activity this morning, cleaning outside. I was sitting in the office and look up and she washing the windows. The cloth she was using must have been dirty because the windows were really streaked. She left to run an errand and Gene and I hurried outside and rewashed them. They needed it on the inside as well. I have to say, they look much better.

B B’s electric came to recondition the solar panels. While he was here and Laxmi was here, Gene and I walked over to the bank ATM and then to Bhat Bhateni’s and bought a suitcase for Subhadra, the sister missionary getting ready to leave. When you figure in the cost of a taxi , it was cheaper to get it here.  I think we have about spent the budget for her. There are a few minor things, but she can get them. She only has a couple of weeks left till she will be headed to Manila. She sure is excited.

Tonight when B B came back to finish the project, he went up on the roof and one of the glass panels had fallen over and broken. Those things happen. He felt bad. Gene said at home he would just have to ‘eat it.’ But I’m sure we will pay the cost. He will be back tomorrow to finish the project. His price for a day’s work is 3500 rupees, or about $42.

 

17 January 2012                                              Power after 9:00 until 1:00 pm and after 7:00 pm

I got up about 7:00, not anxious to do so as our house is cold. Gene put the thermometer in our bedroom and it said 54 degrees. I guess we shouldn’t feel too bad. Deppong’s said 44 degrees. We do get some sunshine and they don’t have south or west windows. It does help. We also get some sun in the office and that helps us in the afternoons. Thank goodness.

Bart called us this morning and it was nice to talk to him and Tina. They said that things are going well. When I asked about the kids, they said they were good – and then Tina said she didn’t know how I did it. I’m not sure what that means. But I do remember the challenges of kids that age.

We walked over to the bank and it was good to take a walk. Then we came back and Gene worked on the Missionary Preparation lesson and I worked on our English lesson. About 11:30, Kate and McKenna, and Gretel came by. We caught a taxi and went to pick up Sister Deppong and headed to Thamel and a girl’s luncheon before Kate leaves Nepal. We sure will be sad to see her go. She adds a lot of life to the party (and to our Branch). The pizza was great and we had a good visit… They headed back and Sister Deppong and I walked down to Thamel.

They had more ski type hats and I bought a few more. They were only 100 rupees each and they had some in girl colors. I just couldn’t resist. Then we went in Pilgrims Bookstore and I bought a calendar and a couple of wood puzzle nativities. They are pretty cute. We headed home and as soon as I got home, Laxmi was waiting for me and we headed back down to New Road, shopping for a camera for Subhadra. We did find one. It’s a Sony and seems pretty nice.

Then Laxmi went with me and we went to Dr Shrivastav, the ear, nose and throat doctor. I’m still having trouble hearing and my ear is still draining. He prescribed yet another antibiotic, this time it’s a Levofloxacin 500. It’s called Qure 500. And he wants me to take 750 night and morning. Then he gave me some eardrops. They are something that he mixed up himself.  He said we would need to go to the little pharmacy next door and get a couple of syringes to put the mixture in. I just don’t know what to think about the whole thing – I’m afraid that I’m going to have this problem until I get home and can get some treatment there. I’m not excited about that prospect. Oh, the doctor’s charge was 350 rupees or about $4.

16 January 2012                                  Daytime Power 10 am until 2:00 pm and after 8:00pm

It’s a cold day again in Kathmandu. The sky is cloudy and no sun means cold temperatures. To go along with that, the new load shedding schedule starts. It’s going to be a killer. I got up just before seven and put a pan of water on the stove to heat so I could wash my hair first thing. It wasn’t long after that Brent called. We talked to him over a half hour and then Alison and Hannah called.

I wrote on Facebook that our load shedding was increasing. Alison made the comment that she thinks of us every time she turns on the light or turns on the hot water. I chuckled and told Gene I’ve thought about how good it will be to have hot showers again, but I’d forgotten how it is to turn on the water tap to wash dishes and have hot water come out. That will be like heaven.

By the time we finished talking, I fixed some breakfast and we hurried and got ready to go teach English. I do enjoy that. We had a good time today. I’ve kinda taken over the teaching and Gene is a good support system. He writes on the board and keeps me on track. Laxmi is really good to help the students who are having a harder time. I think it’s working out pretty good.

We came home, fixed some lunch and had power till 2:00. After that I did make a big pot of chicken soup. I used the ‘Better Than Bouillon’ the kids brought. It worked out great. I also used the dried carrots, freeze dried celery and freeze dried broccoli. Then I added some pasta. It made a big batch and I’m always happy about that. It will last a few days.

This afternoon, I’ve tried to keep busy and leave the laptop off. I sure don’t want to drain the battery down. I’ve crocheted on the leper bandage and also started another hot pad. I think when the weather warms up, I might be glad for the puzzles Alison brought. But right now it’s way too cold to put them together because it would have to be on the dining room table. So we will wait a couple of months.

15 January 2012

We stayed in bed a little longer than usual. It’s hard to get up and going when the house is so cold. Elder Deppong cleans off the glass in the solar panels every morning and he said this morning there was frost on them, in fact enough frost to make a snowball.

There is a new load shedding schedule starting tomorrow. Load Shedding is going from 69 hours a week to 88 hours a week. That’s going to be a challenge. That means that we will only have four or five hours of power during the day – and it rotates all over the place. And it will go on almost until we go home. If we get a lot of monsoon, we might see an increase in power, but I’m not counting on it.

Gene said we are going to have to limit the amount of time we spend on the computers when the power is off. We really don’t have any idea how long this battery and inverter will run – but need to be careful because there isn’t really enough power on at a time to fully charge it back up. Oh, life in Nepal – I feel so sorry for these people and the conditions they are forced to live under.

I started putting our English class together. After a late breakfast, Gene and I walked over to Bhat Bhateni’s to check the prices of luggage (for Subhadra) to see if it’s worth a trip downtown. There’s not a whole lot of difference. Then we got some groceries and returned home.

We hadn’t been here too long when Sister Deppong called and asked for some computer help. Gene told her we would be glad to come over and help her. So we did. And Also Rukmina wanted a little help with the leper bandages. They aren’t chaining one on each end and the bandages are getting pretty narrow. Now she’s got it right.

Sister Deppong needed to make a table in Word with columns and rows. We were able to help her and now she will be able to do it by herself. Then we went to Nina and Hager’s for lunch. We had chicken vegetable soup and shared a ham and cheese sandwich. Elder Deppong insisted on buying and also ordered dessert for us. I had a strawberry torte and it was very good.

We returned home and I finished preparation for English. Gene was working on CHas. It was 5:00 pm before we knew it. We decided to watch a movie – we haven’t done that for a long time and with the load shed increase, we won’t do it much, if at all. We watched ‘Return to Snowy River.’ I quite enjoyed it.

14 January 2012

It’s quite cold again today. Gene talked to Sam Topham and he said this year is the coldest since about 1996. People are freezing. I keep trying to stay positive, but it is cold. I’m wrapped in a fleece blanket here in the office and when we are home, we are both layered up in fleece. We look forward to the weather starting to warm up a bit. I remember how nice March, April and May were last year and we look forward to that.

Today is the Sabbath and we’ve enjoyed the day. Gene and I taught the Missionary Prep class this morning during Sunday School. We had six young people in attendance and it went pretty well. We are happy to do it and it will be good for us to do it together. Then I taught Relief Society. I gave a brief history and life sketch of George Albert Smith, eighth President of the Church. I felt pretty good about both lessons. It was pretty exciting today as the sisters looked through the George Albert Smith manual, they saw a picture of Devi kneeling in prayer. (She is a young woman in our Branch) They said it was taken when she was on her mission at Temple Square. It’s pretty cute and fun for members of the branch here. (In case your interested it’s on page 97 of the George Albert Smith Relief Society / Priesthood manual.)

After Relief Society, Rukmina handed out crochet thread and asked if I would show the sisters how to do the leper bandages. They all crochet pretty well. The thread is finer than that found in the USA but I think it will work just fine. After that we had a short Branch Council meeting where we talked about the importance of calendaring. Pres. Bishnu would like each auxiliary to start using a calendar feeling that it would free up time so we can do ministering instead of administering.. I’m sure that’s true.

This afternoon has been quite relaxed. I made some bread sticks and we had that and some soup for dinner. We are looking ahead to the week. It will be another one quite full as we will welcome the doctors coming to get the Helping Babies Breath going. Sister Deppong who has been working hard on it, was at home today. Her asthma is acting up a little bit. I sure hope she feels better. She wouldn’t want to be down while they are here.