27 January 2012                                                                      Power till 8 and again from 2 – 5 pm

This morning we and the Deppong’s went to visit Tej’s farm. He is the guy we know through the Five Village Project and he’s been trying to get us to come see what they’re doing. We called Shyam’s friend to pick us up in his taxi. He was quite late in coming and when he arrived, Deppong’s weren’t with him. He said there were ‘strikes’ and he had a hard time in traffic. We did pick up Deppong’s and the driver got us where we needed to be, going on back roads and side streets.

Tej was waiting for us and the tour of his farm was quite interesting. He is involved in a business partnership with a few other men.  They have the following plans in progress: Mushroom farming. We learned a bit about the process involved in growing mushrooms. It’s a fairly easy crop for Nepali’s to grow and mushrooms are quite profitable. The margin being 65 - 80% depending on the time of the year. It was very interesting.

Stuffing sterilized straw and mushroom spores in bags...

1000 bags of straw with mushrooms growing...looks pretty neat.

Tej with one of the bags ready to 'grow'

 They also had cows. They sell raw milk to individuals or retail outlets. There is need for milk and milk products in Nepal. It’s very expensive to buy imported milk and people like the local product and of course it’s cheaper. It only takes two cows to support a typical Nepali family. Cows can be a bit of an investment and the cost of the cows depend on how much milk they produce.

Cows also produce manure used to run a bio digester. The bio digester would turn the manure to fuel for cooking and heat. With the load shedding that would be a real blessing.

Their farm also produces vegetables and they want to start a fish farm as well. They have the concrete fish ponds ready and will soon fill them up with water from a well and then stock them with carp and another kind of fish. (I don’t remember what it was). There’s not a high demand for fish in Nepal. It’s not a staple in their diet but they feel it would be a good thing.

a neighboring 'farm' producing Nepali paper

Neighbor 'plowing' his land..

We did see a farm next to his that was producing Nepali paper. It also looked quite interesting. And we saw a man plowing a field with an oversized tiller. I was glad to see that as I had thought almost everything was done by hand.

They had us sit in plastic chairs and we talked. They are looking for help from NGO’s and INGO’s. They would like to bring students in to train them and send them back to their villages with the knowledge of how to implement some of these programs in their own areas. They hope to help people help themselves. They have some great ideas. They did serve us some hot milk. It was raw milk and I was a little apprehensive about it. Gene drank a small glass and so did I. Ollie did as well. Gene ate a slice of raw apple. I was a little nervous about the skin on it but hopefully we won’t get sick. We also shared a big orange and that was good. We returned home in time to Skype with Elder and Sister Meehan.

We have wanted to talk to them for a while about the Five Village Project. We know they have really been busy, but we connected today. There are still some questions to be answered – and we don’t have all the answers. Elder Meehan will send an email to Matt Heaps in Salt Lake requesting help from him. He knows the history as well as anyone. We are trying to put together some more information and will send it to Hong Kong. They would like to submit it to the Area the first full week of February. Again, we would like to see it completed.

I did hear back from Dr. Clark about my ear. He suggested I continue the Prednisone for a couple more  days and then begin tapering off. As I write this, it seems a bit better – but nothing is constant in Nepal and my ear follows the same pattern.

 

26 January 2012                                                          Power till 9:00 and then 3:00 – 7:00 pm

It was off to teach English today. We are having a good time and I think the women are too. We continued talking about adjectives. I love adjectives. They add color and fun to the English language. We had the women take a simple sentence and see how many adjectives they could add. They did well. I think they are getting it. Although as I looked at some of their written sentences in their notebooks, I thought perhaps we should start giving them a few spelling words. Even simple words (at least simple to me) were misspelled.

We returned home and sat up on the roof in the sunshine for a little bit. I’ve been reading in ‘Jesus the Christ’.  I set a goal to finish it before we go home and I’ve still got about 475 pages left. I need to be a little more diligent.

I’ve worked on the leper bandage this afternoon. Most of the sisters are making theirs doing double crochet. I think they are just fine. So now I am doing one row of double crochet and one of single crochet, alternating between each one. It sure makes it go faster and I think they will work just fine. The thread is pretty fine. It would have taken me a long time to do the single crochet.

Our power flipped off about 40 minutes early tonight. Then about 10minutes later it came back on. I’m thinking I will hurry and use the microwave before it goes back off – but it doesn’t work. Oh, NO! I hope it’s not permanent. It doesn’t seem like we have full power. We will check it in the morning. Oh, and beside the power thing, Nepal is also facing a shortage of propane. It’s taking more than two months to get a new propane cylinder. We are trying to conserve. I sure wouldn’t want to run out.

Well, another part of the saga of my ears. I’ve got one more day of Prednisone left. The hearing fluctuates and tonight I’m not hearing much out of my right ear. The left ear is a lot better and I can get along but I really don’t know what to do. I did send an email to Dr. Clark giving him an update. We will see what he comes back with. Pres. Jackson is just waiting for us to tell him when we can get visa’s and he would set things up for us in New Delhi. We will give it a few more days and go from there.

25 January 2012                                                          Power till 10:00 and again after5:00 PM

I got up a little early this morning and put a batch of whites in to wash. Laxmi usually does that, but we only have power till 10:00 and I want to get a couple of batches done. Gene came down and said he had been up on the roof and things are really quiet. There is another bandh or strike today in all of the Kathmandu Valley. This one is anger over the recent price hike in petroleum products. Ten students are even threatening self-immolate themselves at 10:00 am on Saturday by wrapping themselves in national flags and lightening themselves on fire if the government fails to meet their demands. One of the students said ‘The government’s irresponsible behavior has forced us to think of killing ourselves.”  Things are crazy!  So….today is a good day to stay close to home.

Most people are in favor of THIS  strike

The streets were very quiet, except for people...

There were policemen all around...

Gretel did call and say it was their turn to clean the church and could I tell her what they needed to do. Gene reminded me there probably wouldn’t be any power. The church is on the same grid we are and the power went off at 10:00. I told her we would be glad to come over and help. We could get everything done but the vacuuming.  We walked over about 9:30. There were quite a few people on Ring Road, but no motor vehicles. We got to the church and there were locks on the gate…no one there which is unusual as there is usually always a guard on the premises. . I was able to get a hold of Gretel before they left home. It looks like that will be on the agenda another day.

We turned to leave and a couple of Nepali men walked past and one of them said, “Hello, Elder”. Gene told him good morning and we chatted with him a few minutes. Gene asked him if we knew him and he shook his head ‘no.’

We are always saying people know who we are…… and here’s another example of that. We had never really seen this guy before. He asked if we lived in the house and we told him no, just sometimes come to meetings. He said, ‘church?’ and we said ‘yes.’ He runs a small business somewhere in the neighborhood. He seemed pretty nice and knew a bit of English. They do like to talk to Americans.

We did get an email back from Connie *****. I am including it here. It will be interesting to see if something comes of this.

 Dear Esplin's,

Thank you for your wonderful note!  Your mission sounds like a marvelous adventure.  We will keep you informed as our submission process continues. Last evening we met with our Bishop and will soon with our Stake President. We so appreciate your help and giving of your time, as well as Elder and Sister Adams.

Our best, Br. and Sister ******

 

24 January 2012                                                          Power 9 – 1 pm and after 7:00 pm

We’ve been home most of the day today. Rakesh stopped by this morning and brought us a couple of CD’s full of photos. Mostly of the Wheelchair training and distribution – we looked at them and enjoyed them. We are going to take them home – I can’t see any other missionaries being too interested in them.

I made some more granola this morning. I haven’t quite got the timing down for baking it. It’s still just a little overdone – but it’s still good. We still have trail mix and M & M’s to put in it. It makes a good snack – and stretches out the trail mix and M & M’s. Thanks kids, for bringing them…..

I did outline the English lesson. It does take a bit of time, but feels good to have it done. I also wrote quite a long email to a couple – Brother and Sister ***** whom we had received an email from. They were a couple from New Mexico, thinking about sending in a request to serve in Nepal. They had talked to Elder and Sister Adams (They were in the MTC with us and are serving at Church Headquarters over Senior Missionaries) and wondered if we could answer a few questions. This couple have previously served in Cambodia so being in a third world country isn’t new. We wrote answering lots of their questions about the church and living conditions, also the work we are involved in. It will be interesting to see if anything happens from this point forward.

This afternoon Subhadra came. She had been to the tailor to pick up her clothes. They look pretty good. I did suggest she take her jacket back and see if they would let the back seam out just a bit. It was a little tight through the back – but it’s cute and she seems pretty happy. We did get an email from Sister Jackson with Subhadra’s flight information. She will leave Nepal a week from Thursday and head to the MTC in Manila. She is excited and we are excited for her.

I did get an email from Pres. Jackson wondering when we can get our visa’s and get to India for an ear exam. We still don’t have the authorization, though I think it will come soon. But we do want to try out the Prednisone. It sure would be great if we don’t have to go to India.

The weather today has been nice. The sun shone and we sat on the roof for a bit and it was beautiful. Now if the night time temperatures could just come up a bit. It will be nice when they are in the 40’s.

 23 January 2012                                        Power from 10:00 am till 2:00 pm, again after 8:00 pm

What a beautiful day. They seem to start out quite hazy but by ten or so, the sun is shining and it’s warming up quite nicely.

I got up and went over the English lesson again. Then I fixed some cracked wheat cereal. It tasted good to me. Then I took the three of the Prednisone pills Dr. Clark had given me. I will take them for five days and hope they do the trick.

We went to English and had a good time. We had fun with adjectives. I took quite a few things in a bag. They drew them out one by one and used as many adjectives as they could to describe them. Then we played 20 questions and they liked that too. We laughed a lot and enjoyed the day.

This afternoon we got an email from Pres. Jackson. He had emailed our Church health provider and told them I have tried lots of things and been to the ENT numerous times and encouraged them to authorize treatment in India. Then another fellow sent it to someone else telling them to authorize it ASAP. But I will wait until the Prednisone cycle is complete. I really hope and pray that it will take care of it.

Then Gene and I caught a taxi and went back to the Summit Hotel for the meeting with the government officials and more NGO’s. Dr. Clark and Dr. Bell both gave presentations and then Dr. Ashish from Save the Children also presented. In the end, the Minister of Health who was there, was supportive and encouraged the implementation of the program. Sister Deppong was on cloud nine, as the Minister had previously been quite negative. So it does look like a go. There were many influential people there and for the majority, most were onboard. It looks like Dr Clark could be coming back late springtime. This is exciting stuff. We haven’t been involved much, but we will need to help as it’s still going to be a big job.

After we all went to Thamel and had dinner at the Third Eye

With our HBB team: Dr. Bell, Deppong's, Irda, Dr. Clark and us.

22 January 2012                                                         Power 11:00 am – 3:00 pm, and after 10:00 pm

I slept much better last night and this morning my left ear seems quite a bit better. At least I can hear out of it a little. I’m happy about that.

I worked on our English lesson for a while and then remembered that since we were without power, I decided I’d better get my hair washed so it could air dry. Soon after that Subhadra and Bikki came over and picked up her mission things, putting them in the suitcase we had got for her and took that stuff with them. We were happy about that. Then Rakesh came. I guess we will go back to Chanute next Tuesday to inaugurate the other water project up there. I’m debating about whether I will go. He said it’s not the long hike up the mountain but to a tap stand a little lower down.

After Rakesh left, Gene and I went to the Summit Hotel and spent the afternoon with Deppong’s and the doctors doing the Helping Babies Breath workshop. It was quite interesting. The participants were all high level influential medical people, who really are the ones who decide if they want this program in their country or not. Right now it looks like they want to run a trial of it in some of the hospitals. It’s not going to happen real fast but will take some time.

They finished about 3:30 pm and then we went over to the Tibetan Refugee Camp where the doctors bought some pashmina shawls to take home. Then we went back to their hotel and Dr. Clark said he had a small flashlight and would like to look in my ear. I was happy he would do that. He said my eardrum looked normal. He also said I had tried lots of stuff and before I went to India, he thought I should try some steroids and gave me Prednisone to take for five days. After that he wants me to email him and let him know how it’s going. If it’s helping and getting better, I might need to take it for a few more days. I am thrilled! I think this just might do the trick. He told me to start the pills tomorrow morning. He mentioned a few side effects, but I think I will do fine. I’m happy for his help.

Then we all went to the Lazy Gringo. It was great – both the company and the food. We really enjoyed the evening with them Both Dr. Clark and Dr. Bell are wonderful men and we appreciate what they do to help the humanitarian effort of the church.

21 January 2012                                                                                  Power from 1 – 6 pm

We were delighted when the power came on unexpectedly about 8:30 am. That made it possible to make a piece of toast to go with our hot chocolate. Yumm…

We went to church today. First thing I did was see President Jackson, our Mission President. There wasn’t anyone else around as it was just a touch early. I asked him if I could have two minutes of his time and he said sure. We went in the kitchen. Gene was in there preparing the Sacrament. I related to Pres. Jackson what has been going on with my ear. I have emailed him a couple of times, so this wasn’t all new to him. He suggested that perhaps we come to New Delhi where there are excellent ENT doctors and I could have a thorough examination. Gene is all for it. Gene told him we would need to get pre-authorization from our insurance company (Deseret Mutual). Pres. Jackson told us to cc him and he would see that it happens. Then he said he would make the arrangements and the appointment with his choice of a doctor. I sure would like to get some help. Pres. Jackson asked when we go home and said six months is a long time to wait. We sent the email this afternoon, but it will be a few days before we hear anything as it’s the weekend in Utah.

We taught the missionary preparation class again today. We had five young people come and they seem quite interested and excited. In fact after church I was talking to one of the young men attending. I asked him how old he was and he’s 20. I asked if he was ready to go and he said ‘yes’. I was thrilled. I didn’t know he was that close. Pres. Bishnu approached us and I told him that Krishnal was ready to serve his mission. Pres. Bishnu grasped his arm and said, ‘We need to talk.”.Kris said that he really couldn’t leave until about May, but we explained that we could put that in as his available date. He seemed excited and we certainly are. What a great experience to work with these wonderful young people who are anxious to go and teach the gospel wherever they are called. We feel so blessed to have this opportunity.