3 April 2012 Tuesday

Another great day! We went to the final day of Level II Wheelchair training here in Kathmandu. We distributed about 23 wheelchairs today and the trainees had to make some difficult decisions. We had to turn three people away that didn’t meet the requirements for our wheelchairs. One was a woman who could walk with crutches. Another was a man who didn’t have any balance. And he already had a chair that he had gotten from Rakesh 3 months ago. He said it was broken and just wanted a new one. Sometimes people think we have unlimited chairs.The other one was a young man on a tricycle. He wanted a Rough Rider so he could play basketball. He already had a chair - one to a customer. There are so many people who need one that have never had one. Those are the ones we want to help.

He had been a sherpa guiding people to Mt Everest

He was thrown from the top of a bus. . . .

 One man who came had been a Sherpa taking groups to Mt. Everest. He had been in an accident when a boulder came down on him and he is now a quadriplegic. That was three years ago and he had never had a wheelchair. He is the kind of person we like to help. Another was a young man about 20 years old. He was a good sized guy. He had been riding on top of a bus out in a village. The road was very rough and he was thrown off the top of the bus. He broke his back, and both legs, breaks both in the upper thigh area and also below his knees. He is paralyzed. He was unconscious for 6 months and is still in the hospital. He got a chair and it will be very helpful to him and his family, who are his caregivers.

So cute....but had a wet bottom. . .

One lady came in with her small baby. We were taking turns holding him. Sister Deppong said she was taking him to Rukmina, our Branch Relief Society President, who had come to help usI told Debbie I would hold him. He was pretty cute. It wasn't long and I decided I would give him to Rukmina too. Here in Nepal, babies don't wear diapers very often. He was soaked through, blanket and all. Oops!

The trainees and the President of the Physical Therapy Assoc. expressed gratitude to LDS Charities for providing this training and said how beneficial it was to them. We had the closing ceremony and had several high ranking government officials present. What a switch! They were very generous in their praise of LDS Charities and the program didn’t last too long. The trainees were presented with a certificate and Rakesh had a nice group picture printed and that was presented to them as well. It was a great afternoon.

Except for the rain! And Rain it did. The sky got very dark and we had lots of loud thunder and lightning. It rained like crazy and it went on and on. They couldn’t get the microphone working and the rain drowned out the speakers.  But all in all, it was a great day. We are thankful to be part of it.

After we went to the Raddison Hotel and had dinner with Brown’s and Deppong’s. That too was good. Now it’s pack the bag and be ready to head to Lumbini at 7:00 in the morning. We will be gone till the 9^th. We will repeat the training we did here. We look forward to it.

2 April 2012 Monday

I woke up about 4:15 AM and couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up about 5:00 AM. I listened to Pres. Packer’s talk about families and parent’s responsibilities. I also got some pictures on a thumb drive for Laxmi to take and get developed today.

Chad and Konnie called and then Clay. Clay and his family are still in Puerto Rico after returning from their cruise. It sounds like they had a great time. We talked to Jack and Luke for a minute – they had a fun time and said their favorite thing was the dining room dancing with the waiters.

Before we knew it, it was time to head over to the Moonlight Café and the second day of wheelchair training. Today they learned to access people, how to transfer, teaching people to live safely in a wheelchair by showing how to go down steps, ramps, on rough terrain and just how to move about in a wheelchair. I asked one of the physical therapists if she was learning anything new or if it was all review. She said she was definitely learning new things. She said she had been involved with therapy patients for more than two years and this is the first time she has ever sat in a wheel chair, let along learn and have the hands on experiences they had today. She was very happy with what we were doing.

At the end of the day one young man approached Elder Brown and asked if it would be possible for him to return to his place of employment and train his fellow workers. THAT is exactly what we want to have happen. The church freely gives out the instructors manual and helps to those willing to do that. That’s the purpose of all this. It’s a train the trainer thing and we hope it spreads through many countries. Here it would sure make Rakesh’s work much easier.

After we finished today, we all went to Fire and Ice, a Pizza place and had pizza. After we caught a taxi  return home. We agreed on a price of 350 rupees. Just then a policeman came up and issued the driver a ticket because he was in a no parking zone. We felt bad and did give him 500 rupees. A week or so ago, the government passed a law giving policemen a percentage of every traffic ticket they write. I guess it’s working……

We arrived home, changed clothes and walked over to Bhat Bhateni’s. We bought an inexpensive tote to put a few things in. Elder Brown said they would be happy to take some things home for us. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity, but had to buy a bag to send. It’s worth it. We will send some bulky stuff, shoes, and winter things. It will be a big help.

1 April 2012 Sunday

It’s been a wonderful day. First thing I did was check the internet and see what happened at Conference. The Presiding Bishopric and also the General Relief Society Presidency were released and new ones sustained. Gary E Stevenson, a Cache Valley Native was sustained as the new Presiding Bishop. I thought, ‘hey, I know him.’ He and his wife Lesa have been loyal clients at Fuhriman’s Framing for a long time. They have been serving as the President of the Asia Area North. I have to say that Bishop Burton has been wonderful and accomplished a lot. Bishop Stevenson has big shoes to fill but will do a great job.

I was able to watch a couple of the conference talks on the church website. I liked Elder Oakes talk about missionary service. It makes me feel good about our time in Nepal. We are blessed for it and blessed beyond measure.

We had a little breakfast and it was time to leave to help with the Wheelchair Training. When we got there, Elder Brown told us, he was really feeling sick and could we take over for him, he said he needed to go back to the hotel and go to bed. Gene didn’t waver and told him, he wasn’t qualified to teach these physical therapists. I’m saying ‘yeah,’ we can make it through….then he says ‘April Fools.’ Whew!

The training went well. We had about 18 physical therapists in attendance. It was nice because they spoke English and we didn’t have to do the translation thing. Kalpana helped teach and when it was her turn, she did it in Nepali, so things worked out well.

Teaching a wonderful group of physical therapists

Elder Brown does a wonderful job. He did ask those physical therapists if any of them had ever sat in a wheelchair…..none had. He say that was very common in the countries they had been in. At the end of the day, he asked if they had learned anything or if it was all review of stuff they already knew. They said they had learned new stuff. Most of the time they are in a classroom setting and it’s lecture. Our training is very hands on and they learn a lot.

We finished about 3:30 PM and will meet again tomorrow at 9:30 AM. After, the six of us went to The Third Eye and we all had Lemon Chicken. It was delicious and we had a enjoyable time together. Browns then returned to their hotel to catch up on things and to print off the certificates for Tuesday. We came home and caught up a little here. We will be back at it at 9:00 in the morning.