Greetings from Nepal. As per usual so many crazy awesome things have happened in only the short time I have been in Nepal.
Our happy contact picked us up from the airport on a chilly evening sometime on the 4th. We crammed into the van and on the way into the slums our dear squad mate Travis’ pack fell off the top, oops! World Race problems!
We were welcomed with a hot dinner including the best tea I have ever had. We eat curry nearly every day, my mouth is happy about that but my digestive system (and everyone else’s) is not!
I’m sharing a room with the 4 lovely ladies of my team. We each have our very own bed (score!) and a nice huge duvet to keep us warm at night. There’s no heat in the building but somehow we have hot showers (sometimes). I’m living with 2 other teams this month and I love them dearly because I have worked with most of them in our first month in Northern Ireland.
We went to their lovely church which I had a blast at. I cannot express to you how happy and still my heart is here. I love Nepal. If this is my country and if I never left here, I would be okay with that. I’m cradled in the Himalayan Mountains. It’s quiet, it’s peaceful, it’s bliss. It’s a welcomed change of pace from Africa. I’m having a hard time processing my 3 months in Africa because to be quite frank… it was hell. The sickness never ended, the loudness never ended, the sleep never happened. I was cranky. And now I’m trying to fight the bitterness in my heart that stirred from Tanzania and Mozambique. I love our contacts in Mozambique but the sickness was just awful that happened to myself and countless others.
Anyways, on our walk home from church our spunky contact just casually pointed and said “burning dead body. Preparing for funeral” and off we went, no big deal!
We climbed some steep hills to get to the top of this Monkey Temple where I got to view the Himalayas from a great vantage point. We prayed for a few hours over the idolatry of the temple. It was one of those moments in my life where I wanted to weep. In Nepal it is very inappropriate to cry in public so I sucked it up and didn’t cry. God is so good, He brought me to the Himalayas to show me His creation and love in a place where idols are abundant.
We went to the market and bought warm clothes. Everything is so cheap! Everyone got legit Northface jackets for mere dollars.
There’s so much to say. So much love to share.
I will be leaving in 2 short days to climb a mountain to get to the village we will be working in. Our contact said it could take 10 hours… with all of our gear. God help me. He said past teams have cried every 10 minutes hiking this. Oh, dear.
We will have the option for an Elephant Safari at the end of the month when we are done doing construction work at the orphanage. Praise. The completion of this orphanage is a long time coming for our contact. Many World Race teams have poured blood, sweat, and tears into making this a reality. The government here doesn’t pay a lot of attention to extreme remote schools and mountain villages so to be able to work here this month is a blessing!
Aside from all of that I am pleased to announce, if I haven’t already, that May 29th is my tentative coming home date!!!
My plans as of right now are to spend 6 months at home and then head off to Spain next January for 6 months to gain more experience about starting my own Non-Profit with another organization. I am blessed to be doing this work in Spain with my bestfriend and love of my life. Wow, that seems really bold of me to say, I can’t believe I just typed it out. But, it’s exciting news I just learned about and I’m so over the moon about future plans.
Nepal has stolen my heart. The people are beautiful, they are peaceful, and loving. Pictures don’t do it justice.
Still $3,000 away from being fully funded. Help get me to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia!
God Bless!
PS
Pictures coming soon…. I hope! Poor internet quality!
