We actually crossed into Nepal last night around 9pm. We arrived at the Nepal border after 14 hours of travel. It was an interesting day as we loaded our bags at 4am and then were to get on the road at 5am. We realized that all of our bags were not going to fit under the bus and knew it was supposed to be a 50 seat bus. We should have counted, but we didn’t and instead filled the back few seats with bags. But, as we started loading people we figured out we had a 45 seat bus and 46 people plus about 15 bags that needed to be on the bus along with 8 guitars. Yep, it made for a very tight bus ride with stuff in the aisles and people sitting on the floor in the aisles as well. Did I mention we didn’t have a bathroom on the bus? Fifty people with no bathroom = stopping a lot. Forty-six white people getting off the bus in rural India means very large crowds which is somewhat comedic as we’d stop to use the bathroom (a few of those times we were using the outdoors and we’d just as soon not have a crowd gathering).
But, we got to the border at 9pm and after 2 ½ hours we managed to get all of the appropriate paperwork filled out for visas and then we headed on for Katmandu. Our 24 hour trip lengthened as we wound through mountains on our way and over extremely rough roads.
View from the bus on a bathroom stop. Our driver had to change tires as the road was so rough on them.
Most were either unpaved and really rough or paved with giant potholes. It was a beautiful trip scenery wise and we finally arrived at 11:15am. Our ministry contact met us at the bus station and gave us a ride to the ministry house where we will be staying until Tuesday morning. We will then head south to the region of Lumbini where we will be for the month.
Most of our time this coming month will be spent walking to villages around Nawalparasi and sharing the gospel. Most days the walk will be between 20 minutes and 2 hours so it looks like we will be getting our exercise. We will also have the opportunity to do some differing things with youth as well as cleaning around the church property.
Thanks for your prayers as we traveled. I feel fortunate that we had no bus issues as we saw many vehicles pulled over with deflated tires due to the very poor road conditions or having engine trouble due to the steep mountain roads. We are blessed to be in Katmandu and looking forward to what the next month will hold.
