After some very long travel days throughout five countries, my team made it to Nepal late Thursday night. We went to bed extremely early, woke up at 8:53 am, rushed to get dressed and brush our teeth to run upstairs for breakfast at 9 am. We enjoyed a large breakfast of curry, rice and "pickles" (hot salsa type stuff) – which is pretty much what we have for every meal and I am not even a little upset about that.
Most of my team and a few others headed into town after lunch. We are staying for a few nights at Asha Nepal, which is a home for women and children rescued from human trafficking. It's just outside of Kathmandu and the downtown area is fairly small.
We went to town in search of internet and a grocery store and did not expect to get the warm welcome that we did.
I'll be honest with you, Moldova was cold. Not just weather wise, but spiritually as well. We could feel it when we walked down the street and tried to smile at the people we saw. Children and adults alike were not very warm; in fact, we had a few incidents of children throwing rocks and other things at us. The children at the orphange we worked with and the adults we spent time with at church were incredibly kind, but the people in town never quite warmed up to us. I mean, we're likable people, but they just didn't give us a chance.
Photographically, I felt very stifled in Moldova. It was almost like we were living in a monochrome world, full of shades of gray. I spent a lot of time in the office designing brochures and writing articles about the ministry. Even when I wanted to photograph people, it was hard to get them to warm up to my camera.
So, walking around our little corner of Nepal on our very first day in the country, I was apprehensive. I didn't know how the people would respond to a large group of white people with daypacks and cameras, or how they would respond to getting their photo taken. Would this country be cold, too? Turns out I had nothing to worry about.
As we walked and smiled at the people walking past us, they smiled back. A few even said "Hi" and "Hello" happily. Nepalese schools function in English, so many children and young adults speak it well. When I raised my camera up to take photos, almost everyone smiled, waved or looked straight into the camera, making me feel like I got a glimpse into their beautiful hearts, just for a second. Occasionally, people even waved me over and asked me to take their photo. School let out and buses drove by, filled with children who yelled hello and waved excitedly at us.
The more we walked and laughed and soaked up the warmth of Nepal, the lighter I felt, as if the hardness I had been carrying in Moldova was being dropped with each step.
All these photos were taken that day, in just a few hours. I can't wait for the entire month to unfold. My camera better brace itself for some serious shooting.
our view during every meal.
CHAI TEA. in nepal. thank you, jesus.
during our walk into town:
kaitlyn completely excited to have water buffalo following her. yep. water buffalo, just walking down the street.
this woman is crocheting a sweet hat out of twine. skills.
Also, can I just tell you how AMAZING it is to be back in Asia. I mean, Nepal is just scraping the surface of the places in Asia we're going to see, but I truly have a big place in my heart for this region of the world. Being here reminds me of Japan; I see it in the buildings and the mountains and the warm of the people. AND during one of our flights, we had two Japanese flight attendants, so I got to speak Japanese for the first time in months. It was incredible.
I told my team that I really want to spend this month (and the rest of the Race, of course) really tryign to have conversations with God about Japan and a future in missions and where in the world I'm supposed to be for the rest of my life. I'll keep you all updated on that.
ALSO, we will be traveling from here on Tuesday to our ministry site, which is in the Sindhupalchok region of Nepal, near the border of Tibet. Yep, there's a good chance I'll be going to Tibet this month. And apparently we will be surrounded by mountains and rivers and all kinds of beautiful photo-worthy things. You could say my team is just a tinsy bit excited. We'll be doing evangelism ministry, which is completely out of my comfort zone, so please pray for me!
By the way, if you want to continue seeing more photos like these and reading more stories about how incredible the world is and how much God loves us, contribute to my Race! I need $3000 in three weeks or else I'm going home.
