DAY ONE.
We flew into a freaking FREEZING Kathmandu (at 1am) on the first of February. Taylor, Beth, Victoria, and I walked into our hotel room (at 3:30am) that looked like a pretty swanky (by Race standards) suite at first glance, but only came equipped with The Little Heater That Could(ish) that was about the size of a very large encyclopedia. So a big shout out is in order to my 15-degree sleeping bag, without which I would not have survived the night. The next morning a buffet breakfast of Nepali pancakes, eggs, toast, cereal, yogurt, and tea was waiting for us downstairs!!!! Then the lights went out (typical) so they lit some candles and we had breakfast by candlelight and it was aaaddoorrablllee and so Nepali.
Our contact, THE Reuben Rai, picked us up about an hour later (my first interaction with him consisted of me trying to open the door and him holding it shut) and drove mine and Kat’s team to his house. It’s there that we met the Wammies (YWAM) that we’d be working with the first week and got to invest in some warmer clothes cause hey, we’ve been rockin Southeast Asia for a hot second, and “cold” just wasn’t a thing most of the time.
DAY TWO.
4pm and we were off. Again. On a 14-hour bus ride to the town of Urlabari- Google map that!!
So listen. I had chugged a whole lot of water right before this bus ride, realizing I was pretty dehydrated and not thinking about a bus with no potty option. Maybe you can see the way that this is going: I had to pee about 30 minutes in. And the bus driver just would not stop. And he said “5 minutes, 5 minutes” which in Nepali means an hour and holy cow you guys I have NEVER IN MY LIFE had to pee so bad. I endured a lot during that hour, and the Lord taught me perseverance (I was also sitting in my seat like a 4-year-old). I finally was able to run off the bus and into the cold embrace of a roadside squatty-potty. Sweet relief. And as I reentered the bus feeling much, much more joyful, I was rewarded with my very first Kinder-Egg-eating-experience (if you don’t know what a kinder egg is, it’s because it’s an illegal candy in the U.S. because it’s a “choking hazard” and you should google it, dream about how delicious it is, then write a petition to have them unbanned).
About the rest of the bus ride: I sat with THE Taylor Hill and there were a lot of very tight turns around very steep cliffs and there were multiple Asian movies played at extremely loud, some might say earsplitting, volumes and there was a dinner stop where we had this yummy ramen that I’d pay good money (in Nepali that’s like… $1) to have again.
DAYS THREE-SEVENISH (days get hazy)
We made it to Urlabari around 7am the next morning and were dropped off in the little “parking lot” of a “hospital” (emphasis on these Nepali things so you don’t imagine the American things you’re probably imagining). The 24 of us walked about 30 minutes into some fields and finally ended at the orphanage we’d be at for the week. We spent the week sifting sand to make finer sand for wall plaster, mixing cement for a storehouse floor, and making a badminton court for the children!
The Kids: There are 4 of them, 2 boys (Yakish and Sojin) and 2 girls (Ashika and Yashika) (they will get more kids soon!) -just the cutest things I’ve ever met. I’m taking Yashika home with me, no questions asked.
The Food: The two C’s- Curry and Carbs. Listen. I’ve never eaten so many carbs in my life. That is all we ate. For breakfast we had fried noodles and Parle G cookies or Buri (like a fried tortilla thing) with curry potatoes. Curry, I think, is the only spice worth anything here. For lunch and dinner it’s usually curry potatoes and rice and curry lentil soup thing and plain shell noodles. Or rice and curry spaghetti noodles and potatoes and sometimes a leafy green fried with pig fat chunks. They like to make us mango juice too- and that’s very delicious. Everything is yellow and white. I’d like to state that an all carb diet does weird things to your body that I just won’t get into detail on. But, just don’t ever try it, k?
So you know about Urlabari.
Now, we must chat about the mountains of Ilam.
DAYS EIGHTISH
We loaded up our highly downsized packs and set out at 5am on an hour van ride to the base of the mountains. From there, we backpacked through some of the most beautiful, untouched mountains I’ve ever seen. Reuben lead us up and down crazy paths I think maybe just for the fun of it, and 5 hours later, we had survived and made it to his parent’s home.
A humble home, complete with a couple of cows, several adult goats and 3 of the cutest baby goats you ever saw.
We set up tents, built a fire, and took a breather before our week began. This was a week without any electricity, without any stores or even towns within easy walking distance. We were there, fully.
DAY NINEISH-SEVENTEENISH
About 630am was when my body willing, without an alarm, liked to wake me up. So I’d make some coffee or tea with the fire-boiled water, grab my yogurt granola bar (Aspen brand-I brought 15 to the mountains- they were freaking delicious), and head to My Stump. The Stump is where I listened to Breakaway podcasts in the morning, hung out with Jesus, listened to the new Bethel album, etc. It was a little piece of alone time in the morning before the start of the day.
We spent the week passing 1000 bricks (for the school up the mountain) to three different piles (to get them all up said mountain), with the scenery of the river running through the mountains and the company of good question-askers and response-listeners to pass the hours of labor.
If you’re wondering what we talked about all week, I can sum that up pretty easy.
Restaurants we miss from home.
Our favorite ice cream/cake/pie/dessert.
The best holidays/holiday foods.
That one diner that you can’t stop craving.
Breakfast tacos.
Mexican Food.
Whole foods/Trader Joes/etc.
Coffee shops.
Meat.
More Mexican food.
Everything food. Everything. We’ve tried to put a cap on the food dreaming, but it’s difficult. We’re fighting the good fight. Please keep us in your prayers.
After work was done for the day, around 4 or 5, we’d head to the river and wade into the cold water with all our clothes on for a nice bath/laundry session. Classic kill two birds with one stone situation- clean body, clean clothes. Usually Reuben and Deben would build us a riverside fire and brew up some milk tea or water for coffee after our cold baths before we made the sopping wet hike back home.
Chilly, Starry nights were spent around the camp fire, sharing stories, eating our carbs, and talking about home. At night’s end, everyone would retire to their tents to bundle up to dream through the cold night.
And that routine was our week! It was everything beautiful and wonderful and primitive and needed for so many reasons.
The mountain brought about a lot of revelatory moments for me from the Lord, and I can’t wait to share them with y’all!! So be on the look out for another blog on that topic!
We finished out our ministry time in Urlabari completing some projects like painting and cement work (which brought us all so much peace and joy with its concrete floors- the dirt was everywhere in Ilam- and its small grocery store within a 30 minute walking distance). Everyone restocked on Snickers, as seen below, and I can no longer taste them because I have had so many this month.
Nepal has been an adventure. One filled with milk tea and construction ministry and mountaintop revelations and camp fires and bricks and river baths and good conversations and a great contact passionate about the mission the Lord has given him.
Somehow, someway, I’m done with month 6 on The World Race. Life is crazy, huh?
