This month, we were with some lovely ladies.
When we first arrived in Kathmandu, we had to stay for the night at Asha House, a part of Nepali Youth Ministries. Our main contact runs the 4-story house which employs women and girls who have been rescue from forced prostitution in India. They were so sweet, always smiling! I don’t have pictures of most of them… but a few amazing ladies did really take care of us this month. Here are the ones we couldn’t have lived without:
Pooja
One of the young ladies who lives at Asha House. At only 17, she was our translator for the whole month in the village! We literally could not have done any ministry without her.
Our first week there, she celebrated her 18th birthday. How amazing that an 18-year-old girl would leave her beloved city and all her friends to spend her birthday in a dusty rural village with a group of strangers? Pooja handled everything with that beautiful smile. And here’s a fun fact: her name means “worship” in Nepali.
Pooja wasn’t the only young one who proved to be an enormous help. Little Dipika (dee-pee-kah… or just “Dippy Cup”), our 12-year-old neighbor, spoke English remarkably well. She helped us navigate the crowded market, and explained so much about local life. She and her brother Johanas were pretty entertaining, too.
Dipika
Our host family was pretty awesome, too. Their daughter-in-law, Elaina, is sassy and beautiful. She has some sort of UN-related grant writing job for the local Rural Women Upliftment Association, so her English was awesome too. She had us take a glamour shot of her on picnic day:
Elaina
And of course, our actual contact, Pastor Achut and his wife. We never learned her name, but we called her Genie. No restaurant in the world could make better samosas than this lady. And like most of our friends from this year, smiling in pictures just isn’t “done”.
And with that, we wrap up Nepal and Asia. From here on out, the Faces you see here will look a lot more like me! The girls and I are pretty excited to not be stared at and photographed in public. Asia and Africa have their distinct beauty, and there are things I love about every place we have lived.
Now that we’re in the Moscow airport, I’m realizing how much of my heart is in and for Europe. No, I’m not going back to France just yet, but being closer in proximity and culture has me very hopeful about the next two months. So let me ask you: what would you like to see and read on my blog from Ukraine and Romania?
-Katie
