Nepal has not been a normal month, if you could call any month on the race normal. It has stretched my Type A, high accuracy, structured self to the max. It has pushed my non-athletic (sedentary) body to what I thought were its limits.
You know what? I’m perfectly fine. I’m nothing if not a little over dramatic. We as humans are remarkably resilient.
This month we started our month with debrief in Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal. It’s the perfect little tourist area where you can get filet mignon and a ‘North Face’ for $7. Our ministry began that week. We went into the city where we felt led to go and just spent time with people. My little group spent an hour with a shopkeeper just talking about his life.
We then went to Koteshwor, Kathmandu where our host Ruben lived. My team was paired with 2 other teams which we affectionately dubbed “Squad .5” as it was half of the squad. While the other teams departed for a week of separate ministry, we went to an orphanage for kids who lost one or both parents in the earthquake. At 6 in the morning we sang songs and acted out stories with the kids. Having ministry done by 9 was definitely strange.
We then took a 17-hour bus ride (dinner at 1 am is a blast) to Urlabari where Ruben and his brother are constructing an orphanage. There we did assembly lines moving bricks up to the third floor. A few days later we continued on the next leg of our journey.
We then drove about an hour outside of Urlabari to our hiking point. We hiked 4 hours through the mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous! I only died a little. We reached the village of Dong Donge (spelling is probably wrong) that we later found out was started by Ruben’s parents. There we were constructing a room for a schoolhouse. The school there was started for the children locally; prior to construction children would die crossing the river trying to get to the next closest school. Construction consisted of digging trenches, hand mixing cement, going 50+ feet down in a gorge to collect water and stones for the foundation. It was the month for physical labor! That was the whole of our ministry. Hiking back, we stuck to the base of the mountains and crossed a river 12 times. It was a tad cold but quite the experience!
This month has been challenging for me because it pulled me out of my comfort zone. Sleeping 5 different places in 5 days, hiking, manual labor, etc. None of these would really be on my “to do” list. But ultimately I believe that they have served the purpose of serving the community and putting to rest some of my “structured” mindset.
Katie
