My favorite day of the Race:
This month in Nepal was…I can’t even find the words to describe the deep love I felt for my Nepali family, my team, for the Lord, and how I felt so loved and pursued by all of them. I felt like my heart was marinating in a puddle of love.
My favorite day so far on the Race began the day after Easter. On Easter Sunday my team traveled with our Nepali family to their vacation home in Gorkha, about five hours outside of Kathmandu. Three years ago Papa built a tiny mud hut in the mountains where his family can escape the chaos of the city and rest with the Lord amidst the grandeur of His creation. We bumped and jostled our way through the mountain roads until we arrived and set up our tents outside the hut. That night we snuggled together and slept under a sea of stars.
My favorite day ever began at 5AM when I was awoken by the intense urge to pee. I crawled out of my tent and made my way down the hill to the poop shack, a teensy shack made of sticks with a pit toilet inside. I peed and was walking back to my tent when Papa emerged from the forest with a massive grin on his face. When Papa smiles his entire face, his entire body, smiles. He belted out a, “Good Morning!” that woke up the entire mountain. He gave me a big hug and pointed out to the incredible view their land overlooks. Mountains rose high above the clouds that rested quietly in the valley below. I was too awake to ever go back to sleep. I grabbed my Bible from my tent and went to sit on the porch of the mud hut. I sat reading my Bible all snuggled up with my teammate Jezie. After a few minutes Papa brought us steaming cups of sweet black tea. He pointed to our Bibles and with his ever present smiled said, “YES! GOOD!”. A few minutes later an old man walked up and sat down on the porch. Pointing to himself he yelled, “Me. Daddy.” He pointed to Jezie and I and said, “You. Daughters.” Ok, random old man. That was really cute. We all laughed.
Jezie and I sat on the front porch for hours as random people walked by the hut introducing themselves and then going on about their day. Eventually Allie and Kaylin woke up and we ate breakfast with the family. Hard boiled eggs and deliciously seasoned rice with carrots and cabbage. After breakfast Papa said, “Ok. Today you rest. You travel for much time and you need rest. Spend time with God.” You have no idea how incredible it was to have a host that cared so much for our well being both physically and spiritually. Papa knew that Nepal was our 7th month on the Race. He knew how much we needed to recharge. He brought us to his little vacation home to allow us the time and space to take the deep breath we desperately needed.
Our precious Ma and Pa. Just look at Pa’s smile.
The rest of my team curled up like puppies on the front porch of the hut and slept for hours. I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to see more of the mountain. I went exploring with Gresha, Papa’s youngest daughter and her friend Ayisha. We walked the dirt roads to a little village where we sat under a huge, beautiful tree and I braided their hair. We walked through fields collecting flowers and putting them in each others hair. We laid in a hammock, played badminton with a set of rackets that Papa brought, and held baby goats. We climbed up a huge dirt pile and slid down it on our butts. I had so much fun. Sometimes I have this fierce need to just be a kid playing in dirt. Rest for me that day looked like hanging out with two eleven year old girls in the mountains and that’s exactly what God knew I needed. Ugh. He is so good to me.
Ayisha, a beauty.
In the afternoon, Gresom, Papa’s son, who was our main host and translator, arrived with Hannah and Sara. Hannah hadn’t been feeling well so she rested a bit more in Kathmandu before coming to Gorkha. Gresom brought a soccer ball and within minutes of him arriving at the mud hut we were all walking down the mountain to a field to play soccer. We picked up some kids along the way and soon after splitting into teams, it began to pour down rain. We played in the downpour and laughed so hard. One little boy pushed Kaylin over with the force of a freight train leaving her to land on her butt in a huge puddle. We were all covered in mud, soaking wet, and cracking up. Thunder and lightning crashed around us and we huddled together under a tree (everything they tell you not to do in a storm lol). Eventually we scrambled up the slippery slope, sopping wet, back to the mud hut laughing once again.
Muddy and happy after soccer
That night we all crammed into the tiny, one room hut to eat dinner. We sat in a circle, all cross legged, knee to knee and passed bowls steaming with rice, chicken, and vegetables. Nepali food is incredible. The way they blend and combine textures and flavors is truly an art. The only light came from two tiny candles in the middle of the floor. After dinner Papa brought out his guitar and handed it to Jezie. We sat huddled together, rain pattering on the tin roof and joined our voices together to worship our creator by candle light. It was magical. So much love filled that small space.
At one point during worship I looked up and saw a spider the actual size of my face on the wall behind Jezie’s head. I immediately let out a screech which sent everyone into a panic. Papa grabbed his Bible and smashed the spider as we all leapt away. At that same moment, Sara spotted another behemoth spider on the opposite wall. Gresom reached for a broom and swatted at it sending the spider flying across the room. We all yelped and ran to the other side of the tiny hut. Imagine it. All twelve of us hunched over in a microscopic mud hut running, shrieking, and leaping over candles to avoid the spiders as they flew across the room and onto the floor. I did what any rational human would do in such a crisis and jumped on Allie’s back. She ran through the mob of spiders and bodies and dove out the pea sized front door. We landed in a scramble of screams and limbs on the front porch and lay there cracking up brushing any remaining spider parts off our bodies.
Just then Kaylin burst through the doorway, slipped on the door mat, flailed with a look of sheer panic, and landed sprawled, face down on the porch. For a split second everything was silent and then she pathetically moaned and said, “Yup. This is where I live. I’ll just be here.” I wish so badly I could let you see inside my brain as I replay that moment. It. Was. Hilarious. I was laughing so hard that I was curled up in a fetal position holding my crotch so I wouldn’t pee. The laughter was uncontrollable, bursting from my lungs. We lay all jumbled up on a tiny pitch black mud porch in the middle of a mountain in Nepal and howled. After all the spiders had been killed, Papa’s head poked out the doorway and said, “What happen?!” which sent us into another round of side splitting cackles.
Gresom – our brother, host, and translator. He’s too cool for us.
That night as I lay snuggled next to Allie listening to the rain fall softly on the tent, mud puddles, the smell of freshly picked wild roses, the sound of guitar strings and voices colliding and swirling around a small mudroom all bathed in candlelight filled my head. Scenes from the day replayed over and over in my mind as I recounted one of the most incredible twenty-four hours I’ve lived on this Earth.
My heart is bursting with love as I sit here typing in a hostel in Yerevan, Armenia. Nepal, I miss you so much. You were joy, deep, deep love, and unashamed emotion pouring into and out of me. To my Nepali family – I cannot thank you enough for everything you taught me. God – You never cease to amaze me. My eyes have been opened anew to your never ending pursuit of my soul. My meager, “thank you” will never be enough to express how I feel.
