My team left this morning for southern Nepal to a city called Haripur in the county of Sarlahi. A private bus came to pick us up at 7:30AM. We loaded our bags and set off. After a quick stop at the store to pick up food for the day (peanut butter, nutella, crackers, and peanuts), we headed straight for the mountains. I was excited to sleep a little on the bus, but any hope of that was smashed with the first pot hole. The roads were bumpy and laden with cutbacks through the side of the Himalayas.
At times we were low in the valleys, and then we would be up at the top of the mountain looking down at the valley we just came from. There was one point in our trip where we were at the top of a mountain and all the jeeps in front of us came to a stop. We parked in queue and waited. We weren’t sure what we were waiting for until finally, our driver checked and told us that there had been an avalanche up ahead. Right after the news, we saw a bull dozer pass us. We waited for maybe a half hour, and then continued on our way. Now that’s something that doesn’t happen every day. We drove over a huge mound of dirt and rock as we leaned to the left then the right in hopes of not toppling down the side of the mountain. Most of the driving was on a small road that had maybe 5 inches of room from the edge that kept us from falling off the side. When cars came from the other direction, I definitely had moments of doubt that we were ever going to make it.
We drove over flooded roads, over rivers that shot water up over the windows, past huge waterfalls, and lots of wildlife. We saw billygoats, monkeys sitting in trees, and children swimming in large bodies of water. About half way through the drive, smoke started coming out of the front of the vehicle and we smelled brakes. The van continued to smoke the rest of the way. After hours of driving up and down and past villages in the mountains, we finally made it to flat land. This was the jungle. This is where Bhuvan told us not to get out of the vehicle under any circumstance. And this is where the tire popped. We didn’t have a choice. Brody got out to help the driver.
Now that we were out of the mountains, we realized that Nepal is going to be just as hot as India.
The drive took just over 7 hours, and the whole of it was beautiful. We had only two close calls, but our driver was a combination of Tokyo Drift and Top Gear (credit to Garrett and Josi for coming up with this comparison). That means that our driver was pro and had experienced the treacherousness of this drive more than once.
As the time got closer for us to arrive, every village we passed was a possibility of being our new home. I would look at the market as we passed and then decide if I hoped we would stay near there or keep moving. Finally, we took a turn off the main road, and I knew we were close. We pulled up next to a church, a two-story house, and a school building. A man came out to meet us with a smile on his face. We knew then that we had made it.
We are so close to the Indian border that we keep questioning if this is really Nepal. Month two for Rooted Freedom is actually going to take place in Nepdia – a combination of Nepal and India. We will be spending this month ministering in the jungles of Nepal. Who knew that such a place existed?
