From the Top of the World. Rain and chill has filled the air for the last three days. Grey clouds are filtered with light only when strikes of lightning are seen. This is most unusual for this time of the year. Snowcapped mountains, mist hovering half way up, greets me this morning. The skies have cleared a bit ( Saturday here) and occasionally the sun will peek out behind it veil of mystery of what is coming.

We managed to slip out for a few hrs and purchased the two computers for Mercy Childrens Home in Pokhara which we will deliver Sunday. Rotary Club of New York has been gracious enough to supply these and with the extra funds from the donation we will purchase educational supplies and perhaps a ping pong table for the children to play on.

After we returned with the computers, Sandip ran out in the rain to purchase three heavy duty sewing machines so that women in a local womans group can sew and sell things for an elderly home that is being prayed for. The land has been purchased and now the funds are being raised for a building. Nepal like many other countries has lost some of it traditional values by abandoning their elderly. Unlike America where most have some income, the elderly in Nepal have little income if any at all. My host family informed me of this need and we found the funds to buy these machines. Less than $300 and all three were purchased and are now set up in the church building. Bargaining is part of the purchases here and we got a very good deal.
Tomorrow we leave for Pokhara. More to come after our trip there…..

Mountains met us at every turn with incredible sites, from about 20 km into our trip. Majestic and white as if painted in the skyline with terraced slopes filled with a Kaleidoscope of colored crops growing. The muddy river rushes over rocks and debris meandering past little city after little city…then up and up and around and around another curve. Busses pass as do cars and motorcycles without apparent concern for oncoming traffic. There are some rules I cannot comprehend and decide to only open my eyes periodically. Heheh… after 7 hrs we reach Pokhara. A breath of fresh air and the Annapurna mountain range is a clear as I have ever witnessed it to be.

The next day we went shopping for Mercy Childrens Home. Sandip and Kalpana worked with the shop owner for 3 hrs in order to get the educational supplies needed for the 14 children at the home. Bargaining is always part of the culture. God once again blessed this time and we were able to get an entire years required curriculum for the 14 children and also purchased other Educational books a new white board and a world map to enhance the children’s learning. Along with the two laptops we purchased in Kathmandu that were loaded with Math, English and Science, the children are set for a year. The day went by quickly and we drove into the country where the home is located.

We got to Mercy Childrens home around 3:30 in the afternoon and set up everything we had purchased in the Study Hall before the children arrived at 5. Sher announced to the children that there were some new things for them…and we opened up the study to reveal the items. Of course we also got play items including soccer balls, a basketball and volley balls ( a pump too), rackets to play bat mitten with, a ring toss game they play and other smaller items. After 30 mimutes the children were still looking at books and really loving it. Of course the boys immediately went to pump up the balls. We are currently looking into having a cement ping pong table built, which will be a project, hopefully before I go.