Makwenpur

A little girl in Makwanpur

A tattered and rusty jeep came two hrs late to take us on our journey of 7 hrs to get to Mawkenpur. Enough room to hold seven people with one missing seat…but we all fit. Our trip began with a traffic jam a few miles up the road as road construction (it never ends here) had begun on a proposed underpass. We sat in the heat between two large beasts of buses waiting with sweat rolling down our backs and dust blowing in the window. Mouth scarves are necessary but hot. Twenty minutes later we were on our way down more dusty roads to get out of Kathmandu and on our way. I am reminded of the resilience of Nepali people as I peer out the window at shop after shop selling the same things. Buses, trucks and motorcycles continue to weed in and out of traffic throwing up dust everywhere and on every thing.

Roads twist and turn. Dirt and dust is belched up from the roads as we follow other vehicles up

The road to Makwanpur

and around mountain peaks. Seven hours of bouncing and being jolted to reach our destination, and yet as I look over the vista toward the other side of the valley we are moving past, I am reminded of the beauty created and the people we are going to serve. Every time we get on some pavement I think…wow, finally, and then it lasts about ¼ of a mile and again we are on rutted bumpy roads. The team consists of Autumn from Georgia, Sandip, Kalpana, Sher and Bikash, a young man who has done photography for me in years past. I can’t express the appreciation I have for all these people.

We arrived at our destination in the early evening … took a walk and checked into a very small hotel, thru the kitchen and up three flights of stairs. Simple rooms. Beds as hard as plywood but a toilet in the room! Yeah … heaven. We eat at a local pastor’s brothers’ eating establishment , walk and turn in for the the night. Early the next morning we rise, have a breakfast of eggs and walk to the church that Koreans built some years back. Koreans have flooded Nepal with many churches in many towns and villages.

Our program brought 120 people from villages in the hills of Makwenpur. Some walked over six hours to reach us and walked by that evening. Autumn told the story of the Samaritan woman at the well to a captive audience. All are welcome no matter who you are or what you have done … all are welcome. Then she gave a brief class on hygiene. Sandip gave the Message and challenged the people on why they come to church. We prayed, sang and dismissed early enough so many of the women could walk back up the mountains. We distributed to each family a 30 kg bag of rice as these are people who struggle much for their faith and because they have so little. We also fed everyone lunch before their return to their homes.

A mist was crawling down the sides of the mountains as we returned. Thick and grey it hovered over the roads in spots obliterating our view. Terraced paddies covered the hills that were across the valley with every color of green imaginable. Pine trees filtered sunlight fading behind us and glistened the leaves as it filtered through in streams of light. The otherwise drab green of dust covered foliage across the vast expanse of valleys gave a different and beautiful view of farm life. The sun was setting behind us…life was slowing down. This view was a delight to the eyes on our return.

Returning to Kathmandu reminded me of why I come. A people who need hope for the future with God. What little I can do, I do. Again we traveled 7 hours to reach home, take bucket baths and fall into our beds into a deep slumber, but not before Saru fed us a wonderful dinner of chicken, rice and saag.

Wednesday, October 10

Getting medicine at the pharmacy

We went and visited Sagar, the young man ChangeforHope put through Pharmacy college. We helped him to establish his first pharmacy and he is doing very well now. We went to have him help purchase medicine for the Health Camp in Babare on the 20th. He and Autumn went through the list of medications he felt would be good for village people. Sher and Sandip were our trusted rides again on their motorcycles.

Thursday, October 11

Sher told us about the small cluster of families in a village called Sangla and, asked if we would go. So again we climbed upon our trusted rides (Autumn and I) and rode for over two hrs up, up, up – rounds and around- down around and down around again into the hills. I can’t express to you unless you have ever ridden in a 4

Going to Sangla!

wheeler on rugged roads what it was like. And can I say again- DUST!! And slippery mud and slippery rocky mud! Needless to say my legs were exhausted from holding on and Autumn and I walked a few times as declines looked too rugged to be a passenger! We finally parked under some trees in a bend in the road and began a gradual walk up and down to the village, which was perched on the side of a tip of a hill. A very small place with extremely poor people who are day laborers and of a low caste here in Nepal. Being low caste, they have little future for anything but labor type work. The children and families were so excited for us to come. Autumn did another health awareness on washing hands and Sher gave the message of Hope. We again distributed bags of rice (which had been brought up earlier by others) and made our way home again. One woman was very interested in what Sher had to say…we pray for her and the others. Children were sweet and came to be less afraid as we left.

A child in Sangla

The next day, I spent a few hours at Orchid Garden, a wonderful place for children to grow and learn. Bina takes care of the lowest of the low caste children for free while many of the parents crack rocks all day long for a living. She is wonderful as is her program. She directed me to her kitchen and her husband and I had lunch and chatted about the future. When people do well for others in Nepal often the rent on the establishment goes up 15% a year which has happened with Bina. She hopes to buy land in the near future but we as we spoke I realized this would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to accomplish. I am praying for her. I will revisit at the end of this trip to see what I can do for her as we have in the past.

Saturday is church. I went to meet with people I have known for years. Rajan Thebe started this church in 1998, I believe. Familiar faces were there. I did a short testimony about God’s faithfulness in our lives (Romans 8:28) and that his time is not in our thoughts of time. There was a South African group that came and sang and danced (this is a tiny church) and it was wonderful and of course I danced too. The minister now lives with his family in Lalipur and is from the Baptist Church. Great service from Matthew on praying – what it is and what it is not. So wonderful. Many hugs and blessings, great music (even if I could not understand the words).