Return from Kathmandu

Despite each of us being ill at different times during our trip everything went well in terms of the Conference and planning for our trip later in the year when we will be involved in a couple of projects.......one will be a building project and one will involve one of the local orphanages. It was great also to see Tanka, Rita and family and all our friends from the church and work with them during the week. It was lovely to see the reaction of the children in the Orphanage as they received their gifts(see previous entry) and it is always encouraging to see so many children and older folk wearing some of the clothes we send out for distribution ( The DVD that we produced "A Voiceless Cry"following our visit in 2009 documents this aspect of our work) As we left Kathmandu for Delhi we had some wonderful views of the nearby Himalayas and we look forward to returning later in the year.

End of a busy week

Despite having a stomach upset yesterday(Friday) Iain managed to muster enough energy to speak at The Family of God church this morning.This was followed with a planning meeting with Tanka and time for a rest before going out later in the evening with the church leaders and families to The Bakery Cafe in Kathmandu. Each of us have had stomach upsets over the last few days at different times and we were able to enjoy a welcome rest this afternoon. .......so much so that David and Iain are seen here having fallen into a deep sleep by the pool!

Gifts taken to the orphanage

We then visited the Orphanage that features in the DVD we filmed in 2009. Again we were looking to see if we could do some work there in the Autumn project which would involve some painting.Some of the clothes we send to Nepal are given to the children/Young people in this orphanage. Evidence of this was seen by the clothes they were wearing today some of which were from schools in Wokingham.
I spoke to all of them together(40 in number) with Rita translating and was able to present to each of them either a wash bag full of toiletries or a pencil case full of pencils,rubbers and pencil sharpeners . The bags were handmade by Wendy Black and all the contents were put together and donated by her. The children/young people were very grateful and delighted by these gifts. The picture of the two girls in the front capture this reaction. A big thank you goes to Wendy and also to Caroline her daughter for helping to organise getting these gifts to Nepal.

The Nursery and David's Tibetian scarf.

We then moved on to the Nursery run by Eliza..Tanka's Sassou(Mother in Law....as opposed to Massou which means buffalo!) and her three staff. We help support the Nursey and some of the second hand clothes we send go to the children pictured here. The children greeted us, sang us some songs and we were shown their work....all of which was really great. We were both greeted with a traditional Tibetian greeting which has been adopted in Nepal. Here is David wearing the scarf presented to him.

Building project for the Autumn

David and I went to check out a possible building project for the Autumn when some folk from KCW will be coming out to Nepal. The building is in Latipur,Kathmandu and the project would comprise building a Meeting Hall on the roof of their building of one of the Christian organisations who work with Students. David is pictured here measuring up and planning the proposed work.David is confident this can be completed in one week!

The Conference concludes

David arrived Wednesday afternoon and joined us for the last session of the conference that afternoon. We then went to the family of God house fellowship in the evening where Iain spoke and we prayed for Prakash and family who are moving on to a region in the west of Nepal.Prakash's work there will involve working in the community and with one of the churches.The conference finished today (Thursday) with Iain and I teaching our final sessions.The slow and absent roads will mean that it will take some of the leaders who attended up to two days to get back to their homes and communities.Hold ups on the M4 back home seem nothing compared with some of the challenges in travelling across country here.

The New Mini Van, Barrels and Scary Roads

Tanka and his daughter Rheema are pictured here with the new Mini Van that KCW helped to buy. I am pictures with them on a 'safer' part of that scary hill road! I have also pictured some of the recent barrel arrivals from Wokingham ,England.

No swimming but real coffee and Ray bans!

At the end of a busy day Iain asks Tanka if he could have a swim in the nearby River...the one which Rita explained yesterday to us she used to swim in as a child. Tanka is seen here explaining to Iain that was 25 years ago and that the water was a "little bit" cleaner then(see previous entries to see the River which also appeared on our DVD).....however so that Iain is not too disappointed he points out where they can go to get real coffee(a glorious Cafe Latte no less!) and ray bans for Keith...Marvellous!

The Journey continues

Iain and I shared five teaching sessions on day two of the Leaders Conference and there was a small group discussion/feedback session ( pictured above) Most of the leaders have arrived now coming from most of the regions of Nepal as well as from Northern India.

The Journey of faith commences

Having survived the "Mountain climb" Iain is pictured here teaching the opening session of the leaders Conference which started this afternoon.Rita is translating for Iain. We have two long days Tuesday and Wednesday and a slightly shorter final day on Thursday. The shorter day is to allow some of those attending enough time to travel home in time for church on Saturday. The British stopped on the borders of Northern India so the railways never reached Nepal. That means that a combination of slow dusty roads and walking (where the roads run out in the Hill regions ) is the only way home for many who have travel in for the Conference.

Scary Road,landslides and fresh fish

Today Tanka drove us up the side of a very large and steep sided hill (what we would consider to be a Mountain but compared to the Mountains in the nearby Himalayas is just a Hill!).
Halfway up the road narrowed considerably and dropped away rather steeply.Looking over the side of the road I mentally noted that if we went off the road we would tumble down several hundred feet of steep hillside.Combined with the speed of vehicles squeezing passed us in the opposite direction I wondered how many accidents happened on this road. At this point Tanka informed us that accidents were common on this road with many fatalities! This announcement would have been better timed once we had finished our ride and were safely back in the Kathmandu Valley. However we safely negotiated the climb, enjoyed some lovely views and at the top had lunch at a restaurant joined to a Japanese Rainbow Trout Farm. We watched as our lunch was caught,banged on the head and then cooked. The trout were certainly fresh and very tasty!

The Leaders Conference we are teaching at starts tomorrow and should be less daunting than navigating another road like the one we negiotated today !

Return to Kathmandu

Had a good journey from Heathrow to Kathmandu via Delhi. All went smoothly with only two minor incidents both involving Iain. The first was at the International transfers at Delhi airport.One of the officials there insisted on searching Iain all over about six times and then decided he would check Iain's mobile for several more minutes. This Internal transfer area because of past hold ups is not Iain's favourite part of the journey but he seemed to really enjoy this thorough search and both had become the best of friends with lots of laughter by the conclusion of the search! The second was on the onward flight to Kathmandu. Iain was having a good conversation with a girl from Tibet who was sitting next to him. They seemed to be talking about Monkeys, Tigers ,Bridal suites and large balconies. I was drifting in and out of sleep when I became aware that the nice young lady was asking Iain for his e mail address and Iain,under some pressure was refusing.Soon after that both nodded off and peace was restored!