Kids will be kids

When I stepped out of the airplane and breathed in the air filled with the wonderful sent of cumin, coriander, and turmeric I knew I was in Nepal.  Leaving the airport for the crowed, noisy streets and my hosts meeting me with their shy smiles and greetings of Jaimashi, transitioned me that first night back to a place I’ve grown to love and a people I care deeply about.  This trip I am meeting with some new communities that wish to develop more fully their care for orphans and vulnerable children.

Carpet tying is one of the lowest paying jobs one can have in Nepal.  Carpet workers generally live in brick rooms next to the factory. Having recently priced carpets for my home, I know these hand-knotted versions cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.  It’s sad to see that this does not trickle down to the workers whom make less then $1 and hour for their work.  The families I visited had four to seven people living in an 8 x10 foot room.  The rooms had one or two beds, a cabinet and a hot plate.  Children played in the dirt courtyard while their parents work in the factory nearby.  A pump outside provided water and outhouse sanitation facilities.  The hours are long.  One woman said she generally works from 4 am to 7 pm unless they are rushed to finish an order in which case she works even longer hours.  Neither the rooms nor the small factory have heat or air conditioning.  One particular factory had rooms for eleven families.  Children Rescue Mission (CRM) is working with a number of families who live in these circumstances. I hope to help them increase their services and create more comprehensive systems of care targeted at the specific needs of each family.

A few days after first meeting this group of families.   We held an evening event there. Children and adults poured into the dirt courtyard.  The children pushed one another forward to greet me.  Wanting to interact with a foreigner, but not wanting to be the first.  I began taking pictures and they warmed up.  The kids all wanted their pictures taken with their friends and the adults wanted their picture taken with me.  

After some live music, the kids were given a lesson on hygiene.  It is so hard to stay clean and healthy living in such meager surroundings.   Hand washing before eating is not common among the lower class but everyone eats with his or her hands.   I made a silly pantomime of washing my hands, and another team member did the same with tooth brushing.  They each received a gift bag with a bar of soap, washcloth, toothbrush and paste, nail clippers, pencil, school copybook, and a bracelet.  The also all received a blown up balloon.  Of course the balloons were the exciting part.  The kids were thrilled to receive the big colorful balloons and the courtyard was soon filled with squeals of excitement.   After the gifts were handed out, a meal was served to all the kids and parents working at that factory.  They squatted Asian style in small groups eating the rice, lentils and meat enjoying this special evening, something they seldom have the luxury of.  CRM will begin assessing these families and their needs.  Does the family have basic needs (food and shelter) met?  Are there any handicapped family members or members with medical needs?  Do the children attend school?  Is there a way to supplement their income with one parent running a small business?  These people are a joy and a blessing to spend time with; I’m so thankful to be a part of improving their lives.

"share your food with the hungry..."

What a privilege it was to serve the people of Nepal today.  Another flight was taken into the mountains with rice.  This time we flew to a to a remote village in Gorkha called Nyak not far from the Tibetan boarder.  This Buddhist village at almost 7500 foot elevation (Denver is 5280) was suggested by a local pastor as a group needing aid.  The people normally walk on what could loosely be called a trail in a treacherous route down the mountain to the river below.  After seven days walking they can reach a very small town where they can buy items they need or catch a bus into Kathmandu.  A landslide has closed off the walking trail so even that option is no longer open.  The 6000 lb of rice delivered by helicopter today will help them until the trail can be uncovered, probably not until October or November.

We weren't sure if we'd even be able to land when we reached there but the villagers had prepared a small helipad about 10 x 20 feet with a 1000 ft precipice on one side. But that was sufficient.  It took seven trips by helicopter to bring the rice into Nyak thanks to our friends at Mission Aviation Fellowship who are giving us a 90% discount on the flights.



We also gave a ride up the mountains to a young mother and her baby who had not been able to return home since the landslide and gave a ride down to three high school students who had been cut off from coming back to their boarding school.   There is a building for an elementary school in the village but no teacher.

Situations like this exist all over Nepal.  This beautiful land is so rugged much of it is inaccessible.  Programs like ours are meeting the immediate need of the people for food during this time of crisis, but we will also be here long term.  We will be working with communities like Nyak to bring the services everyone should have access to like education and health care as well as helping individual families to create a safe environment for their children where basic needs are met.  We will be caring for children without parents to look after them in family settings and advocating for the rights of women and children.

These are exactly the actives we are told to do in Isaiah 58:6.7

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"

Rice Flight

After two days of heavy rain, we had good weather today for flying and took rice by helicopter to the town of Jagart in the Gorkha district.  Or I should say Mahadev made the flight.  I stayed back to work on my SWU class which I am currently teaching from afar.  I was really torn because I would love to see the view but only one person can fit and 1. I don't speak Nepali so he is more useful., 2. I get sick on any kind of amusement park ride, 3. I sometimes have to fight irrational panic when my feet get to far off the ground. 

This area was the epicenter of the earthquake on April 25, 2015.  The remote area is barely accessible in the best of times and is now cut off except by helicopter.  The area is made up of very rocky steep mountains where people live literally on the side of a cliff.  In this pic you can see that the only flat spot is along the river.  Unfortunately, landslides have blocked the trail, used for trekking, that runs along the river so people can't even walk out with donkeys as they used to.  We have made several trips to this area taking 6000 lbs of rice each time.  The helicopter must fly back and forth two or three times to get all the rice delivered.  They fly to a certain town with the copter loaded with fuel.  The rice is brought by truck to the same town.  From there one hour trips are made up with rice going back and forth. The helicopter is taken as far as possible but even at this people hike for four or five hours to reach the meeting point.  The villages further into the mountains do not have a flat place for the helicopter to land so Jagart is as far as we can go.  If you flew about 1/2 hour more you could reach Tibet.  Each time we are met with shouting and dancing villagers.  Local pastors are on hand to help with distribution.  Even the Nepali military men stationed near the boarder with China (Tibet) have by thankful for our rice as they have not received any other assistance themselves.  We have been receiving a 90% discount from  Mission Aviation Fellowship for the flights.  This discount will only be available for two more weeks so we will try and get in two more shipments before the fee is raised. If one happens before I leave, maybe I'll reconsider flying.  Thank you for you generosity which has made this possible!

On a personal note.  I had a tooth ache shortly after I arrived.  Dentist visit with panoramic x-ray $5.  Two kinds of antibiotics and a pain reliever $2.50 (which my hostess thought was unreasonable so she ask the clerk if he was ripping me off because I was a foreigner).  Think I'll get a crown done and pay for my plane ticket in savings!

Food Relief in the Mountains

July third was spent delivering food stuffs to a remote area of Nepal in the Ramechhap District.  Because of landslides blocking the road, we were only able to go to a town shortly over the border of this district to meet the people needing assistance.  Each village sent several representatives to bring back the supplies of rice, lentils, salt and cooking oil.  These folks walked anywhere from one to eight hours to reach the drop-off location.  Not a simple stroll either but a hike over 2, 3, or 4 mountains at altitudes of up to 12,000 feet!  Sadly, all of these villagers have damaged or destroyed homes.  The rock and mud structures, with no foundation, crumbled under the power of the moving earth.  One village,  the one we slept in on our first trip to Nepal, was completely covered by a landslide and is no longer inhabitable at all.  It's 34 households are currently living in tents on a small bit of land provided by the government, but hope to buy a piece of land together large enough for everyone to build a small home on.

Metal roofing was also delivered by tractor to a school which lost it's roof in the earthquake (the May 12 aftershock of over 7 on the Richter scale was centered in this district).  The roofs are traditionally made of slate so they did not hold up well in the earthquake and are difficult to rebuild.  This metal roofing will allow school to resume soon. 


On the way back we had a flat.  It was all in all a 17 hour journey, most of that driving.  It was very hot and dusty.  With no AC you had to keep the windows open.  When I showered that night rivers of mud ran out of my hair.  In reality it's actually less hot here then back home in SC but with no AC it sure seems hotter!   If you want to see more pics check out the Nepal and India page.

July trip to Nepal

June 30 - July 14 I (Rebecca) will be in Nepal.  My goals there are

• Deliver aid 
• Assessments of at-risk families. 
• Pilot  project foster families
• Meet with New Hope Nepal board members and lawyer  
• Development of family strengthening and foster care programs
  

 I appreciate everyone's prayers for my journey.  You can follow this trip here, on newhopenepal.blogspot.com, or on the New Hope Nepal facebook page.  Also, don't forget to check out our website newhopenepal.net

Paris

What a great opportunity we had to take Anderson University students to Paris for spring break.  We had a wonderful trip visiting so many sights!  It is amazing that buildings built 1000 years ago  are still standing.  I love the beautiful cathedrals of Sainte Chapelle, Notre Dame, Sacre Cour, and Mount Saint Michel.  The Louvre has art and artifacts from all over the world.  No need to travel anywhere else!  So many other great museums to visit also.  Iconic sights like the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe are fun to see, and climb.  And the food, oh glorious food!  You'll find all kinds of pictures on the Paris page.  I'm thinking of arranging a trip for home educated high schoolers in two years.  What do you think?

Nepal Trip

First Days in Nepal

We arrived in Nepal after 26 hrs of flying and several layovers.  Our first day was spent planning for the week and visiting the old Palace.  The city of Kathmandu has about 2.5 million people, a bit bigger then Houston.  For reference, Houston covers 600 sq miles but Kathmandu is squashed into 200.  Although Bangalore, where we spent 3 months in 2012 had 10 million people it was very similar to Kathmandu in many ways.  Kathmandu has few paved roads so it is very dusty but not as much garbage as Bangalore (this was a major problem there).  There are no lines on the roads, stop lights or stop signs in Kathmandu so driving is crazy!  

The second day, Saturday, is the day they hold church services here as it is the day off from work.  After the services we had a great meeting with the leaders of Bethlehem Church in Kathmandu. The people are just lovely! On the topic of foster care, there are three ladies in the church who are caring for children in their homes already and the pastor has what we would call a small group home in his house.  This is important as it means it is a concept they are open to and interested in.   We also spoke with them about a livelihood project, which, in our previous communications with them, they had expressed an interest in.  On the topic of business development, they were very excited about the thought of starting a revolving loan in their church and full of lots of great ideas.   A number own their own businesses but are struggling to sustain them.  From this information we learned what is important to them and how to best partner to assist the Nepali people.

Nepal has been in the process of developing a constitution since the civil war ended in 2006.  They are holding elections for what will be the third attempt at a constitutional congress (this is a first in history, no other country has taken three congresses to come up with a constitution).  These elections were scheduled after we bought our tickets or we wouldn't have come at this time.   We were worried that the elections would cause us not to be able to accomplish our work.  There were some  marches for the various political candidates and strikes scheduled.  Several Nepalis advised us to change our plans but that just wasn't possible.  We asked for prayer about this and spent a lot of prayer time on it ourselves.  Praise the Lord he answered all these prayers.  The strikes came to nothing and the only effect we saw of the elections was that there was less traffic in the capital for a few days before.   All parties signed an agreement not to interfere with tourist as that is the countries main income source. 

Days 3-5 in Nepal.

On Sunday, we met with about 40 representatives from 20 non-denominational churches around Kathmandu.   We shared information on foster care and on revolving loan/business coaching programs.  We also divided them into groups and had them answer questions to give us a better idea of their thoughts on both ideas and how they see their church participating.   All the pastors were enthusiastic and had some wonderful ideas to share.   We provided lunch for them and enjoyed a time of worship and prayer as well.  

During these three days we also visited the church free meal program, two small group homes in the city, and with Prison Fellowship Nepal's director.   The group homes each had ten children living with a family.  These family-like settings are a step in the right direction and the host families really love the kids.   Prison Fellowship has a foster care program for prisoner's children (who otherwise would be living with their parents in the prison).  The director shared information about their program such as the contracts they have with the families, how they select the families, and how they select the children.  He also discribed other wonderful activities the group is doing to change the life of prisoners in Nepal.  

On election day we stayed in the house transcribing the information we gathered from the churches from Nepali to English.  We had the groups of 3-4 pastors answer questions in writing so these were translated and put into a spread sheet for later.  We also worked with our fantastic host, Mahadev, on plans for our trip to the village and how we would modify our presentation for this group.

Village tour

We spent the last four days seeing "the real Nepal".  This trip was not for the faint of heart.  We should have know it would be difficult travel.  While looking at a map and asking our host about the roads, when we got to this end part, he said, "No road brother, no road."  It took 12 hours driving to travel 150 miles because of the condition and windiness of the roads.   The last four hours of travel was only 25 miles which was not actually classified as a road.  The sides were very steep and it was a scarey ride.  I was thankful we were caring three pastors in the car.  Although not theologically correct, I felt like I had a better chance of surviving with these men of God in the car!  We then walked a goat trail on the side of a very steep hill as the village did not have a road going all the way.   Luckily, it was dark by then so it wasn't until the next morning that I knew there was a 900 ft drop on the sides.  Actually, the region we went to, Ramechhap, was only 60 miles from Kathmandu as the crow flies but since we don't have a helicopter it took us all day. 

Kathmandu has been very similar to India but a few steps down on the development scale. The rural area was like nothing we've seen. Unbelievably beautiful, literally the foothills of the Himalayas, but a very difficult life.  Living on the side of a mountain, carving out terraces, sometimes only 3 - 5 feet wide, to farm on.  A bit of electricity from small (notebook paper size) solar panels. Growing just enough to live on and no way to make money to buy the things you can't make yourself.   People survive on millet or rice.  Some have banana or orange trees, and some have cows or water buffalo for milk.  There are no doctors or pharmacies.  There is a very poor quality government school 2-4 hours walk one way.  These government schools have very high teacher student ratios (one in India had 2 teachers for 250 students), just a few books to share, no sanitation facilities, and the teaching methods would be considered emotional abuse in the US.

In the village we met with thirty-three pastors from sixteen mountain churches to discuss a family strengthening and livelihood project. These men had walked from mountain tops all around some for up to four hours to meet with us. How humbling! It was fantastic to hear their ideas and learn from them about the needs of the community.  We talked about what they felt children needed to be safe and healthy and how we could help the poverty level in the area.  After this discussion, God gave me a model for a family strengthening program in this rural area which includes training someone to do assessment of families at risk in six key indicators, monitoring them regularly and providing resources when needed, and to provide the community with training in the areas the pastors felt were weak such as child development, nutrition, and the importance of education.  By far the most important need to everyone at the meeting was a good school for their children.  They are very distressed by the effect living there has on their children's lack of education.  We have been discussing then best way to meet this need probably by training locals in education practices with the help of US volunteers (be praying about this any teachers out there) and providing scholarships to youth who want to pursue a degree in teaching.

The second day we hiked to another mountain village, Priti (pronounced pretty) where we were the first foreigners ever to visit. To get there we hike down "our" mountain, starting at 4947 ft elevation (that's a bit less then Denver at 5280 and for you SC peeps it is more then 2x Table Rock). We hiked down the mountain to the bottom of the valley at 4012 ft. Then we ascended to 6630 feet to the top of the next mountain. That is a 2600 ft elevation gain! (hiking Table Rock you hike at 850 ft elevation gain). It was very difficult because we were already so high up and the air is thinner.   It took a bit to learn how to breath deep enough. We spent four hours at the top and then repeated the process in reverse. The entire trip was 12 miles and it took us almost seven hours. Our total elevation gain was 3500 feet. That's like climbing Table Rock over 4x in one day!

It was so worth the trouble! Of course the view of Everest was amazing.    More then that though, the people were so grateful to us.  As I said, no foreigners had ever been there before.  Another group was supposed to come a month ago for the dedication of their church but couldn't make it up the mountain and they had been so disappointed.  They know it is hard to get to them and were so pleased we made the effort.  They repeatedly thanked us and we participated in a ceremony at the church to make up for their loss of visitors last month.  They were excited and all wanted their picture taken.  Even a week later, the pastor in Kathmandu said the people of Priti were still talking about how wonderful it was that we were able to visit them.  A funny note - Jimmy Carter was in the country monitoring the elections and several people not with the church asked us if we were with Jimmy.

During the time in Ramechhap, we visited about half of the twelve Bethlehem churches in the region. At each one we prayed for the pastor and the body of the church. Most of these little villages have 100 - 300 residents.  The pastors hike up and down mountains to visit their churches.  They live in such poverty.  What a blessing to see the faith of these people. Such dedication!

On the way back to Kathmandu we were able to give a ride to two very sick people and their family members who needed to get to the city hospital.   It's so hard for them with no doctor nearby.  There is a clinic in Jiri four hours away but if they have difficult illnesses they must travel the 13 hours to Kathmandu.  It was great they could get a ride from us as otherwise they would have to be carried a great distance and then ride a bus for all those hours.  I felt sorry for them.  They had never ridden in a car before and were sick until I dug out some Dramamine.


Last two days in Nepal

Our last days were very good meeting with various NGO and government officials.  One day we visited World Vision, Terre des Hommes, United Missionaries in Nepal, and the Department of Social Welfare.   The last day we visited Higher Ground.  From these organizations we got some great insight into livelihood and alternative childcare programs already in practice, where the gaps are, and learned the process for becoming recognized by the government.   We have been able to get more information and insight then I ever thought possible on such a short trip and have a great foundation to begin the next steps of this project.   It is really wonderful how God put all the pieces together!

Coming home took 70 hours due to our first flight out to Kathmandu being 3 hours late.  We missed our flight from Istanbul to the US and had to stay there overnight.  This made us miss our Chicago flight so we stayed there overnight.  Finally arrived in SC Friday evening.  The difficulty of returning made us realize how amazing our trip had been as far as logistics.  We accomplished so much in so little time with no problems at all.  What a God thing!

Check out the gallery for tons of pics!