01:09
(I'm 10:45 ahead of you.)
typing in my room with the nightly symphony of chaos put on by none other than the plenteous stray dogs in the background.
Namaste!
Things here are great! Apologies for the lack of replies, but been extremely catered to by host family. I've been exhausted at the end of everyday to a point where I'm struggling to stay awake during my history of Nepal or history of the church lesson from Sandip, my super-cool, very friendly and extremely enthusiastic Christian brother and host. I realized now today why…
There's a Nepali saying that goes "atithi dava bhauva" – guests are to be treated like a god. This whole spiritual awareness of the Spirit is quite interesting, from the previous mentioned "Namaste" greeting meaning "I great the God in you." There is a Christian truth in both these statements realizing that the Spirit lives within His people, His creation. Matthew 25:35 à (?), Gal 2:20-21
Note: we went to a Monastery today. It's beautifully situated in the middle of nowhere. You ride for a good 30 minutes or so up the rockiest path possible. Along the way up, there's a truck coming down, with their wheels just inches from the side of the cliff. One slip and there will be a toppling truck going down the mountain. There are also light orange coloured berries that you can pick and eat (very very sweet – " mito" as the Nepali say) these grow just above the open sewage system that runs along the mountain road. It was dried, up at the time, but since there's no garbage disposal system here, garbage just gets tossed and left in the gutter. Occasionally, you'll get a clot which causes someone to shovel all the trash out to the side of the road to be compacted into the earth by passing vehicles. We had to get off the bikes, because it was too steep to ride up it. Also along the way were many women carrying loads of sand and rock, I think they were headed to a settlement off the road to construction something, but they were extremely happy to be greeted with "Namaste" complete w/ palms together and a small bow. People love to be acknowledged. I hope also that people might learn each others names and be able to use them. God is personal and I'm sure it would go a long way to try and learn ppl's names. That being sad, I'm also having a hard time learning ppl's names here. They are very different. Please pray that I might be able to learn names properly.
I met Suzan, Sandip's good friend. Suzan is a guy – very nice guy (who let me ride his bike – yeah!), who is also very knowledgeable. Did you know that second to Brazil, Nepal has the 2nd largest amount clean water? So why, do we have a water shortage in Kathmandu now? Routing is the main problem, due to the poor state of the country. They can also harvest a ton of energy from turbines from water gushing down the mountain, but no one is willing to invest and get invest in getting a system setup. On the way there, there was a constant stream of water coming out of a pipe that was fresh mountain water.
The locals keep saying that the locals are rich, but the country is poor. Please pray for selfless leaders to invest in the country.
Back to the way up to the monastery, there were others collecting water and bringing them to their homes. Imagine camping in 30 degree weather carrying 10L of water in a metal jug up a steep unstable road for a couple kilometres. You can take a shortcut that is extremely narrow and much steeper but unforgiving should you loose your footing. There's not much to stop you from a dry, dusty, rocky tumble to whatever ends up stopping you.
Monastery was beautiful and under construction. Didn't get to talk to monks, busy with things – but allowed us to roam about freely. We stopped at the base to wash up and eat something. It was nice to talk and get to know Sandip, Suzan and his girlfriend better.
Praise Him, I've been very well. I took 500mg of Vitamin C 2 days ago, but don't think that it's necessary. What I am afraid of is air pollution. My mouth feels full of particulate matter. I don't want to ever swallow… (@ street level, you literally go right through clouds of diesel. If you were from London you'd probably think that it's someone passed some gas in the fog… that's a bit exaggerated, but when you're close, I kid you not, it's like that)
I also got to meet more ppl at the night market – Puza and Indra good friends of Sandip from school. Everyone is well versed in English, Nepali and Newali (if they are Newali). Newali is a language of the native ppl in the Kathmandu Valley area. However, it's weird b/c there are different dialects and if you're from a different part of the valley, people from the other side of the hill won't understand your dialect of Newali.
There is a water shortage. Normally, we only get water once/4 days. And all we have is a 1000L storage reserve tank. Not sure if water will come for a while cause it's during the summer before monsoon. Anyway I splurged and indulged today w/ bucket. I think I used about 4L quite impressed. But I was getting very nasty after 5 days.
The orientation Sandip's giving me is 100x better than anything any organization could have offered. I'm slowly learning Nepali too. San-script alphabet tomorrow. (I think). Anyways, his school starts at 0600 and goes to 0900. I hope that he doesn't have to go get petrol tomorrow. It's a 3hr ordeal to stand in line to get a couple gallons.
We have it real good. We need to count bless'gs and be less self-absorbed in NA. – realize everything we have does not BELONG to us, but is to be used to bless others. I'm absolutely astounded by the hospitality I receive in any home I enter. ( e.g. Steve's home, I go to his room for 5 minutes and his mom comes in with a plate of food spiced potatoes (hot off the pan), homemade banana bread, and chunks of fresh banana with the largest cross-sectional area I've ever seen in my life. They're so tasty too. And before I can finish, an overflowing cup of juice is presented to Steve, Sandip and I. Apparently this is normal – they treat all ppl as if they were a god. Not saying I'm a god, but if Holy Spirit lives in me, then God does live in me. So perhaps we need to exercise this hospitality. As well, there's a nicely decorated room w/ carpet and places for ppl to sit in every house I've been in. It's nice how they focus on spending time w/ ppl. Ok getting late 0130. Trying to wake up earlier…
Back to the symphony….
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