"Nepal...actually...is all around"

September 27, 2006

I’ll take the Quarter Pounder with cheese extra value meal, ketchup only, and a Dr. Pepper with extra ice. Figure out the cost to FedEx that to Kathmandu, keep it fresh, and actually ship it on over, and I guarantee I will buy you a Ribeye from the restaurant of your choice upon my return home. Oooh, Ribeye…I could go for one of those as well!
To be quite honest, I really thought that there would be a few American restaurants that I could retreat to for an occasional meal as my taste buds beckoned. You know Pizza Hut, Subway, Mcdonald’s, or Taco Bell. Ok, I might be stretching it just a little with the last two, but something to take this rice taste out of my mouth for one meal. I am planning a two week diet upon my arrival in the states that includes dining at all the great fast food chains. You might argue there aren’t any. Right now, I beg to differ!...

…On a more serious note, this week has definitely been a more challenging than the last as I am growing accustomed to the culture of this country and realizing that home is right here for the next 8 months. A lot of times it is fun, sometimes its very interesting learning the differences, many times hard, but, in all times it is good.

5:30a.m.- the sun rises, the children are waking/ running up and down the halls yelling and laughing, and I am sound asleep in my bed, visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. Actually, I think our version goes something like, “visions of crab spiders tormenting our every sleeping moment. (Allow me to explain a little later)
6:00a.m. - alarm goes off…without thought, I immediately hit the snooze button. “Just give me 15 more minutes of sleep.”
7:15a.m. - I finally muster up the motivation to get out of bed. Actually, one of the girls knocks on my door to inform me that breakfast is ready, to which at that point, “I AM UP!” I can’t miss tea and sopapillas in the morning! I think…scratch that…know that breakfast has become my favorite meal. Basically a homemade tortilla rolled up with honey on the inside. I could do this every morning!
9:00a.m. - we walk the younger kids to their bus stop not even a quarter of a mile from the orphanage. (The older kids—6th grade and up—walk up a steep hill every morning and then another half mile to get to their school)
9:15a.m. to 4:15p.m. - Jordan and I try to seem like we have things to do. Some days we go in to town, which is about a 20 minute bus ride. Some days we stay at the orphanage and read/ watch movies/ hang around. But we are slowly finding things to do.
4:15p.m. - the kiddos return from school ready to play, to which I become like a rag doll to a dog, used at its expense.
7:00p.m. - everybody meets in the tv room for music, prayer, and study of the Word. Jordan and I have been taking the kids through Luke and following some key events of Jesus’ ministry. It is a tough task as we have a 5 yr. old and a 20 yr. old in the same room. We have been talking about how we can restructure the time to cater to the different age groups. But for right now, this will have to do.
8:00p.m.- Dinner time on the roof (Literally). “Jordan, I wonder what we are having for dinner?” said the Jason. “I’ll take ‘Pass me another bowl of rice please, for $400,’” respondeth the Jordan.
9:00p.m.- head to my room for reading, typing blogs, and just catching up with Jordan.
Approximately 10:11p.m. – Lights out!

There you have it! That’s our schedule in a nutshell.
One Exception: in September Nepal has several festivals, to which most of the children migrate to their homes in their villages. Quite confusing, actually, because most of the kids here have at least one parent. Some have two. (And you ask, “Then why are they in an orphanage?” Being that 40% of the people here live at or below the poverty line, most of the parents do not have an adequate enough income to support a family. Therefore, they send their kids to orphanages like CWC, where they know that the kids’ basic needs are being met.) So, right now 85% of the kids are gone to their homes with their families to celebrate the festivals. They won’t return for 2-4 weeks based on how far away they live. So the days have been out of whack since the beginning of the week, when the children first started leaving. We have about half a dozen left here, and they will stay throughout the festivities.

Yesterday we (Matt, a British volunteer; Hilda, a German Volunteer; and Jordan and I) took them to a Nepali film in the city. They had a great time! It was very hard for Jordan and I to sit still for 2 ½ hours without understanding one word spoken.

***Sidenote: I might get totally random here for a few minutes. Several thought are bombarding my mind at once!***

Traffic here is a crazy and chaotic, yet, functional system. No lanes at all…you drive on the left side of the road…and when you want to pass, you simply honk your horn and then pass. There is a lot of horn honking here. It was weird at first. In America you only honk if you are angry or if you see somebody you know. Jordan and I would always look up at cars honking as they passed us thinking we might know them, as we are used to in America.

Lunch and dinner here is the main course of rice with a few side dishes of vegetables, spicy sauces, and meat that go mixed in with the rice. At first I did not care for the meals. Now, I am getting used to them and I am even so hungry at times that I look forward to them. So, its not too bad! I haven’t gone without eating at all! One day last week, we went to Thamel, the tourist part of Kathmandu (one hour bus ride from the orphanage), and we had Chinese food for lunch. We were in Heaven! Coca Cola, $0.33; Egg rolls, $1; Sweet and Sour Chicken, $1.50; Dining at a Chinese restaurant in Nepal and experiencing the once lost taste of something familiar, Priceless…
… We shall return!!!

The kids here have so little compared to what we are used to, yet they are so content with what they do have; never asking for more, unless it is candy (they call chocolate) and in my room. Every once in a while the kids will see us in our rooms on our laptops or with our electronic gadgets, and they are so fascinated. We already went through our entire picture libraries on our computers, explaining who each person is and how we know them. They really enjoyed that! And, they are always asking to see more Solomon photos, which, sadly enough, I only have 2-3 of. Fortunately, the Schwartzman’s sent a photo album of the last year and a half with Solomon, and Rina was able to show that to the kids. They studied each picture intently. You could tell they were interested! Thanks, Anita!!! Great Idea!

Oh yes, almost forgot about the crab spiders…There are spiders here that are huge. I am not kidding when I say that with legs and body they can measure up to the diameter of a tennis ball. We found one in our room the 2nd night we were here. We were just getting ready to go to bed and saw one on the wall. You can imagine what affect that had on me for the rest of the night. I had horrible nightmares. I would wake up every two hours and check the wall to make sure there were none. In one dream, I was pinned down on the floor of our room. There was a hole in the wall where several of these crab spiders were coming out of. Each one had crablike pinchers attached to their bodies (Thus, the name, Crab Spider). And they were headed towards me. Jordan just sat there and watched as I got attacked by these monsters. Well, actually, I awoke shortly before.

Life here has been crazy, but good. Spiritually speaking, the children here know a little about Christ. They go to church every week and worship Him. But, they are like babes in their faith. I am reminded of the verses in Hebrews… “you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s Word…You need milk, not solid food!...Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
The kids and even a lot of the young adults are very, very young in their beliefs and faith. I have asked questions that I would consider to have been very basic and they were slightly confused. Some might be due to the language barrier, as they speak broken English, and I speak no Nepali. But, I wonder sometimes how much they know and believe, and where we can start to build upon. That’s why we started studying Luke. We wanted the kids to hear about the life of Christ. So please pray that God will reveal to us and give us wisdom concerning specifically how we are to reach them and meet them where they are at. And please pray that these kids, whether young or old, would be open to a relationship with our Father, for those that aren’t there yet. And pray that the children would be FAT (faithful, available, and teachable). Also pray that Jordan and I would find a church that we can plug into. We did go to the Nepali church the kids attend, but we cannot understand any of it.
We have given the items that you all donated. Thanks a bunch for the generous gifts. They were really needed and appreciated here.

Well, this blog is 3 pages long and I think successfully qualifies as a “marathon blog” so I better go. Miss you all, sincerely!!!

Eat a Hamburger for me,
Jason