Without a friend you cannot live. - Thomas à Kempis
We have arrived!: Our wake-up call begins at 6 am. Roosters crowing, mango and banana vendors pushing their bikes and calling out, rubbish collectors shouting, pigeons cooing and flapping, prayer bells ringing, house-workers washing clothes, bikes and motorbikes tooting, kids in school uniform setting off for school. This is life in our little street.
We have been in Kathmandu since August 2nd. We had a wonderful restful week in a guesthouse in Hua Hin, Thailand and a week in Chiang Mai attending a Spiritual Life Conference and meeting with SIM team leadership. Nepal is part of the Central and South East Asia SIM office based in Chiang Mai. We are in a 2-bedroom apartment in Dhobighat, a suburb of Patten, Kathmandu - Nepal's capital city. Someone at KISC (Biz' school) organised this flat for us. We bought whatever was left from the previous tenant who was leaving; the beds, tables, chairs, kitchen stuff etc. That has saved us a lot of hassle of having first to find stuff, buy it and then have it delivered. There are no street names or house numbers so you direct the delivery truck to your suburb, according to landmarks, and from then guide them to your place.
We seem to have done quite a lot. In our 1st week. We scouted out our neighbourhood, got our visas, started the process of opening a bank account and got mobile phone simcards and even internet connection. All those little things mean copies of our passports and visas, 2 sets of passport photo's, paternal grandfather's name and sometimes even fingerprinting. We tried to do 1 thing/day as temperatures can get up to 32 degrees and humid.
Language school In our 2nd week we started language school.We have fantastic language teachers who have become our friends. They have taught us the Nepali script, which is similar to a Hindi script, as well as communication: greetings, counting, identification, description and location of things and family so far in the first two weeks. Our teachers have a lot of patience and humour. We are the only 2 students in the class so we always have to be on our best behaviour and do all our homework. The classes are from 9-12. In the afternoon we go out to practice. Actually we have a rest first as language learning is quite tiring.
We are at the KISC language school for 4 months. After that Biz will start her work and Gabriel will need to find another language school. In the meantime we are each others sparring partners. Gabriel does SIM work in the afternoon as well.
Bikes We have bought a couple of push bikes but now we need courage to take them out. The traffic is on 'our' side of the road but the road rule is that if you are in front - then you have right of way. Biking in our neighbourhod is ok -biking in the city is something else!
Exercise One Sunday morning at 6am we joined a group of 4 women for a strenuous 2 hour walk in the hills on the outskirts of the city. We found out that they also walk on Wednesday mornings for 2 hours. Gabriel quickly discovered that men bike - so he has started mountain biking on those 2 mornings for 2 hours. Good for his knees - bad for other parts of his body. We trust that these men and women will become our friends.
Friends We thank you all for being on our team. When we arrived there were even 2 aerograms waiting for us. It is great to get your emails and know that you are praying for us.
We have a great team of very talented people here. They have made us feel at home and shown us where to buy what. It will take a while before we are feeling 'at home', but our new found friends have made a good start.
Praise God
For you, our friends who are committed in our prayer and support team.
For our full support coming in before we arrived in Nepal.
For fantastic welcomes from our team and KISC staff.
For a lovely apartment that we are slowly making into our home.
For finding a Nepali Anglican church nearby. We have only been once but look forward to making it our regular Saturday commitment.
Pray
For our brains to comprehend a new language and a new script. Sometimes we throw an Amharic (Ethiopian language) word into a sentence which raises questions from our language teachers.
For good health. This is a new environment with different hygiene standards.
For spiritual safety each day.
For safety when Gabriel mountain bikes.
For good friends.
Interesting Fact about Nepal How do you get internet connection? You pay a deposit and provide 4 lots of identification - visa, passport photos, grandparent's name, cell phone number. The next day hopefully, the installers come and check out your house to see if you already have a cable and then find out how best to install the connection. They poke the cable through a gap in the window frame (all window frames have gaps around them - keeps the air moving - will be interesting in winter), throw the cable over the balcony, through a tree, over the fence, underneath the wires already hanging and fix it to the first available pole. After that they take the wire to the next pole, and the next, and the next until they have found a connecting box from their internet provider where they connect your wire. They then ring to check if the connection works and then they are off. The next day it's back to the office to finalize payment and passwords. And we are connected!
Thank you for being part of building God's Kingdom in Nepal by strengthening His church and training up Nepali teachers.
For more information, contact the SIM NZ office on nz.donor@sim or go direct to the SIM support page here.
