My Friend the Dead Spider

There are multiple western style bathrooms on the Farm. Two on the main level which are not technically connected to the house. They are nice but they have an open window so tons of fly's and a friendly gecko that moves around and stares at you while you're in there. I will only use those if I have no other option.
There are then two more located on the top level of the house. These are decently clean and for the most part bug free. I like using on in particular as the only bug in there is a dead spider. Or so I thought.

I had become very familiar with this one bathroom. I would walk in look to the right and there on the wall was my skeleton spider friend who was caked in mold or black cement pieces. I had no desire to find out which it was. As long as the dead spider was my only company I had no issues using this particular bathroom.

One particular day while in the this bathroom I looked over at my dead spider friend (and I had started calling him friend) and his color had slightly changed. Ever so slightly that I didn't think more on it. I finished my business and thought I should take a photo of my friend the spider as we were really becoming good friends him being dead and all meant I could handle him as a friend even though he was in all reality a spider. I second thought my picture idea as who wants to see a spider on a blog, or later in my photos.

It was no sooner than I had this thought, that an innocent fly came into the bathroom and flew right by my head and without any warning at all, off the wall jumped my friend the spider (fully alive) and snatched that fly and flung back to the wall.

I was out of the bathroom door in an instance only to look back and see my so called dead spider friend feasting on his prey. It was awful!!!!!!!!!!!


So let's move forward a few days. I had not since used that bathroom. With that live spider, who was not my friend at all in there, and a jumping spider no less. There was no way under heaven I was going in there again. So here I am really needing to use the bathroom and that's the only one available. I stood outside the door and I waited. And waited. And Waited. I really needed to go but I was not going to go in there.
I must have looked absolutely ridiculous  as I did the dance there waiting to go and not using the bathroom that was clearly empty, because Radip and Namunna walked by and asked me what was going on. I told them about the spider who was not my friend and said that as long as he was in there I could wait for another bathroom to become available.

Radip walked right into that bathroom and got rid of that spider. It was no big deal and out he came and said 'he's gone you can use it now'. Boy did I feel foolish.


So that's that. The bathroom is now spider (dead or alive) free and I no longer need to worry. At least for now.

P.S. there are absolutely no photos of this so called spider friend because he actually isn't my friend anymore.


Jenessa

School Lunch

The actual school for the children of the village we are in is just half way down the mountain. Kids from all over the mountain attend the school. The teachers at the school are all native Napali Volunteers. Some of them know just a little more than the children and their English is so-so. This post isn't about the school so I'll leave that as is for now but may be posting again about it after we actually visit the school for a day.

This post is about school lunch. Her Farm helps provide some of the lunches for the school. Sometimes a teacher or the principle of the school will come up to the Farm and get the lunch for all the kids. This usually happens when the weather is not as nice. However on nice days Her Farm hosts lunch.

All the sudden the peace and quite of the farm is broken as 60+ kids come running up the last ridge of the mountain. Dressed in their blue school uniforms each of them find a spot to sit somewhere along the steps of the farm. Bowls of top roman noodle soup (which happens to be Keturah's favorite meal here) are passed out to each child. They each eat heartily and then deposit their empty bowl into a laundry basket. Once everyone is done and hands have been washed they all line up behind one of the teachers. Once lined up they march down the hill with another teacher taking up the rear making sure no one is left behind. It's all happens so fast that if you aren't paying attention you may miss it.

 

Just as good as winning a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory

We went shopping in the tourist part of town called Tamel. It's very beautiful, the streets are lined with shops and you can find almost anything there. We were on the hunt for crayons and papers for an art project we were going to be doing with the children. What we ended up finding was a gold mine.

We also found dove shampoo, a nail file, crayons, and paper. It was almost like Christmas.

Get Me to the Church on Time

     The highlight of every week, Church. Coming from BYU Hawaii I definitely took church for granted. We pray at the beginning of each class, I have religion class Monday and Wednesday, there are pictures of Christ, the temple, and the first presidency up in random buildings, the gospel comes up easily in regular conversation, everyone prays over their food at the caf, Church is everywhere. Here in Nepal I have definitely missed that. Now Jenessa and I do personal and comp study (a story for a different post because Jenessa is awesome) in our room and say our prays of course, but we aren't allowed to talk about anything church related with the people on the farm. To me it feels very much like living a double life. Church is the place where we get to live and discuss the gospel as well as our volunteer efforts and it's great.

     Second thing to not take for granted, Scriptures. The Book of Mormon is not yet available in Nepali (Although the first week there was a delegation, I guess that's what you'd call them, from Salt Lake here working on the final stages of translation. So it should be coming very soon!) and so the members are reading scripture in their second language when I can't even understand some of it in my first. And I noticed that most of them are using their phones at church (which I guess isn't that different from back home). One of the most heartbreaking things happened on our first Sunday at church, I decided to take my Quad (Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price) to church instead of my phone. Then in Sunday School this boy, who is probably around my age, sat next to me. Now I don't know if he is an investigator (of the church) but he had already glued himself to the Missionary's side and asked him questions through the whole class. But anyways before class started I'm sitting there and he's sitting there and I'm holding my scriptures on my lap. After noticing that he was staring at them I turn towards him slightly (so he knows I'm willing to talk without me actually having to start the conversation, you know). So he asks me if it's my Book of Mormon and I explain that it also has my Bible and such, and then he asks if he can you know see them (which means touch them). Normally this would be a HUGE deal to me because sometimes people aren't as reverent as I would like them to be. BUT this kid takes my scriptures as gently as you would pick up a new born, looking as if I've handed him the most precious thing in the entire universe. And he starts turning pages and just looking at verses that he probably can't fully understand and just... Never! Never take your physical scriptures, written in your language, for granted. Because there are still so many denied that sacred privilege. 

     Ok. I'm done crying I promise. I would now like to tell you about one of my favorite people. My absolute favorite person in the whole wide world is my twin Jacob. He's in India and unfortunately not who I'm talking about BUT the Elder's Quorum President is very similar to my Jacob. He's obviously great with the people in that ward and he's always very happy. When he smiles his eyes crinkle and you can almost see every single one of his teeth (it's like when people say he smiled from ear to ear). He is just super cool and makes both me and Jenessa very happy. This past Sunday an American girl was teaching the lesson and so this guy (we don't know his name, shameful right?) had to translate. So at one point the teacher had us chatting with a partner and then our time is up so she tells the class to settle down. She then turns to him gesturing for him to say the same thing in Nepali. And he raises his arms (like Moses parting the Red Sea) and says, in English, "SILENCE!"  It was the funniest thing ever. He is just awesome and I'll try to get Jenessa to ask him what his name is. 

     We also met James Mayfield, who was a member of the Seventy when Howard W. Hunter was the prophet and is the founder of Choice (a really great volunteer program that we didn't hear about till we got here). He was very nice and reminded me of my Grandpa Jensen, one of the greatest men to ever live. His whole program is about integrating the volunteer efforts with the community so the work doesn't stop when the volunteers leave. It's really awesome. 

     Basically Church is awesome and the people are awesome. Don't take it for granted. 15 out of 10 would recommend Church to everyone. 

-Keturah, the hike and the awful buses were definitely worth it

Husking Corn

We got to help husk corn. Piles and piles of corn. Some of the corn they will eat but most of it will be used to make cornmeal to be used later on in the winter. This was only the first batch of the harvest the rest will take place next week. We may even get to help in the harvest of them. Though I'm not sure we can be trusted with the half moon sword looking thing used to cut the corn stocks down. I can picture it now local news paper "American girls die of iron poisoning after cutting into their legs while harvesting corn." Yep they may not trust us to do that part.


Keturah checking out the corn.




All the volunteers helped



This is just the beginning of one of the piles of corn.

Buses in Nepal

So public transportation is a wonderful thing, it blesses so many people's lives, and I really support it...as long as I'm not the one using it. For example, me and buses just aren't a good mix. Oh the stories I could tell!  But for now I'll focus on Nepal.

So, if any of you have been getting updates from Jacob (my brother serving a mission in India) then you've probably already heard about the local buses. Imagine a tiny white van that's barely staying together. As you drive things shake and make weird noises. Now also imagine this van with people squished onto every seat (already touching too many strangers for my liking). Now add some people standing, crouching, or sitting in the little amount of leg room you had left (well I didn't think it could get any hotter in that tin can but it did). Finally shove another eight or ten people into nonexistent space. Yup there you go. Now all you do is pray that the person standing on your foot is getting off at the next stop. But hey the view is great. 

 Haha just kidding you can't see anything because there are so many people.

Then there are the tourist buses, we have to ride one of these for two hours up to the village from Katmandu. They're big chapter buses but old, hot, and painted funky colors. Like the local buses there is a boy (I'm thinking 14-16 age range maybe) that stands with the door open and yells out to people where we're going. You start to hate this boy when he's still calling out our destination even though there is literally no room. Which they do on the tourist bus as well. On one of our trips this boy also told us to get off on the wrong stop, luckily I made awkward eye contact with this other person so they helped us and told us to get back on the bus. On that same trip, after seeing us struggle, these two young women came up to us saw we were going to the same area and took care of us. 

OH also on the first tourist bus we got on, in the back were boxes of live chicks!! 

 Jenessa's first question was what disease can I get from baby chickens?!  I haven't noticed any symptoms from her...yet.

Basically the buses are a struggle but there are always nice people who will help you if you look lost enough. And if I was rich (I'd spend lots of money on the kids out here first BUT THEN) I'd take a taxi everywhere. 

-Keturah I'm only going to learn to drive because I don't like buses Jensen 

We'll be coming down the mountain

Today Jenessa and I hiked down the mountain. It was hard. I have multiple blisters. Our faces were all red and we were sweaty. BUT we didn't die (and I didn't fall either which is quite the accomplishment). And now that we have hiked down and been on two buses, we are in Katmandu. AND tomorrow we get to go to church so it's definitely worth it. Now we just have to figure out how the heck to get back up the mountain.

-Keturah, a very tired girl

The Her Farm Library

We want to thank all of those individuals who donated books for the Nepal project. We are very excited to tell you that as of today there is a library up at Her Farm. It's actually more of a reading corner but it will grow as more books come. 

It all started with collecting the books. Library's donated as well as individuals. They came in boxes, trash bags, and bins. No matter how they came, they came and from all over the tristate area. Thank You!!!

Once in Nepal our hurdle was how to get them up the mountain to Her Farm. With the oncoming rain we had to be sure to get them up sooner rather than later as traveling the road up the mountain would become very dangerous. 

We repackaged all the books in one large red bag and hoped for the best. Luckily the day had been dry and a truck met us at the bottom of the mountain. We loaded the books in the back and headed to Her Farm. Only once did it look like we were not going to make it. 

The books now unloaded and put in their place in the school house look amazing. We've sorted them out by reading levels. As all the kids and women are at different levels we are hoping this will help.

As one learns to read they open a whole world of opportunities and a door to imagination. 

Thank you again to all those who helped make this reading corner library possible.

Jenessa

Our next challenge is getting the kids to finish their homework early so they have time to read. Hopefully seeing the new books will get them excited. 

The Her Farm Library

We want to thank all of those individuals who donated books for the Nepal project. We are very excited to tell you that as of today there is a library up at Her Farm. It's actually more of a reading corner but it will grow as more books come. 

It all started with collecting the books. Library's donated as well as individuals. They came in boxes, trash bags, and bins. No matter how they came, they came and from all over the tristate area. Thank You!!!

Once in Nepal our hurdle was how to get them up the mountain to Her Farm. With the oncoming rain we had to be sure to get them up sooner rather than later as traveling the road up the mountain would become very dangerous. 

We repackaged all the books in one large red bag and hoped for the best. Luckily the day had been dry and a truck met us at the bottom of the mountain. We loaded the books in the back and headed to Her Farm. Only once did it look like we were not going to make it. 

 

The books now unloaded and put in their place in the school house look amazing. We've sorted them out by reading levels. As all the kids and women are at different levels we are hoping this will help.

 

As one learns to read they open a whole world of opportunities and a door to imagination. 

Thank you again to all those who helped make this reading corner library possible.

Jenessa

Our next challenge is getting the kids to finish their homework early so they have time to read. Hopefully seeing the new books will get them excited. 

Radip

This is a special post just to show our brother Blaine how much we miss him. 

Radip is about the same age as Blaine (mid 20's). He's tall, dark, and handsome (Blaine don't let this go to your head). He seems to be the male support at Her Farm. If it needs being done he's there to help. 

 

   So funny story about Radip and Keturah. The first day we arrived in Kathmandu, Radip was there at the house and he was being so helpful. He carried in the heavy bags full of books and showed us where are room was. Then to be even more helpful he grabbed Keturah's phone right out of her hands to put in the wifi password. he SCOOPED it with both of his hands right out of both of my hands. There were four hands involved. He didn't even ask. so here he has with Keturah's phone I already had it opened to the wifi password page and he was so helpful that he closed the wifi page and searched for the notes app. Where he then created a new note and added the wifi password. So helpful right. THE NOTES SECTION which isn't even obvious because it's in a smaller box and not even on the front screen, AND HE SAW ALL MY NOTES, private notes that are not shown to anyone.  As I said he was so very helpful. Keturah basically freaked out and has called him 'punk' ever since. Not to his face. 

   To show how much like Blaine he is, here is a photo of Radip trying to zip himself up in a big bag. Blaine admit it you would totally do this. 

   Ok so he isn't just all fun and games. He's also very sensitive. He drove us down the mountain and made sure to get us a bus and help us on it. Then he made sure the driver knew where we were supposed to go. (A whole different story on how that actually went.) He even waved goodbye as the bus drove off. It was somethings Blaine would of done. 

   Also just like Blaine you can always tell when Radip is around as the noise level increases by at least 10x. 

   He also is really sweet. When he came up to Her Farm he brought candy for everyone and little hair ties for the girls. Which turned into a hair braiding night. 

Everybody loves him. 

   Blaine we really do miss everything about you. At least Radip is filling half of that void even though Keturah won't talk to him. He won't talk to me either. And just to be clear I think you are way cooler than he is, Blaine. 

Jenessa Jensen
and Keturah, I thought there were only going to be women here

Being Sick in Nepal

As most of you know I hate being sick, with such a passion that I would rather break a bone than be sick. It sounds a bit drastic I know, but that's how much I HATE being sick. So last Wednesday when Keturah was sick I actually thanked the Lord it was her and not me. 

We had pancakes for breakfast yesterday morning and the sisters had cut up apples for us. Neither of us are really fond of apples but to be polite I ate two slices with breakfast. I'm pretty sure that's what did it. 

It's a two hour drive to the bottom of the mountain to Her Farm. We would have normally taken a bus but since we were bringing all the books we collected and a bag full of camera equipment we ended up getting a taxi. The traffic was awful and it was hot and muggy. No one including taxi drivers use air conditioning in their vehicles even though they have the capability to do so. I'm not sure why this is especially since they complain about the dust coming in from the open windows. 

To say the least it was a very long drive and I hadn't felt well before leaving the house. So it wasn't all to surprising when I ended up getting sick and puking my guts up on the side of the road. I bet anything it was a first for this taxi driver and will be a story he tells to all his buddies. It was awful. However he was very good about it. He was very concerned but also a little exasperated. He kept saying to me that if she had just told him she was sick we could've stopped to get medicine. 

So as I said its two hours to the BOTTOM of the mountain of Her Farm. By the time we got there I just wanted to curl up and die. The truck was waiting for us when we arrived and we loaded the bags and where off. The ride up the mountain is a slow, bumpy ride. We hit every hole in the road and I mean every single one.  We didn't really hit every single hole. In fact the just fixed the road last week so it was comparatively a very good trip.  It was a blessing I made it to the top before getting sick again. 

Long story short, here I am today lying in bed, missing my own bed and pillows and my bathroom. This is also how I felt when I was sick and it reminded me of The Hobbit (the book version) and how Bilbo will spend pages saying how much he misses home and then describing it in depth.  Definitely my bathroom because if I'm going to be sick I definitely want it to be in my own bathroom. My stomach feels like it's eating itself and for not having anything in it, it sure is giving a lot of problems. It could be so much worse so I'm grateful its not. 

I'll have to let Keturah tell you about her experience but I'll let you know that she's a much better patient than I am when being sick. I was sick, it was unpleasant. It made me never want to eat curry and rice again, which is unfortunate since that's what we have for breakfast and dinner on the farm. I would not recommend being sick ever. There you go. 

Jenessa
And Keturah, the patient nurse (get it cause I was a patient and a nurse!)

Homework

Here at the Farm each night the children come home from school and they sit outside on mats and do their homework. In the morning those who haven't finished have time to do so before they leave for school at 10:00am. Those who finished get to go to English study.

Tonight all the other sisters were doing other things so here I was all alone with at least 15 kids from all different ages. At one point I had four of them all sitting around me saying Sister what next, sister help me, Sister what's this. It was a bit chaotic but it was wonderful at the same time.


This little boy is so smart. His English is good and he helps me explain things to the other kids. I'll say it in English and he'll translate. He also is a hot shot with all the kids. The cool kid.




This little girl didn't understand a word I said. So my little hot shot had to translate everything. It helped that I think he had a little crush on her because he would smile and wait and hover over her. It was so very cute. In the photo we are working on English sentences way to far advanced for her but the school is under staffed and teachers are volunteers from the community so you get what you get. I would spell out the words she needed to write as she knew her alphabet and that was it. 



This mornings session was no different.



The kids are great. They love school and they love learning. So far I've enjoyed the few hours I've had with them and can't wait for more to come.


Jenessa

Homework

Here at the Farm each night the children come home from school and they sit outside on mats and do their homework. In the morning those who haven't finished have time to do so before they leave for school at 10:00am. Those who finished get to go to English study.

Tonight all the other sisters were doing other things so here I was all alone with at least 15 kids from all different ages. At one point I had four of them all sitting around me saying Sister what next, sister help me, Sister what's this. It was a bit chaotic but it was wonderful at the same time.



This little boy is so smart. His English is good and he helps me explain things to the other kids. I'll say it in English and he'll translate. He also is a hot shot with all the kids. The cool kid.



This little girl didn't understand a word I said. So my little hot shot had to translate everything. It helped that I think he had a little crush on her because he would smile and wait and hover over her. It was so very cute. In the photo we are working on English sentences way to far advanced for her but the school is under staffed and teachers are volunteers from the community so you get what you get. I would spell out the words she needed to write as she knew her alphabet and that was it.

 

This mornings session was no different.



The kids are great. They love school and they love learning. So far I've enjoyed the few hours I've had with them and can't wait for more to come.


Jenessa

Cloudscapes

     Ok! Jenessa has told you about the flight to Nepal and the complications with that. I am here to tell you about the most magnificent part of the whole flight. Something that will probably be one of the most beautiful things I'll see in my entire life. The clouds above Nepal.
     My favorite part of every flight is what I call the view of the gods. Sometimes it seeing the tiny buildings so far below you or the endless expanses of the atmosphere, but the ones I love most are the  sunrises and sunsets on a landscape of clouds.  Flying over Nepal did not disappoint. The sky was filled with the puffiest clouds I've ever seen. And we were right in the middle of them. Now don't think just a few clouds scattered about, it was a literal landscape of clouds. I imigined that if the wind were to blow them away I would see mountains and valleys in their place. It was breathtaking.

 

  This one looks like the beach where the blue sky meets the sunset (but maybe that's just because I miss Hawaii)

These pictures definitely don't do it justice but just know that it was beautiful. 

-Keturah, Cloud Enthusiast 

Best Driving Ever

If the water doesn't kill us the drivers sure will. Thankfully our first experience was later at night so there were not that many people on the road but yesterday's experience was terrifying. As I mentioned before Utah drivers are nothing compared to Nepal.

All the taxis are small little white cars. They are a mix between a mini, bug, and civic. The dashboards are full of little images representing the God of their choice. Sunday night as we left the airport we had purchased a prepaid taxi. One thing that's different here than in America is that you don't tip your taxi drivers, nor do you get into the taxi without knowing the price. So we loaded all our stuff into our prepaid taxi and off we went. As we turned the corner out of the airport our driver got into the lane with oncoming traffic. He honked his horn a few times and continued to proceed in that lane until he had gained enough headway and then moved back into his lane. This continues to happen thought our entire trip. We would have cars from the other lane do that as well and would be coming directly towards us. Everyone just does what they want on the road and others either move out of the way or you do. There are tons of motorcycles which come and go as they please. They ride I between traffic and honk as much as the cars do. Monday as we go into a bus which is a white large van the driving was just as scary we were now just in a bigger vehicle. With the busses there are two key players. You have the driver and then you have the runner. The driver does his part to not kill us and also get us through the crowded streets, avoiding the occasional cow sitting in the middle of the road. The runner as I call him is a young kid who stands in the open door of the van and calls out where we are going. He calls out as we approach each group gathering and if someone needs to get on he hits the side of the van which informs the driver to stop. The boy than gets out helps the people on (pushing and shoving them in) and then as the driver starts to head off the boy runs and jumps in once again calling out where we are headed. This boy is also the collector of money. He makes sure that everyone pays before they get off. I wasn't sure if this was a set price or not. It was very confusing with all the money he was taking.
On the buses you can never have to many people. The bus may be full but that runner he is always looking for more people. He wants them to get on his bus and not someone else's bus. The more he has in his bus the more money he will get. So yesterday as we were on this full bus the boy stops and shoves another five people in. Keturah is literally hanging out the window. I have a women using my knee as her support as she leans in on all of us. There is a mans backside right up in my face and still the little runner boy is putting people on the bus. Apparently this is how it always is. Very full but never full enough.
On our way back to the house after our journey through town we got a taxi. You never get into a taxi without negotiating the price first. One you have the price set and where you are going than you can get in. Thankfully we had one of the sisters with us so she negotiated price for us. As she was negotiating with one driver all these other drivers gathered around. They wanted to see if they could give a better rate or help where this particular driver couldn't. Finally the original driver agreed to a price and we got in and left. Just as our Driver from the airport the experience was one of a kind and totally terrifying.
We are alive and well and so far I haven't seen any accidents so this could be a very good thing.


Jenessa

The House in Kathmandu

The Mountain fund has both a house here in Kathmandu as well as 'The Farm' as we have been calling it. It's actually a village community with 'Her Farm' located there. The house in Kathmandu was just recently built as the old place was destroyed in the earthquake last year. From what we have been able to tell they are still working on things and there are more rooms to be going up soon.

The house is a bunch of rooms connected together that look like dorm rooms. They all look out into a courtyard area. It looks like a house out of a Bollywood film. There are two 'western' toilet rooms with showers. The roof of these toilet rooms is made of metal siding pieces laid flat across the top of them. We are so grateful for modern technology and western toilets. There is also a commons area in the kitchen with a table and 6 chairs.

The room we have been placed in is on the ground level connected on both side to other rooms and right near the toilets. There are three beds, three shelves, and two rugs (mats) in the room. walls are white and purple. The room has windows on three sides. On two sides the windows are at the top of the wall and look into the rooms located next to us. You would have to be standing on the bed to see into the other rooms so it's all good. The third window looks out into the courtyard and almost spans the whole wall. It's simple but clean and perfect for what we are doing.


We walked up to the roof of the house which is three stories up. The view is amazing. On one side you see the hills which are very green and full of life. On the other side you see the city of Kathmandu which is all houses and buildings. The air is crisp and clear (probably accounting to the rain we had last night), it's a beautiful sight.

Well that's the house. Keturah will add photos that she took this morning. We are hear for the day but then will head up to the village and Her Farm tomorrow.


Jenessa

We've arrived in Nepal

After a very, very long flight and an additional stop in India we have arrived in Nepal. There were lots of weather issues yesterday that prevented us from landing in Kathmandu so we flew into India where we refueled and waited to see if the weather would clear for us to head back to Kathmandu. We didn't arrive until after 10pm.
The airport in Kathmandu we were told was air conditioned, which we found out meant there where ceiling fans everywhere. Even with our late arrival there was still a lot to do in the airport. We exchanged money which made me feel really rich as I gave them a $20 and got 2500 Repels back. The man behind the counter was very nice but also very fast and was onto the next customer before I realized he had taken my money and exchanged it. Thankfully we had already gotten our visa's so going through customs was simple and pain free. As we headed to the baggage claim area we had to go through another security check point where they scan your bags. We also did this once we arrived in Dubai so are becoming very proficient at the whole process.

Baggage - we were standing at the carousel that everyone else from our flight was at. And everyone was getting their bags and TV's they had bought somewhere else and then all the bags were gone. And we were still standing there waiting for a single sighting of our bags. I'll admit I started to worry a little bit before this point that someone had taken our bags. ("You were freaking out Jenessa" - Keturah) We asked this kind man who didn't speak much English about the bags and he pointed us to another carousel on the other end. I almost cried when I saw our bags there, all perfect and beautiful, not stolen. It was a wonderful sight.

One of the cool things they do in Nepal which I think we in the US should do at airports is that one you get your bags as you head out of the airport they have security to check your bags against the baggage claim numbers you were given at the beginning of your trip. This ensures that everyone goes out with their own bags. Had I know this before hand I might not have freaked out as much when our bags were not there yet.

Our next stop was the pre-paid taxi stand. We met the three most chatty-catty guys there. They wanted to know where we were from, what we did for a living, if we married (I'm kidding they didn't ask that last one.) It cost 1300 Repels or $16 for our taxi. [See post about 'Best Driving Ever' to read about this terrifying experience with our taxi driver - Utah driver are nothing compared to this guy]

We arrived at the house in Kathmandu for the Mountain Fund. We were met by Santhi who is one of the 'Sisters' here. The women who run the program are all called 'Sisters'. This makes it really easy for me as I can't seem to remember anyone's names. Keturah is really go at this and is able to tell me names again as well as words we just learned that seem to go in one ear and out the other for me.
Santhi was so nice they set us up in our room and she told us to get rest and not to worry about what time we got up in the morning as we would need sleep after the travel we just had.

It was a very nice welcome to Nepal.


Jenessa

Our Miracles

I've chosen to call this post 'Our Miracles' because it truly is a miracle how everything fell apart and then came together so differently. We take no credit for this as we know it was all done by the Lord. We heeded the call to head to Nepal and the Lord has now done the rest.

We looked up this world renowned humanitarian aid group that didn't have a single negative review. After thinking on it a few days and praying about it we made the decision to work through them for this Humanitarian Aid Mission. The program required that we fundraise $4,800.00 along with purchasing our own flights. Also we would need to get shots, passports, visas, etc. the cost can definitely added up. But we had prayed about the decision and felt that we were supposed to be in Nepal this summer so we moved forward with Faith.

Miracle 1: purchasing our flights

We knew the dates we would be going so kept looking for flights. Everything was so expensive and it would cost us almost as much for flights as what we also needed to fundraise. As we got on one night to look at flights it was going to cost $5,000 to get both Keturah and I to Nepal. We kept looking and the prices just kept going up. It had been a long Tuesday and I was thinking that we would never get ourselves to Nepal. I was on the verge of calling Keturah and telling her 'we just can't afford to go and serve'. I pulled up the flights in one last effort to find anything and to my surprise the rates on everything had dropped dramatically. We ended up getting both our flights for under $2000.00. WHAT! I know right. It was a huge miracle and blessing. It once again confirmed to us that we are supposed to be in Nepal.

So with our flights purchased there was no going back. We started fundraising and I started saving and using every penny I earned to get us shots, passports, visa's everything we would need to be prepared to go.

Miracle 2: Fundraising

Neither Keturah or I had the time to fundraise the traditional way. You know bake cookies, go door to door selling things, car washes, krispy kream donuts. I had just rushed into the busiest season at work and was out of town for most of each month. Keturah was in Hawaii in school and working. Miracle 2 came from a good friend in West Virginia who heard that we needed help fundraising and sent us a site called 'gofundme.com'. It was an easy way for people to donate for a cause. It may seem like a small thing and you may not think it much of a miracle but for Keturah and I it was a huge miracle as we were searching for something.

All in all we ended up getting flights, passports, visa's, shots, and raising $1,100 in funds for Nepal. For us that seemed like a miracle in its self just to have gotten that far.

Miracle 3: The girl from Church

Five months ago I was sitting in Relief Society and met a girl from Canada. She was just visiting for the week. We had finally made the official decision to head to Nepal so of course it came up in discussion. As I told her about our plans she lit up and got so very excited. She then informed me she had just returned home form a humanitarian aid trip in Nepal the previous month. She loved it and gave me the contact information of the "Farm" she had been at and told me that one weekend while we were there we should go and visit as it was a beautiful sight and a great thing to see.

Miracle 4: Networking is Great

First before we told the group in Nepal that we hadn't fundraised enough money I reached out to this contact I had received from a Canadian girl who had been visiting at church a few months back. She had told us to visit this place that she had been at so I was decided I better reach out to them before we actually head out there. At least find out where they are and how to get there so that on a weekend we could head up there.

Scott was very kind and said it would be worth my time to come see the farm one weekend. Its a bit of a ways out there so you would need to plan for an overnight trip but we would love to have you come visit.

Miracle 5: The Group said No
Last week we reached out to the group in Nepal. We told them everything we had including the children's books we were collecting to start a library. We informed them we had been able to raise $1,100.00 of the $4,800 they had put us down for. With no hesitation at all the group said that they would not accept us if we did not pay the full $4,800. It was a crushing blow. We had tickets and everything to Nepal. We had just spent everything we had getting shots and malaria pills. We were heading to Nepal in less than 10 days and they were telling us we were not going to be allowed to come. Just writing about it brings back all the feelings of overwhelming stress that I felt. What were we going to do?

I was saying my evening prayers and just pouring out my heart to the Lord. I couldn't understand why we felt so good about Nepal and now everything was coming to a complete stop. I had prayed often during the last few month asking the Lord to let me know if we were doing the right thing. Each time I was met with this feeling of complete peace and comfort. So here I was pleading with the Lord to know what he wanted us to do. Crying out for help. Finally I just said, "Lord I can't do it. I know you want us to be in Nepal. I have had the reassuring feeling many times. I can't do it on my own. Actually I don't think I can do it at all. I am giving everything over to you. Here it is...all of Nepal. We will go and be where you want us to be. We are willing to do anything you need us to do. I will reach out to everyone I can find tomorrow about different groups in Nepal and just everyone I can. I know that I can't make it happen but you can. It's all yours."

I reached out to everyone, it didn't matter what group they were with if they had done something with Humanitarian Aid efforts, Missionary Service, anything to do with Nepal, I reached out to them.

Miracle 6: "If anything happens with your group let us know, we would love to have you on the Farm." - Scott

Miracle 7: Come with what you have
We had informed Scott we only had raised $1100. The rate with the Mountain Fund was twice that much. How would they be able to accept us at the Farm. Scott and his wife made it happen. They said come with what you have. We would love to have you at the Farm.



There would have been no way in heaven that we would have looked at the Mountain Fund and said 'yes lets work with them'. We would have never chosen the option of volunteering at 'Her Farm'. Who knows we may have seen it in our original search and totally skimmed by it. The Miracle of this all is that the Lord has a plan. He hears and answers prayers. He opens doors and moves mountains for us.

We can't wait to be in Nepal and serving the people there. We'll let you know more about the Mountain Fund and Her Farm in a later post as I've already written you a novel tonight.

Miracles Happen!!


Jenessa