Well hello friends and family! This update is long overdue but lets just say Internet is not always readily accessible and I have also been soaking in the culture as much as possible.
For starters, I moved to Dadeldura about one month ago. When I left Dhangadi I was pretty sad to go since I had made some good friends here and was feeling like I could adjust to that environment. Those sad feelings have dissipated now and I am fully enjoying my new home. For one, the weather is a thousand times more comfortable. It never gets too hot here and sometimes you even need a light jacket. Whereas in Dhangadi you literally want to just sleep all day because it is so stinkin hot. The coolest hours there are between 5 and 6 AM. If you have work to do...get it done in those hours otherwise you are useless! :) Not only is the weather nice in my new home but the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. This is the Nepal I have dreamed of and seen in pictures. Terraced mountains and hillsides, lush greenery, forests (aka "jungle" in Nepal). Like I said, I am loving it here.
For the first couple weeks I stayed in the hospital guesthouse in Dadeldura. The hospital is actually a missionary hospital and was started back in the 1960's. The guesthouse was ok for a bit but I felt like I had little privacy or freedom to do what I wanted there...not to mention the scuttering sound of rats in the ceiling at night. Lets just say I wanted to find my own place. The family I am working for has a cook/housecleaner that just so happened to have a house that was vacant. Her dream has been to get the home ready for a bideshi(foreigner) and have them live there.
Its actually kind of cool how God worked out some details and blessings in the midst of moving iton this new home. One day I was walking in the bazaar(market) and ran into an American lady who was quite friendly. She just so happened to know who I was(I guess that's not so surprising. All the foreigners in the far west region seem to know of each other). We began chatting and I found out that she is living in Port Orchard, WA. Her father and mother are actually the ones who started the missionary hospital in Dadeldura too. She speaks Nepali and has been coming back ever since she was a young girl. What an amazing lady! She comes to Nepal about twice a year to do work with her NGO called "Dare to Care." She took me under her wing for the last month or so and has been such a big blessing to me. She helped coordinate a lot with my new living arrangements as she knows the family's cook/housecleaner who owns my home. By the way...that lady's name (my landlord) is Bubani and she is a sweetheart to me. She has recently had a couple of very difficult years and I think that maybe God brought me to her home to show her God's love...oh God use me to show her how much you care for her.
Let's talk about my new home for a minute:) Kids...I'm living Nepali style. This definitely has it's challenges but hey...didn't I want to come to NEPAL to experience what NEPALIS experience? How can we learn if we don't face challenges(preaching to the choir here). Right now I have two rooms that I slathered a new coat of paint onto before moving in. I use a toilet outside (kind of like a little shed with an Asian toilet). No running water inside, so I take a bath outside. Water is a bit of a problem here. It comes twice a day...7AM or earlier and then like 5:30 PM. There are two tanks that Bubani and her family fill up. We use the water in these to wash dishes, wash clothes, and to wash our bodies. Ok, let me explain for a minute how a woman takes a bath her if there is no running water...(this is also how they do it in the village). First, its not in a covered area or a private area. Nope! You are out in nature and pretty much anyone can watch you if they are really curious. Second, women wear a petticoat to bathe. A petticoat is like a skirt that has a drawstring. You pull that sucker up under your armpits and tie it tight! Then, somehow you wash yourself. I am still trying to figure out how to wash all my body parts conservatively....;) How does one wash when they are covered in cloth is my question! Also, its important to
not use a new petticoat when bathing as I found out from experience. Otherwise the dye from the fabric pretty much defeats the purpose...because it colors your whole body (red in my case!) Oh another thing...I ran out of toilet paper the first couple days at Bubani's house so I have taken to Nepali style...left hand and water baby! Don't ask for more details...I am still trying to figure out how to do this too. I also boil my water so I can drink it and Bubani cooks for me. This is cool to watch! She has a house made out of clay and stone right next to mine. She cooks by fire over a stove made of clay and we eat the Nepali staple food: dahl(lentils), baht(rice), tarkari(cooked vegetables), and roti (flat bread). Bubani calls me "mero chordi' which means "my daughter" and she loves on me a lot. Her two daughters and I are getting to know each other and will hopefully be able to learn Nepali and English from each other. Oh I almost forget...this living situation is temporary until the upstairs part of the house is finished. I will then move up there and have two rooms, a kitchen with running water and a western toilet with a shower. I better not get too comfortable though:)
Oh...there is so much to tell but I don't want to bog you down with too much reading. I will post again this week to get you up to date. Thank you for your prayers, love and support. Please pray for my visa...we have had a little trouble with it but we are trusting God to take care of it. Love you all and ciao for now!
My two rooms are on the bottom of this building. Notice the big hole in front called my SEPTIC TANK!
This is Bubani's home. It screams Nepal to me.
A neighbor's home...it actually might be abandoned.
Hiking down to the village. Isn't Nepal beautiful!?
