On our way!

Saturday Jan 8th
Hey friends! Our time in Nepal has been amazing so far. We’ve been around a bit: on a walk into the countryside, excursions into the city, restaurants, and time to help clean the new church building.
Today was the first church service in the new building. The building is on the second floor of a big apartment building. It consists of three rooms, a kitchen, and two cement-floored multi-purpose spaces. We cleaned and carpeted the one, which is where the congregation of about 30-40 people sit on the floor.
The services here are held on Saturday, because Saturday is the government- mandated day off. The service itself was led by Shanta’s nephew, who is a young evangelist. It started similarly to our services with songs, led by a guitar, a drum, and a few singers. Then we went into a long time of worship and prayer, which was great. People of the congregation all prayed at the same time, then someone would burst into song, we’d sing, then go back to prayer. The service finished with a bible reading and a sermon, as well as more prayer for the luggage to arrive soon. Afterwards we had tea and cookies, with the girls from PRC fighting over my camera.  - Obeth


Hello Canada!! Well, we’ve had quite the time here both today and these last couple of days! Today was by far the busiest, however. After church ended, we were invited by Shanta to go out for lunch. The only problem was we had walked to church that morning, and the café where we were going to eat was quite a ways away. Shanta helpfully solved our dilemma by hiring a Tuk Tuk for us. What is a Tuk Tuk you ask? Well, it’s essentially a little, three-wheeled taxi, about three metres long by one and a half metres wide. Considering we squished 10 people in there, we were quite thankful the ride was short! It was so much fun though! Driving in Nepal is quite the experience. First of all, they drive on the left of the road, which freaked Kim out when we got picked up at the airport. Ron was sitting in the front left seat (where our steering wheels are), and kept turning around to talk to us about Kathmandu and some of the sights we were seeing. Well, Kim somehow managed to miss the fact that the steering wheel was actually on the other side, and was quite concerned at Ron’s lack of regard for the road he was ‘driving’ on! Though, if he had been driving, I would have been worried too. There are so many cars, taxis, trucks, buses, motorcycles, bikes and pedestrians in Nepal, and the traffic laws here are much more relaxed than in Canada. For example, there are hardly any lines painted on the roads, because everybody just goes wherever there’s space anyway. Thankfully, the fastest anyone ever drives in the city is about 30-40 kilometres, so we haven’t witnessed, or been involved in, any accidents yet! – Larissa


Friends!
Well as Larissa has said I was a little freaked out, but I would expect nothing less than humour from me. I really did think that Ron was driving. In Nepal I have realized a few things. One, it seems to be a status thing to own more than one dog. Two, the more you eat, the cooler you are (Obeth, you seem to win this one hands down). Three, they are REAALLLYYY tiny people. Not only short but very delicately structured as we tried to get some Kuthas and even the largest ones did not really fit us. So we are getting some custom made. Four, they have no regard of personal space, and there is no law against how many people you fit into a vehicle. The more, the merrier. In fact, we rode on a bus back to the PRC after cleaning the church that Obeth had mention. As we stood there some guy stuck his face right between Larissa and I and started to talk to us in Nepali. I didn’t know what he said so I just shook my head. The last thing I have learned that I am going to mention is that they like to stare at us. Almost every person we pass by, stares. Its really awkward sometimes.


As was previously mentioned, today was a busy day as we shopped for kuthas. The first one the guy handed me to try on my head got stuck and everyone was laughing (thanks Obeth and Larissa for your support -.-) I would like to think that I don’t usually blush, but in this particular case, I turned so red. I never knew shopping would be so hard. After Shanta finally helped us all find material, I was the only one who came back with a pre-made kutha. The others will be made to fit us properly and comfortably, made by the sweet girls here at the PRC. Well I don’t have much else to say other that the weather is very decent and though it is quite polluted here and sometimes hard of the lungs, it is really beautiful.


Next we are going to head off to Dhangadhi. It is an 16-17 hour drive into the country. There we will be visiting the border patrol that separates India from Nepal. After that we are going to be visiting some of the girls who used to be at the center and then once we are finished that we are off to the national park to view and ride elephants!!! MWAHAHAHAHA! Dumbo here I come! (tries to hide excitement.) We will be gone for a whole week without communication (even though we don’t really have any now) but it will be great, though a lot of travelling. We will be staying in hotels along the way. I hope to talk to you all soon. Lots of love from us lovely Nepalese Canadians. God bless you and thank you for your prayers. We sill have not gotten our luggage so please continue your prayers for that.


-Kimberly