Saturday, October 1, 2016
Yesterday afternoon I fought an
overwhelming desire to go to sleep because it was too early and managed to stay
awake till a normal bedtime hour. It
didn’t do me any good because I woke up at 3:15 AM and didn’t get tired enough
to go back to sleep till it was time to get up. Next time I’ll sleep whenever I can. Because I was awake, I heard the thunder and
the rain. By the time we left for Church
the sun had come out. It was a perfect
day.
We met President & Sister Hodges
in the lobby and took a taxi to where the Church members now meet. We brought with us the donation bag stuffed
full of T-shirt dresses to give to the Relief Society President to hand out. She emptied our bag right away and put the
dresses in the Branch President’s office at the new church building. There was a group of young adults in the
meeting that are working with needy children so I told them about the dresses
in case they could also use them and they said that they could. The President brought their luggage with them
also as they were departing after the services for another one of their stops
to visit the missionaries that they are in charge of. We’ve enjoyed getting to know them a little
bit. Sister Hodges was wearing black and
she said it was because of where they were going. She will add a scarf for her head when she
gets there. Pakistan is one of the
countries that they have missionaries in.
After church was over they stayed to do some leadership training. Eventually we decided to take a taxi home as
we had been there a long time waiting.
We were supposed to go back with Oliphant’s to their house, but we came
back and ate at our hotel instead.
We saw a few people that we’d met
before and enjoyed getting reacquainted. There were quite a few Americans there, more
than usual. One was a professor at BYU
on sabbatical and teaching at a nearby university. One man brought his son there since he is
leaving for a mission in a couple of weeks.
His dad had actually summited Everest in 2012. Now that’s impressive! He also had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. This guy gets around!
After Church we began talking
with Bishnu—he is the man who used to be with CHOICE that we do lots of work
with here in Nepal. He is still on the
board of CHOICE but is now with USAID. When
we told him about the project that we had visited yesterday that was just
completed, he became very interested in solving the problem of sustainability. We talked about making a plan to get this
group on the right track. They are the ones that are not collecting money from
everyone—this will soon fail when they run out of money just paying for electricity—when
the pump breaks they won’t be able to buy a new one. The water bill is cheap, even for here. It is also not good that some are paying and
others are not. Bishnu, you might
remember, was in the Meet the Mormons film produced a couple of years ago.
It was so interesting
today to see where the Branch is now meeting.
After the earthquake they met at a hotel till they could find a
permanent place. Imagine our surprise to
see this beautiful, large home. It had
spiral staircases, three stories, nice bathrooms, many, many rooms for various
classes to meet in. One man told us that
it had been owned by a Sherpa. He made
some good money and then made more selling rugs. They decided to get a larger home—really? This place is beautiful and large! They have a pool also, but it is now empty,
for obvious reasons.
The Branch now meets in
this beautiful, 3 story home formerly owned by a Sherpa (turned carpet seller),
who decided he needed a larger home! It
has marble floors and beautiful light fixtures on every decorated ceiling! The yard is beautiful also, and has room for
the few cars that need to park there.
We had wanted to see the Oliphant’s
apartment today, but maybe we’ll get to see it another time. They said that it is a really nice
place. On Fast Sundays they invite the
young adults over for a meal. Tonight 16
joined them. Today we also met E/S
Weaver. We brought them lots of goodies
that they had delivered to our house the last few weeks. For them it was like Christmas.
The new church has
spiral staircases and the main room, or where the Chapel is now, has a
chandelier. Notice the little alcoves above
on the left—I could picture a play being held here with some of the actors
going out to give their lines in these alcoves.
This is some fancy place! They
also have nice bathrooms and have fireplaces in several rooms. They also have nice air conditioners in all
the main rooms. Today it was not as
necessary for them to be turned on so they were not, but they had them, and
this is not usually what they have in 3rd world countries. Normally they just have fans. This shot is from above on the next floor up,
looking down on the living room or what is now the Chapel.
When people build a
home in Nepal they are never spread out—they go up—it is common for a nice home
here to have 3-4 floors so as not to take up a large footprint. Speaking of going up, every day we walk up
the stairs to our room, which is on the 4th floor—in the U.S. it
would be considered the 5th floor--to get a little exercise.
Spiral staircases,
beautiful ceilings and light fixtures, marble floors.
Lovely grounds; empty
pool on the right.
Yesterday we were
seated on some chairs and a bunch of the kids were standing behind us so Jim
took their picture (selfie).
The
beautiful girl was probably going to perform for us as she is
dressed in traditional clothes; since we had to leave early, we didn’t get to
see the rest of the show.
When we got to Church we realized
that it was Fast Sunday here; at home everyone will be watching Conference on
TV, and in our Stake Fast Sunday will be next week. Here next Sunday (I mean Saturday!) they will
be watching taped Conference messages for their Sunday (Saturday) services. It is hard to remember that our Sunday is
their Saturday!
Tomorrow, more traveling about
and staying overnight.
Love, from Kathmandu, Shambala
Hotel
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