Red Alert

Today we are on Red Alert again!  This time because all the government schools are closed. So when we go to red alert we have no bells, whistles, and we can't even use our loud speakers for announcements. But all the students made it in today, so that was good! So keeping a low profile and switching to silent mode.

My Amazing Parents

Just before leaving.

God has definitely blessed me with amazing parents. It has been a joy to share with them my life here at the top of the world.  
I know that I live out their example of faith in God and they are a big reason why I do what I do. Words can not really describe how much I owe them and what they mean to me. I am just glad that I was able to share a part of my world with them again.

Lunch on the roof.

Things to Do.

This weekend, Mom, Dad, and I had a good time just hanging out and eating some good food. It has been such a blessing to have them here and show them my world. I have sent them home today, praying for smooth travels. They land in LAX and then drive back home the next day!

As they are jetting across the oceans, I am here, filling my short week with admission testing, event planning, and classroom observations.  Fortunately, it is only a three-day week as we have a mid-term break Thursday through Monday. I am planning on walking across the valley with a colleague....with my camera at the ready.
We will see how that goes.

The Life of Christ - Tibetan-style

This photo is a picture of the life of Christ told in a Tibetan-style story wheel. It is called a Thangka!  I am not sure of all the words, but it is a great way to share the gospel here.

Tin Trunk Delivery

One of the students reads

Reading underside down!

One of the teachers read

Part of my job is working with KISC division called EQUIP. EQUIP is a teacher training school and one of the services they provide are tin trunk libraries to local schools. The tin trunk has about 200 books, with Nepali and English books that can cover a variety of age levels. Today the Grade 2 delivered a trunk to a local school! It was a wonderful event. The KISC students took turns reading some of the books to groups and sang them a song. I was very proud of them. And I think they enjoyed it too.

New Office

At school, I have moved into a new office. I have a largest one now because as the curriculum person I need a space for all the textbooks and meetings.  I do not plan to be the curriculum person for long,(the school needs to hire a coordinator for that) but since I will be working closely with them, I figure I need to have space for another desk too! So for now, I swim a bit.. but soon it will be crowded.
The best thing about the new office is that it looks out over the main courtyard and meeting area. So I can be snoopy and keep an eye on my class during recess.

Here is the latest photo!

All is quiet..

Today was a nation-wide strike. It was pretty quiet on the streets and the shops are all closed. I had about four of my students not able to make it in and the student teacher I am overseeing was not able to get in either. So I taught again this afternoon. There is a eeriness around town as people just go into hiding and wait out the storm.  In our immediate area there were no issues, but in city proper there were about seven cars burned. 

Continue to pray for this nation!

Parents

Wood craving

Dad teaching

At the palace

Random

                          

Shopping at the bizarre

It has been five days since the folks arrived and I am so glad they are here!  They have gotten out and about a bit...visited a Newari village and been to the local palace.  Dad got some shopping done, but we are still looking for yak wool for mom.
It has been great to show them where I am and what I am doing. And I think they are enjoying it too.

When Children Pray

This week in assembly, one of the teachers invited students to the front to be prayed for. When she first called them up, I must admit I was a bit skeptical. However, God blow me away!  For it didn't take long for the floodgates to open and about 2/3 of the student body went forward. What was real cool was that after a student would get prayed for, they would turn and pray for others. It was also such a blessing, when two of my students came up to pray for me!
The young lady that came to me for prayer first, stated that as her family read their family devotions each evening, she did not have a passion to understand it. That is what she wanted, the hunger to understand what was being read and a desire to put it into action! WOW! What insight!

God has an amazing way of working! It was a wonderful example of growing together as a body of Christ!

Why is Waiting So Hard!?

Today will be tough.. I have a 26 hour wait to get through today and tomorrow. Why?! I am waiting for my folks to arrive. I am very excited that they get to come and see where I am and what I am doing.   Knowing that they are squashed into airplane seats for the next 17 hours or so with a couple lay overs in Japan and Singapore, makes me happy it is them coming here and not me headed there. But I still don't like the waiting. Maybe that is why I am teaching now. So that I have something to occupy my mind.
Oh well, the wait will soon be over! Just keep them in your prayers!

Planning

As part of my new job, I am in charge of school events. Right now I am in the throws of planning the Easter Program and the Staff Social. We have a couple other things happening too, but I am not actually overseeing them.
For the Staff Social we will be having a high tea. I am actually excited about this. As we have a lot of Brits on staff, I know I will be judged with a very critical eye, but that is okay. I have planned a game in which the non-British staff needs to practice and be assessed on how well they speak with a proper accent.  I am thinking also of asking  all attendees to come with a hat or a nice tie.

I do love this part of my job.

Moving, Moving, Moving..very slowly

On Friday I tripped  going up the stairs at school. I really hurt my knee cap, but I saved my tea cup! The bruising is still coming in but the  whole body is pretty stiff. On Friday evening as I was coming out of my room I tripped again and twisted my ankle...on the other feet. It is really painful still too and some bruising happen there too.  So needless to say, on Saturday I laid low and just rested because on Sunday I moved to a new house. There is a family at my school, that is leaving for a six month furlough and I will be house sitting for them during their absence. Unfortunately I had all my stuff packed up already, which was good, considering the injuries I sustained, and have some friends who have a car coming over to help me get moved. I am hoping that it goes smoothly and I can get settled quickly.

Main Street in the Burbs

The Closed Street

Signs? What Signs?!

The Main Road

Walking home each day, I have to cross the main street in my suburb. Right now it is under construction. There are signs everywhere that say the road is closed... yet the signs apparently are only a suggestion as the motorcycles and bikes ignore the signs and proceed through the construction. Yesterday I watched as two men pushed a large sewer pipes down the road ( fortunately gravity was working with them) and about seven motorcycles swerved in and around, honking their horns as these men rolled this huge pipe around. At other times I have seen a couple of the taxis drive through the construction too, ignoring the signs and kicking up dirt and dust. I just keep wondering if there aren't some big enough holes along the road that they might just fall into. When I am in countries like this,I appreciate the over cautious rules and means that my home land keeps to keep traffic moving and pedestrians safe.

Rolling the Ppes

Hairy shirt

Today on my way in to work, I crossed a road and ended up walking next to a lady on her way to work. She did not work at the school, so I did not know her, but at one point in our walk together, she decided to tell me, in Nepali, that I had a lot of hair and fuzz on my fleece jumper. I smiled and said thank you.  She smiled and kept walking.

I was so surprised that a stranger would talk to me on the road, that the news of my hairy shirt was secondary. Strange how some interactions go.

Birds on a Wire

In the mornings as I am walking in to work, I pass a small temple complex. One of the ways that people worship at temples is by throwing seed out across the temple grounds for the birds to feed on. Apparently this temple has a good reputation among the pigeons, as there must be close to 300 pigeons who  sit waiting on the phone and electric wires in front of the temple.  The problem is that these wires crisscross the whole road and you HAVE to walk under the wires! So each morning as a approach, I increase my speed and make a rush to walk the 30 yards or so under all those waiting birds.
So far so good...another day with no hits.

Fog... a new experience for me

Yup, woke up this morning and looked at the window and thought... did the mountains move?  There was a dense blanket of fog hanging in the tree tops, blocking the surrounding hills. It was a bit eerie. But on the up side it was warmer. As I walked in to work, people suddenly appeared in front of me and the cars' headlights glowed like synchronized-swimming UFOs.  Even turning up the lane to school was unsettling because I could not see the end of the lane. But BC, the faithful dog, at the end of the lane came trotting towards me, so I knew I was headed  in the right direction.  (BTW BC is the name I gave him because when I first saw him he had a green waste basket around his neck and he was trying to shake it off. So I called him BC for Basket Case.)  I am sure that the fog will burn off later, but I have never seen it before, here in the valley.

Get out that Umbrella!

Woke up this morning to overcast skies and RAIN! It was unbelievable! Yesterday the weather turned and I thought we might actually get snow, the air was so full of moisture and quite chilly. But the valley does not get snow ... it is just rain. Which is not bad because we need the rain. It has been a very dry winter and as each week passes with no rain, our load shedding schedule gets bigger and bigger. But with these rain and some that we have had in the surrounding hills, we got two hours a day back yesterday. We now have 12 hours of power a day!  So keep praying for rain and I'll carry my umbrella more!

Nepali Wedding

Last weekend, I attended a Nepali wedding. Okay, it was not the actual wedding, it was the bride's 'pre-ception'. This bridal shower/party was the kick off to week-long festivities. I heard that 900 invitations went out and by the time I left, I think there were close to that in attendance.  The wedding 'ceremony", if that is what it can be called, was  to be on Wednesday and then the groom was to have his party this weekend, with just as many guests, if not more. It is quite mind blogging to think about preparing for all those guests..

So anyways, last weekend's  bridal party...We arrived at the wedding hall, I think we were one of the first to arrive. After saying hello to the bride's family, we climbed up a high podium, inside a large hall, to pay our respects to the bride and her party. The groom was no where to be seen and I get the idea it was taboo for him to show up at HER party. As the group's bearer of our group's money envelope,  I received a handful of raw betelnut.   After admiring the bride's hennaed hands, we  proceeded down the stairs to a large waiting room. Waiters came by with all manner of food (the chicken was the best) and drinks (they actually had Pepsi!). They kept coming by, again and again and again. But I had been forewarned not to eat much  of these appetizers, as there was a banquet meal too. So I only limited myself to a bowl of vegetable soup, some grilled chicken, and as much Pepsi as I could get.   After about an hour and a half of refusing more offers of fish, mutton and buff, we headed into the dining hall and proceeded through the buffet line.   In Nepali culture, you eat the big meal just before you are ready to leave the party. The appetizer time is for socializing and hobnobbing with friends and family. So not many of the national staff came in and eat with us. They were  planning  on staying longer than the bedeshi invitees.
The Nepali food was good and there was plenty of it.
Then the music started on the dance floor and we were all herded out to the dance floor to dance a bit with the bride. It was all in good fun.

Ground PIG Day!

Feb. 2 was a great day!  I woke in the morning to hear a reading of dad's annual ode to this majestic beast, then I went to  Nepali church. After church, a group of friends got together to celebrate the grand ground PIG! We had a brunch of scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage patties (although the sausage was not ground PIG, it was ground chicken),and juice. There was also a Nepali dish that I can not recall a name for, but tastes wonderful with maple syrup on.  After we ate, I read one of my favorite stories, Geoffrey Groundhog Predicted the Weather, as a way of informational entertainment.  Got home and made dinner for the others and told the story again. Then at 8 PM, I checked the  state-side news and watched as Punxsutawney Phil predicted that Spring was about to spring. The weather today has felt a bit warmer!


So Happy Ground PIG day to you all!

Stars and Dots

The other day, one of the teachers in the high school shared the book, You are Special at the high school assembly. As I sat listening to a book I have read many times before, it was  a great reminder that it is in God, and Him only, that my worth and value comes from. I need to seek His presence daily to be reminded of that.  So today as I was walking to school and praying for my day, I thought about the fact that many will try and label me as one thing or another and yet those opinions do not matter. I said out loud, " Then let them judge away!"  It is so comforting to know that God, who made  me, deems me worthy to be his child because of Christ's willingness to pay the ultimate price!

 As I entered the school grounds,  I could feel the stars and dots falling off....boing!