Thursday-Grahame's home again

I awoke to loud "tinny" Nepali music, the metal worker banging away at his trade, a circular saw whining away somewhere, dogs incessantly barking, people talking.  Ahhhh! Kathmandu at 6am.  Grahame arrived home last night 9 pm. totally exhausted.  Tuesday was spent driving and driving to Chitwan.  They stayed overnight at a good hotel though the bed was a mattress on the floor.  Wednesday, they took a four wheel drive large truck up the mountain to the village they came to see.  Grahame said the hairpin turns of the road were extremely dangerous.  The driver had to do three point turns to get around at each bend.  At one stage, Raju insisted they get out while this was in progress as he was concerned the truck was going to go over the cliff.  They arrived at the village where the baptisms were to be held.  Finally, there were about 65 it was considered that some were not fully understanding what they were doing.  These people are subsistence farmers, mostly tomatoes.  They are all malnourished and terribly poor.  The annual income is $300 to feed a family. It is quite remote.  Grahame said the scenery was absolutely spectacular.  He tried to video it but it didn't do it justice.  We saw some photos of the baptisms.  Shrivelled old ladies, young women, men and boys.  This young man, just trained in Raju's Bible college for 5 months, has gone home and led 200 people to the Lord.  What a hope Christ must be to them.  They photographed the children for the new hostel  and also bought back four young boys from there, from about 12 to 8, who walk 4 hours a day to get to a little village school and back.  Raju has brought  them to Kathmandu to settle them in the Lighthouse hostel for a while and then when they go back, they will be able settle the other new kids in, having had the experience already.  The four boys were alive with head lice and in rags.  When they got down the mountain, they went to the barber and had their heads shaved (like pastor Raju) and were fitted out with a new set of clothes.  The trip down the mountain was even more scary.  The big truck lurched from side to side, precariously near the edge, slippery places where there had been landslides and very steep. Part way down, Raju insisted on getting out and walking the next 1 and half hours down to the bottom. Once there they stayed a night in a "home stay".  I use the term loosely.  Their bed was a wooden board.  Even though Grahame didn't need his pink mosquito net, it came in very handy for a pillow wrapped in a towel. (continued)   Robyn