Monday 8th.The sisters are doing it for themselves

Gloria and Danielle making pikelets, toll house cookies,  and mars bar slice, which were devoured very quickly afterwards by the girls, especially those in the self-defence class, who had worked up quite an appetite.









Watch out!  These girls are deadly.  They are so enjoying the self-defence class.  It is giving them such confidence.  Considering their backgrounds, this really changes how they view themselves.  Josh and Emma have joined the class to help with the practice of being attacked and how to defend themselves.  Josh is 6 ft. tall and he has to play the badguy and surprisingly the tiniest one in the hot pink on the left is just like a little tiger.  It is so great to see them so happy.

Josh and Emma were helping out in the school in the morning and then the other class in the afternoon.

Robyn

Sunday 7th dolls, bickies, and motor bike ride.

Another sweltering day, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of our little self defence class.  As I was otherwise occupied with my own classes  and duties, I didn't get a picture.  But tomorrow, I have some time to pop into the class.  Gloria is with her small class in the kitchen.  There will be more girls joining soon.  One of my beautiful girls on the sewing machine making a start on her doll.  This afternoon, I had to go to one of our hostels to update photos and details of our girls there.  I was picked up by one of the house fathers on his motorbike.  I was quite apprehensive, but I found it quite exhilarating, dodging through the traffic, between busses, cars, bikes and other manner of traffic on the main road.  I can't wait to do it again.  Grahame as a full day teaching at the Bible college tomorrow.

Robyn    

6th, prayer point

A dangerous situation has been caused by the landslide up river from Dologhat, where we were today.  The slide fell into the river and has caused  a large dam to form.  Because there has been a lot of rain, it is becoming quite serious.  The police are there trying to work out how to release the water slowly but are worried about the whole wall breaking and causing a massive flow of water at once.  The little church and village could be at risk. Please pray for them.

Robyn

Saturday 6th 'Tough Missionary Life'

Today, we went to the little village church.  It was sweltering hot, and up in the loft, with lots of people jammed in, it was even hotter.  Danielle felt a bit woozy, but was OK after a while.  On the way home, we stopped half way to have lunch at a hotel right on the escarpment with views of the mountains.  On the way up, we saw some snow capped mountains, and green valleys, and terraced hillsides, luxuriously green  with rice fields.  The statue of Shiva, the destroyer, 143 feet high, stared ominously down the Kathmandu valley.  By the time we came back the cloud had settled over the mountain caps unfortunately, but still the view was spectacular.  Grahame had a very novel lunch.  He ordered a chicken drumstick dinner, and as you can see it was amazingly decorated to look like a chicken.  On a bed of mashed potatoes, with a mashed potato head, peppercorn eyes and carrot wings and comb and tail.  It looked better than it tasted, but it was one of those fascinating moments we have here.  On the way home, there were two big trucks broken down on the winding road around the mountains and also we saw two other trucks that had gone into the deep ditch on the side of the road.  I have no idea how they get them out, way out there without a crane or something.   The road is narrow enough without broken vehicles blocking the way.  We are always conscious  of the possible dangers, and pray for the Lord's protection.   Apparently there were 5 children saved from the terrible landslide that swept away three villages, and we hope to be able to take them into the hostel.  It is not official yet.  Imagine, those little things seeing their whole families, communities and villages swept away.  It is all that they know.  Please remember these little orphans in your prayers.

Robyn

Friday 5th, 5 weary aussies

Our first team members arrived today weary and worn, but excited about what the next few weeks will bring.  Danielle and Annette , Josh and Emma are here for a month.  Gloria for three weeks.  Gloria, in the blue, is an old hand as this is her third trip. She will be doing cooking training.  Annette in the black, will be teaching self-defence and also making dolls (the cabbage patch kind). The ladies were very excited about self-defence, and were giggling as I acted out what the lesson would be about; as they do not speak english.  Danielle, in the whit e, is my niece, and it is her first mission trip.  Josh and Emma come from Singleton.  As you can see, our lovely young people are doing the dishes after beef stew and pasta.  Classes begin on Sunday.  I am doll making in the morning, and Gloria and Annette have afternoon classes.  We are going out to Dologhat, 2 1/2 hour drive, for church tomorrow to the village church that meets up in a loft.  We also want to see our land out there, to see if we have sustained any flood damage.  We plan to have a training centre, church and school there, and a place for the hostel girls to have a little holiday.  We like the team members to experience village life as well as city life.  The drive out there lovely, and all the rice fields are green and lush.  Grahame will be preaching through an interpreter, so at least we will know what is being preached about.  The power keeps going on and off.  The schedule is not all that reliable this time.  Everyone has toddled off to bed, leaving "Darby and Joan" sitting here in the dark.  I need to put on the emergency lights.  Bye    Robyn

Thursday 4th reunited

Today was a great day for me as I was reunited with Bimala after she had been missing for 5 months.
She is such a shy little thing but it was wonderful to see her again, safe and sound.  We also went to see the new school campus no. 4. and spent time with the Principal, Lalima, and Robita.  We also heard an amazing story about good coming out of tragedy.  At Jhuprakhola, the village was flooded during the big wet season and some houses were washed away.  No lives were lost.  But the village relies  on gathering sand and gravel for a living, and the place where they live was running out. After the flood, there was enough sand and gravel deposited by the village to keep them working for at least two more years.  In another place, there was a landslide and three villages were swept away with 200 lives lost.   One of our ladies doing the vocational training, Tara, went home to the village and was married there and will not be returning.  We were sad about that, as the transformation in her life was remarkable and we are not sure what her future will be now.  
Five people arriving tomorrow, so Grahame will spend a good part of his  day waiting at the airport,  as the planes are arriving at different times.


Electricity is not as good as it usually is in September.  Usually, we are only 4 hours a day without, but at present it is 8 hours without.  It is strange as they had such a big wet this year and the power is hydro.


 Robyn

Back into the swing

Here we are again, seems like we never left.   It is hot and humid, but lovely and green after the monsoon.  We had a day in Singapore for a meeting and managed to see a bit of that beautiful city.  Spotlessly clean and manicured, spreading trees and flowers everywhere.  It is now just dark in Kathmandu, and life is just as noisy and colourful as ever.  Sadly, the dog who barks all night is still alive a kicking, so I guess we will be serenaded tonight.  We also have a new rooster and hen tied by the leg in the vacant allotment next door.  The rooster has already been crowing in the middle of the day, so I expect we will be hearing from him before dawn.  We did see a little dog dead on the footpath on the way up to shop.  It is hard to survive on the street here.  We were excitedly greeted by some of the women doing the beauty training.  One of them has a trendy new haircut and the other one was halfway through colouring her hair.  It was so great to see them again.  There are only two of us tonight.  Seems weird, as there is usually a houseful. But it will be full on soon enough.

Robyn