Wednesday 7th January. Halfway house visit

Last night, we visited the young women in the halfway house.  As it is holidays, two of them had their little children with them, as usually the children  live in the hostels.  One of the young women was having a birthday, so it was lovely to be there to share that with her.  Again, the Bollywood music came out and we all danced together.  The little children are very good at it.  Even the dog joined in very excitedly.  He is supposed to be a guard  dog, but he was enjoying all the festivities.   This morning, I took Sally, a paediatric nurse, over the the Miriam Centre to meet our babies; really toddlers now.  Some welcomed us with open arms, others were very shy.  The triplets that were rescued a couple of years ago looking like they wouldn't survive, are chubby little things now.    It was good for Sally to have a bit of a look at them, to see if they seems to be developing properly.
Grahame returns from the west tonight, with two of the ladies from our team. Three of the team head home this afternoon.  We are about 15 on team.  This afternoon, we plan another visit to one of the hostels with 24 little kids who didn't go home to the village over Christmas.  I have a dose of some sort of flu and am not feeling too flash.  The conference finishes tomorrow.  The afternoon is  when people get their certificates for their studies for the fortnight.  It has been a very full two weeks, with the house overflowing with over a hundred people.  Getting into the toilet is a challenge.  You have to be quick.

Monday 5th January. Visas, airports and new arrivals

Grahame arrived at midnight last night, only to have to fly out again at 3p.m. with two team members from NZ. to the far west of Nepal about 600 klms. away.  We had to go to the Indian embassy this morning to get visas for India, as Grahame and I are going there for five days from the 13th.  When we arrived there was a queue along the footpath waiting to get in.  We were number 54.  We sat there all morning; this being  our second visit; only to find out that we need to be back there on Friday morning (another queue), and again on Monday morning ( another queue) , in order to acquire out visas.  Bureaucracy!!!!  We had our final team member arrive late this afternoon.  She was very late coming out of the airport, and we worried we had lost her.  Finally, she turned up.  Baggage collection taking over an hour.  Almost everyone arriving this time has that this trouble.  They are upgrading the domestic terminal here, when the international one is in desperate need of modernisation.  Dr Ted, our keynote speaker, was saying that 41 church members from a church in Indonesia he knows, went down in the Air Asia crash.  That must have a huge impact on that community. Training goes on as usual each day.  When Grahame comes back, I will be able to send some photos on the blog, as I can do it on his computer.  Sore throats, and flu  like symptoms now doing the rounds in our guesthouse.  The joys of winter in Kathmandu.  

Saturday, 3 January

We all trundled off to church this morning, with the exception of Dr. Ted Boyce, who preached at another church.  We had a visiting speaker at church, a man from India, who spoke in English, and Raju interpreted into Nepalese.  Trouble is, we were having trouble understanding Indian-English.  It was very spirited, to say the least.  We enjoyed lunch with the team at the Bakery  Cafe, whose waiters are mute, one is a dwarf, and one who speaks English.  We always enjoy our times there.  Some of the ladies went shopping.  Now, tomorrow, back to business.  The guest house will be full with maybe 130 people in various classrooms.  Dr Ted is our keynote speaker for the week.  He is an old hand, having been here 6 times.  We have another member on team with tummy troubles.  Seems to be circulating.  We have had very little power today for some reason.  We think 12 hours a day without power is enough.  The neighbours dog barked from 9pm to 4 am last night.  The wretch was blissfully sleeping on the footpath this morning, while the rest of us were bleary eyed.  Still no joy with trying to work our photos for the blog.  Mr I.T. is thinking on it.

Friday. Bollywood and Kathmandu belly

New Year's Eve was quite a night.  After the training, all the trainees stayed behind and we celebrated the end of the old year.  Bollywood was the music of choice and I really enjoyed dancing with everyone.    I also spent the day with my sponsor girl and also the sponsor girl of my friend.  We went  out to a restaurant for pizzas and cheesecake.  Then we came back to the guest house, and played Uno sitting on the bedroom floor.  That was fun, until I tried to get up again.  Then I had to prepare the evening meal, so,the two girls came into the kitchen with me and peeled the potatoes and did the beans while I made the stew.  I just loved every minute of it, and so did they.  It was a real mother/daughter afternoon.  They finally had to go back to the hostel, but it was a great day.  We have had vomiting and diahhorea with two team members, then yesterday, I spent time in bed, and today another one has vomiting.  We said goodbye to our keynote speaker for the first week, and two new members have arrived tonight and another lady arrives at midnight.  Grahame is still in Myannmar.  Friday is team day off, so this morning, we visited one of the hostels,with the team.  Only 24 girls there as the rest have gone to the villages over the holidays.  We had so much fun with them.  They are gorgeous.  In the afternoon, we went to Thamel, the tourist centre, and a little shopping, and then out to dinner before coming home.  The first week of training has been great.

Tuesday.small team great fellowship

Grahame flew out for Yangon last night, so we are only 8 on team at present.  We,all had a great day with the training, and at night, we really enjoy hearing each ones personal journeys.  After dinner, the musical ones sang and played, and Al Watson, our keynote speaker played the plastic rubbish bin.  He was quite good, too.  I am having difficulty with putting photos on the blog at present, but we have more arriving at lunchtime today, and one is an IT guy, so he can help me.

Rob.

Tuesday 29 December. Happy birthday

Today, we celebrated two birthdays.  One of our team member's and Nelson, the son of the young couple who manage our guesthouse.  We have half a dozen different classes going at once in different rooms in the guesthouse.  It is pretty full on every day.  All our team members are having a wonderful time, and, as is always the case, have fallen in love with the people.  I had a fun ride on the back of a motorbike again yesterday, though it was a bit chilly.  Many of the hostel girls are away at present visiting in their villages.  We have been having a lot of trouble with the power.  Usually, it is 12 hours without power, but today has been worse than normal.  We ran out of water in our tanks on the roof as the water has to be pumped up when the electricity is on.  We had to use a generator, as we have over a hundred people here each day and just flushing toilets uses lots of water.

Sunday,28-12-14. Conference begins

Here we are at the guest house, feeling as if we never left.  Our flights  went according to plan,  but had to wait for an hour and half for one vanishing suitcase.  It turned up thankfully,  as all I had to wear was what I was standing in.

Team members arrived over the course of the day; Grahame having to go late at night to pick up two ladies who have  come from NewZealand.  We have another arriving tonight, and at the end of the week, some leave and others arrive.    The Conference is underway.  We had a great keynote address from Al Watson this morning which he will continue this week.  Now classes of various groups are in different rooms with their trainers.

It is milder than expected, but was cool during the night. The sun is shining, and a "hot" Nepali lunch was had by all at the break.  I saw Sapana today, who is the first of our half-way house ladies to be married.  He is  in Bible college, and he is a nice young man.

Robyn