Chitwan Wheelchair Warehouse

We went to Chitwan to clean up a warehouse in preparation for receiving and storing nearly 1,000 wheelchairs. This is a picture of what the warehouse looked like when we started. When we finished it looked like a warehouse with bare concrete floors and was relatively clean. It took three workers all day to clean it out.

 

This is the entrance to the warehouse.

We went to lunch at a local restaurant with our NGO partners. There was a green parrot walking around on the floor. The parrot liked it if you gave it rice. I discovered that it liked rice with some curry sauce more than plain rice

 

This is a picture of two of the trucks delivering the wheelchairs. These trucks are about 3-ton, TATA brand, trucks that are built like tanks. They travel throughout Nepal and have to be very rugged.

Next door to the warehouse is the home of owner of the warehouse and adjoining property.  

Near the warehouse is a statue of a rhinoceros. Chitwan is the location a famous national park. In the park you can get a close-up view of an Asian rhinoceros. It is a very rare and endangered species.

This is a picture of Lear with a little girl named Laxmi. Laxmi lives in a small house adjoining the warehouse. Her house looks much like the warehouse. Her father makes a living hauling freight with a modified bicycle like the one pictured below. 

To get the wheelchairs from the road into the warehouse the unloading team used a modified bicycle shown in this picture.  This is like the one that Laxmi's father uses to make his living.

Junior Primary, Visiting Professor, Thanksgiving Chicken, Lucky the Cat and a Bus Ride

This is a picture of our Junior Primary classes (Sunday School for you non-Mormons). They are coloring pictures and being helped by Sister Pratima, the second councilor in the primary presidency, who is supervising. Lear is the first counselor.

This is a picture of us, the Oliphants (our companion missionary couple) and the Steve Thygerson family. Steve is a professor in the Health Sciences Dept. at BYU. He was in Nepal for a couple of months teaching at a Nepali university. He brought his family along and they had a great cultural experience. They saw the biggest spiders and met nicest people in the world. There are probably bigger spiders but no people are nicer than the Nepali. A lot of people from the USA visit Nepal so we see a lot of Americans.

You can't get a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner so we made do with three baked chickens. Our landlord and an expat named Rose prepared the chickens. They live upstairs from our apartments.

This is a picture of our Thanksgiving feast.

This is a picture of Rose's cat named Lucky. Lucky is lying on a table basking in the sun. He is the fattest and biggest house cat we have ever seen. He must weigh 35 pounds. When a visiting Nepali asked our landlord why Lucky was so fat our landlord replied that Lucky was an American cat. That satisfied the man who had inquired about Lucky. The man simply nodded his head and said that he understood. You see in Nepal and throughout the less developed world Americans are often viewed as over weight, far to affluent and usually self indulgent. They are probably correct in this view of us.

Elder Joe Oliphant and I have been using public transportation when practical. Pictured here is a public bus that is actually owned and operated by a private individual but licensed by the government. You pay about 30 rupees (that is about 30 cents) for a two to five mile ride across town. Joe has a PhD and is a retired chemical engineer. He is a good fit for Nepal since he designed and built chemical plants around the world.

A picture from the back of the bus.

Medical Training in Far Western Nepal

Dr. Anu Sharma demonstrating neo-natal resuscitation.  

This is Dr. Anu's father, Dr. Kamal Sharma providing instruction. Dr. Kamal has been part of every Helping Babies Breath team since the program started. He helps conduct our sessions.

Lear presenting a certificate of completion

Scott presenting a small gift of appreciation to the Director of the National Health Training Center, Dr. Shree Krishna Bhatta. . NHTC is the agency that sponsors and sanctions the HBB training.

We went to a botanical garden on our only off day of the trip. Scott was taking pictures of children and this very pretty Nepali girl asked to have her picture taken.

This is a type of rose that we saw in the botanical garden. It does not look like any rose in the USA.

Tami Matthews, a neonatal nurse from West Point Utah, demonstrating resuscitation.  

Dr. John Golden a neonatologist from the Seattle area giving instruction. John is a US Air Force Academy graduate. It was a surprise to have two grads together in Nepal.  

Dr. George Groberg is a pediatrician from Idaho Falls, ID. He was our team leader and did an outstanding job.

A Nepali nurse practicing resuscitation. The small manikin that we use is a water filled doll called a Neo-Natalie. It is designed to mimic a baby getting resuscitated.

An ox cart moving along the street in front of our hotel.

Some school boys headed for school. Most schools in Nepal have uniforms. That is a practice that would do some good back in the USA. It is an equalizer. Nobody is wearing the latest fashion.

Ancient City of Bhaktapur

We visited the ancient city of Bhaktapur. One of the first sights we walked by was a Buddhist temple. As is the case on many Buddhist temples (called Stupa)  this one had the All Seeing Eyes of Buddha.

In front of the doorway to many of the homes in Bhaktapur is a sun symbol.

Wood and stone carvings are everywhere in this ancient city. This pic shows a support beam sticking out from an exterior wall. The end of the beam has been carved into an animal head.

An very old well. No longer in use. Polyethylene pipe is more sanitary but not as picturesque.  

This beautiful stone carving was on a minor temple.

 

This metal sculpture was on the same temple. Note the 8 arms each holding a different symbol.

We were talking with our guide about peacocks in one of the city squares. He said that he knew a window with a great peacock carving. He took us back through some narrow side streets and this is what we saw. I don't think the picture does this amazing work or art justice.

The above 2 pictures are of the Nyatapola Temple which presides over the Taumadhi Square. Dating back to 1702 AD, the colossal five-storied edifice is the country’s tallest pagoda temple.

One of the most beautiful and examples of the ancient Nepali (Newari) architecture, the Golden Gate of Bhaktapur Durbar Square is a masterpiece not only of Nepal but of the world. This door  is decorated with mysterious monsters and other mythical creatures and is of great archaeological, historical and religious importance. It was built by the King, Ranjit Malla in 1753

The lion statues dated to 1696.

                               The next four pictures are of a swimming pool sized royal bath.

The royal bath is surrounded by carvings and statues of Naga (cobra). These are deities that take the form of a snake.  

The bath was filled from a golden spout. This was made in 1678.

In the middle of the pool a Naga rises up in the middle of the pool. If you come to Nepal, Bhaktapur is a must stop. We enjoyed our afternoon here a lot.

A bug, Dashain Festival, a Nepali wheelbarrow, an agressive squirrel and Tehar.

A neat looking bug. There are lots of neat looking bugs in Nepal. And giant spiders and wasps that give you hives and swell your body parts when they sting.

Our landlord's children with their Dashain tikas on their foreheads.

We got a Dashain blessing and tika from the grandmother seated in front of us. This is a Dashain custom in Nepal.

You don't see wheelbarrows in Nepal. They use baskets. When labor is cheap machines are scarce.  

A view from our apartment looking out across the neighborhood. Yes it is very crowded.

This is a squirrel. They look a little like a chipmunk but are much larger. This guy was begging food at a restaurant where we were having lunch. He liked spaghetti.   

The lunch bunch at the Garden of Dreams where we had lunch and met the aggressive squirrel.

Hosting a lunch for young single adults after church.

Lear is standing underneath a poinsettia tree. Yes that is a tree-sized poinsettia bush. They grow them big in Nepal

During the Tehar festival there is a custom of drawing a design on the floor of your home or store to welcome the goddess Laxmi. She is the goddess of wealth.

During Tehar homes and businesses are decorated with flower garlands.

This is a picture of a mother and daughter making a flower garland for their home.

These two dogs got tikas on their foreheads for the second day of the Tehar celebration. That is Kukur Tehar (Dog Tehar).

The street was lined with shops selling garlands and Tehar decorations.

Our landlord's wife and daughter starting to make a Laxmi decoration out of colored powders.

The dogs were very interested.

Our landlord's shrine which is in the garden of our building. Note the garland and also note that there are small pots on the floor. Each pot is a small oil lamp.

The finished product.

We were invited to the Phuel home for a Tehar lunch and celebration. Scott got a Nepali cowboy hat. This is called a topi.

We went to Ason Bazar to buy some bags for a neo-natal training that we are sponsoring. This bazar is a narrow street lined with shops. Bazars like this one are all over Asia and the Middle East. They have been in existence in many places for thousands of years. If it were not for the motorcycle and the cell phone this could be the year 1016 instead of 2016.

This is the bag shop and the bag ladies.