Flowers, Hair Cuts and Visiting Friends

This flower is in our courtyard. It is a Bird of Paradise flower and we think it is fairly rare. So many beautiful flowers grow here that sometimes it is easy to overlook them.

This pink bell-shaped flower is a Dogray Pul. Pul means flower. The plant is actually the size of a small tree. In Wyoming or Colorado this would  be a potted plant at best. I took this picture looking up at the flowers from the street leading in to our apartments.  

This is a Hibiscus tree. Again this is taken looking up at a small tree on the street.  

One of the things that is much better in Nepal is barbers. A Nepali barber never uses an electric hair trimmer. They only use scissors. The hair cuts are superb. They are the best Scott has ever had. If you let the barber, he will also give you a massage after the haircut. The cost is about $1. Yes, folks, that is not a misprint, it is one hundred pennies.  

This is a picture of the barbershop. The little girl was waiting for her father to get a haircut. As you can see she had a lot a personality.  

This is the finished product.

A few weeks ago we participated in the baptism of Richa. Her parents invited us to lunch. They live in Bhaktapur which is a city very near Kathmandu. The two places are sort of like Denver and Castle Rock, only closer together. Richa is very pretty and very bright. Her parents are both very well- educated and everybody in the home speaks English. Actually many Nepali speak English. Unlike the USA, the schools here stress foreign languages, especially English.

Another picture. Nepali seldom smile when having their picture taken.

 

This is a picture of the neighborhood around Richa's parents' house. The green, lawn-looking areas are actually rice fields. This is a suburb of Kathmandu on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley. The population of the entire Kathmandu Valley exceeds 2 million people. It has about 220 square miles and is the most populated area in Nepal. Bhaktapur is actually the historic capital. The valley has 7 world heritage sites. Climate-wise it is one of the best places in South Asia to live.

This last picture is of a Relief Society activity that we attended. The Relief Society is the LDS Church women's organization. It is one of the oldest, continuously-functioning women's organizations in the world. Next to Lear in this picture, wearing pink, is Ellen Dietrich. Ellen is a German lady who has dedicated her life to the unwanted children of Kathmandu. For a number of social, religious and economic reasons, Nepal has a lot of orphans that need help. There are a lot of orphanages in Kathmandu. Many do an excellent job. Some of them do not. If you make a donation to a charity in a place like Nepal you need to investigate before writing a check.  Ellen's orphanage is the very best. Her charity is called Haus Der Hoffnung (House of Hope). We have visited the orphanage and know several children that are benefitting from living there. Ellen is a Mother Teresa- like person. She has dedicated her life to helping the most vulnerable and most easily-exploited. Because of her work, numerous lives have been made better and Nepal is a better place.