End of Mission

This is the shoe cobbler that works on a street corner near our apartment. He fixed two pair of shoes for us. He did it by hand and his work was as good as any we have ever seen. We paid him about $1 per pair for the repairs.

We went on a shopping trip to Asan Bazaar in Kathmandu. This is a typical street scene from this shopping area. It is an ancient place.

One shop we went to was a t-shirt shop. This is the entrance to the shop.

These are the rickety stairs leading to the shop which is on the second floor of the rickety building.

Once inside the t-shirt shop we thought of Diagon Alley and Ollivanders Wand Shop from Harry Potter.

We also shopped at an Indian store that has had painted decorations made in Kashmir.

Each month Lear and our house helper Rukmina make a 90 minute drive across Kathmandu to visit a young mother who is a member of the church. Her husband works out of country and is only home a few days a year. She and two children live in one tiny room that serves as the kitchen, bedroom and living room. There are many families like this in Nepal. She always prepares a lunch for her visitors. She does not have much but is always anxious to share and would be offended if we did not partake.

The above two pictures are of a roadside barbershop. It is located on the side of the major highway leading out of Kathmandu. He may do a brisk business with drivers and passengers who often get stuck in traffic jams for hours on this road. The barbershop does not look like much but the hair cut is better than you can get at most barbers in the US.

This is a Nepali crow. It looks like crows elsewhere except that it has a grey head and chest. Other than the two-tone paint job it sounds, acts and looks like any crow in America.

At each of our wheelchair distributions we are treated as honored guests and often get a silk scarf and occasionally a special recognition badge. This was at our very last official function in the country on May 22nd. It was held in the resort town of Pokhara which is the Jackson Hole of Nepal. During the mission we gave over 2,000 wheelchairs to disabled people all over Nepal.

We have grown to love the Nepali and their country.  We did a lot of good things here but we got more from the Nepali than we were ever able to give. We are sad to leave Nepal but at the same time ready to get back to our family and many good friends in the USA. May God bless the wonderful people of Nepal and God bless America. He has certainly blessed Scott and Lear.

School Holiday Church Activity

We had a school holiday and all of the schools, including the colleges, were out of class. So we held two activities for the youth in our church. The Primary (little kids) potted plants and played games. The older youth cleaned the kitchen as a service project and had other activities. It was a lot of fun. We had a total of 33 children older youth attend.

Five of our high school aged girls. They insisted on lining up shortest to tallest.

Angel found a feather.

Sahara showing off her princess shirt.

Samyog always wears his baseball cap backwards.

Elder and Sister Oliphant helped with the older youth while Lear and Scott helped with the Primary aged kids.

The youth putting on gloves before beginning their kitchen cleaning service project.

We had a lot of fun potting plants.

The children with their plants on the porch in front of the church.

Another picture of children on the porch.

Cleaning the refrigerator.

The small children in a circle getting ready for a game.

A Wedding Ceremony

The man standing in this picture is Dr. Kamal Raj Sharma. Dr. Sharma is one of the key team members that helps put on HBB training. Both of his daughters are doctors and he has a son in medical school. And we think we have a smart family! Dr. Kamal invited the American HBB team members to his oldest daughters wedding in Kathmandu the day after we got back from HBB training in Chitwan. This picture shows Dr. Kamal co-conducting the HBB seminar. He does it in Nepali to make sure that the students understand. Even though most of them are proficient in English this still helps for them to hear it in their native tongue.  He has become a good friend.

Dr. Kamal's second daughter is Dr. Anu (Annupama) Sharma. She is very bright and very pretty. She is one of our very best HBB instructors. This picture shows Anu training HBB students.  

This picture shows the beginning of the parts of the ceremony that are done in the presence of fire. In this part of the ceremony the bride and groom make vows to each other. This is done underneath a canopy. The canopy is set up in a large banquet hall.

This is a picture of the bride and groom coming to the ceremony. They have already done the first part of the ceremony where the father gives the bride to the groom. Both the bride and groom are physicians. The groom is starting a residency program at Texas Tech.

This is a picture of the Hindu priest who is officiating at the ceremony. He is a good humored and highly respected man.

Just like in the USA, the Nepali wear their very best clothing to a wedding. This little girl was wearing a daray ramro poshok (very nice dress).

This is Dr. Anu all dressed up and looking very beautiful.  She was the maid of honor and helped her sister in many ways. One of the things that Anu did was act as the repository for small cash gifts that were given to the bride during the ceremony. Friends and relatives would hand the bride envelopes containing small amounts of cash during the ceremony. The bride would then hand the envelope to her sister, Anu. Anu put them in a purse. I would trust Anu with my money also.

This picture shows the bride and groom sitting under the canopy in the presence of the fire. This was an arranged marriage although the bride and groom had met professionally  prior to the arrangement. Arranged marriages seem to work as well or maybe better than what we do in the USA.

Our Last Neonaltal Resuscitation -Helping Babies Breathe

Twice a year we bring in a team of doctors and nurses to help teach a couple of two-day seminars called Helping Babies Breathe. These trainings have provided hundreds of Nepali professionals with the tools to help them teach birthing centers how to resuscitate newly born infants using a simple bag and mask technique called Helping Babies Breathe. This is the last big project of our Mission.

This picture shows us welcoming most of the team members. They flew in from the USA via China. That trip takes about 30 hours including stops at various airports.

This picture shows Dr. Ken Richardson along with Sherry Redford and Lori Noorlander. In the middle is Dr. Kalpana Subedi a very experienced Nepali Doctor. Our team members were visiting the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) at the Paropakar Maternity & Women's Hospital in Kathmandu. This hospital has about 20,000 babies delivered each year. That is more than all but two hospitals in the USA. Ken is a neonatal intensive care doctor and both Sherry and Lori are highly experienced NICU nurses.

This is a picture of us arriving at the hotel in Pokhara. Pictured in the middle is Ruku. Ruku is a nurse and a member of our church. We need a Nepali speaker to help with the registration and testing. Ruku is also a qualified instructor. The hotel gave us small flowers and a tika (red mark on the forehead) were given to us as a welcome.

A picture of us with over 20 baby manikins that are filled with water and ready for use in the training.

Dr. Rob Clark providing instruction to one of the twenty tables. Each table has 4 to 6 students.

Dr. Richard Bell a neonatologist from California.

Lori.

Sherry.

One of our very good Nepali instructors doing training. Most of the training is done by qualified Nepali master instructors.

Our second training was held in Chitwan. Dr Ken Richardson visited a grade school and took a selfie with one of the classes.

Road Construction

We have been in Chitwan (South Central Nepal) a number of times. Each time we have traveled a road that connects Kathmandu with a major port of entry on the Indian border. There is a fifty mile section of this road that has been under construction for about three years. I am told that 42 people have been killed on this construction project from landslides and other construction problems. Manny of them were stuck in traffic in their vehicles. It has taken an incredibly long time to make any construction progress on this highway.  Actually each time we have traveled this highway it has been worse. Show above is a traffic jam. There is traffic backed up as far as you can see in both directions. As noted in the previous blog, road construction in Nepal can be very hazardous.

Buddhist Funeral in Nepal

 We were in Pokhara on April 24th and 25th. We were helping put on a neonatal resuscitation training program called Helping Babies Breath (HBB).  We watched a Nepali Buddhist funeral from our second story training hall on April 24th. I could not tell whether it was a Hindu funeral or a Buddhist funeral. One of the Nepali took one look and told us it was a Buddhist ceremony. We were told that the deceased was a policeman that was killed by falling rock when bicycling along a road that was under construction. Road construction sites in Nepal can be very dangerous.

The first thing that we saw was a man making what looked like a ladder. He was actually making a platform for the pallbearers to transport the body.

The body was wrapped in white cloth then colored strips of cloth and strings, with money attached, were draped over the deceased man.

Because of his status as a police officer he saluted by an honor guard.

When the procession left the site, they were proceeded by a white banner. They were taking the body to a Buddhist temple where it would remain for three days. Then the Buddhist priest would removed the money and cremated the body at the temple. Hindu's cremated their deceased at a river or a temple that is located on a river.