Heyup (Yorks accent!)
Arrived in Katmandu safely + well -
Airport floors (Heathrow + Mumbai) are cold & hard but you get to stretch out (& save money!).
2 days of travelling & then "what time is it / where are we / what day is it" when we wake up on our lovely little (5'6") Nepali bed in a smashing sun flooded room on 1st floor of the orphanage Nawarej & Vidhya have set up ... (Earlier Gill had met the 2 year old lad who doesn't speak much ... dad hasn't returned from the Gulf where he went last year; mum died 2 months ago of a brain tumour. Gill asked "can I cuddle him" ... he came & sat on her knee, surprisingly to Vidhya. Meeting the other 12 later ...)
Outside the window we can hear the unceasing (5 hours so far) chanting of the local (Hindu?) priest - "bholle unn rhelly unn zhar" in the same 3 notes (he needs a backing band!) about 1000 times or more ... why?!. + a female voice from a competing temple / religion - and now a bird takes the biscuit - Julian see if you can identify that one! (5 second sound MP4 attached).
A delight - on the way from Mumbai into KTM, above the thick lower cloud level, we could clearly see to our left our beloved Annapurna a hundred miles away, and hundreds of other peaks of the Himalayas... enchanting, rich beauty - a solid statement above the shifting vapours. Wow! We were flying at the same level as their tops, or lower as we drifted into KTM and into the cloud.
These little Nepalese people are SO delightfully helpful - outside KTM airport, when our host was trapped in traffic for an hour (traffic is V unpredictable), SO MANY of them came over to ask "do you have a phone no. I can ring for you" - one project volunteer actually searched the local directory for Nawarej's name & started ringing people. Must get that information first next time - we had to resort to walking round with his name on a paper - the way greeters do. Had to convince the police that "we are the guests!!!" Hugged him to bits when he arrived. We've never met & didn't get the message about his phone no. & address on time... fun to arrive point further east than ever, without photo or contact details - only email. But God & Nawarej are faithful.
... back to driving madness - Nepali style! Dust & bumps & myriads of people in a different accent to the Hindi we have heard so much - the Nepali language uses similar alphabet (Deverangi) and words as Hindi but not quite the same. A good start; we're starting to make sense of some signs & words. This will improve.
Did I mention it's 26 C - delightful temp for us Brits. Away with the fleeces now - we feel daft tying them around our waists to walk around the airport in this country so close to the equator ... but they'll come in useful in Dec - Feb ...
Are we mad? I suppose it takes some ...
Day 2 Friday :
After an early visit to the rooftop to look at the hills, we walked across the ravine to Nawarej's Church (just above the Hindu worship area!) and took part in the first meeting of the day. ah... electric guitar ... wonderful!
An American team here for a few weeks helped the 40 or so local Nepali Christians through Darlene Zchech's "Shout to the Lord" in Nepali - they were declaring "Nothing compares to the promise I have in You", and the lovely Americans were teaching them from the Lord that "I can do all that He says I can do; I can be all that He says I can be" ... wow! Just the same message we've been hearing on 2 different continents!!
Gill says, "the 13 kids in Nawarej's home are so sweet - I could take them home!" ... more later. x
- you are with us in our hearts!
Roy & Gill xxxx
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