A Trip to a Village

Hi!

Hope everyone is having a nice week and that you had a lovely Mother's Day with your family!

I had a lovely talk with my mom, sister, and family,

and Ramon did too.

Here, we are still experiencing aftershocks, some too strong for my liking!

However, we are thankful that our house is OK and we can sleep inside

(I'm sleeping in sweats in case we have to rush out!)

and have electricity, water, internet, and even cable TV!  

No, we didn't make it to a village, but some of our doctors have been going to badly affected areas.
To read about one such trip, jump on over to the hospital's blog:

http://scheermemorialhospital.blogspot.com/2015/05/earthquake-part-7-guest-post-by.html

I think their experiences are typical of the relief teams.

Here are a few pictures of my recent trip to Kathmandu:

A huge tent city in a huge town square:

Look how one is down and one is still up!
It's probably very likely that the one up has cracks though.

The owners of the intact houses are inviting homeless friends and family members into their homes.
This is very nice to note.

Well, very tired, so will quit for now.
Thanks for care and concern and prayers.
More soon.
Take care and God bless!

Adorableness!

Adorableness!!!

Yes, when you come to Nepal you will see adorableness around every corner!

Today I give you a photo post to enjoy of some of the adorableness I see 

every day as I wander around Nepal!

           

(Beautiful twins!
Ramon gets to see all the
beautiful C-section babies
at birth!)

I told you!

Soooo adorable! 

We feel so blessed to be working here surrounded 

by such beauty!

Have a nice day and look for the adorableness 

wherever you are!

Happenings at the hospital...

Hi!

This post is not Part 2 of our vacation, as you can see,

but is going to tell you what's been happening at the hospital.

Anyway, we hope you're having a lovely day!  We are, and yes, although it's been strangely "warmish" for late fall, it's been nice to see the lovely blue skies, off and on,

that allow us to finally, after a long monsoon season, see this:

I never get tired of that view!  It's great to see the majesty of the Himalayas

again after many months of this:

It seems to be back and forth--
yesterday was freakishly warm and the sky was beautiful!

Today it's COLD and here is what the sky looks like:

Well, as I tightly hold onto my hot water bottle, I'll tell you what Ramon has been up to!

He's been very busy since we've been back with the medical teams that have come.
He went weeks without a day off, working day and night.
Of course, he loves every minute since that's why we're here.

(I was very happy that a new missionary family has come and I was able to go to
Kathmandu on our town days with the new wife as Ramon couldn't take the time off.)

Because there's such a shortage of medical personnel here in Nepal, the teams are essential!
Surgical teams come periodically from different parts of the world and
each team focuses on a different problem they can solve.

Two OB/GYN teams have been here since we've been back,
and Ramon has been happily working very, very long hours with them
and with a plastic surgery team as well.

Holland's Women for Women team members,
link:  http://www.vrouwenvoorvrouwen.nl/
(you may have to right click to translate)
perform mainly uterine prolapse surgeries. 

Perhaps you remember seeing photos like this:

which I snapped right in our back yard recently.
Many women return to hard physical labor like this soon after the hard physical labor of childbirth!
Uterine prolapse can be the result and affects hundreds of thousands of Nepalese women.

You can only imagine the relief they feel when they get their lives back!

This time, the Dutch team had Nepalese OB/GYN residents in attendance.
You can imagine how useful and necessary this is!

(Do you see Ramon?)

Colorado's Global Centura Initiatives OB/GYN team also came.

link:  http://www.centuraglobalhealth.org/cgh/home/

They come twice a year for the much needed uterine prolapse surgeries.
Here's Ramon with some of their team and some of his own operating room staff members.

A few extra people came and spent some time at school
telling stories and doing crafts.  You can see that fun was had by all!

Next came ADRA Japan's plastic surgery cleft palate repair team.
Many of them were "returnees" whom Ramon was glad to see again!

These men are two of the anesthesiologists--Ramon's "partners in crime!"

We're very thankful that these professionals come during their vacation time to help others!

To close for now, take a look at this cute pic I was able to capture!
During a recent church service,
one of our Beginners Sabbath School Class members came to consult a point with Ramon!
Adorable!

The next Sabbath she just couldn't stay awake during the sermon!

So precious!

Have a nice day--and if you're in a winter zone, stay warm!
Bye from Nepal for now!

Hospital Happenings

Hello Friends!  Hope all is well with everyone reading this!  We are fine, and trying not to melt with the hot and very, very humid weather!  There's not enough rain, which is worrisome, but there's enough humidity to make you feel like you just stepped out of a swimming pool!  Oh well, at least we're not freezing, which we will be before we know it--right?!

If only we had time, we could cool off here, at Kathmandu Fun Park, which is just down the road a bit:

When we drive by, I'm happy to see everyone having fun there!

Well, for today's post, I'm going to link you over to the hospital's blog so you can read about the summer happenings in that news blog.  Through a generous donation, the hospital is able to offer a great blessing to many children!  Ramon is happy to be involved as the anesthesiologist.  He says the little ones are so beautiful and such good patients!  To read about it, click here:  http://scheermemorialhospital.blogspot.com/

And for a brief look at the school, here's a cute picture of the cuteness I get to see every day.  These are some of the Nursery class students, who escape from their room and run to the door to greet me every day when they see me walking to the school.  Isn't it wonderful!  They are jumping up and down, waving and clapping their hands, and shouting, "Kathy Ma'am!  Kathy Ma'am!"  It's awesome!

More pictures soon!

Have a nice day, week, month, and year!  

Take care and God bless!

Later!

In Between Our Days Off...

Hello!  We hope you had a great week!  We did and we're thankful!  

I'm taking a break from the "Days Off" posts to report what's been happening in between our days off--yes, when we're working!  (smile!)

Ramon has been busy since teams of medical volunteers from Sydney Adventist Hospital have been (and still are) here.  The first team, an OB/GYN team, performed 82 uterine prolapse and other female surgeries!  Prolapse is a difficult and unfortunately common problem here that many women silently suffer from--sometimes for many years.  Frequently carrying heavy loads like this contributes to the problem.

Finally having an end to their discomfort is an amazing occurrence for them.

Here are some of the visiting doctors helping the women.

The second team (here now actually) is a burn contracture reconstruction team.  They're also from Sydney Adventist Hospital and Open Heart International.  We're glad they're here since (according to the World Health Organization) burns are the second most common injury in rural Nepal.

What a blessing this team is to patients who have been very badly burned (and some even deformed) and didn't think they could ever get help.  Imagine their faces when they see the results of their surgery!  Working with the team are two plastic surgeons from Kathmandu, who will also do any follow up procedures that may be necessary.

At school, we had final exams, because the school year has ended! Then we practiced for and had the annual program which formally ended the school year of 2070!  Yes, in case you don't know, Nepal follows an ancient Hindu calendar called the Bikram Sambat calendar and New Year's Day 2071 will be on April 14.  If you missed it, the post about our first Nepali New Year is here.

Now, for some pictures of the cuteness I get to see at school every day!

These two precious sweethearts got in a little extra choir practice with my karaoke machine.

Here's a Nepali dance practice.

After practice, the older ones made New Year's cards,

and the little ones had fun coloring,  (Aren't they adorable?!)

and just playing.

(For my family and friends--let me know if you'd like to make a donation
so I can upgrade their toys!)

Finally it was the day of the program, and the rest of this post will show you that.
These handsome young men entertained themselves while waiting for the program to start.

This group just sat around being cute!

Finally the program started.

The Nursery and Kindergarten students sang a sweet song in Nepali.

As they exited the stage, some of the Playgroup students peeked under the curtain.

"Is it our turn now?"

"Yes, now we can go on stage and sing for Mommy & Daddy!"

"Good job Sweethearts!"

Next it was time for my Primary Grades Choir.  Since I was directing, I only have a picture of them during practice.  They sang "Hearts Courageous" and it was wonderful!

The older ones, with the signs of the main words (also written in Nepali underneath the English--after this picture I did trace over the letters in black) sat on the front of the stage.
 They wore whatever clothes/costumes they were going to wear in their next part.
They did such a good job and I'm so proud of them!

The older ones singing stayed on the stage and sang "Smile, Smile, Smile" next.
(You can see their nice outfits.)

Next it was prize distribution time.

"WHEN will it be my turn???"

Next we had dancing,

a play,

and more dancing.

"I LOVE this one, don't you?!"

Next we thanked our student missionaries for all they have done.
It's hard to believe, but they are leaving very soon.  We will surely miss them and wish them all the best in their future!

Then there was a beautiful culture parade and song.

As all good programs do, ours ended with food!
"Hmmm, what's in here?  Yum!"

Well, I hope you enjoyed our program!
See you next time, and...

Happy 2071!