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!

When We're Out & About--Part 3, "Kathmandu Sights!"

Hi!  Hope everyone reading this is having a nice day!  We're fine, and just busy as usual!  Ramon was happily working with Colorado's Centura Global Health Initiatives OB/GYN team who were here for female surgeries.  They come here about twice a year for these much needed surgeries.

We are all thankful that they are willing to come during their vacations to serve others in need.

THANKS!

It's now time, however, for the next part of the series about what we see and do in Kathmandu on our day off and this post will focus on some of the sights we see in Kathmandu.  Of course, there are lots of pictures of Kathmandu in this blog (including the cover picture of this blog), but I'll try and put up new ones today!

Kathmandu is an interesting city to say the least!  If you don't know much about it, you may enjoy reading this page from Wikitravel:  http://wikitravel.org/en/Kathmandu

You never know what you might see there.  Here's an example of something we just stumbled upon one day:

This made me say, "Ramon, we're not in Kansas anymore!"

This was actually not long after we arrived and if you missed that blog post, 

you can read it here.

(By the way, the pictures are smaller in those beginning posts because 

I didn't realize I could make them bigger!  Really!  Smile!)  

Sometimes we see new kinds of Pringles:

Now maybe many cities have these flavors, but we hadn't seen them before.

No, we haven't tried them!  We stick to Sour Cream and Onion!

(However, I do miss Salt and Vinegar chips which must not have caught on here.  Once, they did have them, but never again.  They were not Pringles and were from another country which I can't remember, but they were still good!  Oh well!  Something to look forward to at home!)

Update:  Look what we found this week!!!

They're from Germany and they're delicious!

Here's something else you see in the grocery stores that we are not planning on trying!

Maybe someone reading this likes these, so please don't mind that we will leave them for you to eat!

Something else we see there that we don't see at home is this:

Yes, this a squat pot in a department store.  It's a normal sight here.

You flush by emptying the bucket into the toilet.

The "nice" thing about this particular one is that it is "A Room With A View!"

See what I mean?

Since it's on the top floor of the store, you can enjoy the view!

 Sometimes we see decorations for festivals.

and decorations you can buy.

You see gatherings of people, sometimes for political conversations.

(Never found out what this was...anyone know?)

Everywhere you look (it seems) you see stupas and temples.

The buses and trucks often have cute little sayings on them,

or pictures of dead celebrities.

I've also got pictures of Kurt Cobain and Jim Morrison on the backs of vehicles,
but of course at this moment I can't find any!

You can also find these guys on throws too!

Because not everyone can read (although each year literacy is up),
there are lots of picture messages around Kathmandu.

Once we stumbled upon the Kathmandu Half-Marathon.
Yes, that is smog they are breathing!

Now you can see why I usually come home with a headache!

There are lots of statues in Kathmandu.

Policemen are always in evidence.

and sometimes soldiers.

My favorite thing to see in Kathmandu though is a smile on the face of
my husband as he relaxes!

Well, that's enough for now!  Next time I'll show pictures of where we shop
and where we eat.

Have a nice day, take care, and God bless!

Doctor Profile

Hi!  This post is going to redirect you to our hospital's blog where my husband is the subject of the new series, "Doctor Profiles."  I'm a proud wife!  Enjoy!  Have a nice day, take care, and God bless!

http://scheermemorialhospital.blogspot.com/

When We're Out & About--Part 2, "Dhulikhel & Nagarkot"

For Part 2 of "When We're Out and About" I'm going to tell you about a recent day off, when we went to Dhulikhel instead of Kathmandu, and then also when we went to Nagarkot.  These two towns have amazing views of the Himalayas.  Since Dhulikhel is only three miles and a five minute drive, we decided to go there not long ago and relax without a long ride and with peace and quiet.  Yes, we do like to go to Kathmandu, but sometimes it's nice to do something different.  Dhulikhel is just up and over the mountains we see here right behind our campus and our apartment.  (Yes, that's the view from our living room window!)

If you climb up to the top of that mountain, you will be at an elevation of one mile, and you will get to this tower:

where, if you're lucky, you can see the mountains behind Dhulikhel.  Naturally, when we hiked up there, we didn't see the mountains.  Yes, they are there, behind the haze.

  If you missed the post about that hike, you can read it here.

When the sky is clear, this is the view we've had while in Dhulikhel:

  Sorry to say, this visit we didn't have that lovely view.

This is the view we had:

 

:)

We didn't mind though, because we knew what was back there behind the cloudy haze, and we wanted to  rest and relax, which we did.

I finally had time to get in some good reading--yeah!

Ramon enjoyed some computer time.

 During an afternoon walk, the clouds slightly (slightly!) parted and if you looked really hard, you could see a glimpse of a peak or two.  Look closely now!

Look more closely:

Well, it was like a fleeting dream, but still awesomely beautiful!

It's like the saying, "Now you see it, now you don't!"

There is a sign to tell you the names of the mountains back there.

However, I must say, that this winter has been the cloudiest and haziest winter since we've been here,
and it seems like the warmest too.  Mind you, it's definitely winter, but it's not as cold as in the past.
  I suppose that's why we have more hazy skies this year.  Usually, in the past three winters,
during the days, we had crisp blue skies, like this:

Now that's a blue sky!
This is the kind of sky you get here when it's really cold!
This picture is from the trip my mother and I took to the tourist destination city
of Pokhara when she was here.  If you missed it, and want to see more, click here.
That will take you to Part 2.  At the end of Part 2, click "Older Posts" to see Part 1.

Another place we have gone to which is an hour's drive closer to the mountains, is the scenic mountain village of Nagarkot.  This sign awaits you when you arrive at Club Himalaya.

As you can see, it says that only the lucky ones get to see the Himalayas on their first visit!

Were my mom and I lucky when we went?
Yes!  Here's the proof:

If you missed them and you want to see the pics of that trip,
you can find them here.
(Again, that link goes to the second post about Nagarkot, and the first one is after that in the "Older Posts.")
(That first one called, "Nagarkot and More" has a surprise--the "More" part!)

Were Ramon and I lucky when we went?
Yes, and No!
When we first arrived, this was our view:

THEN the clouds started parting!

Pretty awesome!  As they say, "This is what I'm talking about!"
This makes you glad you're out and about in Nepal--and we are glad!

Anyway, that's it for now.  Next time, some more pics of what we've seen lately in Kathmandu.
Take care and God bless!