Our Thanksgiving

We trust everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with their loved ones!  We got up early Friday morning (no, not to shop!) to talk on Skype to those who had gathered at my sister's house.  We also were able to talk to one of my cousins. How fun that is when we are so very far away!

Well, to go back a little bit, the week before Thanksgiving I was down with a terrible bug and quite sick.  (Ramon put an "ICU" sign on our front door!)  Luckily the week of Thanksgiving I was feeling much better, although still a little weak.  We decided to treat ourselves and spent two nights in Kathmandu (before and after our Town Day) so we could rest and relax.

This time we stayed at the Annapurna Hotel, which has a good location for walking around shops.

Here's the view looking back outside the front door

and here's a look at the lobby.

Our room was one of those you see here out of the window.

There's a pool, but it was too cold for us to try it out!  We'll have to come back when it's hot!

Tuesday evening we ate here

at Pizza Hut!!!  We were feeling like American food since it was near Thanksgiving.  It was really nice and actually good!  They were even playing American Rock music!

Wednesday afternoon we went to the American Ambassador's house for a little Thanksgiving program and snacks. 

The snacks were in the tents to the left.  The Ambassador and his wife were a lovely couple and they even let us see inside the house!  It was a very enjoyable afternoon and fun to talk to new people.

That evening we ate at the coffee shop by our hotel.  That was good too and we can recommend it!

(I forgot to take a picture inside, which was really cute.)

Both mornings we enjoyed the breakfast buffet in the hotel.

Driving home early Thursday morning, we happened to catch some army boys jogging by

 and some others playing soccer.

Because it was early, we had some views of some beautiful foggy areas.

Then it was back to work as usual, since of course, there was no holiday told here!  I did give my students candy though and told them it was for my country's holiday!

That evening we ate a Thanksgiving potluck at the neighbors' (fellow missionaries) house--delicious and fun! 


Well, that's how our week went!  Hope yours was a lovely and memorable week too!  Take care and God bless!

Visitors

Recently we had the wonderful experience of having a team of medical professionals from Colorado associated with Centura Global Healh Initiatives on our campus doing mainly women's surgeries. 

What a great work they are doing and with enthusiasm.  Besides our hospital here, they take medical mission teams to Adventist hospitals in Belize, Peru, and Rwanda.  To find out more about their work, just Google them.

Between surgeries, Ramon kept busy.

As usual, there were also some broken bones to fix.

Everyone became friends.

Thank you for coming and dedicating your vacation time to service for others Centura Health Team!  We look forward to your next visit in February!

In other news, this darling little cutie (whose family was very happy to have their picture taken) swallowed a coin.  Kids are kids are kids!  Ramon was called in the night to withdraw the coin from her esophagus. 

After everything was fine and the little girl was resting comfortably, Ramon told her parents, "Please get her a purse so she has somewhere to carry her money."  :)  They were very happy!

Have a nice day!

Preparing for Winter

Since we have been living in the Caribbean for a number of years, where we had three seasons, as Ramon liked to say:  last summer, this summer, and next summer (!),

(where by the way, our little island of Curacao was recently hit hard by Tomas)

we are preparing ourselves for winter!  Our latitude here is about equal to middle Florida, but our elevation is about 4720 and it's going to be cold!  Right now, the days are fairly nice, but the nights are getting cold (especially for people who haven't had winter in YEARS!)   (By the way, since our elevation is higher than Kathmandu, our temperature will be a little cooler than shown on the weather widget here.)

Houses are not heated, but we have this gas heater. 

It's not very attractive, poor thing,

but boy am I impressed (and relieved) at how well it works!!!  I was a little skeptical at how it could possibly keep us warm, but it really, really works!  It has three speeds:  low, with just one section burning; medium, with two sections burning; and high, with all three sections burning:

Yeah for this new love in our lives!

Another new love is this nice little heater we keep in the bathroom:

I couldn't live without it!

Here is our water heater:

It's gas powered (also has batteries) and happily works well!

We did have to learn its little idiosyncrisies first though!

We had to buy new coats

and new sweaters



and these curtains (which are really blankets, which Ramon suggested and which I read online can be used as curtains when you have single-paned windows) and they really do keep the bedroom warmer!

Here are the blankets we bought.  They are very nice, heavy, and warm Korean blankets.

Well, I shall say bye for now and go wrap myself up in one (or three) of my new sweaters and cozy up with this new little toy, my electric water bottle!  It's amazing and I'm so happy I found it (could not find a heating pad).  Don't know why it needs a transformer, as it's instructions were either Korean or Chinese.

  Have a nice day!









Tihar Festival

It's Festival Time again and we have a long weekend of five days!  This one is the Hindu Festival of Lights, honoring Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity and good luck, and called Tihar here in Nepal.  The kids told me they would be eating good food, playing games, and setting off firecrackers.  They knew what they were talking about!

It's "beginning to look a lot like Christmas" around here and sounding a little like Fourth of July!

Family gatherings are important during this festival and singing, dancing, blessings, food and games play a big part.  Each of the five days has a certain significance.  One day is dedicated to crows, who are given offerings of food to keep them happy.  Another day dogs are given food for their honesty and to thank them for their protection of the homes.  Here is a beautiful dog with his new necklace and his happy owner.  The dogs look so cute all "dolled" up!

 
Another day is for worshiping the goddess of wealth and the time many clear their business accounts.  (Some use this day as their  new year.)  Cows are also worshiped one day and also oxen.  Brothers and sisters meet and exchange gifts one day.  Children sing (sort of like caroling) and receive gifts as they go from place to place (sort of like trick-or-treating).

They carried around what looked like a pillowcase to receive their gifts.

 Here you have your homemade sweets for sale

 
and here are the fruits and vegetables to eat after all those sweets!

We saw people worshiping at the shrines and temples.

Many houses had lights at their doorways with a path inviting the goddess inside.

There was even some American Rock Music!  Since it was dark I couldn't tell if these fellows were really playing and singing, or if they were just playing the music.  They were having fun!

However, everything was "business as usual" at our church.  A few people were absent, who were visiting relatives I'm sure.  Here is a picture taken actually last week when Ramon preached.  It was a really good sermon and all were blessed!

We had fewer kids in Sabbath School too because of the holiday, but those who were there had a wonderful time.  Here they are eagerly waiting for my alarm to go off to signal the start of Sabbath School.  They love it!

This week has been very busy at the hospital with many cases related to accidents.  Ramon even had to go with the ambulance to take a patient to Kathmandu in the middle of the night.  He is proud of how hard the crew is working and he has lots of stories to tell when we are home! 

Thanks for your prayers!

That's it for now and here's a "Goodbye" from these lovely children who called for me to take their picture:

Oh, and one more picture of this beautiful landscape we can see now that the rains are letting up:  (We can see more and more day by day!)

One of my students said to me recently, "You know, when I grow up I'm going to live right here in Nepal.  After all, why would anyone want to live anywhere else?!"  !!!