One of Our Best Friends...

Here is a picture of one of our best friends here:

Yes, it's a generator!

Isn't it beautiful?!?!

We are blessed to live on the campus of the hospital where we have this "friend" working for us to "kick in" when the electricity "kicks off!"  Most people here in Nepal are not so lucky.

Electricity is something we used to take for granted.  We could count on it just as surely as we could count on the sun coming up every day.  We didn't even think about it--until we moved to Nepal.

Here in Nepal, load shedding is a normal way of life (for those who have power that is).  The power is on only about half of the time.  I hear various amounts of time, as it changes, but it seems to average about half the day.  So that means the power is off about half the day!  Imagine having power only about half of your day---every.single.day.

The only good news is that you know ahead of time when the power will be on and off.  Here is what a schedule looks like:

Luckily we don't have to read this (!) since we have our good friend pictured above!  :)

Since Nepal has huge hydro-power potential (on paper anyway--with about 220,000,000,000 cubic meters of water running through it), I'm hoping that one day this electricity crisis can be combated and the people can have power 24/7.

Some people work outside when there's no power

and some people use the lights that they charged when there was electricity.

Of course, when the sun is shining the back up lights are not needed.

The wires always look a little confusing to me.

But the boys who work for the power company seem to know what they are doing--and have no fear (and no protection)!

He was (apparently) fixing this fallen wire which everyone was just ignoring.

Here's "someone" else who had no protection and no fear of the wires!

Sometimes you see other things on the wires too,

or behind them!

Sometimes you see a beautiful view behind them--like this:



or this:

I'm so happy to see the wires on mountain roads:

...because it means these people will have electricity (when the schedule says they can):

Just remember, however, that in the remote villages of the Himalayas, the people have to rely either on firewood or kerosene for light, cooking, and heating.  On the other hand, some villages can't even get kerosene easily because of their remoteness--for example, villages that are over a two week walk from the nearest bus stop!  In such cases, they use resin coated pine sticks.  Different organizations are currently working on different systems to get the villages "lit up" (with, for example, LED lighting) and this is exciting news indeed.  Solar power systems are starting to gain momentum, when and where possible, and that is also is good news.  Don't you just love this picture taken somewhere in the Himalayas?

Villagers can even surf the net with solar power!  "HELLO!" to anyone from a remote village who may happen to stumble across this!  More power to you!

And now, we'll say, "Goodbye!" and show you the beautiful wires that bring electricity to our apartment building:

Have a nice day and enjoy your power!
 

Mountain Village Schools

When our student missionary, Jenny Miss, whose departure "was" two posts ago, went on a trek with her father, she took the following pictures for me of two schools they passed by in the beautiful Himalayas.  Thanks a million Jenny!!!

Here's a nice little village they came across tucked into the mountains.

Quickly they made friends with the kids walking to school.

These brothers were having a little disagreement.  (Boys will be boys!)

What was the view like?  Take a look!  (I don't know about you, but I sure think this is a great view to see while walking to school!)

Here is the playground--what a nice place to play!  :)  I suppose when a ball goes over the fence--well, it's a long way to go and fetch it!

Here's the campus

and more kids coming.

Let's look inside a classroom.

I think it's nice.

Now, for the office.

:)

Jenny took a last look at the view with the kids.

Then they went on their way...

...and here is a last glimpse of the school.

Goodbye little friends and good luck in your future!!!

Next up was this nice school.

Here we see who one of the founders of this school was!

If you read the sign, you'll see that their art work is for sale.  (I'd love to have something from there!)

Let's see...what does that little sign on the bell say?

:)

Let's go inside a classroom.

Hmmm...where are the children?  That classroom was empty, and so is this playground.

Oh, here they are!  They're having class outside, because it's warmer outside than inside!  (Sometimes some of the classes in my school meet outside too during the winter.)

We wish you well kids!  May all your dreams come true!

If you haven't read the previous Education posts, you may want to.  Check them out in the "Labels" section.  One of them tells about the history of education in Nepal.

I feel so blessed to be able to work with the lovely children of this country in the little school here on our campus.  I love all of them!!! 

To anyone reading this who is helping to support our school, (or any school for that matter!)

THANK YOU!!!

Volunteer Visitors

In January we had a team of ENT surgeons, audiologists, and nurses from Hong Kong Adventist Hospital Ontological Services here.  Ramon enjoyed working with this outstanding group of professionals!  They performed over 50 surgeries and dispensed 30 hearing aids.  What a blessing they were for the community!  Thank you so much Team Hong Kong for the selfless dedication of your time and effort!  We're already looking forward to seeing you again next year!

 

(Yes, that's Ramon on the right.)

Also joining us for a couple of weeks was an excellent and dedicated general surgeon from Germany, Dr. Michael Aschenbrenner.  He worked tirelessly and with no apparent jet lag!  Ramon was so happy working with him as he volunteered his time and money to come and help the people of Nepal.  Thank you Dr. Michael--and please, come again!!!

We also were very happy to have volunteer internal medicine physician, Dr. Sergio Riffel, from California on campus for several weeks.  He also worked very long hours and never gave a thought to himself.  He was always smiling whenever I saw him as he was busily going from place to place.  We thank you too Dr. Sergio, and remember, you are always welcome to come back too!

In February, we were again blessed by a team from Centura Global Health Initiatives, based in Colorado.  A different group of theirs was here this past fall (see Nov. 2010 archives--post title "Visitors"--if you missed it), and now we enjoyed the presence of another team of doctors and nurses.  They perform gynecological surgeries and their dedication to this task is outstanding.  What a difference they make in the lives of their patients.  You can Google them to find out more about their work, not only in Nepal but also in Belize, Peru, and Rwanda.  Another team will be coming in September and we eagerly look forward to that time.  Thank you Centura!  May the Lord continue blessing your ministry.

While the Centura team was here in November, Ramon had a little patient who had swallowed a coin (see the Nov. post).  Well, guess what?  Coincidentally, it happened again!  (Although this time it was just after they left.)  Here is the picture of the X-ray.  This time the patient was a 14-month-old.  Retrieval was successful and everyone went home happy.

Things get pretty busy (Ramon has had to miss his last three days off), but that's why we're here and we love it!  We wish many blessings to all of you and have a nice day!