You'll have me at the next hello

What the?! Gahh! Argh! Real bull man! Ridiculous! Stupid lah! How is it possible? Bah! Ish! Grrr! Shucks lah! Darn in man! Nooooo...!

C: Oh boy. 

M: Yeap you got that right. 

We Teach, We Learn, We Teach again, We Learn more

Close to one month in.

And I shall continue with our time up in Nangi.

25th June to 28th June 2008

Day 4 to 8

So we were up there for about 4 days; taught English, helped with building constructions, set up a free clinic, cooked for them (FIFTY of them), attended a fellowship home group, and just felt God working within the people of Nangi.

And the pictures shall tell more tales. 

Harvesting potatoes

Stealing potatoes. Haha.

Dr at work

A lesson on respect

English class

The Himanchal ladies' paper making project

The papers are then made into pretty notebooks

The clinic

Bubblesss

The kids

Morning exercise

Home Fellowship 

Fellowship group

Preparation

Do you smeelll what we're cookin'? *Sorry I just had to say that*

The goat we paid for, they slaughtered (and we witnessed it!), and wa lah! Mutton for dinner.

Communal dinner

Shots of& in Nangi

Rainbow cloud!

Breakfast at the principal's home

Before/after devotion

The power of prayer

And a final picture 

We Walk, and Climb, and Walk and Climb, and Ate a lot!

24th June 2008
Day 3

Nangi, here we come!

On the way, on the way! *In Jo's and Isaak's beat/rhythm/idunnowatchacallit*

An approximate 2 hour van ride to Beni; a small town-ish place, which also happens to be the starting point of our walk.

Beni; the town of, nothingness


The people of Beni. So I exaggerated the nothingness a little.

Had breakfast at Beni.

Breakfast

And our 10 hour journey began!

We walked.



And climbed mannnnnny steps.


And shared the trail with the donkeys.


And never fail to be in awe of the strength these porters have.

Everytime I look back at this photo, I feel like such a wuss.

And stopped for rests.

A few local boys, the Doctor, Franklin and Man (on the guitar) singing to whatever Man can come up with the only 4 chords he knows. But still, it was a nice worship/sing along session.

And also speak of the Good News (?) =)

Man

And of course, take pretty photos of the magnificent view

The team, missing Florence who was behind the camera

7 hours in our walk, we reached the some sorta midpoint, Lupre! Stopped by for lunch. Mmm... The famous Chow Chow!

De-li-ci-ous!

After the chow chow, and rest, we continued on with our walk. 3 hours more!

Nope, not quite there yet. Haha.

On the way, we found this!
And pluck em! And eat em!

And no, it's not unlawful to pluck and pick fruits up, as long as they are not used for commercial purposes and the fruits are not cultivated as provided under s4(3) of the Theft Act 1968.

At around 7pm-ish, it was "Hello, sweet village of Nangi!"


The walk was really physically challenging, well, for me. The cold sweats and dizziness did me no good. I hated that sick feeling. How useless I felt.
I really gotta thank Franklin who traded his much lighter bag with mine, and later Man who helped me carry the bag I was to carry.
And my personal Hitler; Jo. Haha. If it wasn't for him encouraging me all the way up, and pushing my limits, I'd really consider rolling down back to Beni.
And thank God, for He oversaw us throughout our entire walk.

We Laugh, We Cry, We Learn, We Live

23rd June 2008
Day 2

So yes, off we were to Pokhara from Kathmandu.

Checklist:
1. Load our luggages
2. Consume motion sickness pills
3. Put on masks (it's very dusty there)
4. Endure the 8 hour ridee

Mask men

It sure was one heck of a ride. The driver was making his cornerings at like, 60 km/h. The roads were not even close to Malaysian roads (which explains why the motion sickness pills were essential).

Isaak: This beats Ogawa anytimeeee!

Stopped by for dinner at some posh restaurant/religious looking place. The ambiance was pretty nice. But that was the least of our concern. Food was what we wanted!
And we did get what we wanted, after an hour plus.
Gobbled it down in hmmm, less than half an hour? and then the joyful ride resumed.

Nah, we didnt have that

Man the man, and Jason


The team, from L to R: Man, Jason, Michelle, Miriam, Florence, Isaak, Caleb, Franklin, Raj, and Jo behind the camera

Arrived Pokhara at 2:00am, where we stayed in a some sorta inn (Aunty Bindu's place) for the next 2 nights.

Slept in and awoke for devotion and brunch. And we had a full day in Pokhara. Aunty Bindu's daughter, Janice brought us around sightseeing and shopping! Jason and 2 others (Man and Raj, I think) went for supply shopping for our dinner to be cooked up in Nangi.

A boat ride to the other side where it's all shopping, shopping, shopping!


Us gurls and Franklin

The boys and Janice




Beautiful, aint it?

Mmhmm, it's all walking in Nepal.

Some of the many stuffs sold. And they are all handmade!


A clash of two worlds. Haha. =)

Crashed for the night. And prepared to embark on the highlight of the trip; Nangi.

Till the next post.

We Sing, We Dance, We Pray, We Love

My Nepal Journal.

22nd June 2008
Day 1

A meet up in KLIA at 2:30am or so. 4:50 am flight (Yeti Airlines) *Turned to a close to 7:00 am flight* Surprised, no? Yeti Airlines is another Air Asia. One thing worse though, it closed down after we came back. =/

Flight. Delayed!

Then we boarded the small 3 by 3 seater plane, and got a slight shock of our lives. The passengers were 90% men - and we were all assigned to separated seats. Knowing only 'Namaste' (which means 'Hello' in Nepali), we wouldn't be able to strike up a conversation with them, let alone, speak to them of the Good News? Thus, it was a 5 hour silent journey, well, for me.

Touched down at Kathmandu at around 10:00 am (Nepali time) and we waited for transportation. What was just told to us was that there was a S-T-R-I-K-E! The protest was against the petrol price hike. Hence, there was to be no public/commercial vehicles on the road. Nevertheless, we tried our luck and boarded the van a pastor (Subash) arranged for us. And so, out the airport we went. As soon as we came out of the airport, uh huh, the protesters stopped our van. They didn't believe that we were just tourists, so they didn't allow the van to just pass through. The van driver nevertheless persisted through the angry mob. Then, things started getting a little violent. They started hitting the van windows, tugged on the driver, and wa lah! Our van door swung open. I remember vividly, this protester, full of anger, stared at me straight in the eye, barking at us to come out of the van. And yeah, we did.

Kathmandu International Airport

Our supposed comfortable transportation

Wondering how we were gonna travel to the Bible College we resorted to going to because of the strike (which goes on till 5:00pm), *Yeah, our whole travel itinerary got rescheduled* there was this bicycle + wooden plank cart with its transporter? nearby, and he was asking us whether we wanted to travel on it. And yeap, we did! One cart for our luggages, and another, for us!

The angry mob, the police, and the bicycle + cart

And off we went on that cart thing. An hour and a half ride, exploring Kathmandu the Nepali way. Hmmm, well, they usually walk, but all in all, it was not a very comfortable and luxurious ride. Every Nepali we passed by, half giggling, we greeted them 'Namaste', and they'll either:
a) Smile at us
b) 'Namaste' us back
c) Laugh with us/ AT us.

We still dunno.

And the guys (Franklin, Jo and Jason) were learning the Nepali way of life (or the life of labour?) during the journey to the Bible College.

Jason pushing the cart of luggages. Nepali guy pulling the cart with us on it.

Arrived at the Bible College, and we rested for the day. Went out for lunch (on those reallly cool motorbikes!) and our first experience with Nepali food. Goooood. But S-P-I-C-Y!!
So it was a day, just lounging around and resting while waiting to depart to Pokhara at 8:00pm instead of the scheduled 10:00am departure.


Day 2, coming up!

Preparing ourselves for the 8 hour, bumpy and winding journey to Pokhara.

And I just can't get enough of your la la la la la

Chell-a-belle got a glimpse of marriage life today.

And she likes it.

Hehe.

But I won't hesitate no more, no more, it cannot wait, I'm yours

She didn't see it coming.

And now she's following in her mother's footsteps.

Feels righttt. =)

*Will blog about Nepal once I've gotten allll the photos.*
*To be posted!*