Behind the Scenes

   Those of you who come to the Christmas Play on Dec. 10, 2011 at 7:00 pm (notice how I slipped that little promo in there?) will see the finished performance on stage.  What you won't see are all the behind the scenes preparations that have taken place over the past six months. 

Things like writing the play.

Sewing the costumes.

Making
 sets and props.

Organizing the lights.


Turning the sanctuary into Bethlehem.

Creating a poster and program cover.   By the way, that's Bill Richer, winner of the Presbyterian Record cover art contest.  Now the rest of the church knows what we've known all along.  Bill is an artist par excellence.

Not to mention practice every Sunday since the middle of September.
The Christmas Musical is an offering of love and dedication from the cast and crew.   Come and enjoy.

The latest from Nepal:

Today was an auspicious day! ! We finally saw the mountains and they are fantastic. I know it is hard to believe you can be in Nepal for 5 weeks and not see the mountains, but the weather has been against us. When we first arrived it was very foggy. So much so that many people who had come to trek Everest could not fly to the trail head. We met many disappointed people and I am not sure if they ever got to the mountains as we left for Bhratpur. While at the hospital once again the weather was misty and we got the odd mountain glimpse. But today made up for it all. We got up at 5am and drove to Sarangot and sat and watched the sun rise over the Annapurna Range. We were awed, the view changed constantly as the sun rose. Pictures can not capture the magnificence of it all so you will all have to make a trip to Nepal.


Yesterday was also a great day. We did our own little trek. Today our muscles feel like it was a major trek! We first went to Devi falls which is this place where a river goes under ground and there is a resulting gorge, then we were taken to a cave, where the river runs into. It was wet and dark and so interesting. I had to touch the rocks to make sure they were real as we are so used to seeing the Disney version of such works of mother nature. Then it was off to a Tibetan refugee camp and yes we are all the proud owners of some carpets. You actually see them weaving, carding the wool and dying it as well.
Then the trek. We wanted to see the Peace Pagoda which is up this small (by Nepal standards) hill. The road was washed out so our taxi driver left us off to walk the rest of the way. Well a group of children on a field trip passed us and got to the top about a half hour before us. Then we decided we would hike down the mountain, on this path, it went through the jungle and it took us an hour to get down. On the way we met some Nepali women cutting feed for their animals , they were at least 10 years older than us, in bare feet, carrying over 50lbs of feed on their backs and they didn't even break a sweat. Humbling to say the least. When we got to the bottom of the hill in one piece, we rented a boat to take us across the lake to Pohkara. For some of us this will be a once in a life time hike, I am game to try it again!

Pohkara is a wonderful place, the restaurants are amazing, they all have happy hours which we take advantage of and the food is a nice change from rice and lentils, our diet for the last 3 weeks. Much shopping and the prices are so reasonable. Tonight we are going to the Everest Steak house and we are going to have beef. To date any red meat we have eaten has been water buffalo. There is also hot water in our hotel and we have been enjoying very long showers in the morning and sometimes at night too.


Back to Kathmandu tomorrow. We have hired a car so it will be a 5 hour trip.  Home a week tomorrow.