Nepal Night

with notes and slides from Linda Cliff

   Friday evening was Nepal night at SPPC.  Regular readers of this blog know that Linda Cliff spent several weeks in that country last Fall, helping to train hospice nurses.  On Friday, she shared her stories and her pictures with the congregation.

  Of course, we started with food, and wonderful food it was.  
    Then Linda talked about her experiences in a country that is an odd mixture of third world and first world.

Nepal has a population of 29 million people

Average age 20.  Most people  live on less than $2.00 US.

Life expectancy is 62 years.

 Quite by accident Linda and her companions met the "Living Goddess,"  a young girl who is treated as sacred and who seemed quite frightened of these odd Westerners.  

 Then she left a hidden and sacred place to take her chances in the "modern" traffic of Nepal. Buses, cars, cows, goats, dogs and pedestrians all traverse the same narrow path.  Linda believes it was prayer that kept them from some horrific accident on the roads.

This is a picture of a woman being admitted to the hospice in Baratpur where Linda worked.  Her husband will stay with her to care for her during her treatment.  The hospice will supply medical services but the family must look after daily care.  The next picture shows the mat under the bed where the family member will sleep.  The family provides food and does laundry for the patient.  Interestingly, in a country where only 0.5% of the population is Christian, the church is recognized as special.  If there is no one else to care for a patient, the hospice calls the Christian church and they will provide for the necessities of life, even for those considered "untouchable" by others.

  When not working at the hospice Linda explored the country.  Here is a group of school children, note the uniforms.  Education is given a very high priority among the Nepalese.
    She also attended church services and enjoyed the children of the Sunday school.  Sunday school happens after the service is over and is attended by hordes of children, from outside the congregation as well as those within.

   At the other end of the age spectrum is this woman, tired out from long hours of thrashing rice, she has lain down in the straw for a rest. 
    Her time in Nepal fulfilled a life-long dream for Linda, a dream of serving in the mission field.  It also taxed her health and her 
tolerance for dirt!


 Thank you, Linda, for your service and for sharing your experiences with us. 

    

The Last Straw

  This year's Christmas play was fraught with one mishap after another.  The dancer sprained her ankle in the dress rehearsal, the lighting tech discovered he'd double-booked himself.  Leave from work was cancelled.  Illness robbed us of voices.  And finally, our accompanist took sick and had to miss the show.  As one of the cast remarked, this show shouldn't have been called "The Last Straw".  It should have been named "The Last Man Standing."
  But stand we did, with what turned out to be an audience pleaser.







Three Kings






The Wind calls Hoshmakaka

 





Hoshmakaka accepts the challenge



The crowds gather



The gifts keep piling on

                                                  and on

                                                         


We approach the Manger



One More Gift!

The last straw breaks the camel's back







A Miracle --Christ Heals Hoshmakaka



We celebrate a successful production

We enjoy a reception

Helpers and guests



And in the end we collected $500.00 for the Sidney Food bank.

Merry Christmas, everyone, from the Living Flame Choir.

And here's the final instalment from our traveller.  

Thank you all for your replies and for listening to me ramble on about my trip. It has helped me feel connected to Canada and home each time I sit down to write about my adventures. Many of you have mentioned that you feel a trip like this can change a person and I believe you are right. I am looking forward to my life at home and wondering how I will approach things differently.





The last week has been a different one as we are staying in Kathmandu with nothing to do but shop and relax. On Sunday Marjorie and I went to the International Christian church for a wonderful multicultural service. There was a refugee couple who were married, both of their families had been murdered and they had fled to Nepal for safety. They became Christians while being helped by the people and Kathmandu so the church was their family, it was a very moving ceremony. They had a wedding lunch after so we were part of that. It was a great day.  On the walk home Marjorie and I stopped for coffee at a high end hotel and a cup of brewed coffee has never tasted so go

The next day I was hit by a bug and was down for 2 days. It was more like a flu than "the Other" so I spent the time in bed drinking fluids and sleeping. Then when we started to get in the sight seeing mode the city is being hit by bundha's or strikes. Yesterday they were roving ones so we tried to go out with a taxi but could get no where so the driver had to bring us back to the
hotel. You know it is bad when they give up a fare. So we spent the day sitting in the garden drinking tea, enjoying the sun as I know we will be back to winter. Today we are going to walk to the old palace which has been turned into a museum.  We leave tomorrow and fly to Incheon Korea.

 Linda arrived home on Dec. 10, too late to attend the Christmas Play, but she was in church on Sunday morning, shivering with cold.  I'm so glad to have her safely back with us and look forward to hearing about her adventures in person.


















Craft/Games Night

Last Friday night the Sunday School hosted a crafts/games/fellowship night.  Here one of our students creates a Christmas angel which the pastoral care committee will distribute over the Christmas season.



Of course, every project needs
a supervisor.

                             

And some crafty ladies.










 

If scissors and glue guns weren't your forte, there were games. Puzzles

And, of course, food!

If you missed the fun, we're doing it
all again on Dec. 2. 7:00 pm

Here's an update from Nepal.

We are continuing to have a marvelous adventure.   Our days start at about 0800 with an illy coffee in the lounge then breakfast and then off to explore.  We have found that hiring a driver is the  best way to get around, that way they can take us to the site, then wait for us and then take us right home.   We have visited the 3 Durbar squares which are the sites of the previous royal palaces. The one we saw today had some buildings dating from 745 AD.   Many temples in each one and they do look very similar.   We also went to the Monkey temple,(Swayambhunath) -- it is a Buddhist temple and there were lots of worshipers today also many monkeys.

Because we have so much luggage we are driving[instead of flying] to Bharatpur a trip  of 147 km which will take us about 4 plus hours.  The roads are rough in places so we have to go slow!!  Hopefully the weather will be clear as yet we have been unable to even see the hills that surround Kathmandu because of the smog.

Ed. Note;  Received the following a couple of days later. Our trip to the hospital in Bharatpur was unbelieveable. The distance was from Victoria to Naniamo and it took 5 hours.   The first hour of the trip we traveled 21 Km in wall to wall traffic, buses of all sizes, huge trucks, not transports just very large dump truck types and of course motor bikes weaving in and out sometimes with 3 people on them.  Often children and even infants strapped to their mothers.  The road is narrow and often washed away by the rains.  We had an angel looking after us as a large truck full of rice straw nearly toppled on us.  Thank you for your prayers!  We arrived safe and sound to a gracious welcome.  The staff have done everything for us  -- going so far as to install a heater so we can have warm showers.  So far we do not know how to make it work so hopefully tomorrow we will have it up and running. We each have our own room, a toilet and a squat, and electricity.  We feel blessed. We have met the people at the Christian church and had tea with them.   We hope to deliver some of our supplies to the community to them on Sat.  They have a wonderful Guest House as well,  so any of you can come next time!!

Sunday   Went to church today. It was amazing.  We were asked to give our witness. Must say I had tears in my eyes. The whole congregation has an open prayer time where everyone prays out loud at the same time.  I am sure the heavens are alive with the sounds of praise.