It's About Time

Two cuties from my Nepali church. 

Going rafting with my roommate and some friends. 

Because of the petrol shortage we had to ride on top of the bus. Gotta love new adventures.

Meeting up with my college friends Akshat and Amit while enjoying live Nepali music and sharing stories.

Taking full advantage of the photo booth at the staff Christmas social.

A Nepali teacher at our school's son got married, so a lot of us got dressed up and went to the wedding. There was lots of dancing, food, and great company, so it was a great time or as they say in Nepali "ramaillo bhayo"!

One of the boys from my Nepali church who danced during the Christmas program. I love the mustaches and goatees they gave all the young boys.

Riding on top of buses, rafting down rivers, hundreds of vehicles stalled in line for petrol, dancing around bonfires and seeing God’s love for this people grow, there’s my update. Haha...just kidding. I’ll elaborate a tiny bit more. Wow, so it’s been almost five months since I’ve written and more and more things keep happening. Then I postpone writing, because I’m overwhelmed with everything that’s happened, so I’m finally hunkering down and doing it.

Here's the not so short and pretty sweet. Teaching at KISC has been absolutely amazing and I love the staff there and the students. I am still taking Nepali lessons and working on becoming acclimated with the culture. My favorite Nepali blunder was when I tried repeating what a Nepali said and instead said, “Ma kera sanga biha garnu parcha?”, which translates to “I should get married to a banana?” They were trying to say I should get married to a Nepali guy or a “keta” not a banana. Whew, thank goodness. I don’t really like bananas.

To say a lot has happened to Nepal in the last eight months would be an understatement. An abnormally ridiculous amount of things have happened to Nepal in the last eight months. Starting with two earthquakes and then towards the end of September they finally finalized their constitution. That led to a minority group becoming infuriated with the government and joining forces with India to create a blockade, not allowing any petrol or goods into the country for three months. Industries have shut down. People don’t have gas to cook food with. Petrol is selling on the black market for 350Rs/liter which is the equivalent to $15/gallon.  Buses and cars are parked in lines that stretch for miles waiting for petrol. People are waiting eight hours for the hope of getting cooking gas and paying 4-5 times more for it. The country has been in a little bit of a chaotic mess.

As for me, I’ve been more than blessed and God has really been good. I haven't been nearly as affected by all that's going on compared to others. On the brighter side, it's been great getting to meet up with some Stout friends that have come to visit. I got to go on a rafting trip which was really fun with some friends from my school. The volleyball league was such a great opportunity to build relationships with some of the Nepali staff at my school, but we had to end it because the land we were playing on got sold. I attended a LIFE group through church which was really great and got some good fellowship. I started getting involved with the youth group at my English church. I was able to attend a Nepali wedding and dance to my heart's content. I performed a piano piece at a Christmas concert and had an amazing Christmas time here with my Nepali church. Whew. That's practically it. 

Nepali's Very Own Epcot

After thirty-eight hours of plane rides and layovers, I finally landed in this beautiful country, which I will be calling home for the next two+ years. I arrived on Sunday, July 20th and started my orientation Monday, July 21st (not recommended) with the help of numerous cups of coffee and tea. I am working at KISC, Kathmandu International Study Centre, which is an international Christian school. I am teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) to Grades 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9. Also I started a volleyball league at the school with the staff, which I am SUPER jazzed about. I have only been teaching for two weeks, but it has been really good so far. The students and staff come from so many different countries it makes it feel like a real life version of Disney's Epcot. Just in the couple of weeks I've been here, some crazy God things have happened that I wanted to share with you:

Crazy Story #1: My parents had a friend from their church, who is a professor at the U of M, ask if they would be willing to invite one of his students who is from Nepal for dinner. My parents gladly agreed and had him over for dinner. After talking with him, my parents realized he is a Christian and that his two children attend KISC and one of them is even in my class!

Crazy Story #2: I was talking to one of the other Nepali staff workers from KISC and he was asking me where I was from. I told him I was from Minnesota and asked him if he knew where that was and he said he had been there before. I was surprised. He said that he travelled from Michigan to Wisconsin and then to Minnesota. I asked him if he visited Milwaukee, but he replied, "No, it was just a small town, Stout." I about fell out of my chair! I asked him what he was doing at Stout and he mentioned he was visiting his friends, Dpac and Hemnish, then I told him that they were friends of mine as well! Crazy, absolutely crazy.

I often doubt myself and often question, "Is this really where God wants me to be?" but through these stories and other events I really feel like God has been saying, "YES!"

I am slowly but surely getting settled in to my new place. Last night, we welcomed Sarah to our place, who will be staying with us for a couple months on and off. She is working with the same organization as my other roommate Ruthie. We have other guests that come in and out too, but they are a little bit smaller and only come crawling in at night time, and definitely don't receive the same welcome. Well I thought you might like a mini tour of my house, so I included some pictures of my place:

This is my bedroom (note the bed that my wonderful roommate Ruthie surprised me with). Also I am still in the process of looking for a dresser so my clothes don't have to stay folded laying on my floor. 

This is our living room. It's usually a pretty happening place. I'm also thinking of trying to look for something for people to sit on rather than an old mattress. 

This is our kitchen. Again, we're contemplating getting a mini fridge, but we've been fine without one so far, so maybe later.

The hallway in to our apartment. There are two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom. 

Our bathroom where those unwelcome visitors like to show up late at night.

Peas and Kittens

  

Ruthie, Emma and I visiting Nuwakot and painting the town bright orange.

I know you are never suppose to have "favorites", but what can I say, I'm a rule breaker. This is Abhishek.

Akshant, Anish and I going out for a night on the town.

This sums up our English class: full of joy, fun and always accompanied with laughter.

My Nepali aamaa (mom) and aapaa (dad). Always a joy to be around.

Sooo...about those four months since the last time I blogged...hmm....where did I put them? Where did they go? Oh that's right, I remember now, they just flew by. Well that explains why I currently am writing you from the capital of Qatar, Abu Dhabi. I'm just quizzing all of you and seeing how well you did in geography. I'm actually in Doha and have a short seven hour layover here. I'm headed on my way back to the States, where I'll be staying for the next seven months. I'm a little sleep deprived, so forgive me if any ridiculous ramblings that include sheep, fences and Batman costumes come up.

First, I want to apologize for my lack of communication, if I could sum up the last three months in one word it would be "whoosh". My friend Ruthie's friend Emma came to visit from the States, so we showed her the town, which included riding on top of the bus, hitch-hiking with motorcyclists, swimming across a river and attempting to climb up a cliff. A good time was had by all and no one lost any limbs or died of dysentery. Also, if you ever ride on top of a bus please remember, even though the scenery is amazing there most likely are branches lurking ahead ready to smack you in the face. 

Another highlight, was that I got to spend a month tutoring a boy, Abhishek (shown in the photo above), at Guardian Academy, which was a blast. It always brought a smile to my face when he would confuse peas with kittens. Guardian Academy is the school connected with my church. There are two hostels, a girls and boys hostel, that house about fifty children total. Most of the children there are orphans or at-risk children. Last month some church members were on their way back from a village when they stopped at a restaurant and noticed an 8-year old boy working there. They asked about the boy and found out he had no parents and the villagers sent him away to work. The team worked on getting paperwork together, so they could take him back to Kathmandu to house him, give him an education and a loving family. The restaurant owner said the team had to ask his older brother first, so the team went to the other town, where his older brother was, only to find a 9-year old boy working in a different restaurant. I'm happy to say that now both brothers will be staying with us. Whenever I see them they always bring a smile to my face. It is such a joy to be a part of these children's lives.

I also spent roughly two months teaching English to seventeen students (shown in the photo above) with another teacher from the U.S., helping them prepare for the IELTS (an English proficiency test). You can never fully understand how crazy your native language is until you try to explain how a child is seven years old and there are seven year olds. The students endured, though, and have come out victorious, with the added perks of learning Johnny Cash lyrics, how to play the ukulele and learning what a fu manchu is. What more do you want from an English class?

Another exciting thing that happened in the last week, was that three of my Nepali friends came from the States (and Canada) to visit Nepal. It was so much fun to catch up and reminisce about old memories and new ones. I got to show them around Kathmandu, help them brush up on their Nepali and introduce them to Nepali cuisine. Or maybe it was the other way around? Well, whatever way it was, we had a lot of fun and ate a five different restaurants.

Well, now on to the part of my life called visa mishaps and what not to do. In all honesty I don't want to go into great lengths about this. The short version is this: I tried to apply for a work visa, that didn't work. I tried to apply for a student visa, that didn't work either. I didn't marry a Nepali guy, so I'm coming home until January. I learned a lot and also learned where every Nepali Department is located. Fortunately now I have some more optimistic leads in regards to how I can stay more long term, however these leads just happened a little too late, which is why I'm waiting to go back in January. Well, my computer is on the verge of death and I don't understand Qatari electrical outlets, so I guess that concludes my writing for now.

No, I was not stampeded by wild yak

Left: Reminiscing with a good college friend Salil 

Right: Me and the kiddos, always a great time with those wild and crazy youngsters.

Playing volleyball with the original gang, minus one taller individual.

Visiting Leah and crew. Enjoying a meal and laughs with a family that has been such an encouragement and blessing.

Meeting up with the Koepp ladies and Sarah at Raw Deal. These are some amazing friends who are so faithful and genuine. Some truly great women!

One of my favorite women in the world, my mom, as we spend a day together visiting Como Conservatory, lunch & pie at Baker's Square and touring the Mill City Museum.

Check out this amazing Christmas/Winter themed Banagrams game.

Left: The only Western-influenced restaurant in Nepal, KFC, and yes, they deliver. Don't ask me how, since no one has a home address.

Right: My Nepali Aamaa (mom), cousin and I celebrating Losar together while selling sausages!

So the answer to your question is no, I was not stampeded by a wild herd of yak, I am still in existence. Sorry for the long delay in posts, but I was caught up in a whirlwind of friends and family, spending the holiday season back in the arctic United States. Other than the subzero temperatures and loosing two toes, I had a marvelous time in the midwest. I was blessed to see many family members and friends, however due to the lack of time, I also missed out on seeing a lot of people as well. So I apologize if I was not able to meet with you. Also I gained about 40 pounds from eating approximately 3 french silk pies, 5 pounds of bacon and 10 trays of Christmas cookies, therefore I had to purchase an additional seat for my plane trip back to Nepal.

These were just some of the highlights of coming home for the holidays:

1. Watching my mom and dad compete in Just Dance 3 on the Wii to the lively song choice of Land of a Thousand Dances.

2. Watching an unnamed friend slide down an entire flight of ice-glazed stairs on our way to Devil's Punchbowl.

3. Entering a coloring competition at Culver's to get free custard.

4.  Thinking Risk was a "short game" and then spending 8 hours getting my butt kicked (but having fun doing it :)

5. Modeling 10 cultural ways of wearing an infinity scarf.

6. Playing indoor sand volleyball with the original Red Cedar team. 

7. AND most importantly meeting so many marvelous family members and friends over tea, pie, Log Jam, Ticket to Ride and themed Banagrams.

So now I have entered back into the land of the yetis, though I have not seen one...yet. On Friday, January 31st I got to celebrate Losar (the Tibetan New Years) with my Nepali family. We went to the festival and got to see some entertaining dance & song performances. Unfortunately I didn't know in time to sign myself up to perform Thriller, but there was an amazing dance group named "I Love Manang" that did breakdancing, which was very impressive. I also got to help out selling sausages with my friend Tseten.

As for now, I am still volunteering at the Montessori, but I will be leaving at the end of February. I will be looking for something different, since I'm not able to get a visa at the Montessori. There are a couple other potential jobs that are more geared towards my education that would make it easier to get a work visa. These next couple months could be very interesting with a lot of changes and challenges. Looking for a new job, applying for a work visa, taking Nepali classes, looking for an apartment, potentially moving (although I love the family I'm staying with), getting a driver's license, buying a scooter and helping out with ministry. So there's a lot of things on my mind. I know God doesn't just drop us in difficult situations and wishes us good luck. I know He is intricately involved in working through this with us, but sometimes trusting is easier said than done. I know God has a plan for every one of us, the same goal, but different plans, and it's not always easy to figure out what that is, but I know it's worth searching for. Something that I just read reminds me of how important it is to look for that vision from God. Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision, the people perish." Well my computer is about to die, so until next time...

Riding with the Goats

Left: At Family Camp with some of the girls.

Right: A ping, a gigantic 15" tall swing made out of bamboo and rope.

Colorful lights put out for the Tihar festivities.

Saraswati and I at the lake teeming with Koi and cheesy puffs.

At the Korean Bakery, enjoying my cup of tea, shortly after realizing that they painted it on the wall.

Reminiscing over the good old days of the MN State Fair where you can find everything on a stick. 

Enjoying some traditional Nepali food with my new friend Tara.

Dashain Tip #1: If you see a goat tied to a pole outside a home in October, it's NOT their pet goat. Dashain Tip #2: If you don't see the goat the next day tied to the pole, they did NOT set it free. That is what I learned during Dashain, one of the main Hindu holidays. Dashain is their celebration of good over evil. Unfortunately it's not a good holiday for goats. After Dashain comes Tihar, their festival of lights, which is 2-3 weeks later. It's not so much the festival of lights though, when they have their electricity blackouts from the 1.5 trillion lights that are hung up. When the electricity is on though, almost every house is decked out with lights and it looks very beautiful, or as you would say in Nepalese it's all jilly milly (my new favorite phrase).

During Dashain we had Family Camp at our church, so our church and four others got together for three days and had some amazing fellowship and worship. One of the most precious moments for me involved a twelve year old boy, Isaac. During the last night, two of the kids snuck out of the service and got into a fight, which ended up with one of them on the ground unconscious and shaking. The pastor, who is a doctor, felt his jaw and told us it was dislocated, so he took the child to the hospital. All the kids then gathered in the room and prayed for the boy. After some time the children left and ate dinner, but this one boy Isaac stayed and continued to pray. He came up to me and asked me to keep praying with him, so we prayed. As he continued to pray for the next two hours I watched as tears ran down his face as he was praying for his friend to be healed. The joyful part comes next. When the pastor reached the hospital the boy's jaw was miraculously back in place and he was fully conscious! Triple gazillion points God. I know it may sound like crazy talk to some of you, but when you think of a God who created our entire bodies in the first place, it's not that hard to believe that God has the power to heal, so that was one of the most precious moments for me.

As for other updates, I guess I didn't miss out on the MN State Fair corn dogs, they sold the leftovers to Nepal! Well not really, but I ate a surprisingly similar replica of a MN State Fair corn dog with Saraswati (the daughter of the family I'm staying with) at a food stall. It was love at first bite, because not only was it like a corn dog, but it was spicy! That was the cherry on top of our fabulous day together. It started with driving up the hillside to a lake that had more Koi than water and feeding them essentially cheesy puffs and tofu. Then I got to practice driving a scooter in a field of goats. After I passed my driving lesson, by successfully not knocking down any goats, we scootied on over to a Korean bakery (no, I did not drive), where we enjoyed a white chocolate donut and banana cupcake. Yum, yum.

Also I did purchase my airplane ticket for coming home, so I'll be home for Christmas. I'll fly in on Sunday December 15th and stay in the Twin Cities/Menomonie area for exactly a month then fly on back over the ocean. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting to see a bunch of you when I get back. I'm also looking forward to French Silk pie, bacon and hot showers.

If you think of it in your quiet times, I would love your prayers. There are a couple things in specific I would love prayer for:

1. My visa status. I don't think I'll be able to stay at the Montessori and get a work visa, so I'm thinking about pursuing a masters in English online with an emphasis in Teaching English as a Second Language. I am considering coming back on a student visa and enrolling in classes at a University to continue my language studies in Nepalese. A lot of things to finalize and figure out.

2. My Nepali family. They are so great and I care for them so much. Pray that God will bless them and that they will truly and fully come to know him.

3. The elections. Let's just say Nepal's political situation isn't the greatest. Between the communist president, the prime minister and being a federal republic, there's a bit of chaos. Elections are coming up in the next couple of weeks, so there will most likely be a lot of strikes and bandhs (where everything is closed).

Anything I  can be praying for you about I would love to, so just send me an email.

Lastly, I have seen a lot of things while staying here in Nepal, so I made a list for you called: 

10 Things you can see on the streets of Nepal that you can't see in the U.S.

1. A family of six on a motorcycle.

2. A man biking with two love seats and a coffee table fastened to the the back of his bike.

3. A goat strapped on to the top of a public bus.

4. Taxis driving in reverse at 20mph against traffic on a main road.

5. A passenger on a motorcycle holding on to a 15 foot ladder.

6. Taxi drivers driving into the river to get a free car wash.
7. A man with silk roses attached to the rear view mirrors of his motorcycle.
8. Kids biking with propane tanks strapped to both sides of their bikes.
9. A passenger on a motorcycle holding 10-15 plastic chairs above his head.
10. A goat riding on a motorcycle.

"No, I Do Not Eat Elephant"

This is Elim Montessori where I am volunteering currently.

One of the three colorful classrooms.

This is our house cleaner's daughter, Anusha. I found her on the front stairs playing contently for two hours with two rocks and a stick. So instead we went to my room and took silly photos and ate mango candies. 

Some people walk their dogs, while others walk their cattle. This was on my walk to the Montessori.

Left: The Cable Car we took up the steep hill to get to Gorkha.

Right: One of the statues outside the Gorkha Temple. 

Left: I found this tiny little idol just chillin' in the crack of this massive tree.

Right: Walking around Gorkha and admiring the beautiful view.

The Sadhu, the men who put the tika (the red dot) on your forehead, catching some rays.

Left: Priya, my colleauge at the Montessori enjoying a banana lassi.

Right: One of the breathtaking views on my bus ride back from Gorkha.

How to fit a whirlwind in a nutshell? I don't know but I'll try to do my best. I got my first Nepali job! I am the new karaoke performer at the Japanese hibachi grill down the block. Well not really, I got a job as the coordinator of Elim Montessori. Let's just say I'm learning a lot about Nepal in a short amount of time and with only a few mishaps along the way, such as gluing my fingers together with truly the superest Super Glue ever. Right now we don't have any children because they finished construction on the building in July and usually enrollment starts in April. So I have been working on marketing, as well as prepping the classrooms and lesson plans. We are having an Open House next Saturday, September 28th, to lure in some families. We hired a Mickey & Minnie to attend the Open House and on Friday I'll be standing outside the international grocery store with Mickey passing out fliers. I should practice up on my M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E and brush up on my Mousercise routines.

Also I started taking Nepali lessons with my friend's mother so we don't have any more confusing moments like my friend Tashi pointing at the pot of meat and saying "baddi" which means "bones" and I hear "batti" which means "elephant" and I look at them with a confused blank stare and think, "We're eating elephant? Isn't that illegal?" I think I could start a whole blog and call it, "Nepali words that Rachel mistakes that always ends with a good laugh".

On Friday I went with Priya, the Nepali teacher at the Montessori, to Gorkha. It is one of the most important historical places in Nepal. It is where King Prithivi Narayan Shah, the King of Gorkha, started his ambitious campaign to unify Nepal as one country instead of many independent districts. He became the first king of Nepal and made Kathmandu the capital in 1769. He also combined the Nepali armies, who stopped the British armies from colonizing Nepal. So there is your brief history lesson on the unification of Nepal, there will be a quiz next week, extra points for spelling the king's name right. Other than the fascinating history, Gorkha is absolutely breathtaking. There is also a river that runs from Gorkha to Kathmandu which you drive alongside. I saw some groups rafting down it and it sparked my interest. Also on my drive back to Kathmandu I was able to watch the sun set in the mountains, which again was absolutely beautiful. I thought "Oh, I should take some photos so others can see this", but my phone died and then I got this feeling like God saying, "this one's for you," and my heart got light and cheery. Good moments.

On another note, I did get a PO Box here in Nepal. So if any of you can figure out how to package and send French Silk Pie that would be great :) Just kidding. If you want to drop a line though I'd love it, but please don't send anything valuable because their mail system isn't the most dependable one. Here is the address:

Rachel Schroeder

GPO Box 8336

Kathmandu, Nepal

That's my address, straight and to the point. If you send anything though, please let me know when you send it because it takes  about 10 days to get here and then I have to make a little jaunt to get to the Post Office, across the Himalayas then riding an elephant through the jungle while beating down the tigers and hissing baboons OR I can hitch a ride on a scooter and get there in 30-40 minutes. I prefer the second option.

On a serious note, I want to give thanks to God. He has given me a family here who is so wonderful and has truly taken me in as part of their family, the other morning the mom made me pancakes which brought a smile to my heart. He has given me a job at a Christian Montessori, where I get to work with kids AND do graphic design. He has given me a Christian friend here, Ruthie, who (bonus points) loves playing Settlers of Catan. He has given me beautiful mountain bus rides and he has given me YOU, you faithful readers who have actually read this whole long blog. Thank you.

And Now From the Other Side of the Ocean

Saraswati and I climbed to the top of Sundhara (203 steps)!

Just outside the house where I am staying. I'm staying with my friend Dechen's family. They are such a sweet and kind family.

The 170 million steep steps up to the Monkey Temple. See the platform that looks like the bottom? Very deceiving, that's only the half way point. Now I know why the Nepalese are so fit.

My friend Dilip and I went to go to Central Zoo.

After 35 hours of airports/airplanes, burning brownies and being jumped by a monkey, I think I finally survived part one of Nepal with the help of the Big Guy. I slept for what seemed like a month and finally came out of hibernation. I had these overwhelming feelings of doubt and inadequacy. I asked God, "Okay, I'm here, it's a long way back home, so give me the strength to get through the day. We'll tackle tomorrow later." The days definitely got better as time went on. I also realized that simple tasks like getting a PO Box, setting up a bank account and activating my phone all seemed easy, but are a whole different ball game in a foreign country. I am definitely more dependent on others for help, which is a lesson in itself for me. Thankfully I had a lot of help from the family I'm staying with. They are such an amazingly sweet, humorous and hospitable family, who I am trying to teach Ticket to Ride.

I live in a part of Kathmandu called Swayambhu, where it is mostly buddhists. There is a huge Buddhist temple nearby called the Monkey Temple and no kidding I think it's where all the monkeys in the whole country congregate. The kicker is you walk up about 170 million stairs and then at the top they charge foreigners to enter, but it's definitely worth it since you can see the entire Kathmandu valley, which is actually very large. On my way back down I got jumped by a monkey who desperately wanted my Sprite. Monkeys make me appreciate squirrels more.

Saturday I went and visited a Nepalese church. I was trying to pick out words I recognized, which were few and far between. One word I kept hearing over and over was "Prem.....prem....prem". I was so curious what Prem meant. Later I found out prem means love, so for my first Nepalese church gathering I understood "love, love and love". I hope as time goes on I can understand more.

Things so far that I love about Nepal:
1. Musical horns on buses
2. Pani Puri from street vendors
3. Hospitable people
4. Doding cows on motorcyle rides through the city
5. Laughing about words I mispronounce

Well that's all I have for now from this side of the ocean...