June 23, 2007

Jay Maishi!

Living abroad has been really hard.  Our home is located between a big city and a smaller town. This makes it difficult to build friendships with the people near us. Nepali’s are very private individuals. When walking around town they do not typically speak to one another unless they are related. Also, the culture we are in does not easily allow foreigners to help out in everyday activities. Plus during the day everyone is at work….so that leaves us with lots of free time. Boredom has set in and we have only been here a week and a half.

Jody has been our constant source of encouragement.He enjoys talking with us, practicing his English and teaching us some Nepali. (He was one of the men that picked us up at the airport.) His wife invited us over for lunch on Sunday. We had typical Nepali food for lunch plus french fries. Jody loves french fries and thought we would like to have some familiar food as well. It was refreshing talking with him and his daughter, Gloria.

Today Kaila and I have both been really sick. I woke up around 4 am feeling sick to my stomach. I have to say being sick makes me miss home. I do not recommend being sick overseas; it is quite the hassle. Our family’s squatty potty is shared by the entire building we live in which means long lines. Kushum brought us a bucket so hopefully we can make it to one or the other in time. We also cancelled lessons with D. today. Hopefully, we will both feel better tomorrow.

I am excited about leaving for Nepal and thankful our entire time is not going to be spent here. I know we are here for a purpose even if it’s only learning Nepali and being an example to Kushum’s family. Please p for Kushum’s aamaa (mother), baini(younger sister), and baa (father) because they do not know Dad.

These few weeks here have made me question my call. I have seen more of a need for short term trips and involvement of members of the body. In our location, I feel as though the local body has things under control.

Please keep Kaila and me in you p. I love and miss you all!

Update 3

On Wednesday Kaila’s heart started palpitating irregularly. We called our M.s around 3:00 pm and they took us to the hospital. Dr. Bhutia saw Kaila, listened to her heart, and gave her three different medications (one of them was not USDF approved). He said she had chronic mountain sickness and needed to go to a lower elevation. Our M.s made us spend the night with them. The next morning around 8 am plans were being made to go back to Delhi (altitude is only 1,000 ft above sea level instead of 7,410 ft). At 9am our M. took us back to Kushum’s ghar (house) to pack and head to Jody’s ghar. Jody was going to take us all the way back to the airport in Bagdogra. Our flight left at 12:35pm and we did not make it there until about 12:40. Luckily, in South Asia flights usually run late. We were put on the waiting list and were finally allowed to board our flight at 1:40 pm.

Kaila and I made it to Delhi around 6:00 pm on Thursday. Lydia met us at the airport and brought us to the guest house. Friday we took Kaila to Max Med. The cardiologist listened to her heart and performed an ECO. They sent her home with a heart monitor and told her to be active in order to see if anything else was causing the problem. Also, the cardiologist told Kaila that she could stop taking the meds that Dr. Bhutia prescribed. Today we returned the heart monitor back to Max Med. but it will be Tuesday before we can get the results. I think Kaila is feeling somewhat better by just being at a lower altitude. However, her heart is still racing periodically when it should not be. Hopefully, she will get great results from the heart monitor on Tuesday. This was my greatest fear in going abroad and it happened but the Lord is taking care of all it.

We are continuing our language lessons with a Nepali couple who take care of the guest house. They are only speaking Nepali to us….so we better pick it up quick. She will teach us how to catch a taxi, speak in the market, and converse. Sunday we are going with them to a Nepali church. I am so excited. We have already attended one service in Nepali and it was great. I love hearing them worship in their heart language.

As far as living arrangements go…we have a place to stay until Monday. The rest is being worked on. Living with a Nepali family is not really a feasible option. Our plans for Nepal are in the process of being changed due to the altitude. We would have been at the same elevations as Darjeeling but our M.s are working with us on these issues.

Please continue to keep us in your p.

-Sarah