Back Home

 A week has passed since we left the Himalayas on Nepali Air.  Travelling east to Seattle via Hong Kong and Taipei was the shortest and most comfortable of our trips between Asia and Seattle.  Each step, and stop, was a a sensory upgrade....clean 'western' facilities, food we recognized and sampled, even free wi-fi! The Hong Kong airport is a small city......I felt almost remiss that we weren't going to be shopping for some bargain which Hong Kong is  known for.
We just weren't in the shopping mode, for some reason!




Because of the International Dateline in the Pacific, we arrived in Seattle evening of the morning we left...June 9, 22 hours after we left.   We were welcomed by a beautiful view of Mt. Ranier as we descended, a 'short' mt., only 14,000+. and solitary.





We finally landed at SEA-TAC to a welcoming committee we hadn't expected!  Luckily Matt found me sitting with the luggage cart while Jon was off finding me some Starbucks coffee!  They had missed seeing him at the luggage belt.  So, here we are with Scott and Heather Miller (who brought us our car), Matt, Jana, Ben, Luc and Ian.  What a dear sight!  And good hugs, too!

Grandpa reads to Ian

Spending the first two nights with Jana, Ben and boys, we got lots of lovin' and reminders of why we needed to come home......grandchildren.  A year in their life is a long time.  It felt good to keep hearing how they thought we were the best ever!

The waiters sing Happy Birthday to Matt....Leigh Ann looks on.

And then there are the 'kids!'  Matt's 29th birthday was Sunday and we celebrated by having his traditional birthday dinner at Red Robin.  His friend, Leigh Ann, had graduated with her MA from Seattle University that afternoon....so, we celebrated her achievement also.




Once we learned two grandchildren had events we could attend by Thursday, we decided to stay in Snohomish and give our dentist, doctor and hair salon some long-awaited business.  We also started the Medicare application ....supplemental insurance chosen.  And greeted various friends throughout the week.  Weather was typically 'changeable,' which suited me just fine as I especially like the cool drizzle the Puget Sound Area is famous for....after the heat and humidity of Nepal.

On Thursday we finally saw our grandaughters....Ava, Emma, and Julia.  Here they are posing with their paper umbrellas from Chiang Mai, Thailand....and 'bangles' from Nepal.

Luc is in the middle with the tie.

Thursday evening was Luc's final choir concert at Leschi Elementary.  Their director does 'gospel' and they sing passionately.  She moves to a different school next year, so this was her final program after 14 or more years at Leschi.   What a gift she's been to these children over the years.

With programs done for this week, we headed to our cabin near Leavenworth in the Cascade Mts....about 2 hrs. drive.  Ben and Luc went with us and Jana and Ian  followed after his final school picnic.  We're getting back in the saddle of grandparenthood!

Riversong is the Miller/Bishop cabin by the Chiwawa River

Air travel is almost too quick a transition.  A week later and we're still trying to  absorb the changes.  My first trip alone to the grocery store left my head spinning  recently.  I had to tell myself that I could get some of the items later.....they would still be available.  I'm so used to so little choice in groceries.  It was too much to take in.









With Jana and Ben, Luc and Ian here for the weekend, it was an inspiration to start building a treehouse! Here Ben and Jon have attached the 'anchor' to the selected tree.  A few hours later, with Jana and Marita's help, the platform has been raised (you don't want to see how we did it!).  This is a plan from the internet that they 'tweaked,' so there will be further tweaking to make sure it is safe.  Those long supports aren't in the plan and will be removed.......but additional crossbeams will be needed.  The trees sway in the wind, so anchors need to be in the tree, not the ground.   This will be a work in progress thru the summer.....unless Grandpa keeps at it in the next two weeks.
Soooooo......
I guess this is the end of this blog!  It has been, largely, a travel-log.  Have you gotten a sense of  the family of the world?  People in every country want the same things, work their best to improve their lives,  celebrate and suffer just like we do.  Some places are harder to live in due to geography, politics, economics and religion.  But, that is their 'normal' and we have tried to fit into that as we've lived among them.   Where we couldn't accept, we've tried to initiate dialogue.  We've made and left friends behind in Kabul and Tansen. Jon plans to return to Kabul soon, for a few weeks.  I'm content to stay home, at least for awhile.    July l we will move into our house and face a summer of unpacking and all that goes with it.  Thank you for coming along on this trip around the world, into the mountains.  We trust you've caught of glimpse of God's creation in his people and terrain.  Bless you for sticking with us!!

Blessings,
Marita and Jon

Stage 2....Kathmandu

Day 1 was spent resting, writing, and visiting a Korean professor at the new medical school  associated with Patan Hospital.  She had arranged for us to have a tour of the hospital, which was the one the Drs.' Fleming founded in 1958 under another name.  It is now run by the government, but still has some Christian employees and a few mission doctors.  Soon Park gave us a tour of the medical school  which is in it's  second year.   She is the only Ph.D (Bio-chemistry) on the faculty and is here as a volunteer.  They provide housing.
She is finding it increasingly friendly and

Dr. Soon Park surrounded by her medical students

enjoyable to teach the problem-based learning
they use.   She had visited Tansen around Easter and invited us to dinner when we came through.  A good friend to keep in our scope!

NOW to Day 2......our Christian taxi driver picked us up at 4:30 am (had to pay him extra for the privilege) to take us to the airport for our Everest flight!  It beats trekking!  At least for us at this time.....probably anytime.  The only problem was it only took 15 min. to get there, not the 45 we'd been told.  Then we had our days mixed up and, luckily they put us on another flight an hour later. So, we spent the morning waiting on one thing and then another!



You see here the plane we didn't fly in.  We taxied around the tarmac then parked it and climbed into the one that is closer in the photo.  See them looking under-the-hood?    It was fine with me!

Ready, set, go again!

Jon and I had the front seats on each side of the aisle.  They are ahead of us in no time.....the
Everest set of mountains, beginning with
Langtang Lirung and ending with Makalu on the
east side of Everest.  The peaks were on my side of the plane going east, and on Jon's coming back.

The Flight Attendant was great about pointing out which mountains were which as we sped along....and we each were given a map to follow.

Everest is far away in this photo, at the end and to the right of the cloud cover.

The attendant had let each of us go up into the cockpit one at a time to get a look out the front window........it was great! We planned on taking a photo in our PLAIN HARDWARE shirts for the bulletin board in Plain.....but, only room for one of us!

We headed straight for it as we turned around to go back.  There is a layer of clouds at the top.  

Lhotse is the tall one in front and to the right of Everest.  Closer mts. look taller.

Telephoto helps, too.....


And then we headed back.  This time through the list, I could recognize more of the mountains.  I have enjoyed reading many books of mountaineers, especially in the Himilayas.....so this has been really fun.

To the right here is Gauri Shanker at 23,405 ft. and the flat-topped one further right is Melungtse
at 23,560.    Jon says they look like the North Cascades, just 15,000 ft taller!  Yah!

We caught another taxi and headed to the tourist area, Thamel for breakfast at the Himalayan Java.
We'd been there in March....coffee!   After shopping for last minute items in the wild streets of Thamel, we asked a Rickshaw driver if he would take us to our street.  He thought he could,








but after LOTS of time meandering around, and having to push us sometimes because his legs couldn't handle any slope, we asked a bystander how far it was to Patan Hospital and decided it was too far for a rickshaw.  So, he found us a taxi and we paid him well for his efforts.

HEre we are caught in a traffic jam, with an enteprenerial fruit stand moving around traffic on his bicycle.

This colorful soul is a Hindu .....  chief religion of Nepal.  I don't know the significance of his attire, but certainly colorful.

When we 'happened' to wander into Durbur Square, we decided to try for a snapshot in our shirts in front of the Hindu relics.
Our driver wanted to be in the picture....then we finally got him to understand we'd like him to take one of us.....a local shopkeeper stepped over to see if he'd done it right.  People were always good to help guide us around....foreigners that we obviously are!
Which man shall I take home?













Bags are packed, clothes washed, alarm set for 5:45 and our taxi man set to come again.....paying a little extra this time becuase of the price of gas going up....hmmmmmmmm.
Hong Kong, Taipei and Seattle, here we come!  Because of the International dateline we will arrive the same day we leave after 24 hrs. of travel!  9am-7pm...go figure! See you soon!

Last 24 Hours in Tansen

June 5th dawned.
Jon had finished working at the hospital the day before.  He had arranged with our Guest House Manager, Ganesh, to walk down the other side of the ridge we always see and visit his family's homestead.  So they began at 6 am.

Down the other side of the ridge they went.....until they reached the family home.    Being a farm boy, Jon was interested in the animals and crops, etc.  They didn't stay to visit with the family as Ganesh had just been there and they both needed to get back.

The basket is carried on the back and held by a band around the forehead.  This is full of green branches and leaves for the goats.  The family, as many do, has a two-story house.  Grown children live at home until they marry.

These are cows for farming... never to eat.

Mom is feeding the water buffalo.....they are for milk and butchering.

Climbing uphill to Tansen

They did it!  Back by 7:30 .....time for work.  We finished packing, ate dinner with the Beels and watched the moon from our 'porch'  turn from orange to yellow.....pollution in the air is good for something!

JOURNEY HOME....stage 1..The 'BUCK'

We were to leave on the hospital 'buck,' so named for being part-truck/part bus, by 6 am Wednesday morning, June 6.  It leaves every Wed. for Kathmandu, taking people who need to go (for travel, visas, vacation, etc.) and anything, like mail, that the hospital needs to send.  Then it returns the next day, usually.....bringing back mail and supplies...and people who have come to work  or visit folks at the hospital.

Nothing really prepares you for your first 9 hour ride.   No air-conditioning, except for the open windows.....school-bus seats.....narrow winding roads thru the hills, sometimes close to the bottom of the canyon, sometimes high up.

Leaving the foothills, in which Tansen is situated, we come to the Terai, or flat lands bordering India.  It is hot and humid .  The  Buck stopped for a 'rest' stop, meaning you could take a walk into the trees and find your easement.  I decided to wait until we stopped for lunch.

A big, wide river appeared and the road followed it along the Terai for a long while.  Seemed to have more sand than water.

We stopped for a lunch of Dal-Baht about 5 hours into the trip.  One of the missionary wives said they had never gotten sick eating the food here, which was reassuring.  I had just had a week of 'discomfort' and didn't want to start it up again.
Thirty minutes and we were on the road again.

Now this is where I would have rather it ended.  My bottom was tired of the seat.  I was tired of the heat, and the 3 bottles of frozen water I'd brought had long been drunk, or turned warm.  Everyone started fading as we began to climb again up to the 4,000+foot altitude that Kathmandu sits at.

Traffic got thicker and slower the closer we got to the city.  As you can see, vehicles use ALL of the road, irregardless of curves ahead or cars coming.  IT seems to be understood that the 'other fellow' will move!  There are a fair number of motorcycles that weave in between the moving traffic always.
Emission controls are not known here.....so windows either close or you wash it out later.....or both!

Sure enough, it took 9hours until we were deposited near the street our guest house was on. We hailed a taxi to go less than a mile as we couldn't carry our 4 pieces of luggage and bags. The taxi driver asked if I was a Christian....after I told him 'yes,' I asked him and he said, "I a Christian." When Jon paid him he returned some of it, saying  it was too much.....unheard of!
Needless to say, we called him to take us to the airport today....and tomorrow morning.  Read on to see why we would go to the airport two days in a row.

Videshis

Are you ready for a little history lesson?

     Videshis, or foreigners, have been coming to the NepalValley, as it was known before any Kingdom was established, since the early trade routes traverssed it.  Kathmandu  was an oasis on a long, arduous journey for travellers, soldiers  & traders between Asia and the Hindustan.  Mountain people controlled these roads through the Himalyas.  I find it fascinating that as early as 1704, some Capuchin missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church labored among the Tibet and Nepali people with the invitation of the Raja of the time.  It was no small feat just to get to this area, overland via  Turkey and the Black Sea or by ship around the Cape and up through India....taking about 3 years and many not surviving the trip.  For 55 years the monks of the Order of Capuchin preached and lived  the Gospel of   Christ among the people with full approval of the leaders....although the main reasons were probably for their benefits.....knowledge, skills, prestige by association, etc.  In the 1760's  their mission came to an end as the Gorkhalis captured  and ruled all the kingdoms of that region. About 60 converts left for India along with the few brothers released from prison in 1769.

The Anglo-Nepalese War of 1814-16 between Britiain and the Ghorkhalis left Nepal approximately the size and shape it is today.  It also resulted in a wall of isolation that kept foreigners of any kind out of the country. In  Nepal, time stood still for 150 years.  As late as the revolution in 1950-51, the main way for a traveller to move around within the country was by foot.  Mail would only go as far as India.  This exclusion applied to foreign missionaries, also.  European colonialism, taking place in India, was linked to Christian missions in the minds of the people of Gorkha-Nepal.   Not until India became independent and Christianity could be seen as the gospel, not colonialism, was the message or the missionary respected.

 WWII ended colonialism and within twelve years 600 million people in the Asian world were liberated from colonial rule. The Rana Rule ended in 195l with the resulting chaos which seems to continue to this day. The proposed 'democratic' republic has had more than enough resistance, the latest being the Maoist intrusion since 1996. '

Many mission organizations had been doing evangelistic, educational and medical work on the Indian side of the Nepali border for years, so when the border was opened in 1951, they were ready with requests to work in specific areas. The government saw them as agents of change, helping the new country develop services, especially hospitals.  And they limited them in the area of proselytizing and political activities.  Before long there were a thousand foreign residents of many kinds....from rich Westerners to International hippies.  Tourism  has become the #1 industry to date.

The Tansen Hospital began on a bird expedition.  Dr. Bob Fleming (educator at Woodstock School  for missionary children in  northern India, and an  orthinologist) applied to the Rana Regime  in 1949 for a bird trip into Central Nepal.  He was given a  6-mos. permit and with the support of the Chicago Natural History Museum and a team of his choosing, they were welcomed and given a police escort for the 3 mos. of their trek.     Two years later Dr. Fleming returned and brought his wife who was a medical doctor, and two children as well as Dr. and Mrs. Carl  Friedericks and their 3 children.  In Tansen they set up a medical clinic in a rented house and treated many patients, even doing surgery. After that success,  the town leaders met with them to request they come and set up a permanent hospital.  Thus began the search for 'ways and means' by which to do that. A letter was written to His Majesty's Government requesting permission, and discussions were begun with various mission boards of those concerned...mainly the Methodist and Presbyterian Mission Boards.  An ad loc committee of serveral organizations met to consider joining forces to meet the needs of Nepal, even as the letter of invitation was granted by the gov't.  Giving up their own personal agendas, part of the rising ecumenical movement of that time, The United Mission to Nepal was founded in March of 1954.  By September there were 8 organizations approved as charter member bodies and another 8 observers.  Today there are 18 member organizations on 4 continents.

Building of Tansen Hospital in 1959
Photos from UMN website archives

  

Bob and Bethel Fleming were the first to go into Nepal in October of '53, and it was to Kathmandu, not Tansen. The government wanted them  to establish 5 women's and children's clinics in the valley.  As this was being done, Dr. Friedericks, returned to Tansingh (as it was spelled then) again to assess the opening of a hospital.  By May of 1954,  he and his family trekked in from the lowland airport, 17.6 miles, with porters carrying their goods.  Basic living conditions in an undeveloped country are huge impediments...renting a house and  training help to do the basics of setting up a home and a hospital.  Dr. Carl was not able to get assistance from India so he trained the local Nepalis in labwork,  treatment of patients and use of medicines. It was 8 mos. before another couple joined them, and then another 8 for a nurse to arrive, until in two years they had a dozen foreign staff.  The mission work evolved to include community clinics, a Nurse-Midwife School (which is now gov't run), and other projects through the years.  UMN has had an unparalled impact on Nepal's development as a country.  They established schools, hydroelectric power stations, clinics and hospitals, reaching out into the mountains where people were still locked in medieval conditions.  The Kathmandu hospital has been given back to the government, but is a premier hospital in the nation.












My focus with this bit of history in this blog is to show the faith, grit and co-operation that has gone into growing this medical work in Tansen.  God
used faithful servants who put one foot in front of another and accomplished great things.  I am awed

by such people.  I know how hard it is for me, and I have it easy!     We  foreigners, with diverse backgrounds and idiologies, are a motley bunch, called here to deliver care in a compassionate way.  WE also find ways to share our lives together and have as much fun as possible. The fact that the tennis court was built first, and used to play on...as the photo above shows, is a testament to the value missionaries place on recreation.

Missionaries love to play games....outside or inside.......

Every Wed. at 4 pm games are played on

 the court

Dr. Gunner is off to play hockey with 

the kids...

Skits are fun, too.....

and singing for parties.......

Tracy invited us over for a Ladies' Spa Night and 14 of us enjoyed ourselves.  Of course, we brought extra special food and bared our feet, masked our faces...even cucumbers on the eyes!

We massaged weary shoulders, hands and feet....then we prettied them up with polish!  All in all a time of laughs and joy.

WE have dinner together after the Saturday service we

hold at the Guest House.

 And we love to eat out at the only

 restaurant we can in

Tansen.....here with

 Les & Debbie Dornan

Otto played this recorder duet, with
Depok playing the harmony....see
the recorder?

Theo Beels gave a recitation in Dutch from his
school days.

Yesterday was our Talent Show, following worship and dinner together.  We decided to go ahead and have it, despite Les and Debbie's absence.  He had  a brain bleed that morning and had to be taken by helicopter to Kathmandu.  It has stopped and he will stay there for observation this week.  They are integral people in the work here....he, a doctor and she as Hospitality Manager.  He also 'founded' the barbershop singing nights, and she had a couple spots in the program, which she also put together.  But, she gave her blessing on the phone and we proceeded.  The children were primed to 'star' and all of them participated, some more than once.

A recitation and hand motions of a favorite verse.

Juggling efforts and successes by Ethan and Nick

The premier performance of the Tansen Barbershoppers!  Those three Brown boys on the right took the
high tenor together.  Drs. Kim and Depok and a Biene boy took the lead; Otto and Dr. Jon hung out at Baritone
and those handsome men on the left dug bass.   They warmed up with "Ice-Cream, Ice-Cream, Ice-Cream...." then
rolled right into "The Good Old Harmony."  They surprised themselves with how good it sounded, for only two
practices!

This is a snapshot in time...namely, May 26 after our farewell to the Days.  There is such a flux of videshis coming and going that a photo is always going to change.  Some of these people are gone this week and more of us gone next week! But new folks are coming to help with the ministry of United Mission to Nepal Tansen Hospital.  We have been privileged to join with them these three months.