Easter in Nepal

Thursday before Easter was our first big storm here.  This is a land of thunder & lightning!  We had had some of both other days, but this time the rain followed, in torrents!  I had been sewing at Beth's and had to borrow an umbrella to get home for dinner.  Jon comes home, grabs his camera and heads out again...for quite awhile.  He went to some high spots on the hospital and hill behind to catch the scenery, and actually caught some lightning on film....not easy!!


Jon arose early the next morning to capture any new visions of mountains that might occur with the removal of the haze by the storm.   He saw the sun rise in the east, with a few clouds about.  Then he actually detected a faint outline of taller mountains behind the obvious hills........could those be the long-awaited Himalayas we are told reside to our Northeast?  Usually we can see neither range because of the haze, but here they are!

Our next hope will be to see the snow on them.  Is that asking too much?  They are the Annapurna Range......Annapurna is one of the 8 mt. peaks above 8000 meters tall in Nepal....let's see, how tall is that in feet?  26,545 Feet!!  One of these days we will see it from our house.  WE just have to be patient......and maybe wait for the monsoons in late May and early June.

Friday evening was the Stations of the Cross procession, beginning at the very bottom of campus, at the Nursing School.   I thought it would only cover the 120 steps up the hill to the hospital and homes.  Wrong.  We had only done two Stations, and we were climbing all the steps!  There must have been  fifty of us, ages 10-87.







 We continued climbing with every station.  I discovered there was more to the campus than I had seen....the children's schoolhouse, for one.  One of the kids carried the wooden cross to each station and others added the nails at one, red cloth, white cloth, thorns when needed.  It was dark when we finished.

Friday was also the day I made the Rabbit Carrot Cake for the party on Saturday.  Since it only needed one layer, I made the other layer as a birthday cake for our di-di, Chandra!  She was delighted to take it home after work on Friday.  She had made us Samosas for lunch and Chipatis for me to use as tortillas for my enchiladas for dinner.  With my US spice mix and Tillamook Cheese, we had a yummy dinner that reminded us of home.....minus the cottage cheese and green salad.

Saturday, today, was our Easter Sunday!
Yesterday it was Easter Friday in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday in  the Western Hemisphere.
When did Christ arise from the grave, do you figure?
Hope it doesn't matter!

We walked to the 10 am service at the Tansen Church on the upper road.  The pastor did insert a few words of english to keep some of us informed as to where his sermon was going.  Afterward, Jon and I walked on into town to have lunch at the Hotel. thinking Beth was going there from the 'lower road' church. She never showed up, but we had coffee with a medical health worker we met after church, then stayed for  a lunch of Mo-Mos, spicy meat wrapped in won-ton type dough and steamed. 

 Then we had a Sizzler......hot meat and veggies with noodles and sauce spread over.    Hot is good as it kills any germs that might  make us sick.  We then walked home very slowly, to allow Marita's body heat to stay within limits and give Jon camera time.  

 Shortly after arriving home, the thunder, lightning and rain started again.    Jon ran out again, after failing to find an umbrella (guess we didn't bring one).  





What follows the rain?

Our last event of the day was an Easter party for all of the missionaries.  Boy, do they know how to party here!  It went on and on and on.  Something I now recall from other sabbaticals in isolated places.  There is no hurry to go home!  We enjoy the few times when everyone drops everything and spends time together.  After a couple songs, a couple special numbers by the kids and a skit, we were divided into 4 teams of a dozen or so and were handed a list of things to find and questions to answer by quizzing folks.  Speed and quality of items were considered in allotting points.  And we had to plan  a charade for the end of the party.  Finally, we got to eat the goodies everyone brought....savory and sweet.  They decided to save my bunny cake for the birthdays that needed celebrating later.

 The evening ended with the charades, another game, some special music by adults and kids, and clean-up!  It was a nice time....almost 4 hours of party.    The storytelling will be held another time.

Tomorrow at 6 am is a sunrise service for those who want to keep Easter on Sunday.  I am not going.  Jon is taking call for the Doctor who is preaching at the service.  But he plans on getting up at 5 and climbing the 350 stairs above the hospital......for his own sunrise service.

The stairs begin where the large building is on the left.

The hospital is under the large roofs in the middle of the

photo.  This stair takes a right turn at the top and continues some more.  I don't know if I will ever climb it, but Jon seems to like the view from on top!