ALERT!!! This will be my LAST update from Nepal! Wow, that
sounds so strange… I leave Kathmandu in less than three weeks, so I won’t be
updating again until I’m back in the U.S.
There has been so much going on lately that I want to share
with you – and this week especially has been jam-packed, so brace yourselves
for an action-packed update as well as some info on my home-coming :).
Bandh Update
The last time I wrote, I told you that Nepal was fairly
unstable and there were lots of bandhs (strikes) held by various political
groups as the deadline for the new constitution was approaching. Well, they
failed to meet the deadline, so the Constitutional Assembly was dissolved and
elections will be held this November in order to elect a new assembly which
will hopefully be more effective in establishing a government here. We were
expecting more bandhs, riots, and curfews right after the assembly was
dissolved, but things have been surprisingly calm and peaceful here, Praise God :).
Swimming Gala
The KISC intraschool swim meet was a blast and a huge success!
It was open to the entire secondary school, not just those on the swim team, so
the whole school got to enjoy the event. There were even a few adult races –
the 25 free, the 25 breast, and a 100 free relay. Of course I couldn’t resist
participating and I even got the KISC record in the 25 free :).
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| The Green Team were the winners! |
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| Hmmm... Looks like we need to work on diving technique in practice tomorrow morning... ;) |
This is the only swim meet this term, so all the swim team
members were excited to see how they would do in a competition. It was great to
see them be able to show off their talents and see how they’ve progressed! The
majority of the swimmers had huge time drops, some even dropped over 10 seconds
in 50 or 100 meter races! Although we won’t have any more meets, swim practices
will continue right until the end of the school year.
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| A few of my KISC swimmers having fun at the Gala along with KISC teacher, Daniel Snead. Daniel has been helping out with the swim team a lot this term. |
A KISC Wedding
Last night was the wedding of two of my friends and fellow
KISC teachers, Simon and Wendy. This was definitely one of the most fun
weddings I’ve ever been to! They got married right at KISC and the whole day
was done in spectacular Nepali fashion. It started off with a janti jani which
is where the groom and all the men (and in our case, anyone else who wanted to
join) parade through the streets behind a Nepali marching band to pick up the
bride at her home and take her to the church. When they got to the house, Wendy
hopped on a rickshaw and Simon pedaled her all the way to the ceremony.
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| Simon pedaling his bride to the wedding while the rest of us danced around in the street. |
The guests all wore saris, topis, and other Nepali formal
wear (yes, even the Westerners), the dinner was daal bhat, the traditional
Nepali meal, and we danced to Hindi music all night long. It was fun evening
and will definitely be one of my favorite memories of my time in Nepal.
Congrats again, Simon and Wendy!!!
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| My friend Sarah and I at the wedding. |
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| Everyone had a great time dancing at the reception :). |
Finishing and Goodbyes
I’ve got just under three weeks until I come home, and
things are starting to wind down here. The teacher-training workshops at the
rural Nepali schools were not going to be able to be organized in the time I
had before I left, so after writing up my recommendations for future training
based on my observations in interviews, that responsibility has ended. I will,
however, be very busy will various finishing tasks at school, so the next three
weeks will be very busy in that respect.
In addition, this morning I said goodbye to one of my best
friends here, Stephanie. She will be going on fieldwork to do language research
for the next three weeks and won’t be back in Kathmandu until after I’ve gone.
It was a really tough goodbye and the next few weeks definitely won’t be the
same without her around, but I’m thankful that she lives on the West Coast and
will hopefully be able to visit me in California the next time she comes back
to the U.S.
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| My friend Stephanie and I |
I’m coming home! So here’s the deal:
There are still so many things I have to think about in
regards to returning to the U.S. besides all the finishing tasks to take care
of here. I fly out of Kathmandu on the evening of June 29th and land
in Pittsburgh the next day on the 30th. I’ll spend a little over a
week in Corry, PA visiting family and friends as well as recuperating from my
traveling. While I’m in Corry, I’ll be speaking at my church, Corry FUMC, on
July 8th at all services, so if you’re in the area come in to hear
more details about what I’ve been up to :). I’d love to see as many of you as possible!
Finally, on July 9th I’ll be flying back to California where I’m
hoping to establish myself. As of yet, I’m still not sure where I’ll be living
in California, but God has blessed me with a job to go back to! I just found
out the other day that I’ll be teaching ESL at Hope International University. I
couldn’t be more thrilled and I’m so thankful – so thanks so much to those of
you who were praying for that! Those prayers were answered in a big way :).
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As I post this, I haven't uploaded new photos just yet, but I plan to soon, so check them out at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.572126078282.2064217.69102077&type=3&l=48b560a067
Also, check out my updated Prayer Requests and Praises --->
