Friday, February 24, 2012

Lessons From Nepal: Part II

NEPAL!?

Oh no! Where is Part I?

Applying for the YAV program I never would have guessed that I would get to spend 10 days in Nepal. But I did. And it was awesome.



Most YAV sites have a midyear retreat of some sort to get together and relax and process and...just be. Uncle Simon and Haejung 이모 spent three years in Nepal as mission co-workers, and we were lucky enough to have a midyear retreat/study trip in the foothills of the Himalayas. We got to see where they served and lived while learning about a different type of mission field and experiencing a totally different culture. It was just swell!

in front of their old house

Last week marked the middle of my YAV year in Korea. So, is the glass half full or half empty? I'm not really sure. Which one is more optimistic in this situation? Pessimistic? Again, I'm not really sure. Maybe it's both? Or all four I guess. All I really know is that I like the water, and I am pumped that I have a little more than five months to drink it!

1/2?
 
Time has gone quite quickly and sometimes rather slowly. It seems like forever ago and just yesterday that I walked into Korean class and couldn't tell which way was up on my name tag. 

"What very mysterious things days were.
Sometimes they fly by, and other times they just seem to last forever,
yet they are all exactly twenty-four hours.
There's quite a lot we don't know about them."
-Melanie Benjamin, Alice I Have Been
One thing that [I think] I am happy to be on the homeward stretch concerning is: Time For Young Disciples. I wrote about it a little in an earlier blog, but it is a sermonette at University Church that rotates between Uncle Simon, Thomas, Anna, and me. Once a month I do a few minute speech about whatever [church related] I want, in English [my native language]...it really should not be that big of a deal, but it is just something I stress out about. The week leading up to my monthly TYD Sunday is an interesting, queasy time. I enjoy spending time in prayer and thinking and reading, but the the thought of doing it just makes my stomach uneasy. Public speaking is just not my jam.


Sunday I delivered number 6 of 11. I was definitely still nervous, but it was the first day that I didn't feel like I was going to throw up sitting in the pew waiting for my time to speak. Progress. Awesome.


So, here is my TYD: Lessons From Nepal: Part II
[also, Thomas did Part I and Anna did Part III...they're just our impressions/lessons/thoughts]




BEAUTIFUL! The people I encountered were just so beautiful and joyful and hospitable and...just great! The scenery was breathtaking!


The food was SO GOOD! Nepali milk tea, momo, lentils, curry, chicken chili boneless, naan...delicious! Toward the end of our trip, my body had different feelings though. Shoot.


The place is dusty. So. Much. Dust.


Car horns mean different things in different places. I noticed that when I arrived in Korea and then again in Nepal. In Korea, a car horn seems to simply mean, "Move, you're in my way." In Nepal, car horns are used to say, "Hey, I'm right here. Please don't hit me." Finally, in the United States honking a car horn [typically] means, "YOU JUST MADE ME SO MAD. I KIND OF WANT TO PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE." Just my impressions...


The pace of life is totally different in Nepal compared to it in both Korea and the United States.


One thing that really stuck with me:




Uncle Simon was a part of the organization/beginnings of the Nick Simons Institute, so we got to visit, learn about its history, and hear about what it is doing now. This is straight from NSI's website because...well...they just know what they are talking about, and I would rather not paraphrase.
"Nick was a New York man who, having recently graduated from college, came to Nepal to work in 2002. He fell in love with the country, and returned home with the dream of becoming a doctor for the underserved. Tragically, Nick’s life ended some months later when he drowned while swimming in Indonesia.


Jim and Marilyn Simons came to Nepal to establish a project in their son Nick’s name. After funding the building of a new Maternity Ward for Kathmandu’s Patan Hospital, they challenged a group of health care professionals in Nepal to develop a new organization that would reach out to rural communities, principally through the training of health care workers. In March 2006, NSI was formed from this nucleus."


 
It may be an emergency room, a classroom, an office...anywhere really!

 ...to glorify God