Nepal Week Two

Let me walk you through a typical day here in Nepal:  The sun starts to rise around 5 am; I get up around 7. After breakfast, I walk around the city a little bit. Sometimes I go to a coffee shop to use the wifi to check on family and friends; other times (if I’m feeling particularly brave) I go into a small Nepali café and order dood coschia (milk tea) and try to speak to the auntie in Nepali. As I get better at speaking Nepali, I hope to go into more shops like this and less cafés geared towards Westerners. It’s my personal growth challenge to be brave and to learn more Nepali. Around 10 o’clock, I make my way to the salon. It’s a short walk from where I live and from the coffee shop I’ve been frequenting. I get to the shop around 10:15 and help the shop owner open. At 10:30, we have a prayer meeting. At 11 o’clock, if there are no customers, I have an English/Western Culture lesson with the girls for about an hour. Then, they do some cleaning and the shop owner fixes lunch. The rest of the day is filled with meeting with the shop overseer, brainstorming future lessons, curriculum ideas, and team building exercises, organizing the paperwork and materials for the training school, sorting through old receipts and bills, or taking a moment of free time with the girls to learn more about them. At 6 o’clock, we close up shop. Then, I might stop by a small shop near my house and get some vegetables on the way home. I try to be in by 7 because it starts to get dark around that time. I’ve been advised against walking by myself at night, so I make sure to avoid that scenario. I’ll cook dinner, read or study Nepali (depending on whether or not I have power), and then head to bed around 9 or 10. That’s what most Tuesdays-Fridays look like. It’s always busy, never the same, and very exciting. That’s pretty much what this week looked like.

I’m starting to learn more about the women at the salon. Each one of them has a beautiful story and I am so excited to find out more about each of them. One of the girls comes from a big family that’s always lived in Kathmandu; the other comes from a small family and has a sister who lives in a village. Both of them have beautiful smiles and servants’ hearts. The owner of the shop has a Bachelor’s in Social Work and wants to get her Master’s in Women’s Studies. She also has an extremely supportive husband who fights for justice on an international level and a son who is more compassionate and mature than most kids his age. The salon overseer has lived in Nepal for 8 years and has traveled the world to look for God’s calling on her life. Each of them have beautiful stories and I am excited to be a small part of their stories.

This weekend, I spent some time with one of my McAfee friends. I had the opportunity to see Nepal through her eyes. I got to see the place she called home for nine months. I got to worship in the church she still calls her own and had the joy of hearing her preach there. I had the pleasure of meeting her adopted family and saw how they welcomed her like their own daughter. I got to see some of her favorite shops, favorite hills, favorite views, and her favorite people. Not only did I get to see these beautiful things, I got to be a participant. She and her friends and family welcomed me in with open arms. After spending a couple of days with the people in her Nepal, I understand why she loves it so much. The people here love her so genuinely and so compassionately that it’s impossible to not reciprocate that kind of love. The opportunity to watch these relationships blessed my heart so deeply because it is so beautiful to see a love that crosses nations, languages, and religions. That kind of love is a beautiful gift.

This week I would greatly covet your prayers. Yesterday (Tuesday June 10), the owner of the shop told me she had to leave to deal with a cultural emergency concerning her family back in her home village (about 13 hours away by bus). It is a stressful situation for her, and I know she would appreciate your prayers as she journeys to deal with this issue. She will be gone the rest of the week, maybe longer. I would covet your prayers during this time as well. Because the shop overseer has university classes in the mornings and early afternoons, I am now in charge of opening, running, and closing the shop. It’s a little nerve wracking; I’ve never done anything like this before and I have no experience in cosmetology or beauty training. I would specifically ask for prayers of discernment as I work with the girls, capability as I record the finances, and an open heart to remember why God has me here this summer. I would also appreciate prayers for company. Today, my McAfee friends leave Nepal. I am starting to make friends elsewhere, but it is a little sad to know that some of my good friends will no longer be a short bus ride away.

It’s an exciting journey, for sure! You never know what’s around the corner. I am still excited for what God’s doing here this summer and for how I fit into this puzzle. I hope and pray that we continue to grow as a community and that I will not get bogged down in the logistical side of things that I forget to do the ministry kinds of things.