Dodging Darts BUT! Settling in.

Staci and I woke up this morning feeling more settled and prepared to conquer the day. It is currently 9:45 am here in Nepal. I will try to give a good update from the last blog.

Our flight into Kathmandu was lovely. May I just say that the airline that we were on is the complete opposite of the airlines that operate domestic flights back home in the US - and I mean that in a good way! The service is wonderful and airline staff treat people with respect and kindness. That was a welcome change from the airport a LAX.

The mountains were spectacular. I have never seen anything like it, and the pictures don't do them justice. As we were flying in, we could see the cloud floor below us, and out in front of us AND ABOVE US, ABOVE THE CLOUDS, we could see the mountains. We could not see the ground, and we could not see the bottom of the mountains. For those of you who have been to the Rockies, it would be like if you took the mountain range and elevated the base of the mountains to cloud level. We are truly and quite literally on top of the world.

Time moved backward by decades the moment we landed at the airport here. There was one airstrip. Entering the terminal was like something that seemed more 195's train station, than international airport. The ammenities were something that you might find in a busy post office in the late 50's! No more computers, no more technology, only hand written forms picked up from old round wooden and glass tables. Fill the form out, stand in the line, and get our travel VISA. That easy, that quick. We were in and out in 15 minutes or less. There were two monitor screens in the whole airport with flight information. They looked like a small television set that one might pick up at a garage sale in the late 80's. All of this, and yet things functioned handily - hmmmmnn - imagine that.

After our luggage was lost in LA, we were worried about it, but it all came out the pike, and on the conveyer. We walked outside the airport and were told to look for someone holding a sign with the name of our hotel on it. There he was, good as clockwork, with the sign across a busy street. I made eye contact with him and that was all it took. He began yelling and a small man made a mad dash across the street and took over our cart of baggage. From there is was like frogger crossing our way over. I was worried about the man as he couldn't see over the top of the cart piled high with 8 bags! He managed not to get hit, but soon faced a second challenge. The rout to our van was down a steep decline and he got going to fast to stop the cart. As he was hurling down the hill, right past our van, skiing behind the cart, two more men helped him stop and steer the cart back to the van. I tipped him and he went running away to do it all over again with someone else.

To get to the hotel, we traveled through the heart of Kathmandu. My heart sank as the poverty was overwhelming. The mission trip in 08 to El Salvador didn't even hold a candle to what we saw. We have yet to journey out from our hotel, but that is on our list of things to do this week. When we got to the hotel, people were there ready for us. They finished getting our room ready and we went up to put our things away. The people here are very friendly and very helpful. In no time they had a baby bed brought into the room and set up for us. The room was different than wha either of us had expected, but you know how it is when you imagine something in your mind, it is most always different. It was very hot in our room, so they brought in a repair person to look at the AC. He said it was fine and left, but the heat kept rising - we would not complain, but it must have been about 85 degrees in there with no air movement. I got to know that mainanance man because I blew a breaker, a big breaker, trying to plug this computer into the wall so, he was back again to fix that. We ended up switching rooms to a cooler room the next morning, and I blew the breaker in that room too!! He smiled as he came through the door, I am sure wondering how many different rooms we were going to be destroying the electrical system in. Needless to say, as I am writing this, we obviously got the problem figured out.

The biggest shocker came the afternoon of our first day. Our liaison here called us in our room and said that we were going to go see Maya and that he would be in the lobby in 10 minutes to take us. TEN MINUTES!!! WE JUST GOT FINISHED WITH A MARATHON 26 HOUR TWO PLANE FLIGHT......AND WE WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO ANYTHING UNTIL TOMORROW MORNING. Of course we scrambled to change and get ready and met him in the lobby. He is a very nice and personable man who speaks moderate English. He took us to the orphanage. Hearts in our throats, we met the staff there and waited to see Maya. When they brought her in......words can't describe. Being emotionally mentally and phisically drained, there is nothing but raw experience and feeling left. I am not sure which "tank" we were operating off of at that time, but none that I had ever delved into before. Maya was less thrilled to see us than we were to see her. We were strange and different. Aliens to her I am sure. I don't think that she has seen many strangers, and may have not traveled outside of the orphanage. She is used to a couple of care takers and that is it - that is all that she has ever known. She sobbed as Staci held her which was tramatic for all of us. Then, we went upstairs to where she lives, to a place more familiar to her. We saw many children and met the children that she lives with on a daily basis. She stayed very close to her caretakers and was skiddish. By the end of the time there, we had made some slow progress and I got to hold her without her crying as she was elevated to a height in the room that she had never been before and was curious about touching the things that she had always looked at on the wall. We got a few smiles and she reached out for us as we left.

The next day we spent more time at the orphanage. When we arrived, she was sleeping. When she came into the room where we were from her nap, she was less than pleased to see us....again. "what were these people doing back here - two days in a row!" Progress was slow and there were more tears. It actually made us feel better to see some others from the orphanage try to touch her and pick her up. She didn't want them either - only her caretaker. We made some progress by working and playing with some of the other kids. One girl is two years old and knows and loves Maya and calls out her name. She was eager to meet and interact with us. Through interacting with her, and some food Maya likes, we were able to sit down and get closer to Maya, feeding her with our fingers. Eventually she found her way to Staci's lap with smiles and joy. The trust is starting! Staci was plenty happy about this, and I got some pictures with Maya in Staci's lap. We will try to post later tonight. We are getting ready to go to the orphanage again. This time for five hours.

We will see what the day holds. We will update again soon and tell you more about Nepali culture and our experience with it last night. Please feel free to skype us if you have skype at marcandstaci. We can call, or video call from there. You can leave voice messages there as well.

Until then......thank you for your prayers as you are in ours.

Marc and Staci.