Updates

Sorry its been a while since we've posted anything we've been a little busy the last few weeks. Heres what we've been up to while you all thought we were lazing around in the hot June Nepal sun:

Work
We've both now started work Mark at Green Pastures Hospital (GP) and Jo at Western Regional Hospital (WRH).

Mark is helping out at GP with some development work that is going on there. GP has received funding from a Finnish donor to build a new out patient department, replace a lot of old equipment around the hospital and carry out repairs on the existing buildings. The superintendant at the hospital is really stretched so Mark is working with her to make sure everything happens on time. At the moment he is working on finilising the details of the new building.

Jo's first proper day at WRH was yesterday. She arrived at work to find that the head of the department had gone on leave for a month and the only other physio there is a recent graduate that started work at WRH the day the head physio went on leave. Things could be a bit bumpy for the next week or two as they both work out together how the hospital runs.


English Bible Study for Nepalis
Some of the youth (youth in Nepal means 16 to 30 year olds) at our church approached us about whether we might be interested in running an English bible study as a way to help them practise their English and us practise our Nepali. We met the other night and it was decided that we would run a weekly bible study on Sunday evenings. We're both looking forward to this opportunity to make new Nepali friends and practise our Nepali.

Monsoon
The monsoon has finally come, or so they say. So far we haven't had that much rain but it has been raining most evenings but the days were very hot and humid. However, there was a lot more rain the day before yesterday and the temperature dropped to a nice cool 27 degrees. Today it is overcast, drizzly and feels very cold - I went to get my jersey to realise it is still 26 degrees!!! Not having the sweat running down our backs constantly is a nice change from the last month.

Swimming
We have found a hotel with a swimming pool that is cheap so we have got into the habit of going there to spend a Saturday afternoon after church lazing around in the pool and cooling down. We took our Nepali friends last week. The kids just loved being in the pool and were really happy until we dragged them out after hours as they were getting cold!!

Summerpan enjoying the swimming with Dad behind

 Arapan is loving it!!

Return to Bhalam  We've been planning for the last few weeks to sneak out to Bhalam to visit our village stay family so last weekend we jumped on our bikes and braved the heat. It took us an hour to ride out there and by the time we got there we felt like we'd been swimming the sweat was running off us. When we got home Jo discovered that the dye in her top had run and she was varying shades of blue from neck to waist.

When we got there Madhu was busy in the rice field planting rice so we helped her for a few hours to finish the last couple of fields. Its quite nice standing in cold mud on a hot day it's quite soothing. Fortunately there didn't seem to be any leaches around.

While we were staying with the family their bissy was very pregnant we arrived last weekend to the site of a two week old calf curled up in the bissy shed next to mum. Very cute!!!

The bissy are always tied up and many hours is spent bringing food to them. Baby can't reach mother so as to give lots of milk to the family.

Rice crops
We have enjoyed watching the process of planting rice. In the village we helped plant the dhanko biu. This is planted by seed in one area of the farm while corn is still the prevelant crop. About a month later when it has grown a little, the corn is harvested, the fields fill with rain and the seedlings are planted out for the crop. If it is a good season with lots of rain 2 crops can be grown using this method.
Some people are now digging a hole in one part of the field, planting the rice and also putting fish in the field. The fish swim around and fatten in while sleeping in the hole. When harvest time comes the water is drained, fish are harvested and then so is the rice!!

Mark and Madhu planting rice

More rice paddies can be seen in the background

Jo helping out!!

This photo was taken in February

And this is the same spot two weeks ago!

 Mark has bought a Nepali drum and the landlord who lives downstairs has been teaching Mark how to play it. While it looks like he supports England he cheered hard for NZ and congratulated us on drawing with Italy!!!