There's no place like home!

Sept 21-22

After a wonderful buffet breakfast at our amazing hotel, we were off to the airport.  About a 4 hour flight back to Abu Dhabi and then 12+ hours back to Chicago.  Shuttling from O'hare to Journey Church in Kenosha. And then meeting up with Melissa after that (thanks to Matt and Lu for sticking around with me until she arrived!)

I really don't have many pictures, or anything great to talk about here, other than IT FEELS GOOD TO BE HOME!!

Farewell Gerkhutar

I no longer have information that I wrote over in Nepal, and I'm trying to catch up much later than I should.  I will try and remember what I can, but things will be much more generalized!!



Sept 20 (Thurs)

Today we said goodbye to our new friends in Gerkhutar. We had a long drive back to Kathmandu ,although it took much less time as the traffic wasn't too bad. This morning some of us ended up drinking some local (bad for foreigners) water, and ended up feeling rather ill later on

We visited the Nepal Theological College, where we had a ceremony celebrating our time in the country.  Service was again segregated on each side, as well as celebrated barefoot!

Nepal Theological College

We also spent the afternoon shopping in town, for all the little gifts/souvenirs we planned on bringing back with us.  We stayed in a very fancy hotel, and had a late dinner saying our farewells to Michael and his family (the missionaries that helped us organize the trip). 

Huge thanks to Michael (center) and Nathan (right), the architect and student

It turned out to be the most relaxed day of the entire trip, even though we probably did the most walking around! Shop till you drop :)

Christmas in September

Sept 19 (Wed)

It’s the last big push to finish up the houses today. A group of us will be going tomorrow for just a few hours in the morning, but it’s the final full day here in Gerkhutar. Once again we ate breakfast at 6:30 but didn’t get on the road til almost 8. It seems like there is a lot of time being spent in the mornings that we could be busy. That being said I’m taking plenty of breaks during the day as well, so that’s just as bad… On the way up to the homes, we stopped by the third site that we provided materials for. We were calling it the jungle house, since it’s a decent distance off the road, into the trees. It would be nice if we could at least get a start on this home, but we still have quite a bit of work on the others.

Instead of stopping at the church and hiking 10 minutes into the hills, the drivers actually took us up to the sites by Jeep. This was kind of nice, but the hike up always seemed to get my muscles moving and my blood pumping, got me prepared to work. Anyway, we kept our same groups and kept getting more and more built, until around noon.









The new master of the house



Bamboo scaffolding



The young lady of the house, Sidhi

Once the last of the cement pile was used up we had lunch again at the church. Only today we got our donation supplies out, and it was like Christmas morning! The families, especially the kids, were so excited for all the new clothes, shoes (especially shoes, they were the first things gone) and craft/school supplies. I saw kids later in the afternoon already wearing the new shirts! They were so proud of things that we would discard; we really don’t fully appreciate all the things that we have.



We finally got our block shipment right as we had decided to quit work at our site, so after unloading the truck and stacking all the blocks where we wanted them, we headed over to the second site. They had just mixed a full batch of cement, so everyone worked together and pounded out a whole bunch more block. Even with a later start, this second house is really making progress. With their cement finally gone, we headed back down to the church, where they had a small performance. Some of the young women sang some songs, and they presented each of us all with a garland of flowers and a little plaque. It was unbelievably kind of them to spend their time on this when they have so little.









DInner at the hotel was quick as we are all very tired, and it finally started storming; we will have to see how much of an issue this causes in the morning. I’m getting excited to be coming home soon. All the kids running around and hearing them laugh makes me think of the laughs I’m missing at home.

Stretching our time to get the most done

Sept 18 (Tues)

Today was another big push at the two home sites. We decided to meet for breakfast at 6:30 to get things going early. That being said, Michael (the architect and missionary) had heard that the Maoist party was organizing a bunda (sp?) to shut down the roads. This is how ordinary people can see how much power any certain party may have, since there really isn’t much TV or news here. Michael, Jon and I walked about 10 minutes out to the main road to see if we would be able to drive anywhere today. And at first we didn’t see any traffic at all. We asked at another hotel if anything was going on, and almost at the same moment he said he hadn’t heard anything and there was to be no bunda today., at least 3 big work trucks came driving down the road. Thankfully we would be able to work!

By the time we got back and loaded up, we didn’t get to the job sites until almost 9am. And we left again just before noon to head over to a new church/school in the town of Trishuli. This was sort of the mother church to the little church we’ve been visiting. We just missed the first lunch session, so we did a short tour of the church and talked to a few different people about their stories. When the school kids were finished with their lunch period we headed back down for lunch, similar to yesterday - rice, curried meat, veg, greens, dal. We hung out with the kids as well. They really seemed excited to see us, play with us, practice the english that they know. I played a little badminton with a girl named Sanjeeta (sp? again, haha) and she showed me her classrooms. She was 14, very smart and outgoing

Once we got back to the little church, we took another little outing down to the Trishuli river to take a little swim. It was pretty shallow so it was actually more like a soak, and the water wasn’t very cold, but it still was extremely refreshing. After hiking back up to the job sites, our team really got cookin’. We got a lot done, and we are going to try and finish the house by the end of the day tomorrow. Today we got the 4 window frames installed, and a bunch more courses of block done.  It’s really taking shape and you can really see the progress, and how the home is becoming a reality. The second site is getting going too, and that doesn’t have the interior windows that ours does, so that should catch up and get a good ways along too.

Hiking down to the Trishuli River

Finishing up in the growing dark

We got back to the hotel after dark, again.  Showered, ate dinner (with a little bowl of ice cream for each of us!), and now to bed. My limbs feel like lead and I’m not going to last very long any more. Can’t wait to finish up these houses for those that need them.

Lots of progress despite the nap

Sept 17 (Mon)

Today was a tough work day! We met downstairs for breakfast at 7am, but we didn’t actually leave for the jobsite until probably 8:30. Our jeep headed straight to the church at the bottom of the hill (meeting place) but the other 2 jeeps went and got some needed supplies. We hauled up 2 wheelbarrows, some extra shovels, water bottles, and whatever else we needed, along with all our backpacks.. It was at least 85 degrees at this point as well. We all got started at the orphan’s house once again. We got the first 3 courses of block finished up, and the fourth we used inverted U-blocks. We bent rebar to lay within this to act as a main beam around the building. By the time we finished this 4th course and layed the rebar it was about noon, so we all headed down to the church for some lunch. We ate rice, dal, curry chicken and collard greens. It was so good, much better than yesterday! We also all laid down and had a little rest at the hottest part of the day, somewhere between 90-95 deg.

Uncle inspecting the new house

When it was time to go back to work, the first thing we did was pour cement into this bond beam- the inverted channel with the rebar inside. When this was done half of the group went over to the disabled family site to start helping some of the locals (this was the first site that we were preparing blocks). They had laid out the first course of block by this point, so that was a good start by them. I ended up staying at the orphan site. We tied in the interior walls, set the 3 door frames, laid out the window openings, and got several more courses of block laid by the end of the work day, around 6pm. The other team have the block done up to the bond beam, so we’ll probably pour that first thing tomorrow.The other team have the block done up to the bond beam, so we’ll probably pour that first thing tomorrow. I also took some time this afternoon to play around with some of the local children, along with another guy named Cody. We blew bubbles, made funny faces, juggled, tried to teach them to make their tongue into a circle, whatever we could think of. You can’t help but smile when little kids are having a good time. Even with a language barrier, laughter and happiness is universal.

Not the way I'm used to setting doors!!

The time really is passing so quickly, and I’m losing track of the days. We only have a couple more days of work here, so it’s important for us to keep working as hard as we can. Even if we don’t finish everything that we set out to do, we will still knock out a huge portion of the work and get the locals well on their way to finishing the homes and getting a roof over the heads of the ones who need help the most.

I’m sore.  I’m tired. But in a good way. 

Site tour, Hauling tools, Getting started

Sept 16 (Sun)

Today was the first day up at the home sites in Gerkhutar. We had breakfast, not too early, and headed up to the sites. We met the pastor at his church for a short time, and he told us a little about what he has been doing, and about the people for whom we are building these houses. We then walked up the hill and took a small tour of the build sites, as well as the pastor’s house (and some other homes that Journey church has sponsored). At this point it was nearly 11 and the pastor informed us that he had a service to give for one of their members who had just committed suicide, apparently a Romeo & Juliet situation where her parents wouldn’t let them be together. We all went down and attended the service until about noon. Journey pastor Kevin volunteered to say a few words of consolation to the congregation, and after that point I and at least half our group started carrying all the tools and supplies up to the first jobsite. Some of our group stayed longer at the service, and had some of the lunch provided afterwards.

We began to prepare a bunch of the blocks needed, knocking holes in the solid bottoms to slip over the vertical rebar, cutting U-blocks to be used for support beams, etc. Sporadically other group members would head down for lunch. When I started to feel a little off (dehydrated maybe? It was about 90 degrees and we were in full sun) I went and ate the lunch - rice pudding, some potato, and some sort of spicy green vegetable mixture that I can’t remember what it was, think there was cucumber in it.

Some local girls walking to school

When I finished and went back to the site, everyone was gone! Turns out we didn’t have many of the necessary materials to begin the work, so we all started at the other site through the field and up the road. I was alone at this point but luckily I remembered how to get there. This second site was to be built with 2 rooms, for 2 children who recently lost both parents. Their uncle’s house is right next door to the new home we are building for them.

Orphan Building site. The man in maroon is a local architect

So back to square one! We prepared a bunch of the blocks, snapped chalk lines, and layed out everything so we could get a start on the actual building. Some local guys came by to help us out, whether or not they are builders or just trying to help I’m not sure. But even with everyone having their opinions and sort of head-butting with the locals (we pretty much just end up doing things how they want them done, since this is their town) we ended up getting maybe 2 courses of block done around the perimeter of the house. Not a huge start, but with all the back and forth with how things were to proceed, it’s better than nothing!

These drinks were very welcome after a HOT workday!

Bumpin' up and down in our little Jeep wagon

Sept 15 (Sat)

First thing waking up I got the rest of my stuff packed up. I had most everything ready from last night. We had sort of a buffet style continental breakfast at Manny’s since we needed to head out to church earlier than they normally serve individual meals. The church service lasted just over 2 hours and was all in Nepali, so nobody could understand what was being talked about. Not only that, but everyone had to sit on the floor, women on the left and men on the right. It might be normal to sit on the floor for 2 hours over here in Nepal, but I could hardly deal with that! I felt like I needed to change positions every 5 minutes or so. I normally feel much more spiritual in a big lofty old church, but this little cement building was strangely and humbly beautiful. I could see the congregation truly felt God, even if the building itself seemed so simple. Maybe it is better that way.

We grabbed our bags and all our tools and loaded up on 3 jeeps. It was a task getting all the luggage and toolboxes on the roof racks and covered/tied down, but eventually we got things situated. It was nice to be working on the church building in Kathmandu, but now was the time to leave and build the houses that initially inspired me.

Trishuli is only 146 km from Kathmandu, but the roads and traffic are terrible, and there isn’t a great way to get there. The drive took us FIVE HOURS! Driving on some of the worst roads I have ever travelled. But we all made it in one piece. We stopped a few times along the route to stretch out our legs and backs, swap seats, whatever we needed to do. We are staying the nights at the Hotel Water Tower, which is actually the nicest place in the whole village. And there’s everything that we could need - cold water, western-style toilets, WiFi, air conditioning, the works. And only about 10 minutes from the jobsites. I’m getting excited: building the houses for the orphans, widow, and disabled townsfolk is the reason that I wanted to come on the trip: to be helpful for the helpless.



There were so many of these colorful vehicles!









Impossible to capture the actual beauty of this region

A bit of Tourism

Sept 14 (Fri)

I woke up around 3am, probably due to the jet lag, and was up for about an hour. I went through a bunch of emails and facebook notifications, and got back to bed around 4:30. I got out of bed for the morning around 6:30 and made a quick call home for Katie’s birthday (right before bed, ~8pm central time on Thursday). Breakfast was at Manny’s downstairs, and we headed out to Sahara church once again. There were supposed to be forms delivered to box in the columns and bond beam around the top, but were nowhere to be found. We had plenty of work to do, though, so we busied ourselves finishing the rebar to go up the columns and tying everything together. Whereas yesterday I was digging holes and mixing concrete, today I was totally focused on bending the rebar. Not only the long sections with a single bend on one end, but the harder task of bending small clips to tie the verticals together as well as tie these into the existing walls. This was done by hand, 3 bends per 12 inch section of bar, bent by hand with a length of steel pipe. We finished up the rebar work so everything is ready for a different group to install/build forms for the concrete work and to pour said concrete within the forms.

We had taxis meet us back at the jobsite at 12, and showered once again. Today’s adventure was a tour of the city, mainly a Buddhist and then Hindu temple. The first was Boudhanath, a Buddhist stupa, one of the largest in the world. Within the boundary of the temple we ate lunch at a restaurant called I think “Stupa View Cafe” or something. I ordered a Tomato Spinach pizza that came with yak cheese; however a fellow teammate John started to have an allergic reaction to his curry chicken (nut allergy) so I ended up eating that instead. He did let me have a piece of my yak pizza, which was AMAZING. Our driver/guide was Buddhist so he was pretty knowledgeable about the stupa as well as the traditions taking place among the stupa grounds. It was very interesting to see the locals practicing such different acts of their faith.

The Hindu temple was architecturally interesting, but felt very much like a graveyard. There were all sorts of little mausoleum-like structures which I assume are dedicated to different gods. If the guide was familiar with this temple or the history and meaning behind everything, I did not hear it. It was almost like this location we were on our own to explore at our leisure. Sort of. My favorite part about this temple, other than the carved stone structures, was that there were monkeys running all over the place. It might have been the first time I’ve seen living monkeys outside a zoo. They also had 2 different bodies they were preparing down near the river, part of their beliefs mean they burn the body on a pyre along the river bank and then scatter the ashes in the water. Luckily we didn’t have to smell any burning corpses.

Remnants from structures destroyed in the 2015 earthquake 

Anyway, after the tours we headed back to the Shaligram where we ate dinner at Manny’s (I had fish & chips, with a fresh lime soda) and then packed up our bags. We are leaving in the morning to head to our next destination, Trishuli. We will be building some homes in Gerkutar (sp?) for some of the lowest class of people in Nepal.

Sahara in the Himalayas

Sept 13 (Thurs)

We set our alarms for 4:30am. Before anything today, a group of us (maybe 11-12) headed back to the airport to take a small sightseeing flight on Yeti Airlines along the Himalayas over to get a glimpse of Mt Everest. We were all a little nervous since the forecast called for rain, but everything held off. It was a little foggy on the ground but after getting to our cruising altitude it was totally clear. Pictures will never do justice to the majesty of the mountains. I was reminded a lot of our time in the Alps in Switzerland, but seeing the highest peak on Earth with my own eyes was truly something special.

Kathmandu from the Yeti

Everest from the cockpit

We had breakfast at the Shaligram hotel restaurant (called Manny’s) and met the architect missionary living here, Michael. Loading up the tools and miscellaneous materials, we headed to the first jobsite of our trip, Sahara church. They had begun construction efforts but had not properly poured concrete for supports. Project 1 was digging below each of the 4 corners and 3 other places along front and back walls (spread evenly to support the roof trusses). We mixed a TON of cement --by hand-- to fill these holes, and cut and bent rebar --by hand-- to strengthen what will become support columns. Lunch was made by the Pastor’s wife Sara and other local women - rice, lentil (dal?) and curry chicken. We finished around 6pm I think.

I had a decent headache all day, from what I imagine was getting a little dehydrated early, and never fully catching up with it. But we headed back to the Shaligram, showered, and went to have dinner at a local cafe (can’t remember the name). We all pretty much had beef burgers and fries, I also had a chocolate shake, haha. We also were all falling asleep in our chairs by the time we were finishing, so after a short ride back to the hotel we headed up and crashed into bed. And so ends the first day of labor.  It was hard but it was for a good cause.