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.

Off to Asia

Sept 11-12 (Tues-Wed)

Already time to leave for Nepal. Been a whirlwind, less than 2 weeks after agreeing to come on the mission trip with Journey Church. We got the kids to school (Katie was dropped off early) and headed down to Kenosha to meet up with everyone at 9:30. Everybody’s bags were loaded by 10 and we headed to O’hare. After boarding it turned out that the flight was not fully booked and we all got to spread out! I had a window seat on this leg of the flight, and with moving around had no one directly next to me. This was approximately 13 hour flight so it was nice to be able to have a little extra leg room. I ended trying to sleep early on in the flight to get a jump start on transitioning to Nepali time, in total I slept about 2-3 hours. The best airline food I probably ever had (lamb, almost like a shepherds pie) came relatively early in the flight. I also watched a few movies to pass the time (Christopher Robin, Ready Player One, The Greatest Showman)

It was amazing seeing the different landscapes as the sun rose and morning went on. How brown and barren the middle east looked, the oil platforms in the Persian Gulf. We landed in Abu Dhabi around 11 local time.

It's a scorcher    O__O

Our home for the last 13 hours!

After maybe an hour we began to board the next flight, as the time change really started to bother me. This was probably 2am central time, and 13 hours sitting on a plane. I probably ended up crashing within 30 minutes of takeoff, and slept the whole 4 hour ride, interrupted but relatively solidly.  We had some issues once we disembarked, mainly one of our bags was lost, as well as having to pay some customs fees for the Jeep parts in our luggage, but everyone was safe and we made it without much incident, only some lost time. Arriving at the hotel we had a quick rundown of tomorrow’s schedule and room assignments, so it was almost midnight by the time I got to sleep. I never would have made it the entire way to the hotel without the sleep during that 2nd flight.

Mom's Day Out in Zurich

Not all the Yatzecks went abroad this time - just the mom! I flew over to Switzerland for about a week to take care of my niece while my sister and her husband went on vacation. As I spent most of the time tending to a two year old, I didn't have a lot of time for adventuring about the country. However, I was able to enjoy one day in Zurich. Enjoy the photo tour.

Waiting for the train - all by myself!

Random rhino on the streets of Zurich

I decided to do a free walking tour of the city. There was actually quite a large group of people there - maybe 30 or 35 - and the weather was gorgeous.

This is a trade guild building. It's hard to see, but there are some funny looking faces caved on the side of it. Apparently these are caricatures of those who didn't pay their fees.

This is a building where local politicians work and vote on things. There is only one door, and it is on the opposite side from the river. Apparently the fire inspector said this was a problem, and a second exit had to be added. Instead, the politicians had a vote and decided in case of fire they would all jump out the first floor windows into the river below.  

The statue in the distance is of a man on a horse. He was the mayor of Zurich, and was murdered by the people of Zurich who were angry at how much he had raised the taxes. This statue is placed in an area where politicians pass by every day between buildings, as a reminder not to make that mistake again - ha!

Many of the houses have German inscriptions over the door, or signs with images. These two are known as the House of the Little Mosquito and the House of the Big Mosquito. All the houses in Zurich used to have names like this instead of numbers, because people weren't educated enough to use numbered addresses. During Napoleon's occupation of Switzerland he switched over to the numerical address system, saying it would be easier for the post. Some say he and his soldiers were just having a hard time with all the German names.

The oldest clock in Zurich. The small windows at the top are for a watchman to look over the city and watch for fire, one of the biggest dangers to a city long ago. If they saw anything they would sound an alarm and signal where the fire was. It was actively in use until 1913. Our tour guide also pointed out that the Roman numeral for four is written as "IIII" on the clock, and that this is done intentionally on most clocks because it looks better - more balanced, and all the X's and V's are together.

Our tour guide, Julian. This is a copy of an ancient Roman gravestone unearthed nearby. It was for a Roman boy who was only a little over a year old. The inscription uses the old name of the city - Turicum - and says his father worked at a toll station, which makes sense because the city was located on the border of the Roman empire at one time. We also walked down a side alley where you could see ancient Roman ruins underneath the street.

One of many drinking fountains in the city. There are actually over 1200 in Zurich alone! The public drinking fountains are excellent water quality, and are on a completely separate network from tap water. The idea is that if one water source becomes poisoned or contaminated somehow, they can use the other as a backup. The statue on top is of a woman dressed as a warrior. Apparently in 1292 almost all the men in the city had gone off to fight in a war. An attacking army thought they would use the opportunity to take over the city and gathered around, poised to attack. All the women of the city scrounged up whatever battle gear they could and stood on top of this hill in the middle of the city and tried to look menacing. The invading army believed it was a large military force and gave up their plan to attack!

Julian was a really informative tour guide and shared lots of interesting bits of knowledge about Zurich and Switzerland in general. For example, he said that there are spaces for over 8.5 million people in underground bunkers in Switzerland, even though the population is only about 8 million. In the World War II era a building code was enacted requiring new construction projects with 38 rooms or more to build bunkers or face large fines. My sister's house has a bunker!

The other interesting thing was that Switzerland has mandatory military service for all males, starting with a few months the first year around age 20, and then one month out of every year until you are about 30. There is an option to serve in the civil service instead, but a large portion do military service and end up taking the gun back home afterward, resulting in a relatively high percentage of gun owners in the population.

He also talked a little bit about education in Switzerland. Apparently kids have to take pretty serious exams around age 11 or so, and these exams determine whether you are on a path to go to university or not. Only about 20% pass and earn the chance to go to college! I can't imagine a system where a test at such a young age determines the whole course of your life. Students who don't score high enough to go to college start practical training, apprenticeships, and technical college pathways.

This tower was built in the style of the watch towers surrounding the city for defense purposes, but it was located in the middle of the city in what looks to be a terrible place for a watchtower. Historians believe it was built as a "prestige tower" - simply to show off wealth, rather than for a practical use.

Julian suddenly veered off the main street and into a place where I didn't see any signs, and there was this really cool model of the city as it looked into the middle of the 18th century! You could see how the side of the city across the river in this photo was heavily protected with two layers of walls and a waterway all the way around it. This is where all the big banks and wealthier families are. It's still more expensive on that side of the city today. The other side of the river only has one wall and it doesn't even go all the way around the whole city. 

The inscription says this is the apartment where Lenin lived at one time.

This is a bar where Lenin frequently visited and played chess. It was also where the artistic movement known as dadaism began. The art was all about chaos and nonsense, and began amid the chaos of the first World War. 

Our tour group!

Julian gave everyone a sample of some Swiss chocolate. These were chocolate champagne truffles - AMAZING.

This is a model of the Grossmunster church, in a courtyard right next to the actual church. It's a tactile model for visually impaired folks to be able to appreciate the architecture of the building. You might notice the rear tower is skewed and different in color - this is because of it's widespread notoriety as "the lucky charm of Zurich", and many visitors rub this part of the church for luck. Originally, all three towers were pointy wooden ones, but a fire burned a large portion of the church and the large towers were rebuilt out of stone in this style. The third tower survived, and remains today in its original wooden form - hence it's "lucky charm" status.

Looking up from the base of one of the Grossmunster towers. Legend has it that Charles the Great was hunting when his horse suddenly stopped on this spot, and it was discovered to be the grave site of two martyrs of the Church, who were beheaded down near the river and then proceeded to pick up their heads and carry them up the hill where they prayed, and then died. So Charles the Great decided it was a good spot for a church, and that's a giant statue of Charles the Great up there on the side of the tower. Another legend says that statue comes to life once a year in April and gives bread to the poor (actually a local baker throws bread out a window just above his head). Coinciding with this festival is a sort of Swiss Groundhog day that predicts whether the summer will be a good one or a bad one. They fire burning arrows at a snowman filled with explosives and see how long it takes for him to explode. 

After the tour ended, I decided to climb up the tower to get a view of the city from up high. The regular entrance fee was 4 CHF (about $4). There was a reduced rate for students and children 16 and under. The older gentleman manning the ticket booth asked if I was a student, and when I said "no" he said "But you are so young! Child rate!" and only charged me 2 CHF. Made my day!

Here's a bunch of photos from the top of the Grossmunster tower. It was such a nice clear day you could see the mountains in the distance.

Upon the recommendation of the tour guide, I tried a restaurant called Cafe Henrici. I ordered the "Alpino" - it was nice they had a menu in English and the waiter also spoke English.

My lunch! It was really delicious. Also I got to eat on a table outside in the square. 

Most of the churches in Zurich are part of what is known as the Reformed Church - a local brand of Protestantism. Most of the big churches were originally Catholic, but are now Reformed. It was kind of sad and disappointing to go inside, because they mostly looked completely whitewashed and stripped of all the original artwork.

I wonder what this looked like originally.

 I checked Google Maps and found one Catholic church in downtown Zurich, and it wasn't far to walk so I decided to check it out. Here's the outside:

And the inside - Beautiful! It's hard to see in the photo, but the ceiling was intricately painted in traditional Swiss style. The church was completely empty, but I found a door outside marked "Crypto" and when I went in there I found an underground chapel where they were having Adoration, and there were at least a dozen people praying in there, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. Pretty neat. 

Alas, my day out had to come to an end, but not before I went shopping and bought these shoes:

Until next time!