The first day is always challenging. We are sleeping in tents on the roof of this outreach building. It's cooler on the roof, but also noisier. There are choruses of dogs that yip and bark all through the night, roosters, random loud vehicles and noises you can't identify. I woke up at 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep.
The blessing was that I got to watch the city wake up from the rooftop. It was a gorgeous morning and allowed for me to fully experience the city coming to life. The sunrise was somewhere in the 5 am hour and it was beautiful coming over the mountains.
Because of our early rising we were able to tour much of our little neighborhood before most of the shops were open. I made the mistake of taking my malaria meds without food. As we were all getting ready for breakfast I started feeling incredibly weak and hot. I remembered that I had taken that medicine and hadn't eaten I tried hard to regain composure, but once we got out side in the heat I lost it. Nothing was left on my stomach. It wasn't the way I wanted to start the journey, but it adds to the memories.
We ate breakfast at the famous The Bakery Cafe. All of the servers in the restaurant are deaf. It was a great experience and awesome to see a business look out for this group of people. The food was good, but given my prior vomiting I wasn't able to eat much.
The missionary we are working with met us at breakfast and walked us to church. It was a really sweet church filled with people from all over the world. The worship service was very similar to back home and the message was on the parable of the sower. It's a very familiar passage, but always a great reminder that our output is based upon our input. He also talked about how one of the positives that has come out of the earthquake is the country's view of Christians. He said the Nepalese Christian missionaries were some of the first people to respond to the need in the villages and many in the villages were surprised of their willingness to help wanting nothing in return. Showing love is the greatest testimony anyone could have and it's the foundation of why I traveled to Nepal. People need to feel someone cares.
After church we had lunch with the pastors family and had the traditional momos. They were like an Asian dumpling we would have had back home. Most of us were struggling to stay awake because we didn't get a lot of sleep the night before.
When we returned to the outreach center we were broken up into groups and sent out into the community to connect with our neighbors. One group played soccer with some local kids, one basketball and the rest of us walked around and talked with people. Our team met a lady who lost two of her little ones in the rubble. They were still working to sort through the brick. She had one little girl standing by her and we gave her some little toys.
It was great to get out and connect with some of the people around our neighborhood and hear their stories. Tomorrow we will get some additional training and assigned to more specific tasks and villages for our later relief work. I'm so very glad that God has brought me to Nepal for this time.
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