Christmas in Kathamandu

Christmas in Kathmandu...
I must admit that it has been a little difficult to get into this Christmas season. My roomie and I did our best to decorate the apartment. This meant searching the neighborhood nursery’s for the perfect tree. Once picking it out we wheeled it home and put up the Christmas decorations.
                                                                                   

Similar to life in the states, this past week has been filled with Christmas parties, gift buying, and lots of eating. Our Nepali friends have no clue as to why we truly celebrate Christmas so we decided to throw a party and share the true meaning of Christmas. I must admit that we went into this night with a little trepidation being that there would be different people groups, cast, and beliefs. The night however was great and our friends now have a much better understanding of Christmas.



The Sunday before Christmas our house church gathered to reminisce about Christmas at “home” and the ultimate gift that was given to us, that being the birth of Jesus. It was an amazing evening of singing by candlelight and sharing.


Christmas Eve started out with a facial from the salon and a friend making us special Chicken curry for lunch. That evening the “gang” got all dressed up and went to the Hyatt for a five-course dinner. The food was delicious! Santa was a little creepy but the Christmas carolers were the cherry on top for the Christmas ambiance. When the carolers asked us to sing along our response was “just try and stop us.”



We ended Christmas Eve night by stuffing 10 people into my Kia sport and drove home to have a DVD Christmas exchange.
I woke up bright and early this morning with the joy and anticipation that today is Christmas day. I talked to my family on Skype this morning as they prepared to have Christmas Eve dinner.

Soon my friends will start arriving for Christmas breakfast. After breakfast we will open gifts and start the preparations for our Christmas dinner.

This is my first Christmas away from home and at times I have found myself longing for family and traditions. God however has given me a family this day to celebrate the birthday of his Son.

Merry Christmas from Kathmandu.

I want to leave you with a little video. It was shot at Gloria Deo "the first and largest Christmas concert in Nepal"
Merry Christmas from me and Ken (the guy in the video)

Sweet nectar of the gods?

The other day a friend and I were in the touristy part of town. As I walked by a store I saw that their back wall was full of Pringles…I immediately took this as a sign to enter.

Now, whenever I go into a store I look for a few particular things, cereal and soda. I don’t know why or how these things became important to me but they are.

As I walked to this particulars store's soda section I let out a little squeal of joy (yes friends I can squeal) for low and behold there were four cans of Diet Dr. Pepper.

Needless to say I purchased all four cans. They now currently rest in my cupboard waiting for the time to come when I will need to taste that sweet nectar.

work, finals, papers, etc.

I noticed recently on facebook that a lot of my friends seem to be up to their….umm…knees with work, finals, papers, etc. I all to well remember cramming everything in before the holidays. I recall a few late nights spent in the GGBTS computer lab trying to master Terrabian format. Needless to say I do not miss that.

It is however ironic that while writing this blog I should be studying for my oral exam this Sunday. It is a twenty min. exam where I converse with a Nepali teacher and am then scored accordingly. My teacher is concerned over my vocabulary or lack there of.
I few words that seem to be eluding my brain are:
Leg
Tree
Medicine
Cigarette
North, South, East, and West

Some other problems I’m having are:

I am constantly mixing up the verbs “sing” and “dance”…I guess my brain assumes they go hand in hand

I cannot tell the difference between the word “water” and “also”. One is pronounced “pani” and the other is pronounced “phani”

All this to say, friends, who are smack dab in the middle of exams I feel for you and am praying that you kick some higher academic butt. For those friends and relatives who are correcting papers and giving exams…go easy on the kids…it’s Christmas time.

Three Days of Thanksgiving

When living overseas my American friends and I try our hardest to have the perfect holiday…or at least something that resembles “home”.
With that as our goal we hoard cans of cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie filling all year long. We pay 80$ for a Turkey and then pray that it turns out great. We add food coloring to the sweet potatoes to make them look orange and we call home for our mother’s recipes.
All of this effort pays off and leaves us with Thanksgiving…a day where friends get together, eats tons of food, and play games.

This year I had three days of Thanksgiving. Here is a brief description:
Thanksgiving Day just so happened to be the day that my visa expired. My roommate and I spent most of the day extending my visa. For our big meal of the day we ate at the Mexican Restaurant. I’m a firm believer that if you are not going to have turkey on Thanksgiving that only Mexican food can substitute.

2nd Thanksgiving took place at my friends Jenn and Leah’s house. The group included not only our house fellowship but also a few Nepali friends and some new Swedish and Norwegian friends. This day was spent eating waaaay to much food and ended with desert and a round of charades.

3rd Thanksgiving was with my co-workers. This day included smoked Turkey and Ham…I love ham. This Thanksgiving started out a little awkward…you know, the singles at one end and the married people at the other. Leave it to a game of football to bring us all together. I am happy to say that my team rallied from being down by two points to come back and win the game…and yes, I caught the last pass of the day to score the winning touchdown. I’m not bragging just trying to share all of the details of that day.

Although the three days of Thanksgiving was spent eating amazing food my favorite part was spending the day with friends. God is so good at providing "family" when you are away from family.

Thanksgiving

A friend recently asked me the question “what brings you joy these days?” In the spirit of Thanksgiving I would like to share my response with you.

* School kids in their little uniforms

* The garden next to my house…it smells sooo good at night

* The Boudha Garden restaurant. There is something great about going to a restaurant where people know your name.

* Electricity. You don’t realize how much you appreciate it until you don’t have it.

* Dolma’s beauty salon. Let me just say that every one needs a friend who owns a beauty salon.

* Didi. She is also known as Nepali Ama (mom), house helper, and most importantly friend.

* Skype. It has allowed me to see my nephew sing twinkle twinkle little star and for that I am so grateful.

* Facebook. On any given day I can find out that a friend is pregnant, getting married, or eating a jelly donut for lunch….again, I love technology

* Language with Nermala. I’m not fond of studying or test but I’ve managed to find ways to get Nermala to spend the last 30min of class talking about life, love, arranged marriages, and God.

* Friends. I have been bless beyond all measure

* My family. Thanksgiving memories equal family…although they are notorious for their lack of tradition we at least did our non traditional holidays together.


To my friends and family, I pray you have a happy Thanksgiving and a wonderful start to the holiday season!

Medical Camp

I filled my hiking pack with apprehension. I had gone trekking before but this time was different. This time I would be carrying my own pack and not sure if I would make a fool of myself huffing and puffing up the hills of Helambu. Another difference was that I would have to be on the look out for the medical team from South Carolina….in other words I had to be responsible.

The bus ride on the way up was quite. My new American friends were more apprehensive than I. The last hour in the bus was slow going. The monsoon season had taken its toll on the road and we had to stop every few minutes to fill in the holes. Finally, we came to a place where the road ended and it was time to walk.


The walk up was not so bad. I made it up with zero falls, as did the rest of the American medical team. Once we arrived in the village we were informed that people had been waiting to be seen since morning. So, we dropped our stuff, headed up to the schoolrooms assigned to us and started to unpack all of the supplies. An hour later we were seeing patience.



Our medical team consisted of four American nurses and two Nepali nurses. The rest of the team played games with the kids who were waiting, sorted out supplies, and did any other misc. thing that was needed. I helped with registration, which helped with my Nepali immensely. I can now say very fluently “my head hurts, my stomach hurts, I have gastritis, diarrhea, and have been throwing up. I also know how to say, “You don’t need to show me…you can show the nurse inside.”

After six days of our medical camp we saw 700 people from surrounding villages. While all these patients were waiting to be seen some of our national believers had the opportunity to share stories of Jesus and show the Jesus film. The premise of temporarily healing wounds was why we were there but in all about 20 people had “eternal wounds” healed.


Some of the things I learned during this medical camp were:

*Being a nurse is a true calling and although my nametag said, “nurse” I would never want to be one

*Squatties are not so bad when you hold your breath and close your eyes.

*I CAN BE a no shower taking, local food eating, trekker girl.

got mail?

A few friends have expressed interest in sending me mail. Well, I am happy to say that I have a P.O. box in Nepal and can receive anything the size of a shoebox or smaller. It may take a few weeks to get here BUT it most likely will get here.

Jessica Van Wyk
GPO 8975
EPC 2302
Kathmandu, Nepal

So what do you send a single girl living in Nepal? Here are a few suggestions
1. hand written note; writing notes is a lost art but there is something special about receiving one.
2. Mixed CD; I love music and miss getting new music. My interent is too slow to down load i-tunes so a mixed CD would be much appreciated
3. Food; the US is truly the land of “easy”. I miss those mixes where you just add water, oil, and an egg. Some examples would be brownies, blueberry muphins, and corn bread.
4. American candy; I hardly ever ate candy in the states but there is something about having a bad day that American candy seems to fix
5. t-shirt; I love t-shirts and it is difficult to find ones in my size. I am a fan of tacky, cheesy, or cute. A t-shirt from your state, college, or county fair would be perfect. (I wear a medium)
6. a good book; weight may be an issue regarding this item BUT I love to read and am always looking for a good book. It could be spiritual or just a good easy read.
7. Anything holliday related; I love American hollidays and miss the candy, decorations, and overall commercial hype.
8. A few misc. things are:
Gravey packets
Taco seasoning
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Italian seasoning
Bacon bits
Granola bars

Let me just warn you that sending packages overseas is not cheap BUT it sure is nice to get a little something from home.

Riding on top

November in Nepal is absolutely perfect. The sky is blue and the Himalayas stand proud in the distance. The weather is cool in the morning and evening and perfect during the day.
I am absolutely in love with November in Nepal.

I recently returned home from a trip to a region called Helambu (more about that to come) On the way home the journey was slow due to the poor roads. A friend and I decided to ditch our seats and climb up to the top of the bus. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this mode of transportation.

I must tell you that the absolute BEST way to see Nepal is on the top of a bus. Yes, you will walk away a little dusty but the view is amazing and the November sun covers you like blanket.
passing another bus
view from the top
harvesting the rice

trip to India

I’m finished with my trip to India and it was interesting to say the least.

Much of my travel was spent relying on strangers. Often I would disembark a plane or cab and pray, “God, pick someone to help me get to the next place.” God was always faithful and I was constantly amazed at how he chose unsuspecting persons to go above and beyond to help me navigate the crazy that is India.

During my travels I saw new lands, was introduced to new tribes, and made new friends.
The Shanks were kind enough to put me up in their house and allow me to walk beside them in their daily lives. I enjoyed my early morning talks with Kari and was in awe as I saw Hanna take some of her first steps.

Kari took me to some girls hostels were I got to share my story and listen to them sing and share their testimonies.
We also had lunch with some friends. It is truly a humbling experience when a friend makes you a meal that she could not afford for her own family but shares with you.

After leaving Shillong I enjoyed a few days in Delhi were I was reunited with my friend Wendy and the Boss family.
Delhi is great at providing some amazing shopping, American movies, and most of all American food.


My last night in Delhi happened to be Diwali. This is a probably India’s biggest holiday. It is the festival of lights and celebrated by lighting candles and setting off fireworks. If you can imagine what a war zone sounds like then you can imagine Deiwaili.

Some things I learned on my trip:

*Indian restaurants are obsessed with 90’s music…and I love it.

*I’m so glad that I live in Nepal and not India.

*I should give my parents a detailed travel schedule and contact numbers so the next time an “East Indian” calls them to sell something they do not think that he is actually calling to tell them I’m injured.

At the end of my trip I still prefer to travel with other people but what God taught me was He is faithful to take care of me and bring people across my path to help me.