I’m not sure exactly where to begin so much has happened since I wrote my last post. Elephants, Rhinos, steel blue Rivers, rocks, canyons, waterfalls, mountains, forests, fire dances, buses, ledges, soup, cliffs, nettles, vomit, church, rice and laundry, any one of those words is a story unto itself. I’ll begin with a tale of two villages Nesing and Dunche. After which I’ll backtrack briefly to Chitwan although the real story of Chitwan is seen in the photographs that I will hopefully have opportunity to post in a few days.
Nepal is of course a land settling over the top of the Himalayan Mountains. The highest of these mountains run along the northeast border of the land sloping down towards India to the south west. So when I say that Nesing and Dunche lie within a day’s hike of China you understand that these are some serious mountains upon which they are built. This particular stretch of mountains is called the Langtang range and one particularly high mountain is the Langtang mountain itself. I have pictures of this particular mountain as well as other which you can see in the “Langtang Range” post once I get the pictures uploaded.
One of the Nepal provinces that stands in line directly adjacent to Tibet is the province of Rasuwa. This is a land of rocks, heights, and gravel roads, where natives eke out a living but which westerners prize as the ultimate proof of their dedication to purposely tormenting their limbs and lungs. I doubt you could find a bus to or from Rasuwa that does not have at least a couple Caucasians decked in cargo pants and largely obnoxious backpacks eager for a chance to rid their bodies of every semblance of comfort. Not that I blame them by any means, despite all the difficulties I would return without hesitation though perhaps a little better prepared and not within the next month.
The capital of this province is the town of Dunche whose real sole purpose is to provide hikers with the appearance of a comfortable bed before they begin their journey. Dunche sits high on a mountain and beneath the earth runs down thousands of feet to a small river that bubbles over rock and stone. Immediately after swimming under this brook the rock soars again towards the sky like a rocket pushing with great strength upwards as fast as it can, seeking for the sake of some unknown motive to escape the bounds of earth and join the white puffs which floats at ease in the pale blue sky. Near the top of this second mountain on a ledge under the shadow of the mighty peak sits the village of Nesing, where generations of Nepali have etched grooves and ridges into the stone filling them with dirt and seed. Dunche and Nesing sit exactly opposite each other on these two hills. From Dunche if you know pricisely where to look and squint a bit you can just make out the large white Buddhist flags that sit at the entrance to the village supposedly releasing on vibrant wind prayers to a blind god. If however you brought a telescope with you and zoomed in on that same spot you would see a little to the left and a little higher than the village a lone wooden building with a cross jutting from the peak above the front doors. This is the Nesing Believers Church, established 2003, and our destination. Here a man named Dawa Tamang1 has been preaching the gospel for the last six years.
For the natives to reach this place it is apparently a two hike over mildly rough terrain, for us however the cost is more expensive which is typical of Nepal where everything is worth twice or three times more if it must be given to a pale skinned foreigner. For us it was an extremely difficult six hour hike over some of the worst terrain, two hours down and four hours up. To make matters worse both Todd and I were expecting a couple hours of hiking over rough but not insane terrain, we certainly weren’t expecting to climb straight down and then straight up two large mountains hence we were very ill prepared. This is where all the bad things in my list above come in, vomit, dehydration, nettles and just rather a lot of pain all over. The vomiting was all on my part and I am pretty sure due solely to altitude sickness brought on by altitude and a lack of proper hydration since we were very careful not to drink water that had not been boiled. I am not willing however to completely dismiss the native soup we had before setting out as a possible contributor. If we had been prepared and started out fresh in the morning instead of at 7:00pm after an eleven hour bus ride we probably wouldn’t have run into as much difficulty, but then we also wouldn’t have as many stories to tell. One way or another we made it to the village and were able to spend most of Saturday2 worshiping with these remote people.
The worship service was a rather difficult one. These men and woman are not used to sitting down in large gatherings and listening to someone speak. They are hardly anything near quiet while you are talking, which is needless to say rather distracting. Todd went first and then I begin with a short reminder to the group that they ought to be quiet and listen, which quieted them a bit but not really. After that I just had to shout, which also didn’t do much because they don’t understand English. In the end I am amazed by Pastor Dawa Tamangs patience and perseverance to work with these people to bring them the Gospel. As Raju pointed out on the way back to Dunche, I had difficulty enduring them for one day, but Dawa has been patiently teaching them for six years. In the end I thank the Lord for the opportunity to worship with them. I thank him that even here in a village so remote that everything they have must be hauled in on their backs across a deep ravine even here the Gospel is preached. And I thank Him that He has given them such a dedicated and hard working man to serve as their spiritual leader. Remember Dawa and the members of Nesing in your prayers, as well as Raju, Rajan, JB and all the Christians here in Nepal.
With regard to Chitwan there is a lot I could say, but really it is all about the scenery and hence you are better off looking through the photos in the “Chitwan Adventures” post. Chitwan is a national forest where we took a day to see the natural Nepal or at least that section of it that has been fluffed up for tourists. We rode elephants on a safari through the jungle. We saw a rhino and were able to get very close to it since we were on the back of an elephant and didn’t a have to worry about it charging into us. We saw lots of monkeys and two different types of deer. The night before we saw some native Nepal dancing of which I have some video I will post on here when I get back to India.
The day before we went to Chitwan we were at a church giving a seminar on “Saved by Grace Alone through Faith” I was done with my half before lunch and while Todd spoke after lunch, Rajan and I attempted to make kites out of newspaper and bamboo. We succeeded in making the kites but failed in convincing them to fly, at least partially because there was virtually no wind. The newspaper on my kite ripped almost as soon as I started trying to fly it at which point I tried an old T-shirt I had along. Rajan and a couple of other Nepali onlookers insisted the T-shirt was too heavy, but I still maintain that if we had a little wind it would have worked fine.
Tomorrow Todd and I fly out. I am traveling back to India. It has been almost three months and I am eager to return home not least because there is a pile of things to get done, first of which is apparently finding a new apartment. Also I look forward to being in more regular contact with you all once I get back to my apartment.
Lord’s Blessings
Matt