CHIFUNDO CLINIC - ZAMBIA

I haven't written a blog for awhile, but I had an excellent visit with Dr. Marjie Heier today that I have to share. Marjie Scheuneman Heier, MD grew up in Schuyler, Nebraska (just down the road from here).  Her parents have moved to Columbus and I've gotten to know them. I am now on the board of Chifundo Clinic in Zambia, where she works and has a long term committment.  She is a Family Physician who practiced medicine in Nebraska for 22 years before answering the call to Zambia.  She partnered with Gospelink that has a Bible College in Zambia.  She went to run the health clinic there a couple years ago and it has grown to the point of seeing 2,500-4,000 patients a month.  She is the only physician, but has nursing staff and Zambian help.
She visited our church today and presented her story.  We went to lunch with her afterword and are looking at how we can help.

She is working on a building project to add clinic rooms, operating rooms and hospital rooms along with equipment.  They still need about $$$$ for the building and many other needs. In addition to that, they visit local villages and schools, working on malnutrition, HIV, immunizations, malaria, TB and education. They are making a huge difference in the poorest area in Zambia.  In addition to money for these various projects, they will be sending a large cargo container from Grand Island in the next couple of months with a variety of medical and educational supplies.  I'm sending our set of Encyclopedias among other things, even though it is old.  Some teacher friends are planning to send books as well. The national language is English, so they are accepting used books of all kinds for all ages, as some of the poorest schools have no books at all. They can use English, science, math and books to stock the school libraries. Social Studies would not be as useful since it's American.

If you would like to help with this project, contact me via this blog or FB.  Donations can be dropped off at my office as well. 

I'm putting Zambia on the radar for my mission travels, but for the moment we are planning to go to Haiti again next spring.  Nepal took a lot out of us and it's taken awhile to regroup and begin planning.  I'm sure Haiti would never have an EARTHQUAKE!!!  Ha! NN

Nepal Earthquake 2015

This is a slideshow of our trip to Nepal April 25-May12.  Things didn't turn out like we expected, but it was the adventure of a lifetime.

LIVING GODDESS KUMARI

We made an appointment to see the living goddess (Kumari). There are three in the Kathmandu Valley and the rules vary a bit from one to the other. The history is complex, but in a nutshell, this girl is selected from The Newar tribe, local indigenous people and started in the 1600's when the king needed to consult the goddess so she had the king pick a girl so the goddess could inhabit her until she hit puberty. Then they pick a new goddess. This girl is 7 and can only speak through her father. 

This is the entrance to her temple. 

Inside the compound. 

Her toy room. 

The Kumari. She didn't speak at all. She sits mostly stone faced. I posted a short video of her fidgeting on the CCMT FB page. 

Her father answered questions for us 

Her father. Her picture is beside him. This is a great honor to the family. This goddess lives in Patan, a suburb of Kathmandu. There are three goddesses, one in each of three areas of Kathmandu.  They were originally three kingdoms that came together at some point. 

You have to donate some money, $2 in the plate beside her, then she will bless you with the red flower paste on your forehead. 

There are actual flower petals in the paste. 

This is her sister. 

And her brother. 

This is an ancient chariot nearby that the pull around town, dedicated to the rain God during the rain festival that is going on. It got stopped by the earthquake. 

EARTHQUAKE BUDDHIST TEMPLE.

I thought we were going to the Monkey Temple, but we went to a Hindu temple. 

There was a Chinese Red Cross tent near there. 

This is a Hindu temple. There seems to be one on every other corner. I can tell them apart. The Hindu have the gold statues with lots of arms and the. 

Both burn a lot of incense. 

Across the sidewalk was a pool that belonged to the royal family in the 17th century. Locals came here to sit and relax by the water, but the area was ruined in the earthquake. 

This all used to be inside the palace grounds. 

The Buddhist have the eyes at the top 

The news made it look like the whole temple was destroyed, but it was only one corner. 

Look at the far left corner. 

It's covered with something blue. Over the rounded thing. 

We had some very interesting discussions along the way about these various religions including Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Muslim. I won't debate them here. 

This is another prayer wheel. Buddhist. Lots of folks wear these masks because of the smog. You can buy decorative ones in he shops as well. Buddhism and Hinduism are particularly peaceful and they live side by side overlapping on many ways. Our guide says he practices them both, as well as goes to church a room in his house dedicated to an ancestor shrine that only he can enter. 

EARTHQUAKE TREK

I haven't had reliable internet for any length of time so have had trouble posting. Also, my trusty Eye Fi card didn't seem to work for a couple days. If you haven't heard about it, I will do a little advertising here. It's an SD card for any old digital camera that links to your smartphone or laptop, etc. It's like a miracle. I can take the pictures on my camera, then load them on my phone and post much better quality pictures. I don't remember where I heard about it, but I'm glad to have it. Most of the photos you see here are from my good camera and a few were taken on my phone. Go to http://www.eyefi.com

I bought mine at Radio Shack in Columbus. 

I'll finish up with a couple more Chitwan pictures then do a Buddha and Living Goddess post and an earthquake post, then a Kathmandu earthquake and team post. 

We got to feed the elephants a "sandwich" made from high protein, healthy stuff wrapped in grass. This is me feeding one. I actually touched it's tongue. It was softer than I expected. 

This is John doing the same. 

Then we took off for the Crocodile breeding center in a canoe. We drove upstream about 15 minutes to get in the canoes. I think they are made from a single log. 

It was about 30 minutes downstream. A very gentle ride in what seemed to be fairly shallow water. 

The crocodiles are endangered so they breed and raise them till they are 6 years old. 

The Gharial crocodile is the breed. 

They had about 8-10 pens of different ages. 

These were yearlings. 

That night we saw some native Tharu dancers. They came to our villa to perform for us. I bought a tambourine from one of them for Rylan to play with. 

They did a stick dance that I think Lynnette or Barb could use. 

Then they had us join with them. It was fun, but steamy hot. 

I'll post this and see if it loads. 

SAFARI

We got up early this morning- 5am and went on a safari into the jungle. We didn't see any tigers as they are nocturnal and elusive, but we saw a rhino very closeup. 

It seems they aren't scared of elephants. 

We had 3 elephants with Tharu villagers as drivers. They are grass while they walked and swayed side to side. 

We are going to an elephant briefing next and get to wash them and play with them. Later we are going to a crocodile breeding center for endangered species. 

The team with elephants saluting behind us. 

A banana plantation along the way. 

THARU VILLAGE

We are at Chitwan National Park. You drive in big gates reminiscent of Jurrasic Park. It's beautiful and quite modern. 

The reception area. 

Our room. 

The dining hall. You see it's empty except for us. Almost every tourist has cancelled because of the earthquake so the economy is going to take a huge hit. 

OXCART RIDE

The Chitwan National Park is near the THARU community. These are a native tribe who originally came from India and now farm here. Two of their guys came with an OXCART and we rode over to the village withy a naturalist who works in the park. We toured the village and met the people. 

Here is our oxcart. I'm in the front with Dayton. John is in the next seat. The driver has hold of the Brahma Bulls. The rope goes through their nose and keeps good control. They are well trained. 

The outside plaster is mud and cow dung. They say it keeps the insects out. 

The white marks on the side are side hand prints. Some kind of a blessing. Hindu. 

A kitchen inside with fire in the center. 

The attached barn where they keep their water buffalo. 

Kids followed us all around the village. Fascinating! 

CHITWAN

We finished our river rafting without incident. The rapids weren't too scary. We got splashed a little but it served to cool us off. 

The toilet tent at the end was only a half step up from going behind a rock. 

We met the van at the bus stop. 

We had our box lunches there. 

Then rode about an hour to Chitwan National Park and had another lunch. This place is very nice. 

We are in elephant room #1. 

Another interesting meal including water buffalo. 

See the meat in the middle. French fries are on the plate at almost every meal. Hot and fresh out of the frier. 

THE CAMP

I didn't know what to expect at the river camp. This is on the Seti River if you have a map. I am sitting in a wicker chair looking out through tropical trees on to the river. They brought us lemonade when we landed and there is a dipping pool. 

Doug and Harold are in the pool. We just got in with our clothes on. The guys had swimming trunks, but I just wore my hiking pants and t shirt. I figured it would be sort of like doing laundry at the same time. Now I'm sitting out drying. 

This is the tent for John and me. 

Inside the tent. The front and back have zippered nets for doors. 

The bathroom has a Western toilet, hot shower and sink with running water. Delightful. I'm happy any time there is NOT a squat toilet like this below. 

This was one on the trail. Sometimes there was no other choice so you can see how happy I was for the one above. 

These are the workers at our river camp. They are hanging out around the fire pit that we get for happy hour. 

It seems like we must be in the South Pacific on some tropical island. 

My view of the river. 

John lost a button on his shirt. One of the guys bringing tea went and got needle and thread and fixed it right away. 

Ahhhhh! This is the life. I may not go home. I'm not too good at relaxing, but I think I could catch in if I had to.