Canada Day in Nepal

I was back in Nepal, having arrived on Canada Day. I celebrated by raising the flag that Mike and Colleen, our Canadian  international relief managers, brought with them.

This is my second trip to Nepal since the horrific earthquake in late April and it is starting to feel like my home away from home with some things becoming familiar.

For instance, Hema, the landlady at the Bethani Guest House, hugs me as I return.

I have met up with some our national World Renew staff again — our accountant, warehouse manager, relief coordinators, a driver and an inventory controller of relief goods. It is good to get to know them better as we gel as a team.

There is also another relief coordinator busy out in the field and a part time procurement officer, as well as a HR and office administrator.

In addition to having our staff in place, World Renew has extended our office rent to at least December, at the Evangelical Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Visiting the Reformed Church of Nepal again in Kathmandu feels like my spiritual home. Though mostly in Nepalese, they have some English sub-titles for the sermon. It is still worshipful for me, and, as a former praise-team leader, I always enjoy the local music — and they sing some English as well. 

I finally got out to our field sites six days later. It was a good day. After the two-and-a-half hour drive to one of the districts in which we are working, I saw World Renew blankets being delivered into the warehouse near one of the communities. 

There are 1,500 that arrived this day, and another 1,500 will arrive in four days, to provide one-four blankets for 995 families.

I always love meeting with the community members and getting familiar with people, so the meeting with the nine ward leaders to discuss some potential challenges for the upcoming distribution was great.

For instance, they did not feel it was fair for all families to get three blankets each, when some had only one person and some had over 10. So we listened and planned to adjust our quantities by sorting our data according to the size of families. So some will get one and some will get four blankets.

They expressed appreciation already for World Renew from the first distribution, explaining that others just bring items and leave them, and also that World Renew has been more orderly.

They are happy with the teamwork with the community and good management, and that World Renew ensures inclusivity, in that every person gets something.

The village where we met was at the top of a mountain, with this huge tree that has been there for centuries. Two small children are playing around it. The scenery is spectacular.

Looking down from the high point where we held our community orientation meeting, you can see many families have planted seeds for the coming harvest season. Some have been blessed by the government and the relief organizations who have given some urgent seeds to catch this planting season.

I am amazed at the skinny stretches of land they make use of. I watch one farmer manage to move an ox up and down the slope to till the narrowest strip of land.

I am meeting still with many of organizations that World Renew can network with for recruiting, helping us find a field base office, suppliers, etc.

We meet weekly with our Integral Alliance partners for devotions and share challenges and solutions, links, sources, etc.

It is good to have brothers and sisters on the ground as World Renew further ramps up its ongoing response to the earthquake.  I am also busy with government registrations and paperwork, very dry, but necessary work.