The first application is in!

So we submitted our writeup and application for the business to the Department of Industry on Thursday just before the office closed. This was important because otherwise the office was going to be unreachable for the next 5 days. Friday - Democracy Day; Saturday - Always off; Sunday and Monday - Scheduled Maoist Bandha's or strikes where they stop all traffic from flowing through the city.

So now that the application is in, the department will talk about the business in several different groups to see if they will allow foreign investors to start such a business. It's totally out of our hands but never out of God's so please be praying for us, the application, and Bipin. Bipin is one of the directors with the Foreign investment branch of the department and would be pivotal in these discussions. I had the chance to talk with him for a bit and explain the business a bit more to him. He said he thought it was a great business but wasn't convinced whether or not it would be allowed. We are also trusting that if this is the business that God wants here that it will be able to be done without us having to bribe them to do it. Please join us in prayer over this process.

Thanks everyone and don't miss the other post I just did below of a few pictures from the week! (You may have to click the "Older Posts" link at the bottom to see it)

Some quick photos of the week

So I wanted to put up a couple of quick pictures of the week.


This is an snippet of the nepali characters we are trying to learn. They have 4 d's and 4 t's that are so closely sounding to one another that I'm failing miserably to tell them apart. We are spending 2 hours a day; 3-4 times per week with a private tutor and then probably the same amount doing homework additionally. I can now proudly direct cab drivers in their own language. =)





This second photo is from a new friend of ours who got married last week and then had the reception this week on Monday (by the way, that's normal). Our first nepali wedding and Alana went with another new friend Rita to find the Kurta she is wearing in the photo. Oh, and this reception is the one and only time where Alana and I hitting the dance floor brought down the house. I have the same dance moves now as I did when I was 5 dancing at weddings if that tells you anything. But a lot of people found it really entertaining that we were on the dance floor. My favorite moment was when the whole dance floor filled with only nepali men, all of whom were had to be over 45, to dance to the song: "My hips don't lie" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLQgjEhH400)






This picture is a breakdancing concert that was put on about a hundred feet behind the guesthouse we were staying in. So we decided to go check out what all the commotion was about and had a great valentine's day watching nepali's breakdance. Who knew?

House Hunters International

We arrived in Kathmandu with a temporary place to stay with the expectation that we would find an apartment while we are here. It was interesting. Our first day of hunting was spent just walking around looking for "to let" signs. It was exhausting as we didn't really know the backroads yet and after awhile the dust and honking start to grate on the patience. We found a few places that way, but couldn't get ahold of the owners. We did find a few real estate agents and were able to set up some time with them for the next day. All of the apartments we saw were furnished so they were a little more expensive than the average flat. But, since we are only here for three months on this trip, we decided that it would be much simpler to just spend the extra for a furnished place.

Real Estate Agent #1:

Flat #1 - ($245 month) 2 bedroom, (with carpet!), small kitchen, has TV, phone and internet. Security guard at the gate, but would have to pay him separately, toilet is not flushing properly. Overall a nice cozy size and well away from honking and traffic but the walk up to the apartment had an empty lot with a lot of brush (aka, hiding places for bad people).

Flat #2 - ($216 month) 2 bedroom, nice size kitchen with good table for entertaining, big sitting room, no security guard, but Nepali family lives next door. Australian family lives on 2nd floor. (Note: when we arrived a Nepali woman in her 40s, maybe, came running out of the other house to open the door for us. You don't see too many women of her age just running for no real reason like that. I liked her.) No internet, no TV. I liked the place overall, but not having internet was going to big problem.

Flat #3 - ($405) Big building, almost a high rise residential building. Lots of security. Flat was on the 4th floor. Carpet, has nice balcony. 1 bedroom, very tiny kitchen with only one burner. But, it had a water purifier and a water heater and 24 hour internet. There was a maid that came once a week and also did your laundry. Also the view from the roof was amazing. However it was very expensive and I thought the security was intimidating for any new friends who might come to visit us.

Advertised at Helmer's Baker:

Flat #4 - We found this place while we making a quick stop in Helmer's Bakery. This is a tiny, but very busy little bakery because it is the premier place to get all kinds of locally made cheeses (Yak, Swiss, Gouda, Tom cheese - named after a French guy named Tom, and the ever available Cow cheese). They are not all named properly, but they are pretty good nonetheless. While Tom was getting us some chocolate filled croissants, I noticed an ad telling about the apartment above the bakery that was available. The owners sister took us up to see it. The entrance was quite rough. There was an old guy spitting up phlegm, a couple of rabid looking dogs and the lock to go up was in a sheet of tin nailed to a wooden fence. Going up the stairs there was a friendly "clean" dog tied to a door. We got to the 2nd floor and there we piles of dirt everywhere, even the woman showing us the place said "wow, very dirty." However, we suddenly noticed the smell of cookies! In a place where the pollution makes the air feel thick with dirt, this sweetness was a welcome change. The apartment was fine. It was basically one big room with the bed sectioned off by sheets hanging from the ceiling. The kitchen was the nicest yet with a 4 burner stove, toaster oven and a microwave! We thought if the price is right, we can deal with the dirt outside. However we found that it was $230 and it didn't have internet.

Real Estate Agent #2:

Flat #5 - ($235), This was in the center of Jawalkhel, so very easy access to "Tuk Tuks" (cheap public transportation on 3 wheels, sort of like a go-cart bus, that fits 6 people comfortably, but usually has 10 riders). This was a 1 bedroom apartment with an amazing kitchen. Gas and electric heat for water. The bedroom was huge with a nice balcony and they whole place was set up for back up power and wireless internet. There was a Korean woman staying there at the moment and it wasn't available until April 1st, which was too late for us.

Flat #6 - ($400), This was in the same building as Flat #5. It also had gas and electric heat, a great kitchen, wireless internet and back-up power, but has 2 ridiculously huge bedrooms. One bedroom was all windows on two sides and was probably the size of our entire apartment in Eastern Market. That may sound nice, but considering how that the inside of homes get as cold as the outside (right now as low as 39 degrees) that makes it very hard to get the room warm. Smaller rooms are better for keeping heat in.

Flat #7 - ($216), This was a little farther away from Jawalkhel (about a 20 min walk) into a quiet residential area called Sanepa. The farther we got from the honking the happier we were, so we were delighted when we opened the heavy iron gate to see a huge vegetable garden and a lovely brick home with ornate wooden shutters. Before we went inside I turned to Tom and mouthed "I love this." The flat was on the 2nd floor and there were some American hippies staying there at the moment. It was 2 bedrooms, a sitting room, a nice kitchen with south facing windows. The toilet worked and there was wireless internet. The walls were brick and the doorways were arched. We could also access the roof! There was a Nepali family living downstairs on the first/ground floor and their son who is studying to be a doctor lived above us on the 3rd floor. It was perfect, but not available until the 15th of February (or earlier … alas, those noncommittal hippies!). However, this was the one and we are happy to wait a bit longer. Photo of the chosen apartment is shown above.

Yesterday we moved (or shifted as they say here) and are staying in the Shalom Guest house until the hippies move out. We are happy with our choice and process for looking for places to live was actually a lot of fun.

Cooking and a Math Date

Tom and I have been trying to see how we can help out with the kids here in as natural a way as possible. The pastors have suggested we just spend time with them and just see how we can be an encouragement. I agree that it a good idea, but what does that look like? Tom has been spending quite a bit of time with the boys. There are about 10 of them. There are a few girls now as well (about 3, maybe 4?) but they are a little shy. I get as far as “Jaimasi” (a greeting among Christians in Nepal, means “Glory to God” … I think) and the girls giggle, look at me with eager expressions, but then are overcome and take off. I may have to resort to nail polish or braiding hair (sigh). So, the other day Tom was talking to Nabin and found out that their big exams are in one month. This is the exam that will determine if he goes from the 7th grade to the 8th grade. Apparently he is doing fine in everything, but math. So, Tom set up a time to try and help him out. They had their first math date yesterday at 4 pm. The power was off so they met outside their rooms on the tables that they have dinner on. I was preparing dinner myself so I brought the vegetables outside to peel and chop. The rest of the boys came out to watch me cut vegetables. They were amazed that I was cooking "curry." I was making dal, rice and aloo methi (potatoes with a bitter herb). Apparantely the other westerners that stay here stick with either eating out or cooking pasta or something like that. One of the boys came back into the house to help us get some more purified water set up and he stayed the entire time I was cooking with occasional bursts of "wow" and "I can't believe." It was nice until he was mildly horrified at how much turmeric I was using (about 1 teaspoon) and claimed that I could get typhoid from it. What?! Um, no. Anyway, we've learned to take some of their "concerns" for us with a grain of salt. But, it's nice to have these moments regardless.

Today, I was able to get a little more from the girls. I took my camera out and just showed them the photos of people on there already. They are fascinated with family photos. Then I took a few photos of them. What pretty girl doesn't like having their photo taken? Later they were singing together and they wanted me to teach them some English songs with "actions." The only song I could think of was "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty" which I taught them. The other song I could think of was the "God's Army" song which I decided was not a very appropriate song here … I could use some more ideas. They especially like songs with dancing.

Off to a great start!

So for a little while, the church here in Kathmandu has given us an apartment to stay in and helped us look for our own “flat” ( ah, the breadth of british imperialism =) ). This is a picture of some of the street boys and girls from remote villages the church has offered an opportunity to come here and live and go to school. It's pretty neat to see how they invest so much in a few. I'm also excited to let you all know we had our first big concern met with the business visa application process which was opening up a nepali bank account. I was quite impressed with the bank we were recommended and that they even did provide insurance akin to the US' FDIC, but was told that two things we would have trouble with when trying to open an account would be (1) having a co-signer of the account and (2) provide a proof of address. I can attest today, though, that God was in the details on this one. When they asked about having a co-signer I said that I would rather not and after a manager was brought over, they agreed to this. The big one was the verified address, because they never even asked for it. I could see the requirement right there on the documentation but it never came up. This could have been a huge problem because we won't be able to verify our address until we get our own place, then get utilities, then get a bill that has our name on it, which would push back even being able to start our application.
We also have two scheduled meetings with real estate agents to walk us through some flats today so please be praying for us to find the right place to be living the next few months. Your neighborhood is your community and it's an extremely important factor of your day to day life. For example, if you don't get to know your mailman and, more importantly, that he knows you; you won't get your mail. So we're hoping to find the right place and a big requirement I have is to not be in a place without heavy traffic or near a road with a sharp curve (because EVERYONE honks their horn before going around the curve).
So next up is finding a place to live, getting the wire transfer to our bank, and then sitting down with the legal team to finalize our applications for the business. Thank you for all the prayers out there!
P.S. The church's Internet has been down this week so we have to go to a coffee shop midday to get Internet which hasn't let us do any Skyping yet, but soon to come.