When I first came to Nepal with Shawna in the spring of 2003 I found a fascinating place. I found a place deeply rooted in spirituality and I saw a face of poverty that I had never seen. It was something that many people experience when visiting Nepal and it is something that you never forget. The problem is that you see it through the lens of a camera and despite the proximity of your subject you still remain separated and removed. None the less, you leave Nepal with a deeper sense of concern for such an impoverished condition that such wonderful people find themselves.
When I returned to Nepal I found the same problems but my proximity to the subjects has changed. Before I was able to take something from Nepal and now I am able to share with them in what is happening. Now I am affected by the strikes and protests and I too hear bombs going off near my house. It’s the danger of living here. You get too close to your subjects and now it is not so easy to walk away. Before I was thrilled to leave this place of wonder and hardship and return to my place in the World, a place that is more comfortable and safer. Now it is different. Now, when I photograph a starving homeless child I am able to speak to them and understand some of what they are saying. I am able to touch them and even take them to get some food. Now they have names and are not just faces.
One of the areas that we are working in is the poorest place on Earth. The quality of life index is the lowest of anywhere on the planet. The life expectancy is 37 years old and 50% of the children who are born there will not live to see their second birthday. Their life is further complicated by the Maoists problem in their area. Each week there are rumors of impending attacks and thousands have been kidnapped and forced to serve in the guerilla army. They serve as porters, cooks, and medics in exchange for their families being left alone for a period of time. Most of the kidnapped victims are young boys and girls who are taken from their schools.
The village is high in the mountains and the climate is very inhospitable. Winters are very cold and summers provide less than enough food to feed the starving population. Most just plod through life until they die and live in constant wonder why they were even born. Many believe that in their past life they must have misbehaved to deserve such a hard place in life.
The people who volunteer to work in villages like this run the risk of getting too close and the cost is more than many can take. Getting close to these wonderful people means doing without many of the things that most of us have come to expect. It means doing without food and living in impoverished conditions. Their work is often frustrated by the difficulties of serving in the middle of a war zone. Development work is often used by both sides in the conflict as a weapon against the other. Insurgents put pressure on the development agencies in hopes that they will pressure the government to submit to their demands. The government can impose restrictions on the development agencies or revoke visas as a means of cutting off support to areas that are controlled by the insurgents. The heroes that decide to answer the call to serve here take on a life of hardship and carry a burden that is often times too much. I still cannot believe some of the stories that these volunteers tell when they come to visit at headquarters.
I think this is a good place for each of us to be, even though it hurts sometimes. I believe that our Father has already run the risk of getting too close and His heart is broken more than ours could ever be. His love for the poor, the orphans, and the widows runs deeper than we will know in this lifetime. I think in many ways I have taken more from Nepal than I will ever be able to give back.
One of my favorite things to do in Nepal is take pictures and my favorite pictures are not of the mountains or the rivers, my favorite pictures are of the people. Their faces tell the stories of a lifetime of struggles and it is important to put down the camera and share with the subjects in the photograph. One thing that Nepali children love to see is their picture on a digital camera. By showing them their own picture I am able to break down the barrier of the lens and it gives me the chance to talk to the subject. The problem I keep having is that the children want to crawl all over you to horde around the cameras LCD to see their picture. I have been exposed to head lice more times that I can even count and it makes my head itch just writing about it. It gives me a chance to get dirty and show them that I am not just wanting to take from them. The danger now is that you get too close. Now you will never be the same.
It was 5am as we loaded our packs and began hiking in the morning cold. The thermostat read -20 degrees and everything seemed cold. No matter how hard I walked I found that I could not get my fingers warm. As we walked over the moraine we paused in wonder as we saw our 5th avalanche crashing down onto the glacier. Soon the sun began to rise over the mountains that dominated the eastern sky. It was Easter morning as we watched the sun rise over Mt. Everest and Nuptse.
We slowly made our way towards our destination at the base of Mt. Everest. You know that you are close when you stumble upon the wreckage of a crashed helicopter that went down last year at this time. Just beyond the helicopter was a huge village of tents representing several different nationalities. The brilliant colors of the tents and the prayer flags stand in stark contrast to the bleak landscape. Surrounding us were huge ice seracs and a river of ice known as the Khumbu Ice Fall.
We had come here for two weeks of hiking and exploring the Solo Khumbu region. A month ago a few friends invited me to join them here and I could not resist the temptation to come. The opportunity to immerse myself in the Sherpa culture that inhabits this region was something that I have always wanted to do. From the moment you get off the plane in Lukla you are surrounded by the culture that still exists like it did two hundred years ago. People cook on fires inside their homes that are made of stone and yak dung. There are no vehicles here and the only way to get around is to walk. The trails are lined with dozens of yaks and at the higher elevations it is estimated that there are 200 yak for every 30 trekkers. It is an experience that everyone should have in their lifetime.
The religion here is Tibetan Buddhhism and it dominates the every day life of the people here. The Sherpas are immigrants of Tibet who settled here hundreds of years ago. Things have not changed much since then. Monks still blow their horns throughout the day and people still worship all the deities that they are surrounded by.
The mountains here are the highest in the world. Ama Dablam, Nuptse, Lhotse, Pumo Ri, and Mt. Everest are surrounding you as you walk up into the valley that leads to the Khumbu Glacier. Rivers come crashing down out of the valley that appear to be white and a deep blue. It is the most magnificent landscape in the entire world. The trek from the airport to the base of Everest goes up and down so many times that by the time you actually get there you have ascended over 29,000 feet.
The journey begins in a small mountain village called Lukla. There is a recently built airport there that looks like a long driveway leading to the edge of a cliff that drops 2000 feet into the valley below. Landing and taking off from this airport resemble trying to land on an aircraft carrier. Prior to this airport being built a trip into this region began in Kathmandu and took three months to complete. Now with the airport it can be accomplished in less than three weeks.
My first obstacle in completing this trip meant overcoming my fear of flying. I hate to fly and the thought of getting on some small plane that would fly up into the mountains and land on a tiny airstrip was terrifying. As scared as I was though I still had to go and I was not going to let my fear keep me from going.
The temperatures drop significantly as you climb higher and higher. During the day the sun warms the air and the reflection off the snow is quite warm. By noon the wind starts to pick up and by three in the afternoon it is snowing again.
There are only two options of housing along the trail that leads up to Everest. The first is to sleep in a tent. The second is to stay in lodges that are found all along the trail. The lodges are by far the most fun and the best way to meet people. The walls are made of rocks that are found in abundance here and the roof is made of aluminum covered with rocks. The rooms are nothing more than wooden slats that resemble the shelters all along the Appalachian Trail in the United States.
The shelters offer some heat even though they are not insulated. A pot bellied stove in the center of the shelter is filled with yak dung and it burns extremely hot. Each night we would huddle with a group of Sherpas and other trekkers around the heaping pile of burning excrement and tell stories of our adventures.
One reoccurring late night conversation revolved around the use of the toilet. I know that sounds crazy but the toilets here are rock outhouses that become the scene of some of the nastiest crimes I have ever witnessed. High altitude does crazy things to your body. You become more forgetful, have frequent headaches, become dehydrated, have diarrhea, and vomit. For the most part you just tolerate the symptoms but inevitably it will lead you to spend more time in these high altitude outhouses and they always came up in our conversations.
The altitude here is so high that it actually becomes very dangerous. When I was along the trail the fifth victim of High Altitude Pulmonary Edema and High Altitude Cerebral Edema passed away. He was a Sherpa who had gone too high too fast and lost his life as a result. The other four people killed here died in the couple of weeks prior to my arrival. Each day I saw three or four people being carried to the health post who were later evacuated by helicopter. The doctors said that at least 1 in 10 who come here have to be treated for HAPE or HACE and 50% report having moderate to more severe symptoms. With this in mind we attended a lecture at the health post about what to look for and how to treat victims of this problem.
The day at base camp flew by as we met several of the climbers who shared stories with us around the yak dung fires along the trail up here. We drank endless cups of tea and had the privilege of sharing a meal with the Malaysian climbers before they escorted us up to the infamous Khumbu Ice Fall so that we could take a closer look at it. When we were there we met the most famous athlete of our lifetime, Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa. If you don’t recognize the name you may remember that he broke the world record last year for the fastest ascent of Mt. Everest, 10 hrs 56 minutes from base camp to summit.
The Discovery Channel was filming a documentary that is set to be released this fall. They invited us to watch some of the footage and give our opinion of it. I was very impressed and it made it much more real to know that just outside the tent we were in was the very place that we were watching on the screen.
After the long hike to base camp and the hours of playing around once we were there I was exhausted. At over 17,000 feet it is so high that it is just exhausting being here. My resting heart rate was well over 100 bpm at this altitude and it just drains you to be here. We knew we still had to make it back down to a lower elevation to spend the night and we wanted to hurry so that we could beat the afternoon snow storm.
We started down the trail and paused to photograph the wrecked helicopter. As we were starting again a young Malaysian girl stopped me and asked me to help her boyfriend. She said that she did not know what was wrong with him and that he was really sick. I found him laying on a rock and after speaking to him I could tell that he was terribly sick. He was suffering from HACE. The symptoms of this ailment left the young man unable to even walk. He suffered from a terrible headache, feeling of being intoxicated, slurred speech, nausea, and felt like he was going to lose consciousness. He was dehydrated and had not eaten all day. He had been trying to reach base camp and had not listened to his body and turned around when he should have. Now he was unable to continue moving and he had to get lower soon or he would continue to get worse.
I tried to do everything that I was taught in the health lecture that I attended. Pump fluids in him and get him down as soon as possible. The only problem with that was how we were going to move him. The only option we had was to carry him so I picked him up and began the longest walk down a mountain that I have ever had. We would stumble ahead three or four steps then fall to the ground gasping for breath. He was scared of dying and asked me to keep talking to him so that he would not lose consciousness. He made me promise that if he lived I would come visit him in Malaysia. I told him that I would if he would come visit me in Tennessee. We eventually stopped and I asked for his permission to pray to my God for his help. At this point he happily agreed and we asked God to instantly heal him and restore his health so that he would be OK.
We finally made it to Gorak Shep after several hard hours. We filled up on black tea before continuing down the mountain. By now he was starting to recover. We had dropped 1,000 feet and already he was improving. He began walking on his own and by night fall he was able to tell that he would be fine. The next day he descended even further down the mountain and made a full recovery. We made arrangements to meet in Kathmandu once our trip was over and then eventually travel to Malaysia and the United States.
That night we gathered in a frozen room lined with candles and celebrated Easter. We shared communion and gave thanks for all our Father has given us. This was a very special Easter celebration and it is one that I will never forget.
Throughout the night I began to feel worse and worse. In the morning I felt so bad that I was not able to even move. One of the friends that I was traveling with was a doctor and he diagnosed me with food poisoning. He suggested that we hike a day down to Pheriche where there is a health post and I could see a doctor. The problem was getting there.
I eventually finished purging my guts and decided that I could walk as long as I kept my head down and did not look into the sun. If I glanced up I would feel terribly nauseas so I just kept my head down and focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
It was during this time that we passed a few tea houses in Dughla. We stopped for a rest and I put my head down on a table and just sat there praying for God to take me home. Being sick at home is miserable but being sick up here at over 16,000 feet in the freezing cold was just beyond miserable.
“Where is the outhouse?” My friend asked.
“I don’t know and I don’t care. I have spent enough time in those things today” I answered.
“Can you ask the store owner in Nepali for me?” He asked.
“No, I cant even lift my head off the table. Figure it out yourself” I answered.
My friend began trying to motion to the store owner about his need to find the outhouse. Eventually he got the answer he needed and by this time he was starting to sweat profusely. He ran around the corner in a panic and returned just as fast as he left. He was nearly in tears now as he said…….
“Ahhh guys, is there another toilet.”
“Man, would you just go do your business so that I can lay here and rest. If you don’t leave me alone I am going to end up getting sick again” I answered.
“Well, you are not going to believe this but the toilet is on fire!” He said.
“Use it anyways, a little smoke won’t kill you. I just want to lay here and die” I said.
“There are flames coming out the door guys! He exclaimed.
Sure enough, he was right. I was so sick that I could not believe my eyes and I really did not care. He eventually found a yak laying in the rocks behind the store and was able to do his business. The problem came when the yak decided that he was not too impressed by my friends proximity. The yak got up and walked off leaving my friend literally caught with his pants down.
Traveling in Nepal is very cheap compared to traveling in the west. A room in the shelter cost 50 cents and usually you can eat for even less. I planned a tight budget for my trip based on the food prices in Kathmandu but quickly found out that when you get higher the food prices also go up. The reason is because the food has to be brought up on the backs of porters because nothing grows here. This left me with a difficult situation. I was forced to eat the cheapest thing on the menu at all times. This meant plates of rice or boiled potatoes for every meal. You burn so much energy up here that you find yourself getting extremely hungry. On one such occasion I saw a woman with a plate of fresh, hot, steaming, smoking, yak meat. I drooled over the huge pile of meat and let the scent drift into my nostrils. She sat the plate down and I had to move in for a closer look. I just wanted to smell it and dream of eating it. My dreams came to a crashing halt when I discovered that my carnivorous fantasy was actually a heaping pile of burning yak dung.
We eventually made it back to the airport in Lukla and boarded a small plane heading back to Kathmandu. Again I had to face my fear of flying but it was easier this time. I focused on returning to my family and seeing my wife and kids again. Traveling into the Solo Khumbu is never easy but it is very rewarding. Getting to know the Sherpas was worth the effort of going and standing in awe of our creator in the heart of the tallest mountains in the world is worth whatever it takes to get here. It was a great privilege to get to know so many of these wonderful people and see this wonderful place.
This article appeared in Monday's Himalayan Times, a local newspaper!
Christians celebrate Easter
Himalayan News Service
Kathmandu, April 11:
Christians in Kathmandu celebrated Easter here today by going to churches and participating in religious rituals. They also took out a procession around the city and concluded things with a mass gathering at Tundikhel. Nepalis and foreign nationals attended church in large numbers in various parts of the Valley. Catholic and Protestants celebrated Easter in their own way. The Catholic procession was more lavish whereas the Protestants kept things more lowkey and preferred singing hymns. Choirs sang the glory of Christ's resurrection and preachers read the Gospel in churches decorated to suit the occasion. Christians greeted each other and feasted. On Easter eve, a big candle was lighted in each church to represent Jesus. Christians also took out processions around all church premises. "Easter is a more like a week-long celebration but actually the fetsivities are held for two days. It started on Saturday with lighting candles to represents Christ and on Sunday morning different chapters of Bible were read and songs of glory were sung, recalling Christ and thanking him for saving mankind from sin," said Father Silas Bogati of the Catholic Assumption Church, Dhobighat. Dr Rajendra Rongong, an elder of the Protestant church in Gyaneswor, Kalopul, said, "We came to church early morning, sang in the choir to honour this holy day." Dinesh Neupane, deacon of the Protestant church in Gyaneswor, said, "There are more than 3,500 regular visitors to our church and they come here for prayers, it is a great day for us Christians as lord Jesus arose from death for humankind." Neupane added celebration programmes are being organised among local and foreign Christians at Gyaneswor church.
I am thrilled to report some good news for a change on this Easter Sunday. This morning at 8am, over a thousand Nepali Christians gathered together to march in the name of Jesus. In Kathmandu's center, an area known for violence and protests, these saints marched together for peace--the prince of peace.
About a month ago, I had the opportunity to get out of Nepal for a short time, and I brought back with me two copies of the "Passion of the Christ" DVD. Your first question is probably, "How did you get a DVD of a movie that is still in the theatres?" Well, folks, this is Asia...the land of the pirated--DVDs, CDs, software, you name it. I even bought both DVDs for less than the cost of a movie ticket.
I have been able to share this movie with many friends. One friend showed this movie to the staff at his office. Only 25% of their staff are Christians, the rest are Hindus. This movie had a profound effect on their staff, and many Nepalis are asking questions about "our God." One of the Christian staff members was so moved, she asked to borrow the DVD to show it at her church. Little did I know, what she had planned. She sent out invitations to church leaders throughout the Kathmandu Valley, and over 500 people showed up to see the film--they even had to have an "overflow" room!!
This afternoon, my new Nepali friend and her husband stopped by to return the DVD. I had a wonderful opportunity to hear their testimonies. I'll start with Bisha's mother's testimony. In the Hindu religion, a woman is not allowed into heaven unless she has given birth to a son. Bisha's mother had been trying to conceive for nine years. She had tried everything--witch doctors, potions, etc. As a last resort, she went to a hospital run by mission doctors and nurses, and asked the nurse to help her. At first, she did not understand. She offered to make sacrifices, give money, in order to appease God. The nurse shared the love of Jesus, and went on to explain that the gift of salvation is FREE--nothing is required of us. There is nothing we can do to earn this gift of salvation. She believed in Christ that day, and one year later, she gave birth to a son--my new friend Bisha. But praise be to God that this is not what earns our salvation!
Bisha's family is of the highest caste--the Brahmins. The Brahmins are considered priests in the Hindu religion. This is incredibly difficult for Brahmins to convert to Christianity. Bisha's father was not a Christian...no, he was a still a Hindu. Bisha's father argued with him about his faith, and even beat him for believing in Jesus Christ. One afternoon, at a family gathering, Bisha's father gave him one last chance to renounce the name of Jesus. Bisha replied, "Who shall I obey? You, or my God?" Unfortunately, Bisha was kicked out of his home for being a Christian. He was no longer considered a part of the family--he would have no benefits of being a son...no inheritance, nothing.
But thankfully, the story does not end there. Bisha's father eventually believed, and even pastored a church in West Nepal. Several of the family members that were present when Bisha was kicked out of his family are now believers. In fact, the day before his father died, he shared the gospel with another family member, and now she believes!
In the midst of crisis, God is still working here in Nepal. Thousands are arrested daily for protesting, an average of twelve people are killed every day because of the insurgency, BUT GOD IS ALIVE. He is risen, and his name is being praised here in Nepal.
I am blessed today because of my Nepali friends' testimonies. I am also blessed because I have the "Sams" back home and your prayers. But the best blessing of all is the gift that Jesus gave us.