Traveling to Nepal

It is the afternoon of January 29th here in Mukdahan, Thailand.    We will leave the room at 6:30 tomorrow morning by taxi to a hotel where we catch a bus to an airport.   It should be about two hours to the airport.  Our flight will take us to Bangkok where we will stay overnight in the guest room at the Bible school behind the church of Christ building.   The next morning we will fly to Katmandu and hope to make the connection to a small plane that will take us to our base location in Narayangarh, Nepal.   We are traveling light with only a carry-on bag in hopes to make the close connecting flight.   Chances are planes will not be on time either coming in or going out so we will see how it goes.   It would be great if the skies are clear and we can get a good view of Mt. Everest  but it is usually covered in clouds.   The mountains are really awesome as we fly over the rough terrain of Nepal.

We will only stay in Nepal about a week to visit with our workers and a few of the girls.   We have 13 safe houses in Nepal, scattered over a very long distance.   Travel to each is impossible in a short time with locations as far away as an 8-hour drive.   We will meet with our workers to encourage them and go over things concerning the work in Nepal.  

Ron feels that he must return to Mukdahan to oversee the construction of the building that is going up now with columns to support the second floor.    The work is going well but there are always questions and they sometimes need his help.

It is supposed to be the dry season with rain coming again in May.   It has been very dusty  We have been here for a little over two months with every day the same - clear blue skies.   Early morning temperatures are about 70 and the afternoons are in the 90's.   We have been blessed with cooler weather this week.   There have been quick hard showers at night for three nights.  I did not hear the rain until last night and it was so loud it woke me up.   There's a floor above us so it was not like hearing rain on a rooftop.   This morning, the skies were dark but by 10 a.m. they were clear again.   We've enjoyed cooler nights around 60 and days in the 80's this week.  Construction workers have been very happy with the cooler days.  

A number of the workers are from a town three hours' drive north of here.  They are camping out on the jobsite with tents and lean-tos.    They have a make-shift area where they cook, wash dishes and bath.   There's no need for security guards or dogs with these workers there to secure suppliers and building materials    They brought in a large concrete block machine and are now stacking up their own handmade blocks for the time when the walls will go up.  

I think there are one or two women laborers and they work just as hard as the men,  I mentioned in a previous blog that the average wage for this work is only about $2.30 per hour.   The workers cover themselves from head to toe with a face mask, hats or scarves and nothing shows but their eyes.   Apparently, this covering keeps them cooler and protects them from dust and other particles that could cause damage to their skin.  

I will post pictures and an update about our visit to Nepal in about a week.   Thanks for following our adventures in Asia.