Britt-Arnhild's House in the Woods

Wipers are for wimps

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A taxidriver picked me up after breakfast this morning. He would drive me from Tansen to Pokhara. Five hours up and down on hairbending, narrow roads. The sun shone when we started, but it didn´t take long before the first shower hit us. A heavy one. It took me three seconds to discover the taxidriver´s motto: Wipers and for Wimps.

Dew on the inside can easily be removed by an old rug. The raindrops on the outside can be seen through......almost.

 

I am lucky, I love driving. So I was never afraid.

The nature here is amazing. Just below the Himalayas, I have been unable to actually see the mountains yet, because of the clouds. But there is a hope that we can see sunset over Himalaya from the roof of the house where I am staying here in Pokhara tomorrow morning.
I am crossing my fingers.

I had  my notebook and a pen in my lap while we drove, determined to write down inpressions. But it was inpossible to write without being car sick. So I changed pen and paper with camera.....

.........which turned out to be a good thing :-)

 

 

New friends in this amazing world of ours

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I came to the mission hospital half an hour before I had the appointment with Doctor Gunnar this morning. I was hot and thirsty, and when I saw this time little room which looked like some kind of tea house, I walked in and asked for a cup of tea.

The woman spoke no English, but she spoke very well the language of smiles and friendliness. She started to make me tea, and soon her son and har husband also arrived.....to see this strange silverhaired woman from the other side of the world.

 

Soon we had shared our stories and our addresses, and I was invited for dinner.

I am not quite brave enough though. Going there for dinner would mean I´d have to wsalk back to my hotel alone in utterly darkness.

Well, my new friends had another idea. I could come for lunch, after I had visited the hospital. 

 

So I did.
And had a most memorable lunch :-),
or actually a late breakfast. 

Hats for the newborn babies in Tansen

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For months my mother and a friend of hers have been knitting hats for the newborn babies at the United Mission Hospital in Tansen. In the end I got a bag with more than 50 hats and many socks to find room for in my suitcase.

Today I have visited the hospital, and now I have som many tales to tell, I don´t know where to start. I am bubbling over as we say in Norway, I have no idea how this sounds in English :-). And as I am here alone, I have no one to share my bubbling with, well, no one except you of course.

I gave the huge bag with the hats and the socks to the hospital today. We are now in the warm summer season, so there are no use for hats right now, but when winter comes, they will be perfect to warm heads still fresh to this world. The winter air here at the foot of the Himalayas can be quite cold.

 I became interested in Tansen and United Mission Hospital after I read the story about the midwife Ingeborg (I linked to her story in yesterday´s post). It was like walking on holy ground while walking to the hospital this morning.

AS I walked without a map, and I have never been here before of course,I had to ask for directions everytime I came to a cross road.
Me: "Namaste"
The other: "Namaste" 
Me: "Is this the way to the Mission Hospital"
Broad smiles and pointing hands.

At one point I was so sure there was someone walking with me, but when I turned my head I could not see anybody. I did feel the pat on my cheek though, and knew in my heart that I was followed by one of God´s angels. It was such a strong, peculiar, lovely feeling, it gave me goosebumps for hours.

(I had never imagine I would ever see an angel. Now I have seen one, or at least the shadow of one :-))

 

I am back at the hotel now, and will write down some of the stories from today. Power is down so there is no internet in my room, I have to write this in the reception area.
May be without internet for some hours is the best thing, then I can have some silence, open my Bible and read more about this God of ours, who cares for me, for the people of Tansen, for his whole world.

 

 

I will write more about Tansen Hospital later, but here is
a link to their homepage. 

Namaste

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I arrived in Tansen a few hours ago. I am all by myself now, as the group I am partly travelling with are somewhere else for a few days. Tansen, a hillside town between the lowlands and the Himalaya mountains. Tansen, where the late Norwegian missionary Ingeborg Skjervhaim worked for more than 30 years. I read Mirjam Bergh´s book about Ingeborg some time ago, and since then I knew that when I came to Nepal, I HAD to see Tansen.

 

The first thing I did when I arrived was to go for a walk.
At first I felt a little uncomfortable. I am not THAT brave. Or am I?

It didn´t take me long to relax though. Everywhere people are so friendly, smiling, greeting me with "namaste", asking where I come from.

It started already in Katmandu. At the domestic airport, when I was waiting for the plane to Butwal, the man sitting next to me started a conversation. Just listen:

"Where are you from?"
"From Norway"
"Where in Norway?"
"Trondheim"
"Really :-) I studied in Trondheim for two years, now I am applying to do my PhD there"

I ended up walking for a long time. And as it turned out, I wasn´t even afraid not to find my hotel.

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Tomorrow ll visit Tansen Misson Hospital where Ingeborg worked :-)

 

 

 

Doing an elephant dance

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This is not going to be a blogging travel, at least not a blog as you go one. Internet is hard to find, and when I find it, it is slow. And too much is happening to give me time to sit down and actually blog. Or may be there will be some time tonight. I am in Tansen now, a hillside town between the lowlands along the Indian border and the Himalayas. I am alone, the group I am traveling with has gone somewhere else, and wonder over wonders, it looks like I have an ok internet connection.

I am doing an elephant dance, just like I did this morning........which will be a blog post.....eventually.

 

You know you are far from Norway when........

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You know you are far from Norway when this is the airport bus.....

.....this is what you see from your seat in the small plane......

-----and here is where you wait for the luggage :-)

 

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I know I am going to LOVE this adventure.

I already do.

First impression of Nepal, though a car window

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I was picked up at the airport by Buddhi, a Nepalese man who works for Jostein, my tour organizer. I am travelling with a small group, but the others came already three days ago, and when I arrived in Kathmandu they were boarding a domestic flight to carry on. Buddhi and Jostein were hoping that I would reach this plane as well, though even as we did our very best, I did not.

So instead Buddhi and his driver drove me to Greenwich Village Hotel where I am resting for a few hours before I take the afternoon plane to catch up with the others.

Now I have had a shower and a swim in the pool.
I have eaten momo, some kind of dumplings, a Nepalese specialty.
And all of me, completely all of me, is suffering from jetlag.

But I am here. I am enjoying myself,
and I can sleep.......

.......well......later :-)

 

 

The way we live our lives

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I have some reading to do at work these days. Thick documents. Filled with information.

In my coffee breaks I do some quite different reading. A book about the Norwegian missionary Ingeborg Skjervheim (1921-2006). Ingeborg was born on a small mountain farm, the oldest of five sisters.  Early in her life she got a call from God to become a missionary. The people of Tibet filled her heart, but Tibet was and is closed for God's Word.

Eventually opened the door to Nepal for her. So from a small mountain village in the middle of Norway, she travelled to a small mountain village in Nepal. And spent 33 years of her life there.

 

It is moving, touching, to learn how Ingeborg let her life, her every move, be led by God's light.

 

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In a few weeks I'll be following Ingeborg's paths in Nepal.
For 10 days.

A dream of mine will come true.
And I pray:
God, show me YOUR way.
Make me willing to walk the paths you have prepared.

 

When a dream is about to come true

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I got an email yesterday, with plane tickets for Nepal!
I GOT AN EMAIL YESTERDAY, WITH PLANE TICKETS FOR NEPAL!
For 10 days in April you will find me at the foot of the Himalayas. 

Old readers of Britt-Arnhild´s House in the Woods
know about my fascination for this part of the world.
(take a look here).

My main dream is to visit Tibet,
and "the forbidden city Lhasa,
who would not, after reading, and rereading, and rereading
Alexandra David-Neel´s
My Journey to Lhasa?

Tibet will still be a dream,
but Nepal will be real........soon.

For years I have collected travel books and travel litterature from the Himalayas. Now I am making a pile of the Nepal books, and look forward to hours and hours of winter reading........and dreaming.

 

The book I plan to start with is:

  

 

An old path, rediscovered? Or a New Road?

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I loved my grandma Olga dearly. Three months after I was born grandpa Benjamin died of cancer. Granma Olga lived through her grief and directed all her love to her grandchildren. I loved to sleep over at grandma, which I did from I was only a baby. When I was old enough she took me to church on Sunday's, and sometimes, in the middle of the week, to meetings where we met missionaries. At one such meeting I heard about Sylhet, a city in north eastern Bangladesh, where grandma's mission organisation did some work. We were shown photos, we were told stories, and a deep impact was made in the heart of a little girl. For many, many years I prayed for the people of Sylhet.

 

As an adult I have developed a deep love for travel litterature, especially when written by female travellers, but my collection of books is wide and contains both genders.

Thinking back, looking through my books, I see that a great many of them are from Asia, many from the region India, China, Himalaya, Nepal, Tibet, The Silk Road, the land of the snow leopard.......... A few months ago I came over a Norwegian mission organisation called HimalPartner. As a matter of fact I have heard of this organisation "always", but never given it a secon thought....untill I one day found a link to HimalPartner on facebook.

I became a member, and my interest for HimalPartner and the Himalaya area grew. I reread Alexandra David-Neels book My Journey to Lasha, and piled up a few more to be read-books. Then one day I got an email from HimalPartner with a question: Why did you choose us? Can you write it down in a few sentences and we will post it in our info magazin.

 

This challenge sent me down memory lane to my sleep over at grandma's house, and it also deepened my wish to learn more about the Himalaya area.......at least for some time, untill so many other books showed up.

Then I visited the monks at Munkeby. A short visit. I sat down in the small chapel in silence for a few minutes only. I felt peace. I felt God there and I knew that he wanted to tell me something, but what? For days I asked again and again; what is it you want to tell me God? what do you want me to do?

A couple of days later I needed a break, and as I often do when I need a break - I visit a bookstore, I sit down in a coffee shop. Some time during that break a thought started to materialise......I want to learn more about Asia, about the people, culture, about our different beliefs. I want to better understand the world God has created, the people He love.

Tibet came to my mind, and will not leave it, but also Nepal, northern India, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, and other countries.

God has not (yet) told me what he wants me to do with my new love.......but he has created the love deep :-)

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I have been thinking a lot about this post. It is very emontional to me, and I hadn't planned to share my rediscovered love, at least not yet. But when I came home from the cabin yesterday, opened my computer and learned that a 29 years old Tibetan munk (same age as my firstborn) in despair for his land and people had set himself on fire, I knew I can't wait.

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My blogging will keep on as it has done for almost 7 years, sharing life, love, travels......but with me, there will always be a deep wish to learn more about God's world and God's people....everywhere, and right now especially in a part of Asia.

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Photos: Sunday might at cabin