Sweet Water

Hey Hey Hey!
Been a bit since my last update, but I have had so much stuff going on. I officially moved with my dad. We are now living in the upstairs portion of my aunt's house. And my grandparents are living in a connected "cottage" that just passed inspection and is livable! I'm liking the new arrangement very much.
Right after graduating from GBC I was hired by Sweet Water Pools, and now I am a pool monitor. OK the job is pretty chill. I get to sit in a shaded area, help people sign in, and try to keep the pool area clean and orderly. Simple. It's one of my favorite jobs so far. I love being outside, and in all the down time I have I get to read, and do other things ;) I'm enjoying my summer so far. It's always nice to jump into my little white Honda and cruise over to Sonic for a daily treat with dear Zachary. We had a grilled cheese off! That was deliciously fun! Mine was a creation with pesto, mozzarella, and sun dried tomatoes. Zack made this whole new invention with french toast as bread, incredibly sharp cheddar, and a crispy fried tortilla in the middle dusted with cinnamon and sugar. And then dipped in jam. May sound interesting, but they were both delectable. What fun adventures await this summer!

graduation

ENO loving

Zack's 18th birthday, Melting Pot

My first day!

Home On The Range

O it feels good to be home. My own bed and room feel wonderful!
GBC is not complete yet. I officially graduate from the Global BootCamp program May 24th. The rest of this month is debrief time, classes, and a few outreaches. This Sunday I get to speak to the church about a few things that happened and things God has done and is doing, so that will be exciting.
Re-entry wasn't too difficult for me, I can eat whenever, and whatever I want, I can drive my car to go where I want when I need to, and I missed my family and friends quite a bit. It's weird to actually see how life has gone on without me. Lot's of things have changed as well as me. I'm working on reestablishing my routine. I'm getting excited for Lee, gonna work on finding a job for this summer, and hopefully have some fun as well and enjoy this summer at home!
Thank you for all your support, but most importantly prayers.

I'm Home

WOW, WOW, WOW, it's happened, I'm actually home. We packed our bags and on Sunday morning the youth who wanted to say goodbye came to the house and did just that. I was of course the only one to cry, but I'm ok with that. We headed to the airport, and I began to think of all thes lasts: last car ride, last breakfast, last hugs, last breath of filthy air... just so many lasts. I'll spare you the boring traveling deets, but we made it from Kathmandu to Mumbai. Then Mumbai to Newark, where we were so blessed to travel VIP style and spend our layover in the United Club. How nice was that, too nice. Then the painful 2 hour flight from Newark to Nashvegas. It was wonderful to see my family waiting for me! We all went out for lunch and I was so happy to fill up on chips and salsa! I ended up staying awake until 9:30, which means I was awake for 50+ hours. Crazy what my body can do. I slept so so so so good in my own wonderful bed, and was able to take a hot, high water pressure shower, and seeing how I live with many blessings.

Now I do realized I didn't blog the last week or so of my trip, well Pastor John arrived, and the family took a trip to Chitwan. Very jungle, rural, and there was a huge (bad) religious festival going on with lots of poor goats going in, but never coming out. We went and visited elephants that give rides, and got really lucky that day. We went down to the river to play in some water, and they began bringing the elephants down for their baths. After some Nepali jabber with the owners, the agreed to let us help them wash them! I jumped in and was so in awe of this really cool animal. They then let us all have turns climbing up the elephant and sitting on its back while it sprayed us with water. Lauren and I got a chance to go together, and it was so cool. We did fall off though... Not badly, the elephant went down on its knees, then laid down, and rolled to the opposite side of what we thought, so we essentially took a bath with elephants ;) Elephants were the highlight for me, we also got mendi again, slept with mosquitos, cultural show, long jeep rides, what an adventure.
This is my quick update, but when I have processed and begin to think of more things, I will update more. I am back from Nepal, Have one more month of GBC before I graduate, and will continue to keep posting things going on, pictures, and my learnings! So glad to be Bibek!

You know, life in the dust

Air dying on the jeep

Elephant Safari

Nameste Pose

Feeding bananas to my new friend

Last sunday school

girls

Subbu

Gorima, Peace

Baby in boots

Lauren feeding bananas

Pinwheel fun

My view

Bath Time

Saroj, Teacher

Sunil-Bean

Our dear friends

Shriju

Mexican with the family

Daddy's coming home gift

Family

Fishing Teacher

OK, so we didn't actually fish, but our guitar teacher always says "if you give a man a fish he will eat for the night, but if you teach a man to fish, he will never go hungry." So, I like to call him our fishing teacher. We have had a good few months learning from him how to read music, a pick, but most importantly how to worship the Lord. We have had our last lesson today and we just spent time worshipping together and he left us with this:
Psalm 144.1
Blessed be the Lord my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle..

What a wonderful verse to leave with us!

Three crazies ending our time together

Sunil-Bean who works where our lessons are

10 days

Seriously, 10 days left. Pastor John will be here in like four, and then it's all fun and games till we depart. I'm gonna miss the new family I found here so very much. They will always be in my heart!!

Naya Geet Youth Retreat

     The 2013 youth retreat was so great! We finished the Restored book, and the kids prayed through and became free from many different things. We had fun playing games, singing, dancing, and just doing stuff together. The teams received points all week for winning games, challenges, and other things deserving points! I'm very proud to announce my team, Mako came out on top at the end of the week! Mako pride! The banda that we prayed would not interfere with this camp, didn't! We got to travel to the top of a "mountain" and spend two nights at a boy scouts camp. The strike did not start until the last day, so we just got to stay a bit longer and play some more games. Thank you L-rd for an amazing week.

The Web Game

Mako gaining points

sifting mud

Mako making bricks

Mako Sifting Sand

Everyone after community service >300 bricks

Mako playing free fall

Ema playing free fall

Ema free fall

Kitcha playing free fall

Mako finishing free fall

Mako doing Jenga

Sagar represent!

Harendra winning his challenge

Sagar owning rubics cube

the girls arm wrestling challenge

Sabbu owning at arm wrestling challenge

Youth Retreat 2013

Team Ema

Team Kitcha

Team Mako (winners!)

Service Project

The Naya Geet youth retreat has begun!! The first three days are here at the church doing service project activities. The last three days we are hoping to travel to a boyscout camp ground and have some fun there, if the banda currently planned is cancelled. Today was a blast. We kicked off with worship, then jumped into our game! It was a find your team game, and I'm gonna call it "The Name Game". So, we taped every persons name to the outside of the church building. Once they find it they read the back with a clue to go to a new place. We sent some to the family house, to a particular vegetable stand, and to the studio. At the house there were strips of red, blue, and yellow fabric tied all around the house with names on them, which had a clue on the back to go to a new place. Lots of running for them! After visiting all three stops, they had to come back to the church and find their leader. The team that had everyone there first won. Sarah's team got 1st, Lauren's 2nd, and mine solid 3rd. Now the team names are fun, mine is Mako (monkey), Sarah's is Kicha (dog), and Lauren's is Ema (eagle). We took some time to work on team chants, and then the work began. My team had first rotation making bricks, one by one, sifting, mixing, weighing, than pressing. We made 25 in an hour... I could list excuses on why we made so little, but I won't. ;) Next rotation was hauling dirt and rocks to a different location. We kicked behind there! we had 2 wheel barrows and some rice sacks, and took over 100 loads during our time. Basically the pile was almost gone. And lastly we took picks and strange tools to tear down a rock and cement wall. We were all tired, but pushed through and gave it our all. The other teams making bricks made 41, and 57! Yeah they did pretty good. The end tally of points for the day put Sarah's team 1st, Lauren's 2nd, and my team trailing. So time for some rest of the bodies, and another day tomorrow! We will have a new game in the morning, a teaching session on Restored, and then same work day. Youth retreat has officially begun!

April Fools, seran wrapped toilet  

Hauling the dirt pile, ground level at the end

My stylish choice, I wear these babies everywhere

Tearing down walls

Making the brick, the fun part