Dateline: Kathmandu, Nepal: March 1, 2011—“The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley,” according to Burns and I tend to believe it, if only looking at my own convoluted wanderings. My motto is Have God, Will Travel, and travel I do. It takes a lot of coordination and planning to fling myself off into the ether. Tickets have to be purchased, visas acquired, point of contacts identified and notified; it is a busy and demanding job just preparing to leave, much less the leaving itself. When I finally do cast off, I have a sheaf of papers with me containing e-tickets, e-reservations and e-confirmations. The job is never completely finished until I am back home again, but the major parts are usually mapped out well before I leave. Then Frost takes over, or is it Murphy?
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” Frost wrote in Mending Wall. Murphy would have a twist on it and write “Something there is that doesn’t like the Great Wall.” Three times I have booked flights to China, already to teach in a school that was established there last year, and three times the schedule has been changed. Last fall, number two change happened when the school was postponed until February. That is when I changed my itinerary and flew to Beijing to Hong Kong to Manila. At the time plans were made to teach in the third module beginning in February. That thought in mind, a ticket was purchased for me to fly back to Beijing in February for that very purpose as well as a visa acquired. What happened? One of the major teachers from America had to bow out owing to heart problems. The major coordinator and translator from Malaysia had to cancel because her mother had a stroke. “Something there is that doesn’t like the Great Wall.” Change three.
But I have learned there are always needs in the world for the few services I offer and so the call went out, a bit of a twist on the Macedonian call Paul received in Acts 16:9. “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.” A few emails were scattered abroad and soon the Macedonian calls were coming in. Two in particular seemed viable. One to return to the Philippines, one to go to Nepal and India.
Frost also wrote a poem titled The Road Not Taken. I have always said that India was not one of my favorite places, for reasons I will elucidate on in the next few posts, from India, allowing I am able to post from India. Truly it is a road I am not anxious to travel very often, some visceral hesitation standing as an impediment. But I know the needs are great in India and I have former Uchee Pines friends who have been working in this part of the world for 10 years and I thought it might be a blessing to them to have a bit of help. Terry and Sandra Horner, a mother and daughter, and Linda, another daughter who happens to be here in Nepal running a LIGHT school for a month, have dedicated themselves to the work here and dedication deserves confirmation, if nothing more than a helping hand and a familiar face.
So, I flew to Beijing on schedule (February 20-23…spent the night in Seattle and crossed the international dateline), spent the night in the Beijing Airport hourly lounge, and flew the next day on to Kathmandu, arriving a bit after 10 pm. In Nepal you can purchase a visa right there in the airport for $40 so in a matter of minutes I was deposited out amongst the mass of humanity collected outside the airport. Shades of India. All these people, wanting to carry your bags, give you a ride, beg some money, suggest a hotel. How thankful I was that my friend Esther Morris back at Uchee Pines had worked it all out for me to be met by Bhaju Ram Shrestha and two others. Soon I was safely ensconced in Bahju’s home in Kathmandu. Here I would wait until I was able to acquire an Indian visa.
More to come.
God bless,
Don Miller
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