(Friday Update...we could not get the internet working last night)
Well, another interesting morning for us all (or just half of us). We woke up bright and early and headed out to the refugee camp in two different vans. In one van was Gajendra, Chris, Mom, Dad and myself. We were just riding along, and all the sudden our driver swerves to dodge a pothole in the road, and he hit a bicycle with a man and his wife on it. They were thrown off, and our driver immediately jumped out and they just started screaming at each other. Soon, a huge crowd came up to watch them all scream. Thank God Gajendra was with us! He jumps out and helps the lady up and tries to speed up the process. No police....just two people yelling. The man on the bike didn’t seem too worried about his wife still lying in the road, he just wanted his bike to be fixed. Anyways, after about 10 minutes, we were back on our way!
I am not too sure I ever imagined myself spending a summer day in a refugee camp for seven hours with no shoes. I also cannot say I would have eaten Nepali food cooked in a refugee camp with my fingers. And you know what...it was actually good. In fact, that is what I am ordering for dinner tonight!
We had a heck of a day! We started out with another welcome...I would say Nepali welcome, but these were Bhutanese people. One of the workers announced each person as if we were the starting line up for the Atlanta Braves. It was awesome. We then split into two groups to do a bible story, crafts, and talent shows. The crafts were quite interesting...given we had a space that in America we would barely put 100 people in, and there we had over 300 kids and workers piled in. I felt like I was handing out water in the desert when we were trying to hand out crafts. We were mobbed!
The talent show was fun. We were able to experience some of the Nepali and Bhutanese culture through song and dance. One group of teenagers were doing a dance, and our missionary Purna jumped up and started to dance with them! Next thing you know, Dad jumps up....then Samuel....and then they grabbed Mom. It was quite entertaining and may end up on YouTube one day. Luckily the part where myself and Mandi were pulled up there was not taped.
One of my favorite parts of the day was walking out to Samuel’s home in the refugee camp. We had a following! Kids started lining up behind us and following us into the camp. I can honestly say I have never seen kids that look this poor before in my life. Some of them had just a tiny t-shirt on and nothing else. All the homes are made of bamboo, and it is actually incredible how sturdy and well-built they are. We were able to spend some time with Samuel and his family...while the kids stood in the doorway and watched our every move. Samuel was forced to leave Bhutan when he was only 6 and has lived in the camp for 18 years. He is only 26 years old, and is one of Awana’s finest missionaries. Some of Samuel’s family have already been moved to Atlanta, and Samuel and the rest of his family should be there within the next year. Long story short, Bhutanese refugees were only allowed to live in the Nepali camps for 20 years, and now are being moved to other places...many of which are in the U.S.
Samuel talked about how hot his home was, and said he cannot wait to come to America. Sometimes that is all you need to hear to understand just how blessed you really are.
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