Friday, Feb 23
We had planned to go to Pushupatinath, Swyambunath and Bodhnath, but came back to the Summit on Thursday to a note left by the Japanese Ambassador to Nepal that he had dropped by to see us but we weren’t there.  He said he would come Friday at 9:30 so everyone was glad to have a slow morning drinking coffee in the sun.  The Ambassador was our 4th grade classmate at Woodstock – Tsutomu Hiraoka – we called him Tom.  He came to the Summit and we talked for about 1 ½ hour.  He remembered Richard – that he wore glasses – and that they had pillow fights in the dorm.  He asked about Harishwar Dayal and Ethan Stein.  He is rather quiet but we talked about the future of Nepal.  He thinks the Maoist thing is over but that the agitation of ethnic groups is going to be the next problem as he says these people have been suppressed for the last 300 years and are now demanding rights.  After he was with us he went to a UN briefing at the Summit on the Maoist arms exchange.  

After we met with the Ambassador we walked to Sanepa.  We found Richard’s parent’s house.  It is part of a school now and the beautiful garden is a tamped down play yard.  DCP is all fancied up now – it is the headquarters of the Nanglo restaurant.  Our house is the Mercy Corps office.  We stopped off at Aradhana Church which is next door to our house.  It is all fixed up, too.  The two pastors were there – Hanuk Tamang and Samuel Sodemba.  They have, I think, close to 20 daughter churches now.  Hanuk was the business manager at KISC, I think, when David was there.  Samuel and his wife have a children’s home and the funder went bankrupt so they are carrying the load of keeping the home going.  Samuel is president of the local group of Children at Risk.  Three pastors came in while we were there and they each pastor 15 churches in Eastern Nepal, I think. 

We walked on past Miller’s house which is a preschool now and ate lunch at a small café which used to be the German bakery.  The whole area is so changed.  Almost unrecognizable.  I tried to find Yoder’s house, but couldn’t identify it.  Our lunch of soup and bread took so long at the café, because the electricity was off and they were cooking on one burner, that Richard walked back to the Summit to meet Arun while we waited at the café.  We had great brownies and banana bread for dessert.  Arun and Richard came back soon on Arun’s motor bike.  We got taxis and went to Arun’s house.  It is sort of near our first house.  He has a day care center in the two floors upstairs from his house.  It is quite well set up.  They have 8 kids so far, I think he said.  We didn’t meet his wife as he said she was at a prayer retreat in Pokhara for 2 months, I think he said.  His little girls were at school.  Tara was quite subdued.  She had a cold so didn’t feel good.  She fed us tea.  We toured the day care center and then left. 

We walked back to the Summit and went to Muni’s and Nani’s for dinner.  Muni showed us around his business which David Elliott and David Chun were very interested in as they are both in technology.  Muni built the first super computer in Nepal last year.  We had a delicious Newari dinner that Nani cooked.  I was feeling a little uneasy in my tummy but still enjoyed the meal.

Next Day - Saturday

Tsutomu Hiraoka, Japanese Ambassador to Nepal with Richard and Suzanne. We were classmates at Woodstock School, India.

Our house in Sanepa is now the office of Mercy Corps, based in Portland, OR.

Inside Aradhana Church with Pastors Samuel Sodemba and Hanuk Tamang.

Arun Shahi in his home audio recording studio. He works at UMN doing what his Dad and I used to do. Watch these music videos:
Choto Cha Yo Jeevan - by Arun Shahi
Yo Madhe Rat Ko - by Ruben Joy (Shahi)

Nani - CEO of High Tech Pioneer and the best Newari cook in Kathmandu!

After dinner Muni treats us to his skillful playing of the tabla!

Pictures of Sanepa
More Pictures of Sanepa
Pictures of High Tech Pioneer