The time for our team to head back to Boston has arrived.  It's been hard to believe that two weeks have really gone by, and now we're just a few hours away from a plane trip back to the States.  Though we're all looking forward to hot showers, steak, drier climates, steak, breathing in non-sulfur dioxide polluted air, and steak, we're also gonna miss this place that we've called home for the last 2 weeks.

I know I will miss the children at the orphanage and just all the different people that I've had a chance to meet here.  I've been really interested in the human rights aspect of our mission, and it's caused me to have a couple of moments where my heart felt burdened by the outright poverty, dim outlook on the future, and the political tension that exists here.  There is so much work to be done here, yet so few workers, esp. from the Church.  We have to arise!

Oh so many more thoughts, but will need more time to process and percolate.  Hopefully the time on the planes and the rest stops we get will help with that.  See you back in Boston on Saturday.

We got back to Kathmandu over and hour ago. The bus ride was long, but overall it was uneventful compared to the ride to Pokhara. We had originally planned on coming back another way, but it has been raining for the last 3 days in Pokhara, and we felt that it was probably safer and faster for us just to take a tour bus back to the capital.

Yesterday, Dan, Deivi, and I did some mountain hiking to the future site of the 2nd computer center that HOPE is planning on building in the next few months. It was a good 1.5hr trek through the river, the mountains, and a couple of villages. Once we arrived, we saw that it was going to be placed right next to the local clinic that HOPE also manages for the surrounding villages. Once the center is up, it hopefully will have 5 computer stations, and be at most a 30min walk for the local students who want to learn some computer skills.

During our trip back, while Deivi was visiting some friends at a rest stop, Dan and I talked about the challenges that Mosaic is facing with our building relationship with HOPE. Overall, this is a very new field for all of us to be apart of. Christian organizations in Nepal are small and very limited. The few christians who are in Nepal are tolerated at best, but also considered in many ways to be outcasts of society. The opportunities to really help the people in the cities and villages are limited because of that.

It is an interesting situation that we are in. We feel the tension of wanting to be bold about the Gospel, but at the same time, we know that true relationship and trust takes time. We don't want to put up a wall and say that we'll only spend time with them if they would listen to the Gospel. Our time in Nepal is more than just a project, it's about building relationships with the family here. They're not just subjects, or a mission goal to accomplish, they're people and they need to see that we do care about them, not just to evangelize them or their friends.

There isn't much experience honestly for this kind of work. How does the Church work and partner with secular organizations? That is a difficult question that has many possible answers. More often, the Church has decided to forge its own way or decided that the area is just too difficult to make any impact in the culture and give up. Yet, that is not what Mosaic wants. This is a partnership, but how to do it in a way that first builds up real relationship and not compromise being bold with the Gospel will be something that needs urgent counsel and wisdom no matter what.

In many ways, this all boils down to translation I think. It isn't the job of the Church to transplant western culture into a society while it transmits the Gospel. It's about reaching the people there, telling them of what Christ has done, and allow those followers to build up the local church. As they do that, the process of determining what aspects of their culture reflect biblical values, and what doesn't should be a natural result of them growing into being Christ followers. It's scary and yes a lot of problems can arise because of that, but that has been the way the Church grew in the Roman Empire times, Europe, and even in Asia.

Can Mosaic be apart of the Spirit's work here in Nepal through our relationship with HOPE? I think so and I pray that this will in time yield Godly fruit that goes beyond our expectations.

The team's been recovering well from the bout of medical complications during the past day. Today we'll be heading to Pokhara and staying there for a couple of days. Half of the team will be heading back to Kathmandu on Monday to conduct a few more interviews, while I and 2 others will be in Pokhara continuing to assist the local school and its computer/library system.

Today is also my last day as an English teacher at the local government school in Kathmandu. I was able to return teaching yesterday and the class went pretty well! I was greatly surprised by them when they started to volunteer and come up to the chalkboard to write down their answers to my questions. The class and their regular teacher were laughing as they saw how surprised I was at this initiative. It was really encouraging and I hope that this eagerness continues when our team leaves next week.

One funny thing happened right after class ended. When Mike(my team leader) and I were leaving the class, suddenly we heard a bunch of girls from the class shouting Mike's name, "Mr. Chen!" Next thing I know, I see a group of 10 girls surrounding Mike and hearing them ask for a photo of him. Of course, Mike was surprised and said that he'll see if he can find a picture he can give the class. We offered to take a picture with the class tomorrow and mail it to them when we get back to the States. Right after that, the girls asked for my picture, but I think they did that out of courtesy. ;>)

Who knew that my MARRIED team leader was such hot stuff to the ladies? I really wish I took a photo of that moment...Kodak anyone?

Putting that aside, later on in the day, I got to participate in an interview with an International relief organization during the afternoon. We met with the temp. director of the organization and discussed her group's focused topic, IDP(Internally Displaced People). You see, during the civil war in Nepal, many Nepalese left their villages and towns because of the war. This group's focus is to find and assist these IDPs and help them return to a normal life by helping them understand what their rights as Nepalese and IDPs are.

It was an extremely good conversation and definitely gave us a great brain storming session later on. Hopefully when we return we'll have processed more of what we learned. More about the IDP topic surely to come on this xanga later on.

All right, my time here is almost up. Take care everyone and namaste!

One of the interesting discussions I had with my team leader was focused on the strange unawareness that exists within the Nepalese culture in regards toward their women. Here is one prime example:

Within Nepalese culture, when a man and woman marry each other, its the woman's family who pays for everything. They especially do their very best to take care of her husband. The reasoning behind this is that the man and his family in turn will take care of the wife. So even after he dies, his family will continue to care for her.

However, within the Hindu belief system in Nepal, should a woman's husband die, it is believed that he died because of his wife's bad karma. Thus, the woman is branded as being cursed and is abandoned by both her family and her husband's.

This scenario has played out many times here in Nepal. It usually ends up that the women are left to fend for themselves and their children. It is not unusual to find widows who are working literally back breaking jobs just to get a few rupees a day to feed their children. It's a very sad situation, one that I've been seeing repeatedly here in Kathmandu.

One interesting idea that we've had is to bring up these two contradictory beliefs and see how the people will respond. Generally the 2nd rule doesn't come up unless it happens, so in a sense the first rule gives a false sense of security as the Hindu karma belief will always trump the first rule.

Much to write more about later.

So the past day and half I had been cooped up indoors because I wasn't feeling very well. I think the combination of unfamiliar(but good!) food, cold showers, and lack of sleep has led to my body going a little haywire on me. Thankfully, one of my teammates, who is a doctor, returned from the hospital with some antibiotics that were intended for one of the relatives of our host family. As it turned out, he also went to a hospital and was given the exact same medicine. After she checked on me and learning a bit of my tendency for respiratory sickness, she concluded that the antibiotics she brought was exactly what I needed. I felt so much gratitude to God for that provision!

I've been feeling a bit better today, definitely will take a couple more days for my body to completely adjust to this environment in Kathmandu. One of the monkey wrenches that has been thrown at our group has been the amount of pollution in the city. It's extremely bad! I don't think I've ever breathed in this much sulfur dioxide my entire life in Boston as I have these last 3 days. This is definitely one of the things that we're seeing needs to change for the Nepalese in Kathmandu. How that can be done will be something that we're going to need to think through and explore.

Another interesting note about my time here is the teaching that we're doing at the local government school. Here in Nepal, English is perceived as an elite language. If one were to learn how to speak in english, according to the local belief, than one is more prone to succeed in school and life. However, the government schools are built more on the principle of repetition and recital. Many of the students in the school live as domestic servants, meaning they work before school, and then work after school. They're usually from lower caste families or low income families that can not afford a private school education for their children.

It's been one of the issues that have been weighing on my heart. It's clear that these kids are eager to learn, but the system they are apart of right now is intuitively not creating a learning culture. Instead, it's more of an emulation model, where children simply repeat word for word whatever the teacher is teaching. This will definitely be an area that we'll be focusing on when our team returns to Boston.

All right, gotta head out. Thank you for your emails and encouragements. Hope to see you all when I return to Boston on 8/4.

We got into Katmandu yesterday night around 530pm. My 2 other teammates and I were exhausted but were extremely happy to see familiar faces once we left the airport. 2 major thing hit me once we met up.

Besides that, today was also my first day as an English teacher at the local government school in Kathmandu. I have about 40 students and I think we got off to a good start today. They all thought it was amazing that I looked so young and that I was born in the USA.

One of the things you will notice in Nepal is that they are really a mixed race of different ethnicities and cultures. You may see some Nepalese who may look Indian, and others who will look chinese/mongolian. Apparently to most Nepalese here, they're mistaking me and a few other friends to be Mongolian.

We'll be doing more similar work during this week and next week we will be heading to Pokhara to work with another government school as well. I'm enjoying this time with my team, could not ask for better friends on this trip.

Will write again next time I'm able. Take care!

Well I'm as ready as I can be.  Will see everybody when I get back on 8/4...hopefully.  

As some of you may know already, I will be heading off to Kathmandu, Nepal in less than 10 days from now.  I'm part of a group from Mosaic Boston that will be partnering up with a relief organization called the "HOPE Initiative".  Our time there will be spent working in the orphanage that HOPE had created for the many children who were displaced during the 10 year civil war that the country endured.

3 out of 7 of our teammates will be in Nepal by this coming Thursday, 2 of which had left early this morning.  These 3 teammates will be laying down the ground work and relational connections that we'll be using when the rest of the team(myself included) arrive by the 22nd.

Before the rest of us leave for Nepal, we still need to raise the necessary funds in order to pay for the plane tickets, accommodations, and supplies that we will be needing for this trip.  Currently the estimated cost for each team member is between $2100-2200.  For myself, I've raised just a little above $1600 and am hoping that the rest will be met by the time I head out.  Though each of us have the option of using some limited funding from Mosaic, since the church is still very young and small, I personally do not want to take these funds unless absolutely necessary.

If you are interested in more information about this trip, please click here for the "Nepal Project".

If you are interested in partnering with us financially, there are two options:

So in the span of 1 month, my best friend and I have been to Gloucester, MA 3 times. The first two times were for 2 whale watching trips that turned out amazingly well! We saw humpback whales that were no less than 20 yards away from our ship; we saw whales that breached the surface (they jumped out of the ocean!!!); and heard whales that practically were blowing their noses!

This last trip happened on Friday because of a pre-wedding / engagement photo session we did with a friend of ours from Mosaic Boston. We've known her ever since we started attending Mosaic as she was one of the first ones to make us feel welcomed to the community, so it was definitely appropriate to have her be apart of our upcoming marriage. Plus, she's becoming a pretty snazzy professional photographer and can't wait to see the proofs from our session. If you or anyone you may know who's looking for a good professional photographer for weddings, senior portraits, or baby photos, give Rachel a call.

decent urban lifestyle
rachel@decenturbanweddings.org

Other than that, I better hit the sack again and recoup some sleep. Enjoy the two slideshows from our whale watching trips.

About a half hour ago I stepped outside my work building to make a call and on the pavement I found this green moth on the ground.  I initially thought it was dead so I slightly brushed it with my foot, but to my amazement I found the little critter was still alive and attempted to flap its wings, but it couldn't get airborne.  When I took a closer look at it, I couldn't see anything wrong with it.  Its wings were intact.  Didn't look like it was stepped on yet, and from the flapping, still had a lot of energy.

Either case, went to my car and put on my work gloves so I could pick up the moth and placed it on some tree leaves and branches that was near the building.  Kinda strange that I did that as I usually tried to avoid the wonderful insect life that can be found in Hopkinton, especially the blood-sucking kind.  I guess I felt sorry for the little moth and wanted to give it a better chance at survival.  At least it won't die from being stepped on if anything else.

Googled it a bit and discovered that the bug is called the "Actius Luna" or the "Luna Moth" as its commonly known.  Turned out its the mascot for the sleeping-pill drug Lunesta and is very common in the New England area.  Wish I had my camera with me as it was also a pretty moth.  Never thought I'd say that, but it does have a peaceful look to it.