Our work in Nepal this week has involved meeting with community leaders to discuss the work we hope to do in their villages to assist them as they recover from the damages of the earthquake. 

We will need their perspectives, understanding, support and commitment if the project is to be successful. There is a lot of work to be done to replace or repair their water lines, toilets and houses, and the community members will be actively involved in this participatory program. 

It rains during the meeting so we are under a tarp (see photo on right).  This is a two hour meeting that the team has been well prepared for. There is keen interest and lively discussion. In the end, the community is eager to get started with the work.

The scenery on the way up is incredibly beautiful. The entire side of the mountain has been turned into rice paddies where ever possible. The top of the dykes are planted with beans to add protein to their diet. 

At the end of a long the day the team eats dinner in a Christian Reformed Church whose walls have collapsed but the welded steel pipe roof frame has stayed together and rode the walls down. All evening congregants come and go visiting the minister who lives here with his wife and three children. We sleep on the floor or wooden platforms. It was a very pleasant, memorable night.   

Probin’s Story

I would like to tell you about our guide, a young man named Probin. The climb from valley floor below to the top, where we finished our day, is more than a half a vertical mile. I tell the team to go ahead because, at 70 years old, I can’t keep up with their younger pace. Probin was assigned to be my guide. There are many twists, turns and intersections in the trail and I would never find the way without him.  

Probin is 14 years old. In addition to being my guide he is also serving as a porter and translator as we climb to the next village. He is carrying his back-pack with school materials, and the other back-pack is Indra’s, the staff member in charge of the WASH project. In these mountainous regions it is very common to be a porter. 

The trail at this point is a two-track road for vehicles for a short distance, then it goes up in a single file steep uneven stone stairway. 

Probin is a wonderful and patient companion as we hike. To talk to Probin is to hear about his faith in God. For the next couple of hours he probably brings up his faith every five minutes.

Probin has lots of questions: was I a Christian, how long have I been a Christian, did I ever preach, etc.  His name is Probin but he will eventually change it to Abraham because he believes it is a better fit for a Christian to have a Bible name. 

When he was young he wanted to be a doctor but when he became committed to God he decided that it was more important to be a minister. He attended a private school until the earthquake which is where he learned good English. 

He now attends government school because the family’s finances are worse, as a result of the earthquake. He is a youth leader in his church and a Sunday School teacher.

Probin shows me where his grandfather was in his room in a chair when the earthquake struck and the house collapsed on him. His family had shouted for him to leave but he didn’t hear because he was hard of hearing. The houses were made of mostly loose stones. The vegetation has grown in the house in the four months since the earthquake.  Note how Probin is carrying my jacket.  He insists.

Probin is temporarily living in a relative’s house. All the houses in the village that I saw had a lot of food stored in them. Corn hangs everywhere there is room. It dries and is stored in the husk. It is ground into flour at a grind stone that is powered by a waterfall nearby.

Probin’s mother and his aunt are with him. His young aunt was injured in the earth quake. Her right hand was damaged as she lost her index finger both from the falling stones. They ask if I know where they could get medical help to repair her hand. Probin’s aunt showed me where her lower leg and ankle are still black and blue where heavy stones fail on her leg. It has been four months and her injuries are still unhealed.

I was very impressed by the maturity, character and especially strong faith of this young man. What a witness and example he is to the younger children that he teaches. Probin lives in a village that is predominately Hindu. What a visible testimony of Christianity he is to those who are not believers.

 

Dwayne Nienhuis

International Relief Manager
Nepal

 

Image above: Probin and his mother sitting in church.