A Fun Weekend, by Nate Beine

Last Saturday we went to our Didi (a woman who cooks and cleans for foreigners or wealthy Nepalis) Jibu's house.  It probably takes about half an hour to walk there but my mom and dad kept stopping to take pictures so it took about an hour.  She has three sons named “Suedeep,” “Sondeep,” and “Beepin” (these are probably not the real spellings of their names, but simply how they sound).  They have come to our house before to play.  Suedeep had bought a Checkers and Backgammon board so he wanted us to teach them how to play, so we did.  

Teaching checkers

After that we went to see their animals while the adults talked in Nepali.  They had rabbits, goats, and the tamest water buffalo I've ever seen.  You see, water buffaloes are like big cows with horns and have a bad reputation for pushing people off high mountain paths. People use them for their milk and for plowing fields but they're quite dangerous.  I was standing two feet away from it, just out of range of harm, given the rope that secured it, trying to get in a picture with it, when Beepin jumped down from the rafters of the stable (which is where they keep the food for the animals) onto the water buffalo’s back!  After that we had a fun time riding it.  

Ride'em cowboy Nate!

 For lunch we had Daal Bhat (a meal of rice, lentils, and sometimes vegetables that most Nepalis have two or three times a day).  The rice and vegetables came from their own fields. They even had chicken that they'd killed that morning.  After lunch we played in the field, drank chiya (a common Nepali tea), and had a water fight while the adults talked.  We decided to go home because of a thunder cloud that we saw coming toward us and because we wanted to get home before dark.  This family is Hindu so please pray that we'll be able to tell them about God and Jesus and that they will listen. 

As some of you may or may not know, my brothers and I are doing Tae Kwon Do now.  Since yesterday was Republic day (the day that Nepal became a republic) all of the people doing Tae Kwon Do marched around the town in their suites with an ITF (International Tae Kwon Do Federation) banner.  They ended down at the big field called “Tulelikel.”  

Can you spot the four blond boys- well three blond boys and a nearly bald white boy- among the sea of dark haired kids?

At the field, some of the people did demonstrations; first, a black belt did some cool spinning moves with a long wooden pole.  After that,  nine people kneeled down on two legs and a yellow/green belt (which is only the fourth belt) did a flying kick over them and broke a board.  Then  a couple more people did  regular kicks to break boards, and then the real fun began.  First, two people knelt down and another one lay face up on top of them.  Someone placed two bricks on him to hold up the boards.  Then they stacked panes of glass on top of the bricks and in between each pane was a board soaked in kerosene.  They lit the boards on fire and another yellow/green belt chopped through them!  Once the boards and glass were smashed the three guys jumped up, and no one got hurt.  After that a second degree black belt (who sometimes teaches us) had a red belt get down on his knees, put a board with two bricks standing up on it on his head, and the black belt broke the bricks in half with one chop!  Next, two red/black belts kicked tube lights in half and two people held another tube light up as high as they could and a Black belt did a back flip and kicked it in half.  It was pretty fun, and Stephen (one of our friends), who is a red/black belt and helps teach us said that maybe the guy who broke the bricks could teach us how.  I'm glad that I do Tae Kwon Do.

By Nate

(P.S. The events contained in this message were not necessarily approved of by my mom.)