Living Simply!

Hi Everybody!
Yesterday at 9:00 Am we arrived in Kathmandu safely, after a 4 hour flight to Huston, a 16 hour flight to Doha, Qatar, and another 4 hour flight to Kathmandu! The journey here was long, but flying into the city was amazing! Buildings are everywhere, and the streets are packed. Similar to Africa, their are no rules of the road, people are everywhere, babies are running around naked, and cows fill the streets because they are sacred. Everything went relatively smoothly, except after standing in the visa and immigration line for over an hour in an extremely hot airport, we were told that we needed a picture along with our passport picture. This ended up being a scam and not the case, but we didn't realize this until we left the line, found a small photo booth in the airport, and paid $15.00 for the picture! Owell, what can you do! All of our backpacks and all 6 huge duffel bags filled with donated goods (hospital supplies, school supplies, bed sheets, umbrellas, toys etc..) all made it here without a probelm, and Brother Nepal (the father of the home that we are staying at) was waiting for us outside the Kathmadu airport. All nine of us piled into a van, and we headed towrads the Lalitpur district, in the Kathmandu Valley.
The valley is absolulty breath taking. Mountains are surrounding us, and crops are everywhere. The orpahange is completly self sustaining, and all of the little ones have jobs that help maintain the crops, clean the house, and feed everybody. They have a potatoe feild, a fish pond, ducks, carrots, cabbage, corn, wheat, and three huge pigs! As I sit here and write this, I am looking out a window at 24 kids playing the best game of hide and go seek that I have ever seen, I can hear music coming from the Buddhist temples, and I can see a huge golden Buddah in the middle of one of the mountains! Crazy!
When we arrived at the orphanage, we were greeted each with a beautiful bouquet, and a line of little ones singing to us and handing out hugs. It was amazing! I truly felt like I was at home. I missed this feeling so so much! We met with Brother Nepal and Sapana his wife, unpacked our stuff, and decided that being jet legged was not a good enough excuse to not help harvest potatoes! It was so hard, but so fun. We joined in with 10 Nepoli men and women and dug up potatoes for the rest of the afternoon. This was easily one of the hardest jobs ever, and my back is killing me today. Not being able to communicate with these people was hard, but watching as they laughed at everything we did was pretty funny. I watched a 98 year old lift a sack of potatoes over her head like it was a pillow and climb a clif! I tried to lift a smaller sack, and couldn't even get it an inch off the ground. Pretty embarassing! One of the boys on the team sliced his hand open pretty good, and we couldn't tell if the people were worried about him, or concerned that he was bleeding on their potatoes as they shewed him away! He is alright though!
Today we went to church for 2 hours. Unfortunately I didn't understand a word, but it was a cool experiance. The church was the top level of the sketchiest appartment building, and we sat cross legged on a pillow!
We start our jobs tomorrow. There is a community stream that is filled with garbage, so I think we are going to take that on. There is also a second home being built that we are going to help finish. Those are the first of many jobs that we hope to compelte.
That is it for now! I will try and write twice a week depending on how the power situation is.
Love you all! Talk to you soon!

xoxo Tory

Ps: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MAMA! 2 years in a row! I am terrible. I love you so so much, and I wish you were here with me. You would love the kids they are so fun. I hope you have a great day and Ains and leight spoil you! Love you and miss you already! xoxo