Keep the Faith "But you will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another." Mosiah 4:15

In a small village in the south eastern part of Nepal named  Malangwa exists a subdivision of the village called  Saptari.  This village is where people called untouchables live their lives.  They, as the name implies, are not to associate with other castes of people and live together in poverty.  As we visited Malangwa to distribute blankets  as a protection against the cold that had become so severe that people were dying.  There were between 5 and 8 people dying each night, and we, LDSC, were requested to provide blankets for them.  This is a journey of the small community and the lives they live.  The picture to your left is the home and environment in which they live.  At the bottom of the picture you can see log shaped things, these are the cow dung that has been formed to make chips for burning.

They are used primarily for cooking, but are also used to help warm them.  One of the most noticeable things,to me, was the open sewage.  At the bottom of the building is a trench that the sewage runs along.  It is not used as a toilet just the sewage water that runs through the area.  They have no toilets, they just go out behind the house, in the field, where ever.  As you look at the people in the picture you might think that they are cutting across a field or open area, not true that is the main road in and out of their area.

I would like to digress to Mosiah and refer to the talk of King Benjamin as he spoke to us regarding our duty as children of Christ towards the children of men: "And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; "ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the begger putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish." Mosiah 4:16

These are the children of men and it is our obligation to help them find a pathway to their Heavenly Father.  With that said, do they look untouchable to you?  Every where we went they wanted their pictures taken and then they wanted to look at the pictures.













I found this picture of the new and the old, This beautiful child and her Hajur Ama.  When you look at these two you can see the love from the child to grandmother and back.  The sweet innocence and trust that she emanates.  As we explored some more we found some of the work they do to sustain themselves.

This women makes these baskets for home and to sell, she was showing us her wares.  You can see immediately behind her where she makes her goods.




These children are all standing in one of their houses, you can see a mat that was just completed for them to sleep on behind the girl to the left of the picture.  This area called the Terai is a belt of marshy grasslands, savannas,and forests located south of the outer foothills of the Himalaya. The lowland plains of the Terai lie at an altitude of between 67 and 300 meters.  With all of the information you can see why this was such a dangerous time.  The temperature fluctuates very quickly and the high and lows are extreme.  During this crisis the highs were in the mid 60's F and drop down to the mid 20's F.  Two factors regarding the temperature were the it would only stay for possibly an hour in the high range and plummet quickly to the low 30's F, about 90 minutes to drop that low.  The other contributing factor is the lowlands are marshy and wet creating a penetrating cold, and then the poverty they live in, all they have is what they can produce from their environment, the mats they sleep on are not to warm them, just to keep them out of the dirt.  When you bring all of these  things together and put a very young child or an older, or possibly ailing person they can not survive.

During our walk around the area I found another picture of a well.  This one was managed at the time by a young girl.  When I took her picture she showed off to me how strong she was and pumped like crazy for me.

Something that is very important about this picture is that this was not a game for her, this is her life.  She has responsibilities to collect water and bring it to her home and as you can see the buckets are fairly large.  Once the buckets are full she will carry them home.

This last picture in Saptari is indicative of the culture.  Look closely and you will notice the pump well and just to the right there are two pigs.  Pigs are considered a very dirty animal and are not touched by any one else except this Caste.  They run around the area and get into everything, especially the garbage, so... the pigs themselves become untouchable by everyone except the untouchables.  They are acceptable to eat, I don't get it!



This area Saptari is the area that was identified by the Village Development Committee (VDC) to receive the blankets, now off to the distribution.



The blankets arrived and were unloaded,

 Elder and Sister Rempp with Rakesh Hamal and the delivery truck and driver.  The ceremony would begin shortly.

The people were beginning to gather to receive the blankets, but first a ceremony to hear from the various organizations that had organized with LDSC the blankets and their distribution. These are some of the people that were there.  This is interesting and I am not sure what it means but, women and children were in the front, and the men sat to the side.





You can see that there is great anticipation for the blankets.

With all of the activity that was going on there is still the innocence of youth.  I caught these two just to show how we really are all God's creation, children of men or otherwise.

Janet at the same time decided to feel just what an untouchable felt like. She said, "this is a wonderful!",  and just had to carry the baby for a while to get her grandma fix for the day.

You be the judge, is it dangerous to touch this child?  I guess the jury is still out we will wait and see if she get warts or something.



Back to why we were there, the blankets.  This man was very pleased to get the blanket and made a big deal about the gift.

Janet handing out blankets

The people who live in this area have very little education, this is changing and the children are getting more of a education than their parents.  When they received a blanket they needed to sign and to accommodate their illiteracy the organizers would get a thumb print.

A couple more pictures before we hit the road.

Beautiful woman and a boy with great hair.


















Last but not the least is Janet's new best friend.

This is a teacher at the school near the blanket distribution.  She just kept hugging Janet and wanted to touch her hair and crying, she was so excited that we would talk to her and recognize what she was doing.








It is time to get back to Kathmandu and so off again to the city.  We are at a very low elevation so began an interesting drive back.
You can see that the roads a very steep, but the view is amazing.














We reached the summit and stopped for a bite to eat and then home.  This picture below is from inside the place we stopped and had fried fish with beaten puffed rice.  Yummy heads and all.

This view is of the Himalayan and we could see them very well it is amazing what you can see from the top of the world.


To sum it up - we serve and because we serve we are blessed beyond measure.  Our testimonies grow beyond what we could do alone, when Heavenly Father shows you His will through the people you meet and his creations you see more clearly the need to better understand His will.

Next time - There is beauty all around.