Play Day ...

Our hosts surprised us on the way back to Kathmandu by taking us to the Chitwan National Forest - thousands and thousands of acres of protected land. It is beautiful here with a river running through the area, mountains as a background, and all sorts of wildlife. In fact we took a Safari tour through the Forest and saw wild crocodile, rhinocerous, deer, Bison, a King Cobra snake, boar, elephants, beautiful parrots, all kinds of wildlife. It was a beautiful 4 - 5 hour trip mostly down trails, through the heavy trees, and occasionally just driving across the land in the tall grass.



A scene from the National Forest ...



We also got the chance to take an elephant ride! It was very fun - they seem like gentle giants. While we are riding this elephant through the Tharu village (these people live in 1 room adobe-like homes with straw roofs, packed in together) suddenly a little girl about age 8 runs up to our elephant crying hysterically. We find out that the wife of our "driver" has suddenly become sick, and about 2 minutes further down our journed we are passing a middle aged Tharu woman laying unresponsive surrounded by others. Our driver seems reluctant to abandon his post as driver but through our friends we insist that he stops and attends to his wife. He is finally willing to do so when he finds out that Dan is a doctor.


A typical Tharu home, picture taken from the elephant ...

A quick exam reveals that this woman has a stable pulse and blood pressure but is semi-comatose. 2 young men show up in a motorcycle and they get the go-ahead to transport the patient to a small clinic type hospital within 5 miles or so, and our patient is propped between them on the bike, and off they go with the man in the back holding her between the two of them.



Getting on our elephant ....



These are BIG animals!


We have a group prayer for this woman, and pray that God be glorified through this. Later that evening we hear word back that she is conscious, and expected to go home late that day - never knowing for sure what they found... still, we praise God for His continued faithfulness. We have been told by so many that we are in their prayers, and we truly know that we have are traveling under the covering of the Lord. Thank you everyone, it means SO much to us ...