Tuesday 27th February
As I was going to visiting the Drews who work for BMS in Nepal, it was a requirement that I complete a health check to make sure I would be up to it. This was mainly via a self-disclosure form which included recording my height and weight. When the report came back it suggested that I might be a little heavy for my height – who knew?! I prefer to think of it as being a little short for my weight, but there you go. The report included some advice, which was that I should not overly exert myself and take plenty of rest. I mention this because today I took a three hour walk which included climbing 365 steps to get to the top of one of the two biggest Buddhist temples in Kathmandu. I survived, but my face was doing a good impression of a beetroot by the time I got to the top.
The temple is called the Swoyambhunath Stupa, although it is often nicknamed ‘the Monkey Temple’ by tourists. There were certainly a lot of macaque monkeys around, scavenging the tourists food and, well, monkeying around. There was one monkey that was copying the hand gesture of a woman who was praying in front of a small temple. Perhaps it thought that praying might get it some food.
It is said that when one is tired of monkeys, one is tired of life. This is a little worrying as I think I am beginning to tire of monkeys.
Tomorrow is my last day and I’m visiting the Nepali Baptist Bible College and sharing in some of their activities. I’ll report in – probably for the last time – tomorrow.