When everything changed

Good morning friends and family,

I'm sorry for missing a month in blogging, everything has been changing almost by the day and it escaped my mind.

So Nepal went into full lockdown at the end of March, almost overnight. We were unable to go to school on site and the Spring break moved forward so that we could catch our breath and plan for the future. Like many other schools, we are now teaching online using platforms including Zoom, Google Classroom and Seesaw. It has been an adaptation to quite a different way of teaching - certainly a steep learning curve for me as I've been finding more creative ways to teach using technology.

I decided to do lockdown with a friend outside of the guesthouse to keep her company, because she lives alone and much more centrally in the city and because I thought that WiFi would be easier with only 2 people using it for live lessons simultaneously, rather than 6 people. Various colleagues made the difficult decision as to whether to remain Nepal or to be repatriated on evacuation flights.

The three British flights came and left. We were settling into an online routine, but it was extremely time-consuming and frustrating, mostly due to the slow internet connection which was affected by the storms which were happening every night and the difficulty that I had in hot-spotting. Being disconnected from the majority of the Zoom sessions that I was leading was very disheartening! Then we learnt of a French repatriation flight, and put our names onto the waiting list. We were assured that it was full and that we were unlikely to get seats so we didn't set our hopes on it but used it like a fleece and I was settled in my spirit about both leaving and staying. We already knew that, whatever the situation, the entirety of Term 4 would be online. The director had made that decision in the preceding weeks in order to give staff, students and families the freedom to return to their home countries if they wished, during this time.

All of a sudden, in the afternoon of Friday 1st May, we received a call from the French ambassador in Nepal asking if we were still interested in the flight and that seats had become available. We rushed to the French embassy and paid a very reasonable price for our seats, packed, slept a little and got up at 4am, left at 5am, made it to the meeting point by 6am and flew at 11am!

(Picture: sunset flying into Paris)

We stayed overnight in the airport in Paris, which was a really bizarre experience as the airport was so empty. Then we managed to get on a flight to London the following afternoon and a taxi picked us up to take us to Karen's house in Stubbington (on the south coast between Portsmouth and Southampton).

(Picture: the empty airport in Paris)

And now, here we are! Self-isolating in her house and still living on Nepal time in order to do online teaching at school there. It is such a blessing to be here, where the internet is fast and we can teach with considerably less stress! It also means that we will be in the UK over the summer, which is really amazing. I am enjoying still being part of church in Nepal via Zoom and church in the UK via Zoom too!

(Picture: we are up well before sunrise every day!)

(Picture: creative maths teaching online!)

Of course, we are still both fully committed to KISC and we will be returning as soon as the school reopens on site and the airport reopens, hopefully in July. Being here now also gives us the ability to go back early and complete a quarantine period upon return before the start of term.

So, I am feeling entirely blessed! It is a very strange reality to be living in a different time zone to the country that I am in, therefore getting up at the equivalent of 2am here and sleeping around 6:30pm. But as we have set all of the clocks to Nepali time, I genuinely don't know what time it is in the UK at any given point without counting back!

Things to pray for:

- Thankfulness for God's provision and goodness.

- The rest of Term 4 online, that I would teach and love the kids really well even though I can't see them in person.

- Our governments and leaders during this time.

- New staff for KISC for the new academic year.

- Closeness to Jesus for all throughout this whole situation.

Thank you for your kindness, your support, your prayer. I really value you!

With much love

Hannah

"Be still and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10

(Picture: my awesome housemates in the guesthouse)