“One of Rita’s former classmates is in the Nepalese army, surely she could pick you up at the airport, too.”

And so we immediately fixed a dinner, only a few days before my flight. During the dinner, the two told me about brigadier-general Aruna Rai and Rita told me how they came to know each other. 

Besides beauty care for Rita’s old Nepali friends, she and her husband gave me a nativity play and Christmas decorations as well as Glühwein-teabags for Aruna, who is like me catholic. In return, I received a phone number and the promise, that everything would be taken care of – quite an understatement, as I would soon learn.

A few weeks later, I was sitting with Sojan and a few students at RIU.

“Oh, I almost forgot about that”, I said, ” –  I have to meet the Nepali general later, when are we done here?” Again people look at me flabbergasted. One student chokes over his food. How is that, they asked me.

Well, I was somewhat stuck for an answer, too – that’s just the way it is, right? Sometimes you simply need a little bit of luck!

We invited her for breakfast in a nearby hotel and seized the opportunity to get to know about each other and each other’s work.

Even Aruna-ma’am did not know about any project in Nepal that could be compared to the RIU and considered the approach to be revolutionary, it feels good when your work inspires people.

But that’s not all. Aruna picked me up the next Saturday with the military vehicle and bring me to the Assumption Church in Kathmandu. I experienced a church service in Nepali and with that finally my first liturgy in four weeks.

She showed me around the city center and brought me, on another day, to a traditional festival of the Newari people, who are native to the Kathmandu valley.

 And it was just this Sunday that we went to the mass in the English language, where I got to know other Europeans, among others an American family with six children. After that we took the cable car to Chandragiri (a mountain next to Kathmandu with a summit 1000m above the houses), enjoying the view over the whole city over to the 250km distant Annapurna mountain range and even a glimpse at Mount Everest! And as if that was not enough hospitality, we went over to her family’s house for lunch and many interesting snippets on the country and its people.