Nepal Volunteer Journals

Before I head off in two weeks, there are some very incredible people I’d like to acknowledge for their pivotal roles in my fundraising effort. This volunteer trip has turned out to be an expensive one, but I know it will be well worth it.
In the end, I raised just over $2000 to help pay for my volunteer program. I am so amazed by everyone’s generosity (in time, money, donations,and support)…please know that it makes a huge difference and that it means an incredible amount to me!
A thousand thanks to:
The Campbell family
Leslie Gray, Willem Kruithof, Anna Kruithof
Brandin Lilgert
Brittany Janzen
Alexandra Orzeck
Every [...]

Hello and welcome to my online journal!
I will be leaving for Nepal on March 24th for almost three months to volunteer with the NGO Volunteer Service in Nepal (VSN) and to trek my little heart out. I will be volunteering as part of a health team in Children’s Homes in the Kathmandu Valley. With any luck, I’ll come back with a broader mind, a bigger heart, and a wiser soul. And if all else fails, I’m fairly certain I’ll come back with stonger quadriceps.
This journal will be how I connect with all the people I love back home (instead [...]

today was a long day, training went lionger than expected as there was a lot to cover. It wasn’t too bad though, but everyone was a bit tired by the end because there was so much to take in but it was all important. there was a lot covered. tomorrow we head to bistachaap to experience village life. bit hungry now so we are going to get dinner. more updates after we get back!

Well, we have all settled in quite nicely over here. all the volunteers are very friendly and we have all become friends very quickly. To look at us you wouldn’t know we have only just met. Thamel (district of Kathmandu) is fantastic! So many shops and people! It is just vibrant here. It is however, a very different living environment, but nevertheless I am enjoying it immensely and have fit in quite easily. Thankgod for hand sanitiser!
Today was my first taste of Dhaal Bhat. It was great! We were served up with a bowl of lentil soup and a plate of [...]

Well, after a good nights sleep at my hotel and an early wake up call to catch the bus, I am now killing some time before I board my flight to Kathmandu. I wonder what the next 3 months will have in store for me? Well, only one way to find out…dive straight on into it! Here goes!

Just one more sleep until I fly out of the country for the next few months. So excited! So many farewells have already been said. I’ve never had to catch up with so many old friends all at once!
Gotta go finish packing now!

Namaste,
TJ and I have just returned from a week-long training session in the village of Bistichaap. Bistichaap is a rural village about 1.5 hours away from the main city of Kathmandu here in Nepal. In Bistichaap, we stayed with a host family, which consisted of an aamaa (mother), baa (father), two didis (older sisters), the husband of one didi, and their three children. We were given a nice, small room. Each day, either our aamaa or didi brought us tea and we ate Daal Bhaat, which is the main dish in Nepal. In fact, it is all the Nepalis eat! [...]

Namaste! We have arrived safely in Kathmandu, Nepal, and have instantly fell in love with this city. After India, Kathmandu seemed very refreshing to us– more calm and relaxed. It is also cleaner, which is a welcome surprise as well. We have spend hours roaming Thamel, which is the tourist area of Kathmandu, and have been amazed at all the wonderful things there are for sale, and mostly at the cheap cost! We also went to visit the nearby Monkey Temple, which is basically a temple where lots of monkeys hang out. I can honestly say that seeing monkeys here [...]

Since our last entry we have seen the Taj Mahal, been back to Delhi for a night, traveled north to Rishikesh for 2 days, and are now back in Delhi. The Taj Mahal was incredible, to say the least. We had a tour guide for this outing, so we got to learn a little bit about the history behind the Taj Mahal, as well as the architecture. The Taj Mahal is a monument of perfect architecture… the marble is stunning, and the inlays of semiprecious stone are beautiful. We feel very lucky to have glimpsed one of the seven wonders [...]

Our first week in India has been an adventure, to say the least. Sometimes we truly feel like we are on a different planet, because India is so extremely different from the life we know at home. After spending our first night in Delhi, we met up with Raj, who was our cab driver from the previous night and had offered to take us sightseeing in Delhi for 800 Rupees (about $20). He met us at our hotel, and we went first to see the Birla Temple, where we offered money to the Hindu gods and received a blessing. We [...]

“Life is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”
This quote was said by my grandmother, and it is one that both TJ and I believe in wholeheartedly. As you all know, we will soon be embarking on a journey that will take us to the other side of the globe. We will be spending 6 weeks working in a Children’s Home in or near Kathmandu, Nepal beginning the first of July. The month of September will be spent working in another Children’s Home in Calcutta, India. The rest of our adventure will be spent in [...]

Since coming back from everest i have been back to charity for a few days to meet the new volunteer there, Hilgo.
Going back was awesome, but so sad to have to say goodbye again, i kind of feel like my relationship with the children had got so much stronger in the last few weeks and it was so nice to be greeted with hugs and high-5’s (including the silly little high-5’s i taught them) i spent the days helping out Hilgo with medicines and we attempted to implement a medical routine as so many of the children need twice daily [...]

Yesterday i came back from doing the Everest Base Camp trek, one of the most amazing experiences of my life.
Me and Rebecca started out on the 28th with a little gear, a little money and the lonely planet guide book, hoping to make it to base camp, the gokyo lakes and back in 18 days.
In the end we met up with a group of indian trekkers, and English girl called Juni and and Australian girl called Jacky and made it to Base Camp and back in 12days but had to miss out Gokyo due to monetary issues!
So we started out [...]

Have spent the last 2weeks going from one extream to the other.
Firstly headed off 2 Chitwan National Park for a small retreat with Jess which started out with an early long and stupidly hot bus ride through the mountains (beautiful untill you drive past an upturned bus.) where we tried 2 stay as still as possible as our window wouldnt open!
During the 1 stop on the 6hour coach of a thousand fires we ordered food a little late and ended up attempting 2 down our lassis and wrap up pancakes in paper towels (which then stuck as fast as a [...]

Again i have left a very large gap between blogs!
So an update on charity first:
Alot (but not all) of the children are back from there various trips now. we asked where they had been and most of them said ‘aunties, uncles.’ etc but we managed 2 get out of the older girls that they had actually been teaching young children somewhere out of the valley! Definately leads you to wonder about wages for that, esp as it was the owner that told them to go and do it.
Its nice 2 see some of the children who we only saw for [...]

Have meant to update my blog on here many times in the last few weeks but has been pretty busy.
so, to give a brief overview:
About 2 weeks ago was the festival of Holi, as dreaded by us volunteers in Manamaiju who for about 5 days before couldnt walk anywhere ( home, orphanage, chiyaa pasal!!) without getting ridiculously soaked. so we were muchos excited to hear that not only would we be spending Holi at one of the VSN homes- BFCH in Bistacchap- but that the jeep would actually pick us up door to door. happy times!
On the actual day of [...]

I have had the great opportunity to meet some wonderful people on this journey. I have made many connections, some I know will last forever, some I hope will, and others will just have the impact that they have had at this time. But, with all these new people and connections comes the inevitable parting and saying goodbye. I have had to say goodbye to friends that I have become very close to, I have had to say goodbye to one very special person, which was a truly heartbreaking experience, and now I have had to say goodbye to ten [...]

While being on holiday was great and rejuvenating, it was wonderful to get back to my placement and to my kids. There are few things better than being greeted by a kid running at you full force with arms spread wide. On the flip side I was also greeted by another kid with tears. The explanation I later heard was that she was sad I was leaving even though I had just come back.
I have been meaning to write about the home and kids for awhile. I’m sorry it has taken me so long. First I want to explain a [...]

Festival of Holi – a celebration on the full moon day to celebrate the coming of spring and the monsoons. The tradition is to throw water (to represent the rains) and colors (to represent the spring) on each other. Holi was this past Friday and we got to celebrate it in full while we were in Pokhara.
I had been warned that we should not be in Thamel on Holi as all the shops would be closed and that people could be quite aggressive with their celebrating. Pokhara is a little more laid back so we decided to stay there for [...]

Well my placement is now over and what a real education in so many things. Being called Daai ( big brother ) by the children is so moving. They are pretty used to volunteers coming and going. The Nepali people don’t do greetings and thank you’s like we do but they still give you that gorgeous smile.
Sad to be leaving Bistachhap and close bonds are formed with a small community when you live with them for a month. The last couple of weeks I have been digging for the site of a new 50,000 litre water tank to serve the [...]

Love Pokhara, it has been so much fun. It is sort of like a beach town, except with a lake. The main other difference is that surrounding the town on one side is the Annapurna Mountain range. There is one main street with lots of little shops and restaurants and guest houses. Our first two nights we stayed at the Yeti Guest House, which while on the main street was actually really quiet and had a lovely courtyard. Unfortunately they did not have the room at the price they had promised us, but we have gotten used to that here. [...]

About a week before I left on holiday to go to Chitwan and Pokhara, I got an email telling me to contact one of my airlines (Biman) as my return flight had been changed. There was no information as to what the changes might be. I emailed the airlines, never heard from them. However, they had an office in Kathmandu and I figured it was better to work it out in person than by phone. Tried to do it one day but when I called to get directions to the office they said I shouldn’t come by because it was [...]

After 1 week at Charity Nepal i feel like i want to take all of these children and put them in a deacent building with deacent people to look after them. But as this is Nepal the conditions the children live in are tollerated and you have to accept that there is nothing you can do but try and imrpove what you can while you’re there.
There are 53 children split between 2 buildings. the second building is a hovel some rooms have beds and some are just the thinnest matresses in the world put on the floor. The children are [...]

What an experience the last few days have been. Where to begin? On Friday, Ren (another volunteer) and I left for our holiday in Chitwan and Pokhara. We had booked a bus to Chitwan for 3 days, 2 nights, a bus to Pokhara, where we would stay 4 days, 3 nights, and then a flight back to Kathmandu. Our bus left at 7:30 Friday morning, which was right on time and for Nepal that is truly amazing. We were told the ride to Chitwan was about 5 hours which we knew meant at least 6. Our bus had much to [...]

On Tuesday, while the kids were are school, I spent most of the day with my host sister, Nirmala, as she had a day off of school before exams start. In the morning we sat in the sun outside the house and she combed lemon juice and oil into my hair, which we then left in for awhile. I asked if it was supposed to make it light, which she said it was. That didn’t happen, but it seemed to make it softer and it gave me an excuse to wash my hair, which I almost never do when I’m [...]

I have been in Nepal about 2 weeks now i think, and it feels like so much longer!
Last week we had training where me and the other volunteers in my group went to a village called Bisterchhap(which i may learn how to spell at some point!) it was amazingly beautiful there, surrounded by huge picturesque green mountains and fields.
We each got a host family to live with, mine were lovely: 1 amaa (mother) 1 baa (father)their son and his wife and 2 bahini’s (little sisters)aged 2 and 6. They were possibly the cutest little children in the world, however i [...]

Earlier this week came the realization that I only had three weeks left. Along with this followed a bit of panic, anxiety, and even a little depression. I knew the time would fly by and so it has. I know the rest of the time will go even faster and in no time at all I’ll be getting on my plane home. I was so upset that initially I briefly considered (but only briefly) extending my trip. I feel that there is so much more I want to do. I have not seen nearly enough of this country. I have [...]

Thursday was Sivaratri, the holy day to honor Lord Siva. When I first got to Nepal and realized that I would be here for Sivaratri I wanted to make sure I went to a Hindu temple to truly experience the celebration. However, I quickly learned that many of the big Hindu temples don’t allow non-Hindus and I also figured that it would probably be extremely crowded. So, I decided to just stay at my placement. My host family is Buddhist so I didn’t think that they would celebrate it much, but my host sister said that they do light a [...]

I’m only really writing this log before i go to check everything is working.
I am currently trying to cram lots of medicines, bug sprays etc into my rucksack (most of which I’m sure i wont use)in an attempt to be ready to fly out on Wed evening.
If i manage to write another log on here then you will know i was successful, and i will be writing this from Nepal!

Things out here are pretty enlightening. There is real squalour on the outskirts of Kathmandu with people living under sheeting next to piles of rubbish.
Since being here power cuts are still biting, there is a fuel shortage, there has been a teacher’s strike and long queues at filling stations meaning there is real congestion in Kathmandu and a limited bus service.
Today is my weekly return back to civilisation. Whilst Kat. is a real bustling place it is polluted and there is a programme of power cuts.
The orphanage where I am working ( Brighter Future Childrens Home) is a lovely place [...]