Thursday 20 October 2011

Laughter and tears as our Nepal volutneers make their final goodbye

Is with a stubborn disbelief that I write this, in the knowledge that it is our final blog entry and thus attests to our placement having indeed concluded. Our final weeks in the village were hugely memorable and characteristically filled with enjoyment, but remained tainted with the nagging awareness of the rapidly approaching date in which we needed to leave our host family and school students, something that saddened us all immensely.

The first real expression of our diminishing amount of time came in our (myself, Virgina, Michael) school’s farewell day. We were assailed with generous bequeaths of flower necklaces, red ceremonial powder and innumerable handshakes as we sat before the 200 odd children of Shree Sapeneswor School, watching dance demonstrations and listening to Nepali speeches, picking out recognisable words here and there, before being asked to also give a few words of our own.

Unknown to me, Virginia with her fluent English speaking host brother, had prepared an in-depth, epic two page speech translated into perfect phoenetic Nepali, which aroused great laughter from the crowds during moments of humour (such as the mention of Michael’s legendary noodle challenge) and immense applause at the end when she declared how much she would never forget them, articulated in complex eloquence.


I sat listening to the impressive recital thinking how hard an act it would be to follow, then noticing that upon her completion the crowd had turned an expecting stare towards me, realised I would indeed be following it. Eep. We presented each of the children later on with their school stationary packages and after an impromptu teeth brushing lesson, handed out dental kits, both of which they each held proudly, beaming up at us. All too soon it was time to say goodbye and as we walked along the dusty path leading out from the school, we were accompanied by a large mass of our students, many teary eyed (including some of us), which made for the final valediction especially difficult.

Our teaching duties finished a few days before we were to leave the village, giving us more time to allocate to our host families. On our last day, we hiked down to a local shop and stocking up on donuts, fruit, biscuits and soft drinks, proceeded up to a local lookout point for a picnic lunch with the children from both of our families, where we gorged ourselves and took turns playing Elliot’s guitar, before the onset of rain forced a hasty retreat back home. That night, realizing Michael’s vast supply of stickers still hadn’t been fully depleted, we used the remainders to decorate Puspa and Angeli’s bedroom with a colourful mosaic of stars and smiley faces, then filled up the small space with 90-odd balloons, prompting squeals of delight as they trotted in later that night unexpectedly.

That night we also handed out the gifts we had brought from Australia and also purchased in Kathmandu based on the needs we had observed around the household. Among other presents, Akrete absolutely adored her new teddy, our grandfather, Potamba seemed very taken with his gold topi (Nepali cap), the kids all appreciated the large collection of toys and school supplies we gave, our grandmother and mother seemed very appreciative of the Australian honey and large rechargeable lamp (to provide illumination in the kitchen during nightly power-outs) while our host father, Rajib, wore his Australia baseball hat with a long-enduring grin.

The next day came the final and saddest of all farewells – that with our families. A delicious chicken curry was prepared for our final breakfast, which I can happily say left a far better last impression of culinary life in the village than the anticipated dahl bat would have, before we grouped outside for a parting ceremony and to take photographs together. Later in the morning, we walked down to Shree Mahankal for Meg, Elliot and Will’s school’s farewell.
The ceremony was beautiful, yet heartbreaking. Speeches in Nepali were given then translated into English, expressing gratitude for our time spent there and also predicting great sadness in our absense.
Meg and Virginia had been crying almost all morning, and such displays of sadness extended to the rest of the group and to the children as the day progressed. Finally, the unavoidable departure suddenly arrived and as the familiar scenery drifted by, we sat in the jeep in silent contemplation, reflecting on just what our experiences there had meant to us and considering what the transition out from this lifestyle will be like.

Since the village, we’ve spent time in Pokhara together as a group (the highlight was the morning of paragliding off the foothills), but following this, many of us have gone our separate ways, embracing the freedom for travel our gap year has entitled us. Meg, Virginia and Will hiked a 6 day trek in the lower Annapurna region, before taking a 2 day rafting trip, while Elliot, Michael and myself have just returned from a 14 day hiking of the entire Annapurna circuit, summiting at the world’s highest overland pass – Thorong-La (5416m above sea level). From here, Meg and Virginia hope to see more of Western Nepal before returning home in a few weeks, Elliot and Michael are preparing for the challenges of an Everest Base Camp trek in the next few weeks, and Will and I prepare for long string of voyages into Tibet, China, followed by South East Asia.


Here ends the blogging of our placement then, but thank you very much to Antipodeans for their organization of the three months, to our in-country agents for their ongoing support and to the other members of our group, for sharing this life changing experience with me.

- Aidan.

Are you interested in volunteering in Nepal? What about teaching English overseas? Antipodeans Abroad specialises in volunteer travel and gap year ideas. Find out more here.

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