A detailed account of my first week volunteering in Nepal

COUNTRY: Nepal
PROGRAM: UniBreak - Kathmandu
PROJECT: Community Healthcare & Education
WRITTEN BY: UniBreak June Group 2014

I'm sure we will never forget the moment we first stepped outside the Kathmandu airport into the majestic country of Nepal. There we were, a group of total strangers thrown together by chance in a foreign country, not sure what to expect of the upcoming weeks. We were feeling nervous, scared, shy, and of course, overwhelmingly excited for what adventures lie ahead. As we stepped out of the terminal we were immediately overloaded with the sights, sounds and smells of the stunning Kathmandu city. We knew that we must find Rajesh, our Antips in-country partner, so he could take us to the Program House for Orientation. The next bit all happened incredibly quickly:

We found Rajesh surrounded by about 10 other Nepali people. Rajesh and his co-worker Prima introduced themselves – but who were the rest of these randoms? Rajesh started leading the way to his mini-bus, and we all quickly follow. Suddenly my suitcase was snatched out of my hand by one of the random men. At first I was scared that he was going to steal it! But luckily he started taking it to the mini-bus and putting in it the boot. Oh. I thought to myself. He must work for Rajesh. The random man stuffed my bag in and closed the boot of the van and then turned to me and asked for a tip. Oh. No, he clearly does not work for Rajesh. Feeling flustered I searched through my handbag to find that I only had notes of Rs1000 (worth about $10). I reluctantly handed it over, wishing that I'd kept a tighter grip on my bag. The man took the note, and then immediately asked for one more! Gosh! I think. I'm not going to pay you $20 to drag my bag 20 metres! I tell the man no, but he doesn't seem to understand. “Chhai-Na” I say, attempting to tell him no in Nepali – the man points and laughs at me with the rest of his friends, before walking away. Did I say it wrong? I guess I'll never know.

We all piled into the mini-bus and soon enough we were driving through the narrow, clustered streets of Kathmandu. I had never seen anything like it! There I was thinking the bag situation was confronting. The road rules appeared to be more like suggestions rather than actual rules, with cars, motorbikes and scooters all piled onto the street, weaving in and out of each other with no apparent system. Nevertheless, the sights we could see from the mini-bus were incredible. The housing was made up of a mixture between little half constructed bamboo huts, and enormous brightly coloured buildings. There were little shops and vendors along every street, selling everything from clothing and books to the famous traditional Nepali momos. The people were mostly wearing the traditional Nepali dress, and in the background we can see the outlines of mountains towering over the city. This was the place I would call home for the next month and I could not be more ecstatic.

Rajesh pulled over the mini-bus and told us that while he takes our bags back to the Program House, we would walk the rest of the way with Prima as a guide. Prima took us through the streets showing us ATMs and grocery stores, then we went to the bank where some of us needed to exchange money. Here at this bank is where we all learnt a very important lesson: Nepal works on its own time. We were at the bank for what seemed like hours. Those of us who needed to exchange money has to go through incredibly tedious processes such as writing down the serial number of every single Australian note they were exchanging. Prima then took us to a little mobile phone shop so we could all get a sim card. Little did we know that this would also be a tedious process that would take at least another hour! It became clear to us that the slowness of Nepali life would definitely take some getting used to.

We arrived at Rajesh's enormous, palace-like Program House, where we got settled in and met his family. Half of us were staying upstairs in the house, while all others were staying in a cute little granny flat which is built from old empty wine-bottles and clay. We met some other volunteers from different companies staying with Rajesh who had travelled here from The Netherlands, Sweden and the US . For dinner we had our first meal of the famous Nepali Dahl-bhat, and we learnt how to eat the traditional Nepali way; with our hands. Although it was difficult at first, I soon got the hang out it.

I woke in the morning, ready for the adventures of Orientation. We had a welcoming ceremony in which we were given a white Buddhist scarf, a red Hindu Tika on our heads, and a new Nepali name to use when introducing ourselves to the locals. My name Laura, became Laxmi, meaning “Goddess of Wealth”. We learnt about some Nepali customs and cultural differences to be aware of, and had a language lesson where we learnt how to introduce ourselves: “Mero naam Laxmi ho."

At 4pm Prima took our group shopping for our own traditional Nepali clothes. We were taken to a fabric store where we could buy the colours we wanted. From there we took the fabrics to a tailor where we were measured and told to pick them up on Sunday. Of course, since Nepali time moves quite slowly, some of us had a lot of time to kill while we waited for the others, so we all went and drank some tea and ate some steamed momos at “Green Leaf Cafe”. We all talked about how excited we were to begin our placement and to meet our host families – but we also discussed that we were sad that we wouldn't be able to see each other every day – so we made to decision that the our group should meet up every day at 5pm at “Green Leaf Cafe” to catch up.

The next day it was time for us to go to our placements. My placement was at Shree Dhapasi Secondary School as an English teacher with Danielle. Others were going to be working in hospitals and rehabilitation centres. Dannielle and I arrived at the school and were shocked to be immediately thrown into a class of year 7 students and told to just “teach them English”. We had no idea was their level was, and had only done some minor preparation. Danielle and I just winged it, testing their knowledge and teaching some basic grammar. Danielle has since transferred to go work with Gretel at Tilingatar Higher Secondary School where they are teaching classes of 60+ students!

Alexander, Casey and Sam are working at Stupa Community Hospital, a small 50-bed health care facility. Because the hospital is so small there are some very quiet days, and minor surgeries happen somewhat sporadically.

Alexandra and Phillip are working at the Special Education and Rehabilitation Centre for Disabled Children (SERC). They are enjoying their time working at this school, and they say the children are amazing.

Lucy, Chelsea and Aaron are working at Sahara Hospital, which is a private physiotherapy and rehabilitation health care facility. They have found the different techniques and practices that the Nepali professionals follow are interesting and at times confronting, but they are enjoying the opportunity to share and exchange knowledge.

Gemma and Isaac are working at the CP Centre where they provide emotional and practical support for patients with Cerebral Palsy. Although the work is thoroughly rewarding they have been struggling with the travel – it took them 5 hours to get there and back on their first day! Luckily since then, the travel has been better.

Emily and Skye are working at the Brahmasthani Awareness Society (BAS), a shelter for disadvantaged and/or abandoned patients who lack the funds for treatment and housing during recovery. The girls are working with Rita Kharel, a local Nepali woman who runs the centre. They say that it is incredibly confronting and at times sad, but they are very grateful for the opportunity to help in any way they can.

We have now all moved in with our host families and are settling into the Nepali way of life. Samantha, Casey and I are staying with the Thami family. We've been enjoying our time with this beautiful family getting to know each other, learning more Nepali language, helping our host mother cook, and playing guitar and singing with our host brothers.

All of us on this in the June/July Kathmandu team are thoroughly grateful for these opportunities and are incredibly excited for the adventures that lie ahead.