Nepal #5.. I'm home!!

Hi everyone,

I am sure there has been much outrage that I have not written a blog for over three weeks (although I haven’t heard any of it..).

By the time this gets posted on the world wide web, most of you will be aware that I am back in Melbourne!!

I wasn’t really sad about this until I had said goodbye to everyone at the Volunteer House and was on my way to the airport in the taxi. It was really only then that I realised that Nepal had been my home for over two months and I was really going to miss the frustration and craziness that entailed. As I had been pretty sick for around two weeks straight (best not to ask the details!!!), I was missing home, my bed and my mum more than usual and time seemed to go pretty slow, as I was not able to be as busy as I would like, going to the gym, going out with friends and most importantly spending time at the Baby Orphanage. I’ve been feeling much better over the last week and have been rushing around like crazy to complete a couple of projects I’ve been working on for them. The first was to decorate the place a bit, but of course it had to be educational! so I’ve been madly colouring the alphabet, days of the week, months of the year and numbers to stick up around the place. I managed to get them done the day before I flew out and I really hope they will manage to stay up there for as long as possible. Already as I was putting them up, the kids were saying the alphabet and days of the week.. I really hope they are useful for them!

Kitchen (before)

Kitchen (after)

Stairs (before)

Stairs (after)

Kitchen

 The other project I have been working on is taking a picture of each child, sticking it on a big bit of paper with their name at the top, and then having them decorate the bit of paper with textas, pencils and stickers. These posters will then be stuck up in their room. I’ve heard they hardly ever get to see themselves (lack of mirrors and cameras), and this would be a good way to show them that they are special. I only got halfway through this, but all the paper, decorations and photos are there for Sarah to hopefully complete this week. I can’t wait to see the finished product!

Ready to start decorating!

Manish - finished product!

Finished products!

In amongst all this and being sick, I haven’t really had the energy for much else! We went to the Human Rights Film Focus Week opening night and saw a documentary film called “The Price of Sex” which is about sex trafficking of Eastern European women. It was of course very confronting and close to home for a lot of people in the audience, given the high rate of village girls which are trafficked across the border to India and other places. If anyone would like to know a bit more about it, I would recommend the book “Sold” or “Half the Sky”. The latter is a book I would recommend for ANYONE interested in various woman’s issues around the world and the best way to go about solving them. It was one of the best books I have ever read and really opened my eyes to how far we still have to go in closing the gap between what goes on in the developing versus developed world, particularly in terms of the treatment of women and the abhorrent inequality they still face in many parts of the world, particularly in rural areas.

Ready to head to the Film Festival

Sarah and I also ventured up to Nagarkot, arguably the closest place to Kathmandu to get awesome views of the Himalayas. I imagine that is truly.. but unfortunately we got two ridiculously cloudy days, so unfortunately didn't see many mountains! but the sunset was pretty good.

What an amazing sunrise.. wow!!! 

The white bits are either mountains or clouds.. difficult to tell..

My kurta :)

So I guess now comes the part where I have to make a little “conclusion” about my time in Nepal… and I don’t really know where to start without sounding super cliché, but I’ll give it a go.

Although challenging and frustrating in so many ways (those who know me well know that I like routine and order.. and patience isn’t my strongest characteristic), it was truly amazing, as I’m sure my previous blogs have described. I’ve learnt a lot about myself and the things I can do to make a difference in the world. I’ve realised that unless a person is willing to relocate themselves to a third world country and dedicate a good portion of their lives to it, volunteering for a short time in the developing world is probably more beneficial in terms of personal growth rather than actually making a large practical difference. This is particularly without a specific skill to offer (i.e., medical). I don't mean to say that personal growth is a bad or selfish thing at all - just not AS satisfying if you come into volunteering with the notion that you are really going to change people’s lives. I have still LOVED the experience, but needed to adjust my thinking a little bit in so far as making a marked difference in other people’s lives, rather than just my own.

That is NOT to say that short-term volunteers aren’t important; I have had to remind myself on multiple occasions that I am just a small cog in a large wheel and that everything I achieved during my two months in Nepal has continued the work of past volunteers and will hopefully be supplemented by future volunteers. Therefore, volunteers are a very important part in helping bring countries out of poverty.

Personal growth is also very important to bring back to your developed home country. I now understand the importance of money in terms of supporting NGO’s who have people on the ground in countries and know the specific needs of the people there. In addition, there are plenty of great volunteering options back at home to undertake on a long-term basis. I am very excited to be able to contribute to both of these areas into the future, because I feel very strongly about the obligation we have, as citizens born into such a wealthy country, to contribute to making the entire world as privileged as our little world in Australia.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog. I’ve tried really hard to make it interesting and a real reflection of my feelings throughout the trip. It’s very strange being home - part of me feels like I never left, but another part is still in Nepal.. really missing the lifelong friends I made and the (sometimes) smiling faces of the beautiful baby orphanage kids. I just really hope that one day every single person in Australia will appreciate the amazing country they’ve been born into and feel an obligation to help those less fortunate, whatever they can do or give.

If anyone has any questions about volunteering into Nepal, I can’t recommend Volunteer Nepal highly enough and would be happy to answer any questions.  

‘Till my next travel blog, wherever that may be!!

Alex J