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Jenny Taylor
Nirmal Pokhari and Chitwan Ganganagar - 20th
Jan – 19th March 2007
I can
honestly say this has been the most inspiring and amazing 2
months of my life, Thank You to everyone at INFO Nepal you
are all doing a fantastic job. From the minute I arrived in
Nepal I knew I was going to have an unforgettable
experience. Arriving at night during a power cut and one of
the many strikes was possibly not the best time to arrive,
but a good idea of what to expect. On arrival I was welcomed
into the INFO Nepal family and paired with another volunteer
Nicky, we stayed together for the 2 months of my placement.
Language training and sightseeing began immediately, with so
much to see and do I realized I had a challenging 2 months
ahead of me.
Nicky and I were taken to our training village, Sanga to
continue our language and cultural training. This was very
enjoyable, even though I was rather hopeless at the
language. Sanga was an excellent way to get used to village
life, half way between Kathmandu and my placement. It gave
me time to adjust to eating Dhal Bhat twice a day with my
right hand, using an outside charpi and being a 45 minute
uphill walk from the nearest small shop. I’ll never forget
having language classes with Krishna (my Nepali guru) eating
pop-corn while kid goats munched our clothes and head-butted
us. Thank you to Pashupati who came round everyday to take
us sightseeing to a different temple and was always singing
to us.
After our training and staying at Happy Home we were taken
to our placement in Nirmal-Pokari, we were immediately
welcomed into the village and became part of the family. The
children met us with loud cheering and my initial thought
was oh my god how are we going to control over 20 small
children? After around a week of the children and us getting
to know each other we formed close bonds, especially with
the two boys living next door to us. Teaching became fun, in
the morning we taught the younger children at the library
from 7am-8.45am. It was then home for Dhal Bhat and off to
the local government primary school to teach from 10am-1pm.
This was very useful as we gained useful knowledge on how to
teach e.g. you can never go to slow when getting children to
repeat out loud. Nirmal-Pokari is a very bumpy hour and a
half bus ride uphill from Pokhara, the views are fantastic,
though it was incredibly cold at times. Everyday water is
taken from a spring at the bottom of the mountain, it is
such hard work. There are children of 7years carrying pails
of water that must weigh more than them up mountain stairs,
making you realize just how easy we have it back in the U.K.
I loved being there, when it came to saying bye I didn’t
realize just how attached I had become to the children and
the village it was a very emotional day.
A few days in Kathmandu and we were ready to leave, Nicky
and I stayed together and moved placement to Ganganagar,
Chitwan. Here Nicky will continue to help the construction
of the new orphanage while teaching the local children in
the library. I got the privilege of spending a week with the
children of Gaganagar and continuing the good work of all
the previous volunteers. Chitwan is a beautiful place with
such kind and generous people, I was welcomed into a lovely
family. The landscape is so totally different from Pokhara,
it is almost like being in Africa at times and everyone has
manual well pumps in the garden for water and showering. I
had said goodbye to freezing in my lunge at the bottom of a
mountain, trying to shower in the water tap with half the
village watching.
I have made friends for life in Nepal and I will never
forget this experience, Thank You to Asim and everyone
working for INFO Nepal. If anyone is looking for a unique,
challenging and rewarding experience then look no further. I
am making plans to return to Nepal as soon as possible.
Jenny
E-mail:
jennytaylor_keele@hotmail.com |