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Esther Nimmo.
Australia
 If
you are considering volunteering in Nepal, just do it! BEST
Volunteer Nepal offer a unique volunteering and travel
experience which changed my life.
I was taught the
Nepali language and culture before I embarked on my volunteer
placement. This really helped prepare me and enriched my experience
of the unique Nepali way of life.
Site-seeing in
Kathmandu was amazing. It is an exotic city, so different to my own
and experiencing the different way that people live there truly
opened my eyes to a completely different world.
In our language
classes we learnt how to say namaste, dhanayabat, swagatam and all
the other essential words and phrases we were likely to require once
immersed in village life. I stayed with a really nice family who had
been housing volunteers since 2002, therefore were comfortable with
my requests to use a spoon to eat my dal bhat (traditional Nepali
meal of rice, vegetable curry and lentils) rather than my hands.
Another volunteer and I were placed in the same village to complete
our placement together. This was a great help and made my time
volunteering even more rewarding. The school we were placed in had
been operating for some time so there were already a many students
familiar with international volunteers. We held our first class for
junior students (aged between 4 and 8) from 7am to 8am each morning.
After having taught kids of the same age in Japan I felt comfortable
teaching children of this age. We soon realised that one junior
class would not be enough for the amount of students that were
turning up to the library in the morning so we created a second
class from 8am, to 9am. In the morning class we relied predominantly
on the use of ABC, colour and number flashcards, songs and games. In
the afternoon we also held two classes. Between 4:30pm and 5:30pm we
taught about 10 kids aged between 8 and 12. This was the medium
class and probably our most challenging but also the most fun. While
they would have been happy to play bingo and go for walks during the
lessons, we tried to combine some fun and games with some English
grammar worksheets. Our senior class held between 5:30pm and
6:30pm was made up of about 8 boys and girls. After having learnt
English as a second language, my partner felt confident in reviewing
English grammar with the senior class while I assisted with games
and with some creative and article writing.
In the break between lessons, we spent our time planning lessons,
making photo-copies at the local stationary shop and drinking tea.
We went on walks around the village and took the kids on a few
excursions to a zoo and the nearby River. When we weren't sweating
from the hot weather we were clustering under umbrellas to escape
the bursts of monsoonal rain, and despite the discomfort, this only
added to our experience of village life.
Our village was located nearby Narayangadh, a town with internet
facilities, western food and a larger variety of supplies than was
available in the village. As Saturday is a holiday in Nepal we often
traveled there to stock up on mosquito repellant and chocolate.
Besides traveling to Narayangadh, we also visited Lumbini the
birthplace of Buddha. Our trek was in Pokhara, the second biggest
city in Nepal. We trekked for five days through the Annapurna region
without any considerable training and felt great. Both Lumbini and
Pokhara were exceptionally beautiful and added even more to our
amazing experience volunteering in Nepal.
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