My very positive experience with Volnepal started with the application process, when the Director Anish was flexible and understanding enough to accommodate me for only a short time due to my university commitments back home him Melbourne, Australia. My time in Nepal started in Kathmandu with overnight accommodation and a productive morning tour of some of the main tourist sights the city has to offer. Then it was straight to Bharatpur, Chitwan Province, where my actual volunteering was to take place for the next twelve days. My short trip meant that I was exposed to most of the different worthwhile activities of Volnepal's volunteers in what might be called 'sample' doses - most of the other half a dozen Volnepal volunteers at Bharatpur were volunteering for 1-2 months.
I visited the local Murry Foundation Orphanage and enjoyed immensely the ceremony that was put on by the kids in recognition of the donations that some of us had brought over. I was also given a guided tour of the local hospital where volunteers of a medical background where spending their time. Although Bharatpur is a small place and a very traditional city that is a centre of local business, UN and CARE aidwork, and almost entirely tourist-free, it is still comparitively familiar and wealthy when compared to the rural area home to the English Boarding School that I visited in my second week. Surrounded by poverty and squalor, albeit in magnificent natural surroundings so typical of Nepal, the school desperately would like longer-term (read: 1 year) english-speaking volunteers to enhance the experience and education of students. The attractive campus and quality of education despite the poverty was inspiring and I was not surprised when I heard that the school had many alumni studing overseas, including MIT.
Aside from these most interesting insights into local Nepali life, I spent most of my time at Eminent Education Institute, an international school in Bharatpur that prepares 18-25 years old for the exam they must pass to be offered a place at universities and colleges with english tuition. It was most fulfilling and purposeful to really make a difference to the exam-preparation of the hardworking, friendly and devoted students who are determined to better their future. The speech-practice that english-speaking natives can provide to the students, whose oral and listening skills form an important aspect of the exam that can make or break their futures, is invaluable to the very grateful students. I had a break from teaching with a trip over the weekend to Pokhara, the tourist town that boasts magnificent scenery and views of some of the highest and most famous mountains in the world. The longer your stay, the more 'tourism' breaks you will enjoy, but rest assured volunteering work remains first priority.
My time in Nepal was truly diverse, action-packed and comprehensive. I saw the country's most beautiful scenery and some of its most depressing poverty. I feel that due to the excellent design of the Volnepal program and the experience and competency of Volnepal's staff, despite my short stay I was able to help out in a fruitful way and inch forward this country's development. This, after all is what volunteering is about. |
