Today was departure day. I awoke early, and enjoyed one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen and had a nice, long, energizing yoga session. I tried to calm my mind in preparation for my final days in Asia and the solo hiking adventure that was to come.
Sunrise at 5:30 am.
I packed up the clothes that had been hanging out to dry after taking advantage of what could be the last opportunity to wash them and be in one place long enough for them to dry for a long time.
Swapna made a small meal of boiled egg, toast and one final, delicious masala tea and then we walked a few minutes up the road and through the corner of a rice field to a small mud hut where Muwa lived with his family. I had purchased some workbooks, pens, pencils, an eraser and a sharpener in town the previous day and was hoping to subtly leave the materials outside the door, but Swapna wanted to march us right into their home so that I could present the materials directly. I told him he was a very good student and that I hoped he would continue to work hard at school. He gave me a sweet, shy little smile and whispered a thank you. He was probably hoping for something a little more exciting than paper and pencils when he opened the small bag…
Upon returning to the home that I have shared with this wonderful family for the past two weeks, I assembled everyone, except for Ranjan’s father who must have been off visiting a neighbor, and got a couple of group shots.
Saying goodbye to the wonderful Bhandari family.
I can’t say that this volunteer experience has been one that has forever changed my outlook on life or that I am a new and better person for it. That makes the whole thing sound like an incredibly selfish venture. I think that my past travel experience and seeing the extreme poverty in places like India, China and the Philippines had prepared me well for.
I give a great deal of credit to the way I was raised and think I developed a better understanding of appreciating what you have and not wanting. It didn’t really matter what clothes I chose to put on each day, whether or not my shirt matched my pants, if my new eyeshadow brought out my eyes, what new food item was on sale at the local market.
These people appreciate everything they have and are comfortable with their lives without having this insatiable appetite for material items. If anything, my return to the western world has been more of an eye opener and has left me more confused and uncomfortable than life in rural Nepal ever did. Since leaving Nepal, I’ve made my way back to the western world through some of the biggest and most expensive cities on earth; Milan, Munich, London, Toronto. As I’ve driven through and walked around these cities, I just want to scream at these people, “Stop running around! Stop worrying about your designer handbag matching your designer shoes, stop buying 15 Starbucks coffees in disposable cups every day, who cares about all this stuff?!” The ready made meals, the rushed business lunches, the mad dash toward…? What? Where are you people in such a rush to get to? Slow down and appreciate the world around you.
I think the aspect of life I appreciated the most in Gawai was the time and effort that was put into the preparation of meals. Each home that welcomed me through it’s doors was full of people who partook in some fashion in the preparation of two large meals each day. Admittedly, I have a voracious appetite and would eat just about anything that is put on my plate, as long as it didn’t walk there. Meals were straight from land to plate and a good part of the day’s activities involved the preparation of food; be it sorting through beans and rice to pick out the stones, or delicately separating the spinach leaves from their stalks, peeling and chopping potatoes for curries or milking the cow and allowing the milk to curdle on the counter for curd.
Despite our cultural differences and communication difficulties, the overall kindness and generosity I have been shown by complete strangers along this journey as has compelled me to follow through on my promise to do my very best to give something back to the community of Gawai and to return someday in the future to visit the adoptive family that became my own for the last two weeks.
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