Travelworker Anabel shares with us her wonderful adventure in Nepal. She tells us about her experiences first hand and wants to share with us all her personal blog, where she has been recounting her experiences in the corners of this impressive destination:
Good morning from Kathmandu!
This is my third week in Nepal and I am just a few days away from finishing my trip. During this week I have continued doing the volunteer jobs. I work with the children in the morning and with the women in the afternoon. The truth is that, to my surprise, I like working with the women more. At school there are 40 children per class and the teachers are a bit overwhelmed, they spend the morning correcting the children's homework and they barely have time to teach, so the volunteer's job is to teach for them and contain the monkeys that run around everywhere. It is a difficult job and there is not much structure of what we have to do so sometimes it is a bit chaotic. On the other hand, in the afternoon, the women come to class motivated and willing to learn, you can see that they need English and want to improve it so their attitude is very good. That makes the job easier and we volunteers limit ourselves to preparing the class with the topic of the day and try to do it as best as possible. They do their part by being attentive and participating in the activities with good humor. The truth is that they are lovely women.
During these days we have made some short trips and fleeting visits to some of the temples and important areas of Nepal. The first visit was to the Boudhanath Stupa in the center of Kathmandu. It is one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal and one of the largest in the world. Boudhanath was named one of the World Heritage Sites by the UNESCO and is one of the must-see sites in Kathmandu. For centuries, Boudhanath has been an important site of pilgrimage and meditation for local Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhists.
This weekend we were in Chitwan, , is the first national park in Nepal. It was also declared as Heritage by UNESCO and protects several endangered animal species. The word Chitwan means the heart of the jungle.
It was a long trip, about 250 km, which seems short to Europeans, but here this distance is quite an adventure! We drove along a winding road for 8 hours! The best thing was the views, countless mountains, a large river, and several rice fields were our landscape during that long time. Once we arrived at our destination, we stayed at the hotel, had lunch, and in the afternoon we went on a hike through the jungle. It was a two-hour walk in which we saw deer, different types of birds, all kinds of insects, and even a crocodile in the river! The vegetation was exuberant.
After finishing our jungle excursion with a storm included, we returned to the hotel for dinner. Once we finished, they took us to see some typical dances of the area where men and women danced with different wooden utensils in their hands to the rhythm of the music. The next day we woke up, had breakfast and went on another safari, but this time it was not on foot, but on the back of an elephant. It was the best experience of the weekend.
Today is a holiday in Nepal, so we don't have any volunteers because the schools are closed. It's a free day for us to rest, which is also needed!
Kisses and hugs to everyone.
More information in Anabel's blog
