ELI Abroad: Volunteer in Nepal

The living conditions in Gorsyang was an eye opener as compared to the life in Singapore. After a few days, we were able to adapt to the different living conditions. It was enjoyable to be able to interact with the children. The hosts at both Kathmandu and Gorsyang were very welcoming and treated us very well, by providing us with more than the daily 3 meals a day. New volunteers to Gorsyang should be mentally prepared and be able to adapt to the different conditions as well.

Great experience..... friendly and knowledgeable staff.... based on your needs and abilities. I have anxiety and claustrophobia and my fiancé had a weak stomach and the bumps and turns were too much for him anish recognized that we needed a different form of transportation for our journey and that made all the difference in our experience. We also wanted to experience Nepal not as just tourists and we were given opportunities to live in villages and help schools that were outside Kathmandu. I did have a lot of culture shock and would recommend people that are coming to travel with a partner to help with this but I would also come back to help with the plans that I am recommending be put in place.

I don't know where to start from, Nepal is a travelers paradise. extremely cultural, overly polluted with people and shamelessly amazing. just one thing, whenever do you plan to come to Nepal, forget what people say to you about it and just pack your bags and get ready for an adventure of a lifetime. the people are beautiful inside out (they dress so well) and there are 7 UNESCO world heritage sites just in Kathmandu valley. the school faculty with who I collaborated with were so eager to welcome volunteer and the children were amazingly naughty and rambunctious. believe me that place is 100% safe, my driver back in Pakistan is Nepali and he told me even at 3 in the morning you are as safe as at back home and he was right, I left my wallet in a taxi and the cab driver found me and gave it back to me. Nepal is surely not a place to miss from the amazingly cooked daal bhat and momos to its exuberant tourist destinations.

I studied International Development for a couple of years before heading to Nepal for a three month volunteering stint with ELI Abroad, so I'd had a fair few experiences with meaningless "voluntourism", huge expenses to volunteer, and organizations just in it for the money.
My experience with ELI was the opposite to everything I had feared - the costs were reasonable (better than reasonable), the support staff were accessible and in it to help, not to make a quick dollar, and - most importantly - I felt like I had the chance to actually impact others and set up a lasting program.
I taught English at an orphanage to a beautiful group of children. The orphanage was (and is!) struggling - the owner tries her hardest and has put her own personal finances into the orphanage, but they need all the support they can get. It was so amazing to see how little they got by on, and how much they appreciate volunteers. It was amazing the way they would offer me food, drinks, time... they may have not had very much, but they were endlessly generous.
I had so much fun learning and participating in cultural activities, learning about Nepal and Kathmandu, planning lessons for the children, and building relationships with the staff.
Living in the volunteer share house in Kathmandu was fun, it was so great having people to travel with on the weekends. The staff there were beautiful and so willing to go out of their way to help us out with travel plans, lesson ideas, cultural quirks. They provided us with a home, a place where we felt safe and comfortable.
I'd recommend ELI as an organization, and Sarita's Orphanage as a volunteer experience, to anyone. I'd love to volunteer again, and would no hesitation planning any kind of experience with ELI.
I'd recommend Nepal because it's everything I never expected, because it's an entirely different world, because it's loud and busy and poor and yet, beautiful and spiritual and generous.
Sarita's orphanage is filled with love, and anyone who wants to visit the children there will be welcomed with open arms.

I went to Sarita's in Kathmandu thinking I would provide this altruistic SERVICE and also learn something that would benefit me. While both became true, However, the priorities were reversed. I worked primarily with Veronique Murphy from Australia with the children in the school each day. Initially, I saw myself teaching these beautiful children in a poverty-stricken country English. There is a saying, "the teacher arrives when the student is ready." Well I discovered I was the student and the children were the teachers. While I did not know their native language, Nepali, we discovered the universal language of LOVE expressed through feelings, interactions and activities regardless of age, culture, religion or IQ. These children activated my soul that had become dormant through my deadening life experiences in the materialistic world of the Western culture in the U.S.A. It became clear that the relationship was most important and these children were grateful for any positive interaction. Each day we were met with a dozen smiling faces :) :) :). It made no difference that they may have only ONE MEAL a day, shabby clothes, unclean water, and one bed to share with 2-4 others they thrived on the time they shared with the volunteers. I am going to sound Selfish but if you want to be a better person, discover your new gifts and develop skills that will guide you through the rest of your life...volunteer your services to the children at Sarita's Safe Haven Orphanage in Kathmandu. As for the children, I have no doubt that they will be blessed by your presence.

My Highlight Experience - a Nepali friend, Hari, took me on a trek to a Hindu temple high on a mountain in the north Kathmandu Valley. As we walked through a poverty stricken village, a grandmother guided her 3 year old granddaughter to my path. As I approached them, the little girl bowed with her hands folded to give me the NAMASTE GESTURE. I was initially stunned but recovered to kneel in great awe and appreciation and return the Namaste and to "blow her a kiss" that was spontaneously returned. Once again I learned the meaning of: "and a child shall lead them!"

Greatest Difficulty - My greatest difficulty was LEAVING the wonderful children, Sarita's staff, VolNepal staff and the Nepali people. I plan to return.

An average teaching day for me with ELI started with about a twenty minute walk to Aruni English School (in Balaju, Kathmandu) where I volunteered for a month teaching English to 5th,7th, and 9th graders. I walked alongside an Australian volunteer who taught there as well and we would take in the sights and sounds making sure to avoid fast moving vehicles or puddles from last night's rain. Together we would wait in the principal's office until the day and begin exchanging our lesson plans for the day. We arrived at the school around 11am despite classes starting at 8am since we each only taught three periods each. We would teach about two classes and get fed some Nepali food which usually involved some type of curry (potatoes or chickpeas) and various types of bread (roti). This food was probably some of the tastiest I've had in Nepal and the food there is great so that's saying a lot. My lessons with my students generally involve working out of their English grammar books or any supplementary materials I provide. The students were very well behaved and very grateful for the opportunity to learn English from a native English speaker. I only had to deal with one discipline issue and that can be easily handled if you send the student to the office. As I left for the day, I would receive a resounding "Thank you sir for teaching us, have a nice day, see you tomorrow, bye bye". After the school day ended for us, we worked with the school's basketball team to share our knowledge of the sport. (I didn't know too much but the other volunteer did so it worked out better than expected).

I think back on these days now and then and I still find it hard to describe how incredible of an experience I had teaching in Nepal. My name is Jonathan Milard. (That's me in the black shirt!) I'm currently a sixth grade Social Studies teacher in New York City. I volunteered for the month of September in 2012. I absolutely loved my experience. I loved it mainly because of the staff support, the students, and the country as a whole.

The staff at the volunteer house is great: They give you all the support you need, pair you with other volunteers if you fear your task might be too daunting, and even show you around the area and set up trips for you don't know who to turn to to plan excursions. They also respond to your emails quickly. They also let you know when other volunteers will be at the volunteer house so you have a bunch of buddies to explore with. And even if you travel at a time with not many other volunteers, you can easily make friends in Thamel, which is a 10 minute walk from the volunteer house.

In terms of teaching, I wanted to teach abroad to gain some experience teaching and I definitely did that during my experience with ELI. The students were also very respectful so teaching them was a great experience for me. I would sing songs from the U.S with them and learn some Nepali from them as well. Teaching abroad seems like a daunting task, but the support that I needed was given and since all Nepali high school students have to take an English test, more students have a basis in English than you would expect. The real challenge with them is to work on their conversation skills, but that comes with practice. I highly recommend teaching in Nepal if you are interested in teaching or want a change of pace.

One more reason I recommend volunteering through ELI abroad is that the country is amazing. I chose Nepal simply because I had a friend who also volunteered through ELI and loved it, but I wish I took the initiative to learn about it before. If I did, I probably would have gone sooner. The people are friendly, it's a very safe country, the food is cheap and delicious (momos.), and there is a lot to do and see, whether it be visiting historic sites, going on an elephant safari, going on yoga or meditation retreats, celebrating religious festivals, getting a massage, bungee jumping (highly recommend that), going on a trek, or just hanging out in Thamel.

Volunteering abroad is a scary thing, but you're in good hands if you do it with ELI. Nepal can provide you with some experiences you can hold on to for life. I could not speak more highly of this program and I hope you take advantage out there! Just be willing to walk, willing to accommodate, and be willing to experience adventure. Namaste.