A Jewel in the Shadow of the Himalayas

When I received an email from Global Volunteers that a new program was available in Nepal, I knew that I had to go. A big part of my decision was that Stephen would be team leader. My granddaughter and I had spent a month in India in 2015 with Global Volunteers, living in the guesthouse with the other volunteers along with Stephen and his family. It had been an exhilarating month! In addition, there were two Nepalese families that I would be able to reconnect with, from friendships made 8 and 20 years before.

From the moment that my friend and I arrived late (due to travel complications), we were well taken care of. The Buddy Hotel was a great place to call ‘home’ for our time in Nepal. Situated in a centralized location, we could explore the area on our own and were able to seek out friends of friends who operate a tour business there.

Since the program was so new, we were tentative about what to do and quickly learned that flexibility is key! Especially with the younger children (kindergarten and first grade), we found that tag-teaming saved the day…when one activity grew stale, the other person jumped in with a new idea.

Meeting with the women at the Soroptimist location, for teaching English and just plain visiting, was definitely a highlight. They were so eager to interact that we couldn’t go wrong…using photos from home, charades to describe things, and sometimes even words. We were left wishing we had more time to spend with them!

Nepal is a destination not to be missed!