It's hard to believe but I've spent three years, June 2012-May 2015 living/working/volunteering in Nepal. I first came to Nepal in September 2011, when I was a VSO India volunteer. I needed to leave India for one day for visa reasons and ended up spending one week, meeting staff and volunteers at VSO Nepal. This turned out to be quite fortuitous as I was invited to become a VSO Nepal volunteer with Community Self Reliance Centre (CSRC) in Kathmandu. This experience lasted from June 2012-March 2014. I was then able to spend two months in the States with family and friends and came to work for Phul Kumari Mahato Memorial Hospital (PKMMH) in Karjanha, Siraha from June 2014-May 2015.
Being able to experience both urban and rural areas and working/volunteering in an NGO/INGO and with a community/private sector hospital has helped me to grow as a person and hopefully to have a bit more empathy and appreciation for what motivates others. One of my major life challenges is "patience" and what better way to help me on this path then to live three years in Nepal and prior to that three years in India.
At this point I'm not at all sure when again I will live/volunteer/work in Nepal. It's not that I don't want to, but I haven't had any offers at this point and the process to obtain a work visa, as in many countries can be quite cumbersome.
There are a number of highlights, mostly during my spare time, that I have had while living in Nepal: Coaching wheelchair basketball especially the Nepal Army Wheelchair Basketball Team when I'd wake up early on Sunday mornings to go to the Swayambunath area where we would practice; training new wheelchair basketball coaches; helping my friend Bharat to go to Korea through Dragon Air for wheelchair rugby training; coordinating the visit in May 2013 of Wheelchair Athletes Worldwide (WAW) board members to bring 11 sports wheelchairs to Nepal and conduct a clinic for more than 60 wheelchair athletes, including a number of children; working with the UN, a number of volunteer sending agencies and ENGAGE to have 2013 International Volunteer Day also include the celebration of World Disability Day through a sports meet, as well as, the commemoration of World AIDS Day.
There are also memories of playing basketball with others who were younger than my children and also the injuries, including a fracture, in which I had to be on crutches for about six weeks. Helping my VSO colleagues to establish libraries at their schools, through book donations from the US and the Asia Foundation, hosting a TV show and being able to publish my writings in the Himalayan Times and other newspapers and magazines have also been highlights. I've made many friends, have been in and out of love, relationships which continue to help define who I am and what I choose to do with my life.
However, this past year has enabled me to more fully understand how challenging and rewarding living in another culture can be. The best parts of this have been interacting with the community in attempting to create greater health awareness. I've tried to tackle this in a number of ways: providing health screenings; having our dentist and marketing team do presentations at local schools, including giving toothpaste and toothbrushes to students, conducting marketing at local haat bazaars and working with children through a library that was established with a number of donations from the US, India and the Asia Foundation. Many of the children who come to the library have become like sons and daughters, even grandchildren to me. Although at times it was extremely stressful, spending quality time and listening to children has helped to keep me sane. The unconditional love that I have received, holding hands, mentoring, discussing and just being with the children is something that I will always treasure. I will always hear the calls of "Mike uncle" which never seemingly ended no matter where I happened to be. I also helped to turn a dull yellow room into a child friendly pediatric ward, and a customer friendly canteen both of which had never been previously thought about.
As I get ready to leave Nepal on May 25 with six years worth of stuff from living overseas I know that I won't be able to bring everything with me, no matter how efficiently I pack. Since I don't own a home my items are "living" in a friend's basement in Connecticut, at my parent's home in California and now at a friend's home in Kathmandu. Eventually I will have to collect everything which means that one day I will return to Nepal.
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