Member-only story
Don't Just Travel, Volunteer (Voluntour)
Some experiences change your life. One of those experiences for me was volunteering for a little organization in Nepal. I was there for work in Nepal and there was an intern in the office(now a lifelong friend) who told me they were building a library in the Terai.
It wasn't Pokhara, or the mountains in Nepal, it was the Terai, which means the flatlands of Nepal. In a small town called Malhanama. But that flatland will change the way I think about life in general.
I was on a bus from Kathmandu, and on the road, we crossed so many mountain passes and came to Malhanama, it was hot, the houses were made of mud and the people were kind.
I was welcomed in the host house where we stayed as we built a library, and people were taking turns in hosting us, they would keep us well fed together as a village. And at night I could see the sky full of millions of stars.
We finished building the library, the school principal and the teachers thanked us. We even took a few classes. After a couple of years, I had a chance to talk to the children in that school, I was surprised at how many of them remembered me. The library is now thriving, they also received sports utilities from the organization as well. It feels so wholesome to be able to help.
