The volunteer vacation in Nepal
Chinese New Year celebrations, also known as the spring festival, might be the most important event in a year. Lucky money, firecrackers, spring festival couplets, and reunion dinners, those warm memories are deeply-rooted in our mind. However, good times never last. A devastating earthquake caused a significant impact on Nepal in May 2015. Many of the country’s historic sites were severely damaged. Over 9,000 people died from this disaster, and nearly 3 years, Nepalese kids lost their smiles, happiness, and also the New Year celebrations.
“Tears to Joy” is a non-profit activity organized by churches and hospitals that provide free medical care, to the villagers in mountainous areas in Nepal. In 2015, when I was working in China, my uncle invited me to join the T to J team. It was my first time of being Nepal, and also the first time for me to be a volunteer. From Beijing to the Kathmandu airport, and then transferred to Pokhara. We spent almost 2 days commuting to Nepal.
Our first morning in Pokhara consisted of hiking, of course. By the time I reached the summit I had taken off every jacket although the temperature was close to zero! The magnificent view of the Himalayan mountains was a stunning gift given by God.
When we arrived at the village, the Nepalese held a welcoming ceremony at the elementary school where our team provided 3 days of medical and educational services. The Nepalese kids gave us handmade leis as welcoming gifts! It must’ve been taking them such a long time to make these gifts.
Although they are young, I can see extremely strong of vitality in their eyes and their traditional dancing performance, just like a spring awakening. I felt so much love and appreciation from these children, even though they could not speak a word of English. As a cultural exchange at the bonfire party— we taught the Nepalese people how to dance like Taiwanese aboriginals!
On top of the mountain in Pokhara, we could see countless stars in the night sky. The last time I saw such amazing stars was at Alishan National Park with my friends. There’s something about star gazing that captivates me. I just stood there in awe for such a long, long time. I had not gone back to Taiwan for almost a year then, so it reminded me of my friends, family members and everything adorable in Taiwan.
“There’s some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”— Sam from Lord of the Rings
In the following 3 days, I felt like a soldier in a war. I didn’t even have so much time to take pictures. Our daily businesses were to assist the doctors and pharmacists, taking care of the patients, transporting the supplies, and teaching the elementary students math and Mandarin.
I can still remember one day, while we were transporting the supplies, the sky had gotten dark. We were half way up the mountain, and our bus stopped in front of these huge water puddles. It was impossible for us to keep going up this way, especially in the dark.
So they sent a roofless truck from the top of the mountain to come and take us up like loaded cargo. We went up the mountain like refugees in the back of the truck. And 40 of us crammed together like sardines. We couldn’t see over 10 meters in front of the truck…And finally, the truck still couldn’t past a sharp turn.. so we ended up walking up the rest of the way to reach our destination…
At the last day before we left Pokhara, We visited a tiny church on the top of the hill, where we gathered for our meals. There were too many unforgettable moments on this trip. I was so fortunate to be a part of this group to provide my own strength.No matter languages and races, in Jesus, we are family.Thank God for bringing us together.
