Volunteers, let's enjoy the weekend in Nepal!
All our projects in the Okhaldhunga district are in progress at the moment. I take a great pleasure in empowering the new generation of Nepali children by creating Children's Clubs in the local schools. I must admit, my job gives a thrilling experience and my relish for teaching students is widely known here. Each volunteer seems to be interested in the own topic and work really and truly hard with it during the whole week. However, from time to time we're forced to struggle with some unexpected situations and resolve different problems. Actually, that's the state of affairs we've already got used to it. Anyway, to avoid the stressful moments we need to have a relax and are always eager to find some new activities in our free time - it means on Saturdays and Sundays. To be honest, the weekend is the only short period when we all are able to get together in Okhaldhunga, so we do appreciate any form of a treat our whereabouts. Therefore, preparing delicious lunch for 6 volunteers has become the main tradition. Apart from a common lunch, every week we choose a new activity we have never done before. This strategy helps us to be in a good mood and does not let us feel bored. I very clearly remember the weekend when we visited two other volunteers and cooked "Polish Mo:Mo" - a kind of popular in Poland dumplings with potato, onion, garlic and yogurt, but in the Nepali style. We served it with the local vegetables: cucumbers and tomatoes. The taste was incredible, in a word! Another time, we decided to take a jeep and went to the biggest city in our region - Okhaldhunga. We visited the local marketplace, did shopping and also went for a walk to see some small temples where we spent peaceful moments there. In my opinion, one of the best trip we did it was to a beautifully located city in the Himalayas - Salleri. It's a touristic place, the important point in Nepal from where most of climbers and trekkers usually start their way to the high mountains. We tasted mouthwatering Sherpa food (and found out more about this culture!), could admire breathtaking views, hit the road to experience amazing flora and fauna there. Yeah...especially the nature in Nepal is a phenomenon. You can see a lot of species...colorful birds, some wild animals and a big number of plants that you're not able to meet in Europe by far. To sum up, there are various activities we do to have some fun in the Sagarmatha region...a barbeque, playing the guitar and the chess, learning the traditional Nepali dance and songs, going for a walk to a picturesque forest, crossing the bridge over the Dudh Koshi River to observe some groups of monkeys, or just having a cup of delicious dudh-coffee in our favorite place in Nishanke. Indeed, the surrounding area is our second home we're living in right now thus we're fond of discovering it and try to understand it even more so.
