Orientation:
Upon arrival at the Katmandu airport I was pleased to find a van waiting for me just a few meters from the exit. Once taken to hotel Cosmic a simple but adequate accommodation, Rupesh and Anish quickly introduced me to Nepal and what I could expect during my short stay. I felt that these services were accurate in making the transition period and culture shock dissolve quickly into my stay.
Accommodations:
Home environment is a crucial aspect of the volunteer experience essential to the enjoyment and productivity of the individual's day-to-day life. That said my personal experience was excellent and exceeded any previous expectations for household amenities as well personal attention given by caring hosts. From the first day I arrived I felt welcomed by the entire staff as well as the current volunteers staying there at the time. Any traces of culture shock were quickly put to rest in the comfortable environment of the house. Meals were excellent and often catered to the needs of the volunteer; company was always welcoming making the home environment very enjoyable.
Experience:
To sum up my experience in a paragraph I can only say that it was an unbelievably enriching and enjoyable on all levels. I feel I have gained an insight into culture and the human spirit that I will hold with me for the rest of my life. The time I spent in Nepal as a volunteer exceeded anything I could have expected it to be and my only regret is that I was unable to stay longer. I will elaborate further on this in my article.
Cross Cultural Orientation:
This question is quite relative to individuals and their personality and adaptability to new cultural environments. I would say that the staff most notably Anish was extremely helpful in assisting volunteers with any problems or special needs they require in adapting to a different culture. For me personally this attentive personal attention was not really necessary as I adapted quite well on my own and needed little personal attention during that process. I did however feel comfort in the availability of Anish and the other staff if any personal needs did come up. I do feel this high attention to personal detail is important for individuals with less experience in living in different cultures and adapting to new customs and lifestyle.
Cultural Orientation Tour:
This portion of the volunteer experience was handled by several individuals within the organization Rupesh Dulal, Anish Neupane and Harry. My experience with all three was excellent the knowledge and enthusiasm in visiting and explaining cultural landmarks and customs was excellent. I would also comment all three on their flexibility to meet the needs and requests of the volunteer in arranging the specific sites and activities to their interest.
Day Trip Hiking:
For me this portion of the trip was excellent and only brought on regrets that I was not staying longer which would allow me to do more extensive trekking. Again something I still hope to do in the future and encourage me to return to Nepal for a longer stay next time.
School Visit/Teaching instruction:
Given my previous experience as an English teacher this assistance was not necessary. Unfortunately the students at the Murry Foundation were on holiday while I was there and I didn't get a chance to teach them formally. From my experience at Eminent I would say that for those volunteers with little or no experience teaching English as a foreign language any type of teaching instruction both formal and informal was inadequate.
Program schedule:
The program schedule was quite flexible to the desire of the volunteer. Given my enthusiasm for hard work I was able to split my day between working at the Murry foundation as sell at the eminent language school. This kept my days quite busy with such a demanding schedule. This was excellent for me but for those that are not inclined to keep such a busy schedule the program is willing to create a program that is more suitable to their requests. So overall I would say the flexibility is excellent not only for the average workday but also in accommodating any specific travel plans that might arise. I was able to alter my schedule to accommodate trips to Lumbini, Pokara and Chitwan national park, which greatly enriched my experience in Nepal. So I would say this flexibility was a pleasant surprise and is an excellent attribute of the VolNepal program.
Other comments and suggestions:
Well the only thing I feel I left out was specific criticisms of the program. I did however come up with a few, which are minimal and mostly relate to what I wrote about the eminent language school.
As a suggestion I would recommend improving upon the program overview that is sent to future and prospective volunteers. As I stated before I found all aspects of the organization to be quite satisfactory. I did however feel that a lot of these things I learned upon arrival. My recommendation is to send a more detailed orientation package that explains the questions covered on this overview so future volunteers have a better idea of the organizations they will be working for as well as a clear indication of the flexibility and personal input they have on their volunteer experience. I did find some of this info on the website but it was not clearly organized and did slightly confuse me. I was not clear on the organizations I would be teaching with or the duties I would be performing. I did not realize that my teaching schedule would be so flexible and did not anticipate having the opportunity to travel as much as I did. Also I was unclear of the formality of dress required of me as an English instructor. All these things our minor and a proper informative letter possibly catered to individual volunteers would be quite benefited to clearing up any misconceptions prior to arrival.
Patrick Fromherz
June July 2009 |
