Arriving at the village!

We set off early on Monday morning full of nerves, anticipation and excitement to drive to our village. The countryside we passed through was stunning with our first proper sights of the snowy Himalayas and terraces for agriculture. We passed through Pokhara, a tourist hub about 2/3 hours from our village which was also beautiful with a big lake in the foreground and more views of snowy mountains. We had a long, winding drive through the hills to reach the town of Syangja where Alice (my pair) and I left the other 5 AV volunteers. We then called in at the British Gurkha Welfare Centre where we learnt about the amazing work the Gurkha Welfare Trust does for the villages in various districts including Pokhara and Syangja. They have various clean water, school rebuilding and housing projects which they manage. They cover a very large area which is impressive given how hard it is to get around, especially in the Monsoon season.

Our jeep with our numerous bags packed on top of it picked us up and we set off for our village. Little did we know that this was most certainly not a 'private' jeep. We soon discovered this when we stopped and what seemed like hundreds of people loaded onto it, climbing on top and even sitting on the front as we set off bumping around on the steep road up to the village. It was a dirt track the whole way, winding through the scenic villages with the road deteriorating as we got higher. The journey seemed to take forever so we were grateful when we arrived at the top of the hill and reached Bhajyang village where we are living. I must admit we were both extremely embarrassed at the amount of stuff we had!

Outside the Ale family's ancestors house, where we are staying, the whole Ale clan, KK's family who live in the village had come to welcome us. Alpurna, who is showing us around put a tika (a red mark) on each of our foreheads, wrapped a scarf around us and all the children gave us flowers which was lovely and very welcoming. We were then shown around the village, their temple, the school, Alpurna's house and her fields. We were then given Dahl Baht by her family which was lovely. Their lifestyle is the opposite to ours. They cook on fires outside, they have little houses with tin or thatch roofs or brick if they can afford it and their food is very different to ours. I will admit that on that first night I did wonder how I going to get through the next 3 months and I just wanted to go home. Even though their lifestyle was a bit of a shock, I also admired their spirit of generosity when we think how much we have back home and how little they have in comparison. They are such kind and welcoming people and truly the friendliest nation I have ever met.