The first thing I noticed as I stepped off the plane in Kathmandu, Nepal, was the heat. Then I noticed my thirst. Then I remembered how my volunteering group was warned of the dirty water that may cause, and I quote, “explosive diarrhea.”
Never in my life had I imagined a lack of potable water being a problem I’d have to face. Growing up in the small, affluent town of Saratoga, I have always been somewhat sheltered from the many hardships in life– especially poverty. Granted, my parents have tried to put my privilege into perspective by exposing me to the lives of the less fortunate through volunteering. Yet these experiences were always such a remote part of my life.
Truthfully, I should have known that the school volunteering clubs I participated in were not doing enough. Having high hopes for helping the homeless in San Francisco my sophomore year, I joined the Helping Everyone by Reaching Out (HERO) Club. It was a new group …show more content…
Frankly, A Disheartening Experience would have been more accurate. I found my hopes of profoundly helping the underprivileged in Nepal gradually diminished as the trip progressed. On day one, I set foot inside a school. An utterly dilapidated school. The paint was chipping off, the floor was blanketed with dirt, the desks beat up, the chairs a touch from breaking. The school simply lacked the money to maintain its facilities. For the next two weeks, I worked with other volunteers to refurbish the entire building. Wash, add primer, add paint, repeat. Fix a chair, fix a desk, use more tools, repeat.
At the end of the two weeks, the school was in a somewhat respectable state; but what about the rest of Nepal? What about the poor boys and girls that would beg so heartbreakingly for food. What about the little boy who was chased by a policeman– and beat– for “annoying tourists” after we bought him some
Never in my life had I imagined a lack of potable water being a problem I’d have to face. Growing up in the small, affluent town of Saratoga, I have always been somewhat sheltered from the many hardships in life– especially poverty. Granted, my parents have tried to put my privilege into perspective by exposing me to the lives of the less fortunate through volunteering. Yet these experiences were always such a remote part of my life.
Truthfully, I should have known that the school volunteering clubs I participated in were not doing enough. Having high hopes for helping the homeless in San Francisco my sophomore year, I joined the Helping Everyone by Reaching Out (HERO) Club. It was a new group …show more content…
Frankly, A Disheartening Experience would have been more accurate. I found my hopes of profoundly helping the underprivileged in Nepal gradually diminished as the trip progressed. On day one, I set foot inside a school. An utterly dilapidated school. The paint was chipping off, the floor was blanketed with dirt, the desks beat up, the chairs a touch from breaking. The school simply lacked the money to maintain its facilities. For the next two weeks, I worked with other volunteers to refurbish the entire building. Wash, add primer, add paint, repeat. Fix a chair, fix a desk, use more tools, repeat.
At the end of the two weeks, the school was in a somewhat respectable state; but what about the rest of Nepal? What about the poor boys and girls that would beg so heartbreakingly for food. What about the little boy who was chased by a policeman– and beat– for “annoying tourists” after we bought him some