From Travelling to Explore to Travelling with a Purpose

Trek to Banjariya

On 2nd December we start our trek towards the Banjariya village. After approx. 2.5 hours of bus ride mostly through unpaved roads that involved crossing a river, we finally make it to the village. When we got there the entire village community had gathered to greet us with music, cultural dance, and lots of love. This experience grounded me, made me reflect on many things I have done in my life & how I treat strangers, taught me how important is the cause I am taking part in, made me feel even more responsible.

After a grand welcome ceremony, we had the formal inauguration of the construction site and covenant signing by all community members and the buildOn team participating in the school build. The ceremony had many esteemed guests including the country director for buildOn, local politicians, media persons etc. All of this gave me a sense of comfort on how important the community considers this project and education in general.

That evening, we were taken to our host family’s house and introduced with our new found family members. The 3 boys Linh, Danyo and I stayed together with a host family. The 2 girls Vi and Lani stayed in a separate house few minutes from ours. Our host family consisted of Nanda ji (Ama/mother), Chandra (sister), Ramesh (brother), and Amrita (sister in law). In addition, the neighbourhood had 4 other houses and most of them were relatives of our host family. Over the course of next few days, we essentially became part of this one big family but most of all we bonded so strongly with the 3 sisters in the neighbourhood – Chandra, Kamla, and Debsara. We (the 3 boys) now want to return to the village for Chandra’s wedding. Hope we can make it.

3rd, 4th and 5th December – the days started early at 6AM with Yoga. At 7AM we had breakfast at Kaliram jis house who was kind enough to let buildOn team use his house facilities to arrange breakfast for the team. At 8AM we would form a circle near the work site and get going with the construction work. Through these 3 days, we had back breaking work especially for someone like me who has never done something like this. But whenever I saw the community come together to do it, the kids who had to attend school at 10AM be ready at 8AM to start working at the site, all my pains/cramps would go away and we would all come together to build the school like we were on a mission! We also had a lot of fun doing it..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi_FYfxU12Y

During these 3 days in the afternoon, we would go back to our host family house and have a refreshing bath after a hard day at the site.

After a fulfilling first half at the worksite, we would head to Kaliram jis house for an amazing lunch. Post lunch we would indulge in cultural exchange workshops with local community members. These involved learning the local art, gender talk etc.

In the evenings, we would return to our host families. My host family was special – they had a huge speaker at the front of the house and a front yard that became a dance floor after dark. Nepalese love to dance and they don’t stop! Something I learnt through my stay here at Banjariya. We spent the nights mostly dancing, having dinner cooked by our host families, playing games, having extended chats with the family especially the 3 sisters who were so curious about our lives and so were we to learn about theirs. The times spent in the evening with the host family is certainly the highlight of my trek. We learnt so much about their lives and became one with their family. To this day, I worry about my 3 sisters there and their future. I worry about Amma and her health (she fell from a tree picking leaves for a goat a couple years ago – since then she has chronic body pain. She was going for treatment to India where her husband lives on the day we left Banjariya). I worry about Ramesh and hope he graduates one day and finds a nice job. It is hard to decouple from the family when you live with them and when they shower you with so much of love and giveaway without any hesitation things they have even though they have so little. This experience truly made me reflect deeply about many things in life – made me realise how fortunate I am, how fortunate my friends and family are, how much I waste, how much I consume things that I want but I don’t need, how much I have but at the same time how much I don’t have – such as being part of a community like a family, how stingy I am despite having so much and reflections on many other things I have or haven’t done in my life.. This experience has definitely put a mirror up in front of me and will continue to force me to reflect, self introspect in the years to come. That is the biggest gift I am taking from this experience.

On 5th December evening, the community organised another grand closing ceremony for us. The “buildOn” team dressed up in traditional Nepali and danced with the community, the kids. We had such a lovely time together. There were some emotional speeches too including mine. Words cannot express these experiences.

It was also the last evening with our host family. The mood was starting to shift as the time to say goodbye was nearing. Regardless we continued to dance that night till midnight and once the neighbours left, Amma went to bed, we had the 3 sisters and us spend hours talking about many things – sharing our life stories, our dreams, making plans to meet in the future, figuring out how to stay in touch. Only Debsara has facebook which she can only access when she is in town. Chandra is engaged to a guy who is now in Saudi and has restricted her from using facebook.. That night we had the sisters promise us that they will inform us of their wedding dates. Chandra is mostly getting married late next year and the 3 of us boys hope to be there for the wedding. But this time we want to ensure we have minimal impact on the host family – I can’t thank our host family enough for being so generous, showering us with all the love, letting us peep into their lives like never before. They have taught me a lot.

On the 6th December it was time for us to say goodbye to the villagers. That morning the kids came to bid goodbye, our sisters were there till we boarded the bus. I wont forget this day for a long long time. It was difficult to leave the village only when the bonds were formed, the construction was gaining momentum. I wish I was there for another week.

I also want to sincerely thank the local buildOn team members for their extra ordinary commitment for this cause. Without them this trek wouldn’t have been possible. They are the ones who ensure the trek goes smoothly from organising the logistics, food, being translators, being leaders, being there with us, caring about us. I cannot express in words their sincerity and dedication.

On 6th December night we had the opportunity (by luck) to have a night out with Aaron Story (our Trek Leader). It was an opportunity to get to know Aaron and his life journey that night. Aaron is an amazing person. He is so happy with what he is doing. In my eyes the way he carries himself makes me feel like he is a celebrity and yet he is so grounded. He has isolated himself from social media. His leadership style is truly inspiring. I could see how much the community loved Aaron. He is great with kids too. I wish him all the best in the many more treks he is going to be part of. I am sure he will do a lot of good in his life.