Taking my students to Nepal

The school distanced themselves from the trip. My mother warned me that it was a bad idea. My friends joked about the worst case scenarios. But on January 29, 2018, I boarded a plane with three of my students to volunteer in Nepal with All Hands and Hearts without any other Korean teacher supervision.

In the end, we all made it out alive. We had no serious injuries, no stolen belongings, and, most importantly, no pregnancies. It looks like I get to keep my job.

But in all seriousness, the trip was good. It wasn’t easy, but the students seemed like they had a good time and learned something in the process. I was able to share a huge part of myself with them, and none of them walked away from the experience hating me for putting them through the trials that come with pitching camp in rural Nepal, so I call it a win.

It was, to say the least, different. Immediately, the Project Director pulled me aside and informed me that the minimum volunteer age is typically 18, but we were given a pass with a few stipulations. My two underage students, both clocking in at 17 years old, were my sole responsibility, and if they were caught drinking, smoking, or breaking any other rules, we would be asked to leave. The 18 year old was fine on her own.

Now, I don’t have any kids. I’ve never been considered a “parental guardian” for anyone, whatever that means. I’ve actively avoided it, but this news wasn’t unexpected. I came prepared with my own set of obnoxious rules like no wandering away from our campsite at night without me and no wandering up or down the nearby mountain on weekends without me. This coupled with the mandatory alcohol ban and always having to wear safety equipment on site already lost me the cool factor with the students. Looking back, I may have been too strict on my rules, but nobody died so I have no regrets.

Other than that, we worked with teams building a school. We split our time between three different worksites, mixing concrete, sanding building frames, painting, digging trenches, and everything in between. The students learned how to use power tools, received some character-building cuts and bruises, and even branched out to talk to the other volunteers from time to time! If you’ve read my past entries, living on the volunteer base is not the easiest thing, especially for students who have known urban Seoul for most of their lives, but everyone took on our rustic home with a positive attitude.

By the time we had finished our week and a half on site, the students had been introduced to many different types of lifestyles in both the volunteers and the locals. They experienced several long power outages, slept on bunk beds in a tent with no heating during cold weather, watched new friends come and go with ease, went to the bathroom into a big hole, used buckets to take showers, and spoke English with travelers from all over the world.

According to them, some of the most important lessons they learned were:

• It was easier to talk to people than they thought it would be. As long as they tried, language was not a huge barrier. Everyone came from different places and spoke many languages, but they learned that communication is more than just words and phrases. Being open to new experiences was more important than any mastery of the English language.
• The world is friendlier than they thought. Even if other volunteers didn’t know the students’ names, they still spoke to them around the campfire and were incredibly open and friendly. Everyone was very understanding about each other’s situations.
• Physical labor is hard work. Some of the students considered themselves stronger than the typical Korean person, but most of the volunteers were a lot stronger (also, older!). However, despite everyone’s differences in physical strength, it was always possible to help in other ways by participating in the work as a team. The fact that this work we did for one and a half weeks is something that people do every day for their entire lives was not lost on these students.

I’d say mission accomplished!