Nepal June Update by Ryan James, Adam Wall, and Ardyn Ford
Hello there y’all- this is our last blog post. With one day in the village remaining, I think it is safe to say that our projects in Nepal have been a major success, even though nothing went according to plan. Leaving the village and especially the kids tomorrow is really going to suck, and we will probably all cry more than we already have. The kids in the village are always willing to learn and to try again and again, and watching that happen for nine days in the village is a lot more inspiring than I just made it sound. We will all be down to use some toilets that you can put toilet paper in though, and not hitting our heads on the wind chime will be pretty nice too.
Our projects are mostly completed now. We built most of a retaining wall which holds the bathrooms and schoolyard in place, rebuilt irrigation pipes damaged in the earthquake which serve 70 local farms, taught a largely successful, if somewhat chaotic, English camp, painted large parts of the school and surrounding fences, built walls in the school to create additional classrooms, taught lessons on community health and basic business skills, helped the women of Suntakhan Village learn to sew, and set up five freshly painted flagpoles.
It has been incredible to spend these two weeks in the shadow of Boudhanath Stupa, especially with such incredible people, both on the team and in the village. We will not soon forget our experiences here, especially seeing the Swastika displayed side by side with the Star of David at Bhimdev Primary School. If you care enough about our trip to read this, then we will most likely see you on Saturday night- even if we would rather stay in Nepal.