Day 15

Today was a great day! We started off with a delicous breakfast as usual and then, the group shipped out to the school for our last day of work. As per request, we spent the first half of the morning working hard. Really Hard. I mean hauling over 125 bags, smashing rocks into floors and lifting cinder blocks. Everyone was tired. To round off the morning, we separated into three teaching groups. Some taught English through playing Hangman, Mad Libs and everyone spent time interacting and learning from the locals.

We retreated back to our village for some lunch, complete with french fries, a tea hour with the hostel girls and then our Nepali cultural lesson with Mingma. Cooking and our Nepali lesson proved fun and, as usual, the cooking session broke out into a dance party. To round off the night, we treated everyone to our favorite meal, Momo’s french fries and chow-mein. There were no complaints.

All in all, today was stellar. Hard work, relaxation and good food.

-Nate & Anne

Day 16

This post features student writing.

Namaste! What a day! Our last day in the village started off with a killer breakfast: eggs, dough flowers, potatoes, pomegranate seeds and apples. We can’t forget to mention the endless cups of chocolate milk tea (Milk tea w/ chocolate powder). After our fantastic meal, we spent an hour working on the finishing touches to our dance. After this, we had a short period of mental preparation for the performance to come. At 10:45 am, we departed for the school on the 20-minute hike we have grown familiar with over the past 2 weeks. Upon arriving at White Hills School, we took some photos in front of our classrooms under construction and socialized with the Nepali students we have fostered relationships with. Then we sat down for the ceremony.

They split us up on two sides of the audience. Between the divided Putney Adventurers was a sea of little children in their tiny chairs. Surrounding us were the rest of the older students of White Hills. The ceremony began and proceeded with a myriad of traditional dances with each caste performing a dance in traditional clothing of their caste. After a number of these dances, we were called up to perform our 3-minute routine. Despite our collective nerves, we executed the dance with perfection and our audience enjoyed it so much that they eventually asked us to come up and perform a second time. We were very surprised by 2 Nepali girls who came up individually to sing popular American songs including “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran. Anne also got up to sing beautifully with back up vocals from Nate and our Nepali guides. The ceremony concluded and we proceeded to hike uphill back to the village for the last time.

We arrived back at the village to be greeted with SPAM and Dhal-Bhat. Following lunch we descended the hill to our second ceremony of the day: a farewell ceremony by girls staying at the girls hostel. They presented us with Kathas and also hand written letters responding to our previously written ones. The letters were very artistic and detailed. The majority also included photos. They performed dances for us and delivered a warming speech, which was returned by a speech from one of our own, Jacqui.

The ceremony was followed by a fun dance party with the girls. We had a fun time playing volleyball for the last time in Nepal. Shortly after we sat down for our last session of our Nepali lectures delivered by the one and only Chhyamba about the lives of actively practicing Buddhists. This was very interesting. After another hour we prepared for our final dinner in the village, headlined by delicious chicken, the first since our initial stay in Kathmandu. Some adventurous souls daringly tried an unknown pepper, which was the spiciest thing I have ever eaten. What a wild 30 minutes! As the pepper eaters wrapped up their road to recovery, another dance party commenced with the girls, who enthusiastically did not stop dancing for 2 hours.

All in all, it was definitely a memorable last day in the village.

-Austin

Day 17

This post features student writing.

Today we sadly departed our host village in the clouds around 7 am. As we drove away from Salleri in our Jeeps, we had the chance to witness the beautiful views of the mountains. Around 11 am, we stopped at the restaurant we went to when we left Kathmandu in the beginning of our trip. After the 12-hour car trip, we arrived back at our hotel in Kathmandu and ate way too much chow mein :). We are all super excited to meet a world renowned artist and spend the day in the city.

-Lola T.