This post features student writing.

Today was our second full day in Salleri. After a restful sleep, we woke up to tired bodies from the day before. After breakfast, we hiked to our work site, where we were split into two groups: one moving rocks and the other breaking rocks. After two hours of work we had the opportunity to visit the nearby school. During this time, we played games with the children, like tic tac toe and hangman, and then sat in the courtyard to watch the students show off their talents, and talented they were! I was amazed at the skill they had acquired and their ability to dance barefoot on the rocky ground. Their hospitality was absolutely outstanding. They offered us tea and gave us a formal welcome that was met with applause. After we left the school, we returned to our dorms for lunch. We then returned to the work site and the two groups switched jobs. After our second shift, we returned to the ranch for our second dance lesson. After that, we split into three groups: one had a Nepali language lesson, another cooked dinner, and the last group met with our leaders to discuss our independent projects. After we reconvened, we had a little extra time, so naturally, we played volleyball. We had amazing chow mein for dinner. After dinner, we had a family meeting [leaders’ note: we started to unpack the service work we are doing and had a successful conversation about the impact of our actions as well as the “outsider vs insider” complex].

This was an amazing day that was filled with fun! 

— Myles K.

After an early morning wake up, we ate breakfast and got ready to head over to the construction site. We used our strength to haul what felt like boulders through the mud while listening to some good music. My group also made cement for a little while. After that we had a competition to see who could collect the most trash in one hour. We split up into small groups and each group had one bag to put all of their trash in. Many of the groups found more bags because we had collected so much garbage. A lot of the garbage collected in rivers. I found a small waterfall with trash at the bottom so I just jumped on down and picked up trash like my life depended on it. At that moment a woman was looking at me with the most confused look I have ever seen. I paused for a second, turned around, and said “Namaste.”  We then brought back the trash to be judged by the almighty Pete, and Guy and Tessa gave moving speeches about how the amount of trash doesn’t matter, but making an impact on the community does. After that we practiced our dance. We ended the day with a candlelit dinner because the power went out. [We shared stories and talked about the waste activity and how waste is disposed of in different places in the world.]

— William S.

Today we woke up to clear skies, an amazing view of the mountains, and some relaxing Nepali music. After a breakfast of eggs, toast, and lots of Nut City [Nutella/marshmallow mix], we headed out on our walk to the work site. Because of the clear skies, we were able to see three amazing snow-capped mountains. We hauled some more rocks for about two hours while some members of the group had a little too much fun dancing with the rocks. Today was sunny and all the little children who usually entertain us were off at school [they have school on Sunday here in Salleri]. We took a long break and set up a volleyball net and got into a pretty intense game, which we won! We headed back to the dorms for lunch, which was fried vegetables, stinging nettle soup, rice with eggs, and fried bread. It was very good! We had an hour and a half to relax until we headed back to work. This time we got to change it up and haul the rocks to a new pile! Some locals joined on to make our line longer. After an hour or so, we headed back to relax before dance lessons. John brought some snacks, which were slightly distracting, but we made it through and finished the dance! We had an amazing dinner of momos and then talked about preparation for our trek tomorrow. I can’t wait to see all of the mountains on our upcoming four-day trek!

— Maya C.