Connection

July 21, 2011

Passed out my English-to-Nepali translated surveys to 22 girls at Maiti Nepal.  These empowered girls are learning to speak their voices and will join hundreds of other girl leaders who have returned to their villages to end trafficking.  For many girls here in Nepal it takes one full day (or more) of walking to reach communities.  This mountainous country is very poor, roads are for the most part unpaved, and heavy rain during the monsoon season creates dangerous mudslides.  These are the conditions under which girls attempt to attend school and protect themselves from traffickers. 

It was very difficult to speak with the girls as only two girls knew any English, and even that was the bare minimum.  Just words here and there (like my Nepali).  But somehow the teacher convinced me to take over class and I spent the whole day with them.  At first I did not know what to do – they seemed to be just as nervous as I was.  But within minutes I feel into my comfort zone of teaching.  I wrote down some words in English and the girls started repeating the words after me.  I taught them “Beautiful Flower” by India Arie, which is a song about strong girls.  By the end of the day we were dancing, singing, laughing, making origami, and taking photos.  The girls recited Nepali poetry they wrote about ending violence against women.  I feel so humbled and so honored to have shared that space with them.

 

When it came time to say goodbye the girls asked me to stay longer and gave me a beautiful woven bracelet they made.  We had become so close that I wanted to stay with them for much longer, but I was on that mountain by myself and wasn’t sure how to get back to Kathmandu (during the monsoon season buses cannot drive on muddy mountain roads).  I finally decided to accept a ride to Kathmandu in a four-wheel jeep that was leaving the next day.  Little did I know I’d be spending the next eight hours of my life ferociously bumping up and down while the jeep picked up, one by one, ten local villagers *.  Over the course of this car ride I lost count of how many times I banged my head against the side of the jeep from the stomach-churning bumps, and how many times we stopped the car to dig out boulders and mud from the road (with shovels and pickaxes, no less).  And yes, I do have photos.  

*With no cars on that mountain, villagers often walk days to reach Kathmandu.  The jeep driver picked up as many people as we could possibly fit in the car (one on each of our laps), then began turning them away, which was heartbreaking.