Tapaaile ke gareko?

(What did you do?)

I am now learning Nepali, the Nepalese language. I found a comprehensive book of spoken Nepali for foreign volunteers. It’s hard. They have many sounds we don’t have in European languages. But it’s only the beginning, so it’s normal. My goal is to be able to speak basic Nepali for September, when the touristic/volunteering season will start, in order to be more useful while accompanying international visitors in rural areas.

Talking about this, what’s my mission here? My goal is to help my friend Hari in all his projects. First of all, in order to have time and resources for running his charity organization, he needs to be financially self-sufficient. For this purpose I help him with his ethical trekking company by trying to build a website that is much better than all the other websites from all other companies, in order to stand out of the 2’000 trekking companies from Nepal. Hari and I agree on the fact that it’s important not to use any of the generously donated money for caring about oneself, because this money goes to the people in need, to supporting the cause only. I just read something that goes in the same direction in one of Gandhi’s biography : “One’s personal work for the well-being of the society should not be financially remunerated, no matter the amount of work dedicated. Because, first, it’s a duty, and second, it requires complete freedom: freedom of criticizing and freedom of changing approach whenever needed.”

A second objective is to improve the website and communication of his charity organization, in order to raise its international recognition, and thus, increasing its effectiveness.

A third objective is to support the coordination and welcoming of international volunteers by offering French/German/Spanish to English/Nepali translation, facilitating their experience as much as possible.

Hari also has plenty of other projects that I will be very happy to work on. Lot of work ahead.

But for the first time of my life, the idea of working crazily hard just makes me happier than I’ve ever been.

Take care,

Bastien