Opening2Life

I'm writing from my bunk bed in a hostel located in the Thamel area of Kathmandu. Yesterday, I finished my first volunteering experience and decided to stay here for 2 nights before heading to my next project at a secondary school in Chiti, near Besisahar. This past week was intense. I arrived last Monday at "Children's Home Nepal". I was told that, until a few years ago, the kids would spend the whole day there, but nowadays, they come only for 2 hours after school. They decided to keep the name, but in practice, it no longer functions as a children's home. Instead, it's a place where kids between the ages of 6 and 13, from poor families, come after school. I saw where some of them live - in some kind of shelters. I'm not sure of the correct English word; for Portuguese readers, they are "barracas". The children are cared for and taught mainly by foreign volunteers, but there are also a couple of local teenagers who step up to help whenever ther...

I arrived in Kathmandu yesterday after a long journey - about 24 hours and 3 flights. I barely slept, but with the excitement and adrenaline, I didn't care. Since I was traveling with a checked-in backpack, I worried that it might not arrive at the same time as me because of the 2 stopovers (Istanbul and Mumbai), but fortunately it did.🙏 After landing, I got my visa on arrival, picked up my backpack, bought a local SIM card, and prepaid for a taxi to get to the first place where I'm staying - 2 nights, to explore the area a bit. I had watched many videos about traffic in both Nepal and India, but nothing compares to seeing it live. 😄 Cars and motorcycles come from everywhere, honking constantly. There don't seem to be many traffic rules, and the roads are in very bad condition, but somehow they seem to make it well here, even with the apparent chaos. I'm staying in the Boudhha district. Yesterday, all I wanted was a shower and some rest, and I slept like a baby. Today...

I thought of writing another post before starting the trip to share how the preparation has been going. From the moment I made the decision to go on this journey (sometime last year), I've been thinking of all the things that I need to take care of. In the beginning, it felt overwhelming – deciding when to leave my job, when to leave Hungary, putting some belongings up for sale, and finding organisations to which I could donate some of my clothes. Every time I move from one place to another, I always get rid of many things – stuff that I believe I don't really need because I don't use it very often, so it's not worth carrying with me. Apart from these more important short-term decisions, I also had to start thinking of my planned trip. For me, the most effective way to deal with this feeling is to stay organised. So, I started taking notes on everything I would need to take care of. An Excel file is usually my go-to tool, as I got so used to using one due to the types o...