48 Hours

The past couple of days have been so crazy to me! So far in Nepal I have spent less than $40.00 and have purchased a Nepali outfit, 3 t-shirts, a sweatshirt and a pair of Toms; this all equaled less than 3000 Nepali Rupees. To me it seemed like nothing until we went to a nice private school today and found out their tuition is 2000 Nepali Rupees a month- that includes room and board. In US dollars that is only about $20.00 a month. After finding this out I felt a little guilty for just throwing money around like it means nothing- some people don’t even make  that much in a year!!

I have been trying to soak everything in and try to comprehend how different life in Nepal is and yet how similar it is at the same time. The people here are so kind- to me and to each other. Yesterday at the school we visited I gave a little girl a juice box and she led me down 2 flights of stairs, to another classroom, to give it to her brother. I’m not sure why that small gesture stuck with me but I’ve been thinking about it so much for the past 24 or so hours. This little girl, covered in a few days (at least) worth of dirt was willing to share her juice with her brother.

I have realized how selfish I can be and how I can learn a lot from being here in Nepal. The things that I consider to be “needs” at home are luxury here. From  the toilet paper (or lack thereof) to hot water, the electricity coming and going and not having clean water everywhere-  but the one thing I have seen is that people here are genuinely happy. I have been soaking it up and trying to disconnect from what I consider to be “normal”. I snap pictures of everyone I see because I want to remember that people are happy everywhere, despite not having what I consider to be an essential thing/object.

I want to remember that happiness is definitely not connected with material objects. I want to remember that relationships with people are far more valuable than anything else. I also want to remember that I have so much to be grateful for and that I don’t always need more- I have more than enough. Life here in Nepal is definitely different from what I am used to but it’s wonderful. I want to be like the little girl sharing her juice with her brother.