I wanted to give you a review of the last year and an update on what I hope is coming in 2022 with Peace Corps and Nepal.
In March 2020, I was evacuated along with 7000+ Peace Corps volunteers worldwide due to the Pandemic. For many of us, we thought it would be just a short break, maybe 3 or 4 months, so in that time, I didn’t worry about looking for a job. But then as we passed the 4 month mark, again I had high hopes for PC to reopen. By the end of 2020, it looked like PC wouldn’t ever open. Fortunately for me, the airport in Kathmandu finally opened to regular flights and Nepal started issuing tourist visas again.So, in January, after almost a year at home in the US, I was finally able to return to my village in Nepal. For those who might not know the details, I lived for almost a year in a small mountain village about 4 hours west of Kathmandu while serving in the Peace Corps but had been evacuated in March’20 due to the pandemic.
Traveling during the Pandemic was different. My flight to KTM was full but only a handful were foreigners, the rest being Nepalis returning home since they lost their jobs overseas due to the Pandemic.
Since I was back in the village on my own, I ended up doing things I hadn’t been able to do when I was a volunteer – I taught at a small primary school (grades 1-5) down the mountain which was a lot of fun. Back at ‘my’ school, I helped my co-teacher at my school a few days a week. They had just returned to fulltime classes. But mostly at my school, I decided to help mentor the primary school teachers for grades 1 and 2, and also the nursery and kindergarten teachers. And a few days a week, I continued to teach English to the Peace Corps drivers via Zoom.
But by April, everything had shut down again due to another wave of Covid hitting Nepal. Sadly, one of the teachers at my school died from Covid. During this time, I spent most of my time at the house. I couldn’t even tutor the neighborhood kids because there was so much covid. Most of the shops in the village closed except for those selling food. But even the small shop near my house where I would buy snacks closed because the whole family caught covid.
Fortunately for me, I was able to get vaccinated while in Nepal. In our village, they were vaccinated everyone over 50 using vaccines donated by the US. When I didn’t show up at the healthpost, all the villagers asked why. So, the next day, I walked with the healthpost staff to another village about 3 miles away to get vaccinated there.
Since my family was still farming, I felt like I needed to do something to help out (I’m not a good farmer so that wouldn’t be much help). During the day I fed the buffalo and goats but I wanted to do more. There was a huge pile of rocks next to the house that I was told were part of an old house that used to be there. So, I dug up a small trench and built about a 20’ rock wall about 1.5’ high and 1’ wide. I think it turned out pretty well.
My visa was finished in June so I went to Kathmandu. But even though the airport was open, I had 4 flights cancelled in June and July. The Nepal government allowed those on tourist visas to stay (and pay to renew their visas) until flights resumed normal operation. I ended up going back to my village for another month and left Nepal at the end of August.
Back in KC, my awesome brother Mike and sister-in-law Helen, let me take over their guest room. I was still hoping that Peace Corps might reopen so I didn’t look for a job – instead I just kept studying my Nepali, teaching my Zoom English class and running and biking every day.
My brothers are all doing well but I think my brother Tom contacted a mild case of covid last week. Unfortunately I’ve only gotten to see the brothers a few times since I returned. I did get to see my aunts and uncles if only briefly but that’s still better than 2020.
Still hoping that 2022 is better than 2021. I’m leaving again for Nepal in a few weeks to return to my village. I will be there on another 5-month tourist visa and will probably do the same as I did last year – help teach at a small primary school, mentor the primary teachers at my school, and help my co-teacher when I can. I just talked to Peace Corps last night and they said they are planning to re-open July 22nd but that could change. If it happens, that would be great news but in these days of covid, nothing ever goes according to plan.
I have several personal goals to work on in 2022 – I want to continue with my language study, not just Nepali but with all the languages I’ve been learning (Mongolian, Thai, Italian, & Spanish). I will concentrate on Nepali but won’t totally abandon the other languages. I might even start taking online Nepali lessons so I will be ready when Peace Corps finally re-opens. And second, I want to start a YouTube channel. As a 3-time Peace Corps volunteer, I think I could help a lot of new volunteers not only for Nepal but other countries as well. So, the channel will be a lot about my life in Nepal but also a lot to help new volunteers. We’ll see.
Well, that’s all for now. Got to go. I hope this finds you all well and wishing you all a great new year ahead.
Featured Image by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
