Below is the transcript of a video I prepared for the Kansas City Area Peace Corps Association’s 9th Annual Open House and Peace Corps through the Decades celebration.
Wow, I am so excited to be there with you all for this ‘virtual’ 9th Annual Open House to celebrate Peace Corps 60th Anniversary with the KCAPCA.
My name is Jim Damico and I’m speaking to you from Nepal.
As some of you may know, I was one of the 7000 volunteers who were evacuated a year ago due to the pandemic. Even though Peace Corps hasn’t restarted their program yet here in Nepal, I took advantage of the easing of travel restrictions to get a tourist visa so I could visit my host family. Hopefully this summer, Peace Corps will re-instate volunteers and I can return as a PCV.
I arrived here the last week of January with a 3-month visa. But I hadn’t really thought it through on what I would do here once I arrived. All I knew was that this was where I wanted to be. So, instead of waiting for re-instatement in the US, I was going to do it in Nepal.
Kathmandu was kind of a shock. It was as if half of the population had left the city. People were out and about, shops where open but traffic was light and there just didn’t seem to be the masses of humanity that I was used to seeing before the pandemic.
Even on the main highway out of Kathmandu, there was very little truck traffic.
After a good nights sleep, my first full day in the village seemed like I had never left. I fell back into my old life as a member of my host family.
After self-quarantining for 10-days at my host families home, I was finally able to get out and see the village and meet everyone all over again. I got a lot of surprised faces and even more giant smiles when they saw me.
My first visit to school was like being mobbed by the paparazzi, the students were so excited, especially the primary students. In that first week “out” I had a chance to visit several of my favorite students homes and talk with their parents.
Although I am still very happy to be here, it hasn’t all been smooth. For one, my school thought that I would just pick up where I left off 10 months ago when I evacuated. I had to explain to them that I wasn’t a Peace Corps volunteer now and that I had paid my own way to be here. And just so there wouldn’t be any confusion once I do come back as a volunteer, I told them I couldn’t teach (especially since I was visiting Nepal with a tourist visa).
But I have been able to help some of the primary teachers whom I never really had time for when I was here last, like the nursery and kindergarten teachers. After several weeks of going to school, I have finally relented to teach the occasional class, especially to my previous students, much to the joy of my co-teachers.
Another place that I wanted to look into was a small primary school (grades K-5) near my host families farm. I knew that those students would be going to my school eventually and thought any help I could give the teachers there might help their students once they reached our school. So, since I have time now, I will be going there once a week to see if there is anything I could help them with.
As any volunteer knows who has had to suddenly leave their service, there are always things going through your mind about “I should have done more of…. or less of…” And I am so blessed again to be able to go back and almost start over, learning from my mistakes from the past. And I can’t wait till re-instatement either!
One place I want to do “more of” is documenting my time here. So, if you want to follow my adventure, head over to my website WanderingTheWorld.com or my Instagram feed at jimbagsh.
Again, Happy Happy 60th to the Peace Corps. And here’s hoping for even better years ahead.
For more information about the KCAPCA, checkout the link here.
