My house is your house

Thirsty, tired and hot from traveling, volunteers are greeted by our staff at either the airport or bus stop in Pokhara and once bags are collected, our first stop is for a cold drink. After some paperwork, a debrief and a chance to get to know one another, the next stop is to their new family’s house so that they can rest and settle in with their hosts. Currently, volunteers live at one of two homes.

Host sister, Garima doubles as a tour guide.

At the Shrestha family, volunteers are immersed with a nepali-style nuclear family. Ramesh is the patriarch and loves to talk about Nepal, his past volunteers, his past jobs and most of all he loves giving medical and diet advice. His wife, Gita, is an amazing chef who will sit and laugh with the volunteers for hours. Their daughter, Garima, is fluent in English and loves to act as a tour guide on weekends, often taking volunteers sightseeing and swimming. Aunty and her daughter, Trishala, also live in the house and Grandma is also usually meandering around. She has a gentle nature and endearing smile that transcends any language barrier.

At the Yolmo household, there is always something going on. Narbu, the host father, is a teacher who tutors students at his home. His wife, Ramana, is quick to smile and likes to give cooking lessons to the volunteers. They have two children. Their son, Rhimpo and daughter Pragya are often hard to find in the crowd of four additional children who sleep in the house. The additional children have parents who sent them to live with the Yolmo’s so that they are closer to school and receive additional tutoring afterschool from Narbu and now, the children get additional English help from our volunteers.

In these Nepali households, even with so many people about, there are some places to sit and relax and since it’s currently monsoon season - watch the rain (more enjoyable than it sounds). Brendan O’Keefe, a twenty year old Australian has been living with the Shrestha family for four weeks now and aside from thinking it’s great because he ‘gets a lot of attention,’ he says he really loves living as part of a host family because he gets to see how different people live. He also says, “They are pretty much your family so it’s nice to live with people who genuinely care about you and who want you to have a good time.” Oftentimes, when we drop volunteers off the first thing the host family says is ‘you are our family now’ and then they spend the rest of our volunteer’s stay showing that sentiment through actions. It’s pretty cool.

My house is your house