BlinkNow10 Flashback: Remembering My First Trip to Nepal
Friday, January 27, 2017
This is me and Sunita. Hard to believe our first trip to Nepal was more than 10 years ago. There was an armistice and the border of Nepal opened up. I had been learning so much about this particular region of the country and wanted to take a trip. Sunita and I packed up our backpacks. It had been nearly 8 years since Sunita left her village during the insurgency.
We got on a bus for 2 days, and we got off and we had to trek for another 2 and a half days, until we found Sunita’s village and discovered that her home and extended family had sort of dissipated because of the civil war. It was the hardest physical journey of my life but also the most beautiful. Seeing a girl my age experience this through her eyes taught me so much. Seeing the raw effects that war and violence can have on people was shocking. I realized that the people affected most are always the women and children, especially those in remote regions. It was a meaningful trip. I felt this sense of belonging and this sense of home there. I knew there was something for me.
We reenacted this photo when Sunita came to visit this month. She is currently a super star medical student in India. Her amazing parents ended up moving back from India where they were living as refugees to Nepal and co-founding Kopila with me. (Daju and Bauju, as I refer to them are at the heart center of our home.) It's hard to imagine but had we not decided to take this trip together, I don't think Kopila would exist.
- Maggie
BlinkNow is celebrating our 10th year of service in Surkhet, Nepal. #BlinkNow10