Sixteenth section: allhandsandhearts. Thank you for a great time.

Find me someone

Who, if they happened to get a superpower

Shows the courage to fight for the good

On holidays without vacation and without pay

No, I can't think of anyone

No, no one comes to mind

Goldroger - Sgt. Pfeffer

We can think of several people who dedicate their time, vacation, money, and energy to others. Because they are building a school in the remote area of Sindhuli, Nepal.

Even though it fit perfectly into our trip, we mostly enjoyed the project, and it often felt like a huge festival where you can also learn a lot and live for free (if you can handle eating the same thing every day and not drinking beer), we met many people with altruistic reasons. And we have come to appreciate them more than anything. But even the people who were mainly there for their personal experience helped build three schools.

Either way, Allhandsandhearts has created a great project that stands not only for the locals, the children, and the educational mission, but also for a huge range of experiences, exchange of ideas, and understanding between people of different cultural and social backgrounds. We can honestly say that we are simply grateful to have been a part of all this.

And this post will be about these people and the experiences with them, as the daily routine, digging holes, transporting bricks, building forms, mixing and pouring concrete, sifting sand, pushing wheelbarrows, eight hours, six days a week, was always very similar. So even in our seven weeks on the construction site, we fell into a daily routine.

But let's go chronologically.

First of all, Christmas came. On Christmas Eve, we worked half a day. It felt like the longest workday we've ever had. When it was finally over, we went straight to the pub and celebrated. Tomo cooked an incredibly delicious dinner in collaboration with various cooking groups. In the evening, I had one of the most insane conversations, confusing, terrible, and eye-opening at the same time. I still don't have a solid opinion, but maybe we can discuss your opinion back in Germany. I talked to an American who is a creationist Baptist. So he believes that evolution never happened, he believes in hell, and in general, he believes that everything literally true in the Bible. We talked about the hierarchy in the church, sexism, homosexuality, and contraception. And while he loves all people equally and conveys this convincingly, he believes that God has his firm rules that do not allow for diversity. While he does not judge others, there is an entity that will judge. For this person, it was the first time he had left his home state of South Carolina to go to a different environment. And again, a huge thank you to allhandsandhearts, which makes it possible to remove people from their cultural contexts and provide new influences from all over the world.

We had the first Christmas Day off. So we all spent a day together in the pub playing our favorite drinking game Paranoia.

During the week between Christmas and New Year's, I used a Saturday to prepare the world distribution game. This is an educational game in which participants have to find out how wealth, environmental pollution, energy consumption, and population are distributed on different continents. In addition to two warm-up games, I also included a very funny game at the end that I learned from our Israeli friend Alon. It wasn't easy to motivate enough people to participate in the game, as you need at least 10 participants. But on the third try, the game was a complete success!

One morning, we cooked Shakshuka, an Israeli dish with tomatoes and eggs, with a small group. We really enjoyed cooking together, decorating the table, and sitting together in a cozy atmosphere. On another day, we walked to the Triangle for sunset, where we had a beautiful and peaceful evening with our dear companions. Unfortunately, we also had to say goodbye to Thiago, one of our favorite friends.

On New Year's Eve, we only had half a day of work again. So we walked back to the base with a group of great people from our school, Saraswati. The walk takes about 45 minutes on foot and is very beautiful. Halfway there, we sat by the river, slid down a huge rock into the water, and slept in the warm midday sun. In the evening, Tomo cooked another delicious dinner for us. Gathered around the fire, we sang along to Queen and Bonnie Tyler at the top of our lungs, and for once, there was no SongsNepal music playing. The quiet hour at nine wasn't fully observed. The music had to be turned off, BUT we were allowed to have normal conversations at a regular volume. We decided to play cards against humanity with a few people. My question, "I don't know how World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will..." was answered with "begin with invading Poland," and it was a wicked laugh for the rest of the evening. As midnight approached, hardly anyone was still awake, as we are all used to going to bed at nine o'clock. With the twenty people who were still awake, we released lanterns with good wishes for the following year. It was a truly beautiful day.

The next day, we walked to the river with a few people. On the way, Oliver, a dear friend of ours, was chased down the hill by a cow. We only saw a dust cloud and a wild cow from a distance. When we arrived at the river and recovered from the shock, we all sat down to read and cooled our feet in the water.

Then, the week until my birthday was unfortunately not so nice. I was sick and had a terrible stomach bug (like about a third of the camp). Even though most of the time it is really nice to be together with all the people, it sucks when you're sick. Everyone around you is loud, partying, it's too hot during the day, and terribly cold at night. Surrounded by the loud voices of others, I felt very lonely in my tent. In view of my birthday, it was a strange feeling that nobody really knows me, and I hardly had any time or moments to have serious and intimate conversations. That's the downside of the festival character: sometimes the depth is missing. And that can make you feel quite lonely, even surrounded by many lovely people.

After our big Pour-Day, where all 60 people were registered for Srimawi and we all poured the floor for the school, celebrated, and had a super long workday, we finally went on break. Every volunteer who stays for over a month has to take a break, during which they are not allowed to be at the base. Many lovely volunteers were on break with us. And honestly, the break was amazing.

On my birthday itself, we organized our visa and then went out to dinner in our favorite restaurant with Audrey, Pilot, Cider, Anya, and Oliver. Even though I still couldn't really eat yet, it was wonderful to get to know the people in a smaller group. After dinner, we went to the pub, where my stomach lasted about 20 minutes before the cigarette smoke forced us to go home. It was a really nice birthday, despite the stomach ache.

The next day, we went to the doctor, and as if seeing the doctor had already changed everything, I felt better. At noon, we then had to say goodbye to Oliver, and in the evening, we went out to dinner with 'the Americans' Trevor, Andrew (our neighbor at the camp), and Steven, along with Eric, Anya, and Cider, and then went to a performance by our friends Shak and Isla. They performed a small Poi spinning show at their hostel.

On Saturday, Rene got sick. He was completely knocked out, had stomach problems, and basically slept all day.

So Anya and I had breakfast alone and then went out for lunch. As you may have noticed, the whole time in Kathmandu was all about getting good food. At the base, there are always the same six dishes, and for lunch, there's always Dhal Bat. Down at Santos, you can choose from three other dishes. Everything is either overcooked or fried. Lots of lentils, lots of rice. For seven weeks. Many conversations at the base revolve around one topic: food. Questions like "If you could have anything you wanted, what would you eat?" or "What would be the first thing you would eat when you get home?" are part of our daily conversations. We are happy about any bit of variation. And now we are in Kathmandu, surrounded by all the fancy restaurants and bars. It's wonderful. Anya and I had a moment at the base when another volunteer was drinking hot chocolate with Baileys and offered us a sip. Since then, we've been hooked. And on that day, we finally treated ourselves to our favorite drink for lunch. In the evening, Anya and I went to a vegetarian, trendy restaurant and had a very nice conversation with our very Western-looking waiter. But when we talked about how women in rural areas often have to sleep outside with the animals when they have their period, he proudly replied that in his family, his sister only has to go to the neighbors. We didn't expect that even this lovely, enlightened person still holds on to this old way of thinking. However, it was nice that we could openly discuss it with him, and I tried to explain to him the perspective of a woman and the benefits of menstruation. Later on, Cider joined us, and we went to a bakery (that's where you'll always find yourself with Anya) and had wonderful, deep, and emotional conversations. I had really missed that. The next day, thankfully, Rene was feeling much better, so he had breakfast with Cider, Anya, and me. After our hours-long breakfast, we went to a café to meet Trevor, Steven, and Andrew. Then we met up with everyone, I mean really everyone, who happened to be in Kathmandu at the time (18 people!) and went out for pizza. Even our dear friend Vova came all the way from Pokhara. He accidentally took my work gloves while we were on the construction site, and when I noticed, he promised to bring me new gloves the next time we see each other. As sweet as he is, he bought me super warm, colorful woolen gloves that I will treasure!

On Monday, we had to say goodbye to many of our friends during breakfast. Quite spontaneously, that day René decided to get a tattoo. It was supposed to be his favorite children's book: The Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business. At the tattoo studio, we met six people from allhandsandhearts who all wanted to get tattoos. Trevor, Steven, and Andrew all got an astronaut with a Hawaiian shirt. Later on, I also got a tattoo: a motif from my favorite children's book, Momo, which is not only beautiful in terms of content but also personally significant to me, as my grandmother used to read it to me as a child.

While I was getting a watch tattooed, René went to pick up our passports from the Indian embassy. Unfortunately, you have to pick them up in person. Since he had taken our money with him, we had to ask the tattoo artist to lend us money. With the tattoo not fully finished yet, I ran to the next taxi driver, asked him to take me to the embassy, and paid him with the borrowed money. So, 10 minutes before the embassy closed, we managed to finally get our passports.

After that, I quickly wrote three job applications (it was a terribly stressful but also funny day), and we went to the bakery with 'the Americans' and Cedric, a somewhat fatalistic but very lovable Frenchman. And the next day, we went back to the base.

When we got out of the car after another eight-hour drive and looked around, we sadly realized that almost the entire base was full of new people. In the six days we were in Kathmandu, many old people had left and new ones had arrived. At first, we were a bit sad, but we quickly got used to the new faces and even grew to love them. The following Saturday, I got down to business. Since the first day in Nepal, I had wanted to do an educational project for the school children on the topic of plastic and its effects on nature. So I started preparing and looking for people to join me. However, I then received the news that I was accepted into the master's program. Confused because I didn't expect it at all, René and I had to change our plans and return to Kathmandu earlier to take care of the paperwork. But I still wanted to prepare the plastic project. So I made a plan, gathered information, collected ideas for the project's design, talked to those in charge, and brought together six people who would continue my idea. In a meeting, I assigned tasks and we chose a new "Big Monkey," Claire, who would take care of the main organization. We also have Claire to thank for our name: Plastic is not fantastic. A huge thanks to all members for their spontaneous dedication!

Grand, the super open and great project coordinator at the school where René and I always work, was very supportive. He offered to do an educational unit with the volunteers and the Maisons during our working hours. So I prepared everything and did a little educational game with the group. Grand also offered to arrange an English lesson for the children at the school. With the help of Sinam and Paloma, two lovely volunteers, we were able to implement this in our last week as well.

On the last day, on the way back from the school, a tractor broke down on the road, so we drove to that point in one car, walked past the tractor, and then had to switch to other cars. There were 13 people in one car, our wonderful and lovable APC Ravi had to lie across everyone's laps, and others were piled up on the seats.

At the evening meeting, we sang a hilarious theme song to the tune of "Hey Jude" for Grand and Ravi.

And then it was our last evening, where we played Flunky Ball with everyone (many had never played before) and had great, long, and intense conversations with everyone. Early in the morning, we were supposed to leave, but it was absolute Armageddon weather. Tents were flying around, it was the first time it rained in months, and we all had to be evacuated. Locked in the big tent, we played games and waited for the weather to clear so we could finally leave. Everyone made jokes that the universe just didn't want us to go. But then the sun came out just in time for lunch. After a last Dhal Bat, an emotional farewell to everyone, and a thousand hugs, we finally headed back to civilization. Three days in Kathmandu, serious conversations with employers, application documents, insurance documents, and good food, and then we'll be sitting on a bus to Varanasi, India. And then the adventure continues.