During the Easter holidays, I had the opportunity to travel to Nepal with a group of 24 people consisting of families from the four Thomas’s Schools (my old primary school) and members of CAIRN charity. I experienced the first-hand work of CAIRN’s projects and life in the rural villages of Nepal.

CAIRN is supporting education in the hill villages of rural Nepal by providing libraries and teacher training. CAIRN has installed more that 65 libraries, supporting over 18,000 students and placing over 180,000 books into schools.

We started our six-day trek at the border of the Annapurna conservation area. For the duration of the journey, we walked from village to village for about six hours each day. Villagers welcomed us with flower garlands when we arrived in their villages and would place Sindoor (red pigment) on our faces as a token of welcome, a Hindu tradition. Sometimes they would also give us scarves to put around our necks, which, in turn was a Buddhist tradition. Traditional Nepalese dances were also performed for us by children between the ages of 4 and 16. When we visited the schools, we were given a tour of the building and its libraries. It was nice to see the kids’ level of learning and their eagerness for school. With the children, we would also play games like Kana Mutti Bindima, in which you had to bash a pot with a stick while being blindfolded, if you managed to break the pot, you would receive the rupees that were hidden inside. We also played musical chairs and football with them.

I was sharing a tent with my little brother Luke. We were given very comfy and thick sleeping bags (it was cold at night!), some nights it was hard to sleep because so many wild dogs were barking too loudly. Also, we had to sleep on the floor of a classroom of one of the schools we visited as the ground was just too wet after the heavy downpour. That was another experience in itself!

My favourite part of the trip was talking to the girls my age and teaching them how to play UNO. Even though we live completely different lives, we were able to have good laughs together and connect.

Elena K, Year 10