Armchair or adventure………….
I can hardly believe it – in a few short months I will be in Nepal, the roof of the world. I was so lucky to win the Rank Fellowship travel award this year (against stiff competition I might add!), with what I thought of as an innovative and emotional presentation.
I am going to spend the autumn volunteering and working with charities who support enterprise for women who have been rescued from trafficking to Indian brothels or other abuse. My days will be a combination of fieldwork alongside Nepalese women, attending conferences and information exchange with NGO’s and other organisations. (I might fit some white water rafting and elephant riding in, in my spare time).
Preparations so far include procurement of the indispensable Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – oops I mean The Lonely Planet – Nepal, a very big rucksack and reading about Japanese encephalitis.
So far – so what? Well the title is a bit of a giveaway shouldn’t I be settling for the armchair at my age? I don’t mind sharing with you that I will be having my 64th birthday whilst I am in Nepal. Now I do not think I am old and certainly not too old to be doing adventurous things but the questions I have been asked by “concerned” individuals:
- Aren’t you frightened?
- What about earthquakes?
- Where will you go to the toilet?
- What about hot running water?
- Will you have your own bathroom?
- What will you eat?
- What about bandits and traffickers?
- How will you make yourself understood?
It’s almost as though I was going to the ends of the earth! There is a rhythm to the questions though, many focus on the “I couldn’t possibly manage without an on-suite bathroom” to it’s a foreign country with a language we don’t speak and food we don’t eat. All I can say is that I am not anxious and am really looking forward to it being very foreign, looking forward to meeting women that have survived horrors I cannot begin to think about and to working with organisations that use enterprise to bring about the transformation of these women’s lives.
While Terry is there she will be working with Maiti Nepal and of course contacting and supporting SI Kathmandu.