by Sujan Aryal (Student – BBA)
Life is not always rainbows and butterflies. They are waves that can go high to low and low to high anytime. Living in the city we are often provided with what we need, we are able to do whatever we want whenever we want with our lives. We are provided with roof to cover our heads, clothes to cover ourselves, food to satisfy our hunger but most people are not fortunate enough to get even the basic needs required for survival.
About four months ago, me along with some of my friends were involved in a community service project learning in a Chepang community of Chitwan district. The village was about 22-25 KM far from Sauraha Chowk, Chitwan. The village was called Siddhi which is a village in the Narayani Zone of southern Nepal. We arrived there with the purpose of completing our service learning project but the situation that we saw was heart wrecking and the situation was able to change the view about life that we are living. We are provided with everything in front of us. But when we saw the situation there, I thought myself as more fortunate than people living there.
When we arrived the village we met the chairperson of the hostel where we were going to teach and we were allocated our stay by him. When I saw the room and the bed it made me realize how soft my bed was and how I missed it. And when it was time for dinner, the food they provided was tasty, much better than what I expected but did they have enough for themselves? Did they eat the same food that we ate? Seeing the condition there I realized about the time I was picky about the petty things in the food. Our main objective was to serve the community so we went to the schools there. It was the month of December, shivering cold was hitting us even through the thick jackets that we were wearing but I saw children about the age of 5-6 or maybe less were attending schools in half shirt. That really made me think about the times I was picky about the clothes that I did not wear because of the design and the petty things that I did not like. When teaching in that school I learned about their fear for the teachers and how much they are keen to learn but the teachers that teach them were not even qualified (Primary level teachers were teaching secondary level students).
From my experience there, what I can say is that even though they had less for themselves they provided us with a great hospitality which made me realized what makes a person rich, is it the money, maybe or is it the heart that they have. Even though looking at their condition, they still tried to provide us with a great food and a warm bed to sleep in. Overall it was a great experience for us as we were able to see how other people live and how the society is different in place which are just some kilometers far from the place where all things are provided.
