My First Day in Nepal

Entering Nepal for my first day visit, I was struck with the extreme contrast of our existence on the planet.  I hail from St. Louis, Missouri, pretty much a sleepy town, quiet in comparison to Nepal.  Although there are a million people geographically in St. Louis, they spread out over many miles,  and the land accommodates them well.  Within this space, the roads are concrete, paved with directional lines and speed limits, and laws if you should break the imposed order.

In contrast, Nepal is filled with people, filled with sounds, smells, sights.  My senses are completely over-stimulated.  Massive numbers of people walking through the city, dodging each other and the traffic with cars, taxis, carts and more motorcycles than the Sturgis bike rally, on unpaved roads with few straight lines.   Dust is everywhere.  The sounds of the motorcycles roaring, the cars honking every couple of seconds, the dogs barking and the people trying to sell the items in their road side stands, fill my ears.  And the smells…oh, the smells, the smell of food being sold –some pleasant, some not so pleasant.   And the smell of dust.  I’m wearing a facial mask and glasses but still the dust gets in my eyes and nose.  The sights and smells of poverty are heart rending and my senses get maxed out.

And then came the evening, where the purpose of my visit was understood.  Where my senses were overloaded during the day, my heart overflowed last night, when I was able to meet for the first time  “my girls.”  Both Anjali and Sijam were able to attend dinner and there was no more waiting for that moment.  Of course it was met with tears of pure joy.  I have sponsored these beautiful children for years and have dreamt of this moment.  The power of this sponsorship, this relationship we developed, overwhelms my heart.  

We spent the evening getting to know each other better, using phones to share photos so that I could “meet their families.” Sijam has recently married and I was able to meet her husband and spend the evening with him as well.  Another child I have sponsored has graduated from the program and is living and working in the Maldives.  Together the girls and I texted him and sent photos, so he too was included in the evening.  This union was beyond my dreams.

So tomorrow I’ll face another day of being over-stimulated with the sounds, the sights and smells of the city, but clearly knowing it’s my heart that brought me here.  To me, Mitrata means loving connection—because I guarantee you there was no poverty of love in the meeting between sponsors and children tonight.

— Adele Carey, sponsor