A year cut short

Following up from my previous blog, after Holi festival was cancelled last week Selin and I felt Nepal was over reacting to the virus. Whilst the UK still had not implemented any severe sanctions, cancelling a tiny festival in a random Himalayan village seemed a bit over the top. Instead we spent that Monday (the 9th) drifting slowly back to Neta, stopping for a paddle in the river until we were chased away by a particularly aggressive billy goat. We found 2l of Sprite for 250 rupees (£2), got sunburnt and ate sugar sticks (bit gross, wouldn’t try again).

We still had no idea about the scale of the crisis. Despite reading the news every 2-3 days and vaguely hearing reports from parents, the concept of the world collapsing just didn’t seem very feasible whilst we were teaching gangnam style and the hokey cokey. Nepalis were still proudly announcing the singular case of coronavirus in Nepal in comparison to 50 back home. Honestly, we were just surprised they knew about it at all. However by Saturday 14th, the end of that week, Nepal put a ban on all tourist visas meaning all plans for volunteers’ parents to come out and visit during easter were cancelled. Even this seemed a bit far. We had not even heard of lockdown.

By now we figured it was unlikely we would make it to the end of the year in Nepal, that we’d probably be sent home by June. Then, shit hit the fan.

By now Project Trust had repatriated a handful of countries but on Monday 16th, they pulled about 5 or 6 back in a day until almost half their total projects were being sent back. When the USA went into lockdown, Honduras volunteers were suddenly unable to return home because their return flight travelled through the US and we were suddenly sure we were going home in the next few weeks. That evening, the Puja boys came over for morale support. We danced and sang and tried not to feel sad but everyone was incredibly tense. Because Nepali school year ends in April and it had been bumped forward a few weeks so end of year exams were going on. Tuesday was the final day of class 1-5’s exams and we were about to have a month holiday. As we doubted we would still be in Nepal in a month we tried to explain to our students that we wouldn’t be coming back to teach them and that we had to go home. None of them understood nor did our headmaster who said we might let us go home if the other volunteer’s in the district heads let them go. We tried to explain that whilst we didn’t want to go home at all, we didn’t have a choice. On Tuesday afternoon, Project took the tough decision to repatriate every remaining country. Obviously this was gutting for all of us but we figured we’d have a week until we left.

On Wednesday we began packing, planning to leave on Friday morning giving us a whole day to say our goodbyes. Late that night Project told us our flight was booked for that Sunday meaning we would have to leave at eight on Thursday instead of Friday. So waking at 5 on Thursday morning we hurriedly packed before sunrise and told our host, Parvati, we were leaving immediately. She offered to make us roti and a veggie curry (our favourite) for breakfast as we ran around Neta telling our friends we were leaving. We took all our remaining possessions: our fairy lights, blanket, soaps and moisturiser to friends. Most importantly, we gave our two DSs to two of the boys with strict instructions not to lose the chargers and to share them (Nepali kids share everything – except DSs). One of our grandmas burst into tears and insisted we stay for tea and breakfast. It was really upsetting. We had no time to stay and so she insisted on filling a carrier bag of roti for the bus.

After breakfast with Parvati, we were ready to go. All our friends and kids from Neta came to our house. It was so sad – everyone cried. Our host and two women we are particularly close to gave us rice tikka and one hundred rupees each (about 70p) as a token of care. Then after a final trip to our grandma’s, we left Neta with a procession of four kids and our friend Chita, helping us with our bags. Of the four kids, the two boys got bored and the pull of two DSs waiting in Neta was too much and they left. The two girls and Chita walked all the way to town with us even though one girl managed to forget her shoes.

From Aglung Phedi we lost our helpers but luckily hitched on the back of a tractors because we couldn’t carry all our bags the 45 minute walk to the bus stop. This also meant we completed all forms of Nepali transport – walking, jeeps, motorbike and tractor. On the 20 hour bus ride to Kathmandu we met the other volunteers from our district and enjoyed our final few dal bhats along the way.

Arriving in Kathmandu on Friday morning, we headed to our hotel. Trying to make the best out of it, we basically spent the next two days shopping for souvenirs. Kathmandu was pretty empty of tourists. All those left were frantically trying to get home. Shop keepers were extremely anxious to make sales, especially on Saturday when the government announced non-essential shops would be closing on Sunday. This became slightly stressful when they also announced all Nepal’s borders would shut on Sunday and all transport in Nepal cancelled. Suddenly, when a few days ago Project’s last minute flight seemed an inconvenience, preventing us from saying proper goodbyes, now we were thankful. An empty plane flew on Saturday morning and had to wait mid-air for permission to land – luckily they got it! That night we headed to Kathmandu airport to catch our 2am flight.

Although it is so disappointing to have had to leave so soon and without a proper farewell, arriving in Heathrow made us realise how serious the crisis is. When thinking of our return we were expecting reverse culture shock but it was surreal to be back in the UK under such extraordinary circumstances. We had not grasped the scale of the situation at all, thinking our parents weird for touching elbows at the gate. Although heartbreaking, coming back now was definitely the right call. We will be back in Neta soon – expect a sequel…