1. Culture: Provide a Unique, Totally Different and Potentially Challenging Cultural Experience
On 28 December, 2014 25 students and three staff departed for Nepal, returning to continue the work started on the Bhichok Primary School in 2011 by earlier St Leonard’s group. The group comprised of students from year 10 and year 11. The expedition’s goals focused in three areas:
1. Culture: provide a unique, totally different and potentially challenging cultural experience for our students,
2. Philanthropy/Service: via various fundraising initiatives throughout the preceding 12 months, the students raised money to fund a project in at a rural primary school, in order to continue a connection that future St Leonard’s groups can continue to support, and
3. Personal challenge: whilst trekking in the foothills of the Himalaya and seeing some of the most breath-taking scenery in the world, students will be challenged both physically and emotionally at heights of up to 4,000m.
Nepal is an amazing country and the Nepalese are a wonderful people. Although a small country when measured east/west and north/south, it is in the third dimension, height, that Nepal comes in to its own. It has the highest mountains in the world, including of course Mt Everest at 8848m and growing! The people are a diverse mixture of ethnic groups with many dialects and languages spoken. The two main religions are Hindu and Buddhist and over 90% of the population, of approximately 20 million (it is very difficult to get an exact figure on many aspects of Nepal), live by subsistence farming. That makes Nepal, by western financial measures, one of the poorest countries in the world.
It is impossible to do justice to the assault on the senses that our arrival in Kathmandu produced. It is so totally different to what we are used to and it is almost as much fun watching people’s faces the first time the experience Kathmandu, as watching the scenery. While in Kathmandu we visited key sites in the city and the surrounding valley which has been described as, “one huge art gallery and museum”. We visited Durbar Square, Boudhanath Stupa (Buddhist) and Pashupatinath Temple (Hindu) as well as Thamel market.
After Kathmandu we headed west to Pokhara and the Annapurna region of the Himalaya. There we undertook a 12 day trek, primarily off the well-beaten tourist paths, visiting villages that don’t experience many trekkers (the picture above is typical of views we encountered). During this trek we spent a few days visiting and working at the Bhichok Community Primary School. The students in our group worked hard in the months before we left and raised in excess of $8,000 that was directed to the Bhichok School to allow them to build accommodation for teachers appointed to the school. The team worked brilliantly moving stones and rocks, making and levelling concrete and rendering the kitchen, while at the same time developing connections to the people of the local community.
Extra financial assistance we provided enabled the community to build a septic toilet block. In the past we have built classrooms and playgrounds and funded a fence, very necessary as some students have fallen out of the school recently. In the Himalayas, a small fall can be quite a distance!
Cost
The cost of the expedition in January this year was about $5,100 plus the Nepalese visa ~ $70. The cost is partially dependent on the strength of the Australian so we predict that airfares will increase slightly in the next 18 months and would therefore estimate the cost to be a $5,500 to $5,600. Virtually everything is included in that cost except for a couple of meals in Kathmandu and spending money ($300 in total would be ample)
What to do now
If you are interested in becoming a member of the St Leonard’s College Nepal 2017 Expedition, late Dec 2016 – mid Jan 2017, you need to do the following:
- Add your name to the list of interested students.
- Info at http://learn.stleonards.vic.edu.au/studytours/
- Ask about any aspects of the expedition that you are not sure about
- Speak to Mr Hill or any of the students who went in January 2015
- At the start of February 2016 you will be asked to complete a booking form and pay a deposit.
After this date there will be a meeting to discuss ‘where to now’ in our planning and fundraising as we embark on preparations for Nepal 2017! If there are any questions I can be contacted directly on 9909 9453 or by email at
Yours sincerely,
Mr Barry Hill