Trek to Teach Lesson

Guest blog post by Hailey Sinoff

In April 2017, as a recent high school graduate, I set out to teach English in a rural Nepali village. I hoped to help further the opportunities of the students I taught, and to learn from them in the process. At the end of my three months I had learned more than I ever could have imagined.

I’ve been back in the United States several months now, and I’m still desperate to display my love and awe for these children. With the help of bigtruck® and Trek to Teach, hats inspired by my students will be sold to raise funds to build a proper playground at the school where  I taught. This is a luxury that can monumentally impact the attendance rates of the school, and give a element of fun that all children deserve in their educational pursuits.

The hats are available for sale here. 

I learned the art of giving from the ultimate source: Nepal’s young-hearted.

Lesson one: Food is more than food, always. 

Growing up in a West Coast mountain town, I learned what I thought were the golden rules of eating: ill your plate with colors and vegetables, and the moment your aren't hungry, stop eating. In Nepal, meal time etiquette has only one simple rule: eat until there is nothing left to eat. Being full, sick, or tired is  irrelevant, because when food is served, people come together. I wish I had understood earlier how important the act of eating together is to the Nepali, and more importantly, how precious a gesture the offering of food can be. Not until my second week of teaching, when a student offered me a bundle of green (not close to ripe) plums, did the lesson kick in. This student was only nine, but from generations upon generations of relatives setting the example for hospitality and generosity, my young student was able to give me the second lesson of Nepali gift giving: When you offer nourishment, you are building the foundations of friendship. Food is so much more than just fuel. It is a reason to gather, a way to celebrate and creates an ability to interact when interactions seems intimidating. In the case of Pooja, my darling class four student, it was initiating a friendship.