Well, here we are.

I've come to the end of my 10 weeks in Nepal and I can easily say it's been the best experience of my life. I came out here with what I thought was an open mind and a fairly broad knowledge of the developing world. Still, I have learnt so much, from other volunteers, from my supervisors and from research completed as part of global discussions.

The people I've met, both volunteers and locals, will be friends for life. The work has been exactly what I wanted (good honest graft!) and the trips and adventures we've been on have been awesome. The people of Sirutar have been so welcoming and our host families have treated us like their own. I will really miss all the shopkeepers, characters and most of all my family. Our older brother Basanta has been like the brother I've never had!

This past weekend I got to celebrate my birthday twice. On Friday night we all went out in Kathmandu, had some great food, some tasty Sheesha and then danced our asses off in a local club. The DJs were actually OK but I think we would have danced to anything! Everyone agreed it was the best of our nights out, especially James, but I'll let him tell you why! Wehey!

On Sunday our family held a little party for my birthday and a little send off for everyone. Like I was saying about my brother, he was being so kind. Running around all day setting everything up, cooking food, just being a legend basically. He managed to get a speaker up on the roof and we had a laugh up there. After I'd cut my birthday cake I said a few words about how good the time and been and how I hoped we'd all be friends for life. Not a dry eye in the house! Only joking! But it was nice to all celebrate together, especially with all my family there.

On Tuesday we put on a little street drama in the village square. Nepal is currently celebrating the Dasain festival, quite similar to Xmas in the UK. Some families struggle with the men staying out all day drinking and gambling all day, so Chloe put together a script to try and discourage this. We had a role reversal with the men playing women and vice versa. Me and Thomas bravely stepped up to play women, but this spectacularly backfired when we were bullied into wearing make up. This had the locals in stitches, but me and Tom actually thought we looked quite fit? Anyway the play seemed to go down well.

Today is our last full day here, and everyone is feeling quite emotional. Our family keeps asking if I will ever return but right now I can't tell? All I can think about is seeing everyone at home and getting back to Uni.

I hope the government of Nepal gets its act together and puts the country on the right path. 99% of the Nepalis I've met have been friendly, and they deserve a decent chance at a future.

I was going to list a few of the things I will miss and won't miss about Nepal, but I don't want to itemize my time out here like that. It's defiantly the best thing I've ever done, and I will never forget it.

Thanks for reading and commenting, I look forward to seeing everyone. I have 1500 photos!

Love

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