The Little Things that Really Matter

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The Little Things that Really Matter

By Ferial Mosharaf

I developed a new fantasy for myself lately and that was going to Nepal in two years. In order to manifest that, I set aside a piggy bank (Gholak) and checked with different travel agents on the price. The time I set for this trip was on my 50th birthday.
My brother Moni is a dentist, so he was asked to go to Nepal with his friends that are part of a non-profit organization called Rescue Humanity. On Monday, October 12th, he was at my house having dinner and the subject came about how his friends were going to Nepal that Friday. Well naturally, I mentioned my goal and desire to go to Nepal as well and he suggested I should just do it now. "Life is too short,” he said, “we lost a childhood friend in July this year and he was few months short of his 50th.” He continued, saying, "Ferial, be reasonable and just do it now". So I did. Dreams do come true only if we dare to write them down and apply some powerful thought to bring the desires into actions.
On Friday I was on the plane going to Nepal all by myself. I was to meet a group of volunteers. We were to go to a camp ground set somewhere in the base of mountains of Himalaya. I met the guy in charge on the plane and the same gentleman had set up an orphanage called Rainbow House for the children in Nepal. It seemed like these two weeks would be filled with doing positive work and for that I was excited.
We landed in Kathmandu and were met by a local driver/tour guide. His name was Nima (not Persian) and the trip was coordinated with his help to be at his home village. He drove us to a little hotel in this area called Thamel. Thamel is where you can find all the action in this city, from small boutique hotels to all sort of international restaurants, colorful shops filled with pashmina and jewels, lots of neat book stores and CD/ video stores. Music, color, smell of spices and the noise of the street traffic on these narrow, windy little roads made this place a magical subject for the stories of childhood. No matter where you are, you will never be bored. There is so much to see and do in Kathmandu. To begin with, it is like going to the '70s. People from all over the world come here with the same goal - to trek the beautiful rough mountains and to do some work for these people. There are so many people with the same common goal to build schools or help in some ways this very unique part of the world.
Nepal forms the very watershed of Asia. Landlocked between India and Tibet, it reaches from subtropical jungle to the icy Himalayas, and contains or shares eight of the world's ten highest mountains. The cultural landscape is extremely diverse as is the share between Buddhism and Hinduism, two very kind gentle religions in the world.
We spent the first day at the orphanage having lunch with some of the kids that were saved from being sold to the circus in India and were touched and inspired by their beauty and kind souls. The next day, we were set to start a long journey up to the mountains, a ten hour drive with bus and jeep. Some chose to ride the rented bikes. The scenery was pure magic with waterfalls and green lush mountains and really scary narrow winding roads going up to 9,000 feet high.

We spent the next few days working in the medical and dental camp. We worked with kids and adults. Our doctors saw more than 1,000 patients, some who had traveled three days to get to this village with no shoes. We took donated toothbrushes and other presents to the people of the village and tried to teach them about hygiene and the correlation of that with getting sick. One can not imagine the beauty of nature working in such a harmonious way with the kind and gentle people of this country. Though we saw some conditions that made even our big men cry, but there was no sense of victimization or "poor me" in their attitude. We loved doing what ever for these people. I learned that little things we do really matters in some big ways.

After the camp was finished they had a final night and presented us with a great dinner around the fire and a certificate of appreciation in the honor of our work for the locals. This is probably the most rewarding certificate I have ever received in my life.

Going back to Kathmandu we went to more orphanages and some leprosy clinics.
I met a lot of nice interesting people from all walks of life and they made me realize that there are still some idealist people left in this world.  As John Lennon said, "I can imagine a world that is beautiful and kind and has no border except the one we set by our judgments and limited believe system.” I highly recommend for the readers to find something that matters to you and get involved in making this world a more beautiful place to live.

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