A Perfect Place to Intern or Volunteer: Our Ancient Village in Nepal

Doing Your Internship in Nepal, the Perfect Time and Place

Attention University Students,
Quilters, IT Specialists, Teachers, Organic Gardeners

We recently had a couple of Spanish interns who came and worked at our government school. We worked with them to design a program to keep them busy, give them some hands-on experience and help them complete their studies at university. It worked out quite well for us because Daniel and Julia connected with the students so well the kids will never forget these interns. Here are some of the reasons it worked out well for our interns:
1. The interns are welcomed and encouraged to create their own program. We can help to make it fit our village a bit, but we want your enthusiasm and creativity.
2. We are open to interns and volunteers all year long.
3. We do not have a volunteer fee. We hope you can bring a bit of funding if your project requires it, but if you want to teach at the government school or at our agency in our tutoring center or helping us with the internet you need to pay only for your food. You will have a room with your private bed and bathroom just outside the room. Although you will usually have the room to yourself, you will only share with people of the same gender when the guest house is full. 
4. We provide a much better, quality stay than any other volunteering program that we know of in Nepal. 
5. Note below that we offer a great Nepal experience and several bonus ways that we help you to get the most of your travels in Nepal.

Can you help us with any of these positions?

Our registered NGO, is in need of help in several positions, firstly, someone to teach quilting/hand-stitching. Can you teach tailoring or any special sewing projects? We’ve learned during this last earthquake disaster in 2015 that the best way to help people suffering from a disaster is to support them by purchasing their local goods. I think that applies as much to the Middle Eastern refugees as it does to the people in New Zealand who may have financial hardships after their devastating earthquakes.

We, at Kay Garnay for Nepal, are working to help uplift the women and families of our ancient village in the Kathmandu Valley. These women are hard working. We have all been effected by the devastation, some more than others and yet our village was not severely hit by comparison of many other areas.

We had a volunteer come from UK who taught them some quilting/hand-stitching skills for a week. Now the women are eager to learn more and be able to earn a bit more.

We have hopes of making a reversible, flannel, hand-tailored pajamas, but the women will need to be trained. We also want to start a line of maternity clothing using the kurta as inspiration. So, we are open to the direction you’d like to take them. If you have something you can teach within this theme we welcome you.

Other projects we need help with

IT: Website design and SOE. Our websites are up, but they need some updating and editing. We also have young people who are interested in learning computer technology.

Organic gardener: We hope to create a botanical walk in our village and we also want to help our local farmers to grow organically.

Map maker: We are developing 5 permit-free trekking routes and need someone to help put the project together.

Teaching at our local, government school: We need volunteers to English and Social Science. We also need people to read the text books into an MP3 file to create audio books. With the teachers unable to speak English well, the students lack understanding when they just read the textbooks by themselves. It’s an impossible task to learn from a text book in another language without hearing it.
Other projects that will teach and enrich our villagers.

What we offer

We offer a clean room and toilet, all the food, coffee and tea you’d like prepared for you, lovely views, peaceful surroundings, morning yoga, weekly day trips to Kathmandu for site seeing, 24/7 WIFI, electricity and hot water and a grateful group of Nepali women who need help to support their families and rebuild their lives.

We ask that you teach for 3 hours per day 5 days per week and pay $7 per day for food/utilities. If you are unable to pay this amount please let us know. We have provided scholarships for several volunteers, some from other developing nations.

Send your inquiry to: FrugalTravelsNepal@gmail.com
Learn about our agency: http://KayGarnay.org
Check out our lovely guest house where you will stay: http://StarViewNepal.com

My eBook is available now at https://payhip.com/b/sQu5 If you are planning a trip to Nepal you'll enjoy it. It will save you time as well as money, but more importantly, it will help you to have a better time in Nepal. Many people wonder if they can eat the street food like in Thailand or Vietnam. 

Here's my spoiler alert: Do not eat the street food in Nepal, nor should you eat at any buffet. The eBook addresses such things as this and what to do if you become ill, etc. Whether or not you get my book, please read this short, free eBook. It will help you get your time here off to a great start. http://bit.ly/2aGxcuHIf there is a problem with the download or code please let me know at FrugalTravelsNepal@gmail.com 

Promotion code for discount: GR5X4BCHX2 

If you''d like to connect on social media with me here's how:Twitter: @FrugalTravelsNe Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frugal.travels 

Bringing Your Hobby to Nepal

As it turns out, Changunarayan is a great place to go if you have a hobby you don't want to leave at home. We've had mountain bikers come and leave us their mountain bikes so they will have something to ride when they come back to Nepal and a crafter who brought money supplies to teach a quilting class. We host volunteers quite regularly, whether for Kay Garnay for Nepal or another local NGO, such as the 'Answer' (US nonprofit agency) group who recently came to finish building a home for a nearby family. Often our guests show a desire to leave a bit of goodwill behind and we are happy to provide a platform in which to share. Our short-term guests put a chapter of a text book on MP3 audio, make a presentation for students about the environment or join us for a village clean-up day.

One unusual hobby you wouldn't expect to see someone bring to Nepal is HAM radio and all the apparatus that goes with it. This was the second time we had the pleasure of hosting this group of HAM radio enthusiasts. Janusz and three friends came from Poland for a couple weeks and enjoyed the vastness of Nepal's air waves from the prospective of the Star View Guest House.

This being their second trip to Nepal with the HAM radios, one would wonder why the need to bring all this equipment so far away. Due to the location of the guest house, a person can pick up many signals without interference. There are few people in Nepal that have HAM radios, which is also helpful to get a signal. But sitting at the edge of the Kathmandu Valley the signal can literally go all the way around the world!

There is one other reason the Star View Guest House and Changunarayan makes such a great location for HAM radio enthusiasts, bikers, quilters or just about any other quirky way you want to experience Nepal; we love to accommodate our guests, whatever their needs are. We've handled peanut allergies and a host of other issues quite successfully over the past 2 years and we actually enjoy having such unique experiences along with our guests.

Stephenie teaching the village women a stitch for the hand quilting class. 

If you are looking for an enriching time during your travels to Nepal please consider bringing your talents to Changunarayan. We are happy to host you or find a home-stay here in the village.

Coming to Nepal? Be sure to get all the newest info at http://WhatAboutNepal.org It's your one stop for everything Nepal. If your question isn't answered already just drop us a line and we'll help you with anything about Nepal; visa questions, trekking questions, budget questions, medical questions, housing questions, safety questions and everything else.

Follow along with us

Twitter:   @FrugalTravelsNe
               @KayGarnay4Nepal
               @StarViewChangu
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frugal.travels
Like our pages:
https://www.facebook.com/starviewretreat/
https://www.facebook.com/KayGarnay4Nepal/
https://www.facebook.com/Changu.Bhaktapur/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaygarnay/
HelpX.Net: http://www.helpx.net/host.asp?hostid=17074
Websites:   http://KayGarnay.org
                   http://FrugalTravelsNepal.Blogspot.com

       http://StarViewNepal.com

       http://TraditionalArtofNepal.com

Our Volunteer Family

We've had a busy week at Kay Garnay for Nepal and Star View Guest House. We even had to shift people around and even had to refer guests to friends in the village with home-stay accommodations. It’s great to see tourists coming and going and supporting Nepal‘s economy. Particularly after a disaster, the people need to move forward with a good tourist season and export businesses. If you wonder how you could help Nepal recover from the earthquakes of 2015, we hope you’ll use your consumer power to help. You can enjoy our thangkas from our on-line store or another website that promotes Nepali products. http://TraditionalArtofNepal.com

We are so pleased to have Mark Goddard, Donor/Volunteer, and his family at the guest house for the week. Mark and his family came from England to help Nepal. Mark’s mother, Stephanie, has many years of quilting experience and brought supplies to teach quilting.

We do things a bit differently at Kay Garnay. When we find a person, or in this case a family, who wants to come to Nepal to help we take care to design something that will both enrich the village and enrich our guests‘ experience. In this case we were able to enlist the entire family, including Claire, Mark’s wife, who enjoyed supporting the activities.

First, we had a lovely, quilting workshop. About 20 women showed up on the first day. The women are really excited about learning new skills. We went to Kathmandu where Stephanie bought some fabric, needles, and instruments for the training. Not only are the women busy with the rice harvest, but they managed their time for the quilting class and even more women came on the following days. There are many directions the women can go from here to help themselves economically. Skilled women are in high demand in the handcrafted, export industries. We will continue to work with the women, by providing the work space and creating outlets for their work.

Nepali kids love sports and they have the great passion for football. Even on the rough ground of the make-shift football field, one can see enthusiasm and their determination to kick the ball to the goal post.

Mark and his son, Tom, brought footballs and football Jerseys for the kids. We went to two schools for the distribution. Having their own jersey made the kids feel like real players for the game. We had a small competition between schools on the big grounds at the bottom of the hill. We are yet to distribute more jerseys to the kids at the Happy Kids Recreation Center in Bhaktapur.

Tom, Mark’s 11 years old son, gave some tips to the players and they all got along so well; they were like old friends in no time at all. Almost 50 students were there to enjoy the game as an audience, which added to the excitement. Students from Champak Vidhya Pith and Dolagiri Higher Secondary School played and after the game we distributed medals and chocolates.

After the games and work were finished the Goddards went to Nagarkot to stay for a night and see the sun come up over Mt. Everest. They were rewarded with the best view of the Himalayas in over a month. We are so grateful to the Goddard family for their time and efforts to help our village. This is the same family with the exceptional youngster, Tom, who did a fund-raiser for us and brought us $1,700 earlier in the year. Thank you, Mark, Claire, Stephanie and Tom for all your kindness and hard work.

If you''d like to connect on social media with me here's   how: 

Twitter: @FrugalTravelsNe @KayGarnay4Nepal 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frugal.travels