Looking Back at Nepal

By Phillip Moore

Terraces of green | woken by a blood red sun | rain to wash the soul

My first morning in Nepal I woke to a blood red sun peaking over one of the countless mountains that make up the foggy horizon. I arose right in time as if the sun was calling me to take part in this daily ritual that on a normal day never seems worth the cost of extra sleep. But days in Nepal were different; they were never normal days, and it’s for this reason that I decided to write a Haiku for each day of the trip (the one above was written on my first morning in Nepal). The days were full of moments that took your breath away, made you think and humbled you in ways you could never imagine. Looking back on this moment it feels like it’s been an eternity, not just a couple months. However I sit here now, back on US soil trying to digest everything my senses have absorbed from this study abroad experience. And it’s tough. Three weeks in Nepal and four weeks in India (a trip I planned after the Global studies program) may not seem like that much time, but it was to me. This trip challenged me in many ways: it forced me to adopt a different perspective, it challenged me to find comfort in complexity and it tested my positive attitude time and time again.

At first glance Nepal can appear to be a developing country, and as a citizen of a developed country it’s easy to adopt a mindset that we have all the answers and solutions to offer these people. However that’s not the way we were taught. Our learning process focused on the process rather than preconceived solutions to problems. For us this framework encouraged us to seek out the right questions and lean on the knowledge and perspective of our student peers from Tribhuvan University. Our collaboration with the TU students was so valuable, it allowed us to see the country in a new light and understand the way countries without the financial luxuries we enjoy can maintain sustainable systems. I was truly inspired by the way the people of Nepal value their education and in a way this inspiration developed into a major take away point I received from this study abroad experience. The role of education is so important when it comes to sustainability and sustainable development. In many ways the world has the resources and intelligent professionals have planned sustainable systems, but without widespread education of best practices these systems will never take root.

My main focus of this trip was centered around agricultural systems because to me they are the largest and most important player when it comes to global sustainability. The landscape of Nepal certainly offers challenges when it comes to agriculture, however the people of Nepal are problem solvers and find ways to do the impossible. Our first day out of the hotel, I wrote about waking up at sunrise. This day is so important to me because we woke up on a farm and began to understand how the people in Nepal feed themselves and how they value agriculture outside of its economic value. After this first day, funny as it is, I actually began to feel the opposite of homesick. I actually felt at home and comfortable being around people that were likeminded when it came to agriculture. All the things I had learned about sustainable agriculture studying at ASU and working on an organic farm most of my life was being practiced here on the side of a mountain!

While I took comfort in being around people that shared values that I have, this trip also allowed me to begin to understand another culture and gain a respect for a perspective completely different from my own. One of the first times it rained early in the trip I was presented with my first opportunity to really engage with some of the TU students outside of a classroom setting. In many ways I found this type of setting equally as valuable as we were able to open up and converse like average young adults. It was conversations like these that really immersed me into Nepali culture and gave me a small sense for how things worked and what kinds of things are valued in this part of the world. It also allowed me to make my first international friends and get to see the human side of Nepal.

My study abroad experience was one that left an impression on me. It’s hard to begin to relay everything I learned on this trip. Lessons about: the role permaculture plays in a sustainable agricultural model versus commercial farming, the challenges of domesticating elephants in buffer zones, and the tradeoffs associated with intense urban migration, are all some of the highlights we discussed during this program. However the learning process never stopped on this trip and that’s the lesson I will truly take away from this program.

When you immerse yourself in a new environment your senses are constantly being overloaded with information. It’s an experience that’s unforgettable and in some ways addicting. I can feel myself itching for my next opportunity to travel and to see another corner of this planet. But whenever I do, I will take what I learned on this trip with me, because Nepal is where it all started, it’s where I woke up for the first time in amazement, staring at a rising sun, a new country and a brighter future.