As contradictory as it may sound, I felt as though I knew what I was getting myself into coming to Nepal, yet had no idea what to expect. I was confident I had sufficiently prepared myself mentally and physically for my time here: to trek my way through the mountains, be living in relative isolation, and have limited access to resources. However, you never really know how prepared you are until you arrive. One thing I could not have predicted was how different each of the four teachers' experiences would be while in our villages. The four of us (Andrew, Zoe, Katie and myself) had met in Kathmandu, spent the week together for orientation then trekked together for four days to our villages. After a group hug in the garden of the Trekker's Inn Guesthouse in Ghandruk, we parted ways and settled into our villages. In Ghandruk, Katie has experienced an ever changing and revolving door of trekkers, guides, and porters every night and at times has even helped serve dal bhat. In Tolka, Andrew was welcomed like a brother by the staff at a lively guesthouse and but is further removed from the rest of us being on the other side of the valley. In Kliyu, Zoe has been adopted as "my daughter" to her host family at a quiet guesthouse, but has her fill of excitement during busy days at school. And here, in Kimche, my life is significantly different than all the rest, but in all the ways I could have hoped for.

Although the rains came late, the monsoon season in Nepal was particularly long this year as it started in the beginning of July and continued through the middle of September. During this time, Trek to Teach forged on with the Kliyu school project by forming the construction committee, which then began selecting laborers and getting quotes about materials from suppliers. To participate in these meetings and decisions, there were many long bus trips along thin, rain-soaked highways from Kathmandu to Pokhara. Once in Pokhara, the trip to Kliyu consisted of wet mountain roads and efforts to push the images of imminent landslides out of mind. We were in the thick of it and we weren’t giving up.

On April 25th, 2019, the earth once again moved under Nepal. A sense of déjà vu rippled through Kathmandu Valley in the form of three large tremors, reminding the country of the panic experienced four years prior. Unlike the earthquake in 2015, which caused “approximately 9,000 deaths, 23,000 injuries, and the destruction of 600,000 family homes,” this year’s quake caused no major structural damages, although likely left remnants of fear.