Where You’ll Stay
FAST FACTS:
- You will have a host family
- You’ll live a walking distance from your school
- There will be other trekkers nearby
Welcome to Your Guest House in Nepal
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Your guest house will be similar to some of the places you’ll stay along your trek to your village. Most have open hallways or courtyards leading between a dozen or so private rooms. You will have your own private room, furnished with a bed, sheets, a pillow, quilt, and possibly a small table. Teachers should expect to share a bathroom with other guests. The guest house will have a kitchen and dining area that will likely be where you spend most of your time as there may be people from all over the world visiting and it can be very lively throughout the day and evening.
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Host Family
Your host family will be the owners of the guesthouse you will live in. They will provide all of your meals, and be your support system in your village. Most teachers grow quite close to their host families during their time in Nepal, and often eat meals with them in the kitchen rather than eating in the dining hall with other guests. As the host family and teacher become more acquainted, teachers sometimes offer to do various chores around the guesthouse, and learn more about Nepali life along the way, welcomed, truly, as a member of the family. Many teachers refer to the members of their host family at “Aama and Buwa” or “Mother and Father.”
Your host family will be the owners of the guesthouse you will live in. They will provide all of your meals, and be your support system in your village. Most teachers grow quite close to their host families during their time in Nepal, and often eat meals with them in the kitchen rather than eating in the dining hall with other guests. As the host family and teacher become more acquainted, teachers sometimes offer to do various chores around the guesthouse, and learn more about Nepali life along the way, welcomed, truly, as a member of the family. Many teachers refer to the members of their host family at “Aama and Buwa” or “Mother and Father.”
Amenities
Expect only limited internet access and cellphone service in your village. Some days, you may be able to video chat across the world, while other days you may not even be able to place a clear call to villages down the valley. That’s just life in Nepal. All Guesthouses are equipped with wifi, electricity, and running water. They do not have heat or air conditioning. Hot water tends to be available although if you are last in a long line of people who need to shower, you may be out of luck. While all guest houses theoretically have hot running water, like the majority of amenities, it can be sporadic. Some guest houses have propane hot water heaters, and some are solar heated. In very rainy times, the solar heated water may not heat, and in times of propane shortage, there may not be hot water. The key here is to know the system your guesthouse uses and be aware of condition changes.
Electricity and WiFi can also go out in stormy times, or in times when the weather has been perfect for weeks. Teachers should have low expectations for the consistency of these luxuries.
Laundry facilities are available in some villages. In other villages, your host family will teach you the best ways to do laundry by hand.
Guesthouses tend to have purified water, but Trek to Teach encourages teachers to double filter “filtered” water, even at their own guesthouse.
Some villages have medical facilities within a reasonable walking distance. Some do not. Most do not have mail facilities. Trek to Teach suggests that all Trek to Teach-er’s pick up a map in Kathmandu or Pokhara which will tell them exactly how to get from village to village, and what amenities each village has to offer.
Expect only limited internet access and cellphone service in your village. Some days, you may be able to video chat across the world, while other days you may not even be able to place a clear call to villages down the valley. That’s just life in Nepal. All Guesthouses are equipped with wifi, electricity, and running water. They do not have heat or air conditioning. Hot water tends to be available although if you are last in a long line of people who need to shower, you may be out of luck. While all guest houses theoretically have hot running water, like the majority of amenities, it can be sporadic. Some guest houses have propane hot water heaters, and some are solar heated. In very rainy times, the solar heated water may not heat, and in times of propane shortage, there may not be hot water. The key here is to know the system your guesthouse uses and be aware of condition changes.
Electricity and WiFi can also go out in stormy times, or in times when the weather has been perfect for weeks. Teachers should have low expectations for the consistency of these luxuries.
Laundry facilities are available in some villages. In other villages, your host family will teach you the best ways to do laundry by hand.
Guesthouses tend to have purified water, but Trek to Teach encourages teachers to double filter “filtered” water, even at their own guesthouse.
Some villages have medical facilities within a reasonable walking distance. Some do not. Most do not have mail facilities. Trek to Teach suggests that all Trek to Teach-er’s pick up a map in Kathmandu or Pokhara which will tell them exactly how to get from village to village, and what amenities each village has to offer.
AMENITIES
Yes!
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Usually
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Maybe…
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Nope…
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Food
As a teacher, all of your meals will be provided by your guest house. Guest houses tend to have menus and operate their dining rooms similarly to a restaurant for guests. These menus tend to have a variety of Asian dishes, sometimes expanding from traditional Nepali food to Korean or Chinese food. Most guest houses also make endearing attempts to carry foods travellers may be craving such as ”french toast,” “spaghetti and tomato sauce” or “chicken fingers.” These interpretations are often incredibly creative given the extremely limited number of supplies imported to these villages. While teachers are free to order anything off of the menu, many teachers choose, instead of eating as a guest, to eat with their host family. Most host families eat simply, with eggs, porridge, or soup for breakfast; roti and fried rice or soup for lunch, and dal bhat (a traditional meal of rice and lentils) for dinner. Some Nepali families eat dal bhat for every meal. While this may sound tiring, most teachers and travellers look very fondly at the experience of enjoying dal bhat and all of its variations over the course of their time in Nepal. |
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Because of the isolated nature of these villages, imported food can be scarce, and often, in higher regions, nearly everything is imported. While potatoes, rice, lentils and garlic tend to be plentiful, fresh fruits and vegetables and meat are often not.
Despite this sense of scarcity, Nepali people are exceptionally giving with the food that they do have. Food is used as a means of cross-cultural connection between locals and visiting teachers.
Despite this sense of scarcity, Nepali people are exceptionally giving with the food that they do have. Food is used as a means of cross-cultural connection between locals and visiting teachers.
Here we’d like to include an excerpt from a blog* written by Hailey, one of our teachers, on this topic:
Lesson one: Food is more than food, always.
Growing up in a West Coast mountain town, I learned what I thought were the golden rules of eating: ill your plate with colors and vegetables, and the moment your aren’t hungry, stop eating. In Nepal, meal time etiquette has only one simple rule: eat until there is nothing left to eat. Being full, sick, or tired is irrelevant, because when food is served, people come together. I wish I had understood earlier how important the act of eating together is to the Nepali, and more importantly, how precious a gesture the offering of food can be. Not until my second week of teaching, when a student offered me a bundle of green (not close to ripe) plums, did the lesson kick in. This student was only nine, but from generations upon generations of relatives setting the example for hospitality and generosity, my young student was able to give me the second lesson of Nepali gift giving: When you offer nourishment, you are building the foundations of friendship. Food is so much more than just fuel. It is a reason to gather, a way to celebrate and creates an ability to interact when interactions seems intimidating. In the case of Pooja, my darling class four student, it was initiating a friendship.
