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| Sem-break (a holiday between two semesters) is the peak period when university students will fight for budget flight tickets. If they have already been to the popular nearby countries like Japan and Korea and they have also experienced some different foreign cultures, where can they go during the precious free time during sem-break? The City University of Hong Kong (CityU) arranged service trips to foreign countries in order to provide a special experience for students in sem-break and to broaden their horizons, to learn the needs of local communities in various countries, to experience different lifestyles and to be self-introspective towards life. In January this year (2020), the first stop of this project led 20 students to visit the mountainous area of Nepal. How do they feel about this journey? Kate, who is a 3rd year BA Linguistics and Language Applications student, planned to go travelling in sem-break. After she received the leaflet from CityU Student Development Services, she decided to try to enrol on the service trip for giving herself some challenges. Lamjung was the destination and was an unknown spot to her. “What I imagined was a dusty and poor hygiene place which was a mistake. Compared to the densely-populated Kathmandu, the village we were in was very nice and beautiful, situated in the Protected Areas (of Nepal),” stated Kate. |
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| Dorothy, who is a 2nd-year bachelor’s degree student in Social Science (Psychology), was in Lamjung during one of the previous service trips with CityU in 2019. She missed the local villagers so much that she decided to join this service trip to the same area again. “The mountains and rivers are still very stunning, I will never get bored of looking at them. What are different from last time are: kids are taller, the school has been expanded, and we all have grown up a bit.” Dorothy recalled. This time, she was more willing to express herself instead of repressing or hiding her true feeling from other people's judgement. |
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| Lamjung was seriously damaged from the earthquake in 2015. 20 participants who joined the service trip had to live in an environment without Wifi, shower and steady power supply for a week and to help to re-build school facilities. For Kate, the language barrier was more a challenge than the simple living environment: “In the handicraft workshop, we adopted a big-group teaching's setting. However, there was a communication problem: we could not give instructions properly and so they could not follow our instructions and demonstration. Seeing this, we immediately changed to a small-group setting, accompanying with body language, we finally delivered the workshop successfully.” By preparing the workshop, Kate learnt the importance to observe carefully and responding quickly. She also understood that communication is not limited to verbal but can be by various means. |
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| Kin Chow, who is a 4th-year bachelor’s degree Chemistry student, stated that he gained teaching enthusiasm through this experience and determined to be a Chemistry teacher after graduation. "This is the second time I participated in this service trip in Nepal. On the first trip, I was not the in-charge person, so I had less pressure and I only needed to prepare for the teaching session. This time, I am fortunate to be one of the people in charge, I needed to concentrate and design the teaching content dedicatedly. In the process, I gradually found my goal." |
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| The week passed quickly but all three of them said they would not forget the bond established from the interaction with the locals. They reflected upon the true meaning of connection between human beings. Dorothy wrote a letter to the village chief, who treated her as his daughter, to express her gratitude before departure. The chief and his wife were really touched. His wife even embraced her tightly and could not bear to part. Kate also received some popcorn from her homestay mother on the last day to share with her teammates, its sweetness stayed in her heart for a long time. When asked if they would revisit Nepal, they all replied yes. Kin Chow said, “Meaningful things have to be persevered, and we can’t let them stop.” Although Dorothy has been to Nepal twice, she said, “There are still lots of corners available for me to explore, so I will definitely visit Nepal again, especially to the same villages.” |