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Nepal Volunteer Locations: Pokhara

Despite being Nepal's largest city Pokhara, 200 km west of Katmandu, has a distinctly more laid back feel than the capital. On the banks of Lake Phewa and with fantastic views across the lake of the Annapurna Range, Pokhara originally became popular as a hippy retreat in the sixties. Although now much more famous as a trekking base the city retains its relaxed appeal.
Pokhara is surrounded by green rice field filled mountains which rise up into the Annapurna Range, and the town is the starting point for famous treks such as the Annapurna Circuit, Jomsom and Sanctuary trek as well as a number of shorter one to two day treks. Our volunteers are based in these mountains in small villages above Pokhara. Although not very remote by Himalayan standards, and within 2 to 3 hours of Pokhara these villages are still very basic and most volunteers will have to travel into Pokhara for facilities such as the Internet.

Volunteer Placements
Sarangkot
Sarangkot is a small village one half hour’s bus ride to Pokhara. Volunteers teach in a local primary or secondary school in the Sarangkot village. Volunteers work together with a local teacher to help improve English skills including listening and speaking, grammar, and reading for children and teachers. You can also assist local teachers in a variety of other subjects including math and history.

Kaskilkot
Kaskilkot is a small village one hour’s bus ride to Pokhara. Volunteers teach in a local primary or secondary school in the village. Volunteers will work together with a local teacher to help improve English skills including listening and speaking, grammar, and reading for children and teachers. You will also be able to assist local teachers in a variety of other subjects including math and history.

Children Welfare Home
The Children’s Welfare Home is within the city center of Pokhara. It is a non-profit social welfare organization which was established in 2001. The home currently has 32 children between the ages of 7-18 whom are parentless. Volunteers placed at the home will help the children with their studies before and after school in the mornings and the evenings. Volunteers also can help with the daily routine including basic hygiene and care, not to mention sports playing and other extra-curricular activities. Volunteers will have a room in the orphanage.

Medical Volunteers

There is also potential for medical volunteers to work in the area. Volunteers can either assist doctors at local hospitals and health posts or work with local doctors travelling to villages where there is no permanent medical care. The second option will usually be more hand's on and involve treatment and diagnosis or local people so is more suited to qualified doctors or nurses or more experienced medical students.

General Pokhara Information

Accommodation
Our volunteers stay with local Nepali families in the mountains around Pokhara. Nepali families are extremely welcoming and all our host families have experience looking after volunteers. The houses are however basic by Western standards, most with Nepali style outdoor toilets and showers and the electricity supply is not always reliable. All of the houses are located close to the volunteers placements and all have fantastic mountain views.
During your time in the house you will be encouraged to participate in activities around the home such as cooking, washing and generally caring for the house and family as if you where a member of the familly. We believe this is best way to experience real Nepali life.

Weather
The climate around Pokhara depends very much on elevation. Pokhara itself is at only 884 meters and the climate is generally warm and more moderate that Kathmandu, although it gets hit harder than Katmandu by the monsoon season which runs from June until September and can get very humid at times. The best time to visit the region is between October and November when its cool and views of the mountains are clear from December through to February snows make much of the region and the longer treks inaccessible and it can get extremely cold at night. March and April are also good time to visit although May and June can get very hot during the day making trekking unpleasant even at high altitudes. Even at this time it can get very cold at night in the mountains so volunteers should be prepared for this.

Food
During the week volunteers usually eat with their host families. The staple food for people in Nepal is "Dal Bhat" which most families will eat at least once a day and consists of rice (Bhat), lentil soup (dal) and vegetables in curry (Tarkari) and/or meat (Masu) and a small amount of pickle /sauce (Achar). Other traditional Nepali food are quite similar to Indian food with lots of curries and potatoes although in the mountainous regions Tibetan foods such as thugba (noodle soup), momos, Tibetan breads and tsampa are particularly popular. At weekends volunteers often travel in Pokhara where there is a huge variety of Western food available. Some of the placements are also close to trekking trails and the trekking lodges also sell a variety of Western food.

Activities
As well as the huge amounts of trekking, there are numerous other things to do around Pokhara. Highlights include boating on Lake Phewa Tal (the second largest lake in Nepal), paragliding, numerous temples (both Hindu and Buddhist), Rani Ban (the Queen’s Forest), local museums, Patale Chango (Devi’s Falls), Yoga Ashram Centers and Tashipalkhel (a Tibetan area including a Monastery and village).

For more information please visit our website http://www.travel-to-teach.org or Email kerstin@travel-to-teach.org

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