Joosje Baltussen

My experience in Nepal was amazing!

The first few hours after arriving in Kathmandu Airport were very overwhelming, but the VIN staff gave me a warm welcome as soon as I arrived at the VIN office. I joined their Health Care Project which is very well arranged. Moreover it were the Nepalese people who made me enjoy my project so much: always happy, kind and with a big smile on their face.

VIN provided us with an amazing, hard-working local volunteer, Debaki, who helped us communicating with the people in the communities. Without her, we couldn’t do anything. When we arrived in a community and started checking blood pressures, villagers immediately gathered around us. Our health check-up spot turned into a real social gathering where villagers hung out together and discussed each others weight. I loved it.

The volunteering was such a grateful job. One morning I was walking in the streets of Kathmandu City and one woman approached me and started kissing and squeezing my hands and blessing me. After a while I remembered that I listened to her lungs a few days. You can make the Nepalese this happy by just listening to their lungs! As I said, such a grateful job.

I am very upset that I have to leave Nepal, my host family and all the fantastic volunteers and staff from VIN and I will definitely come back to this beautiful country!