As I write my personal statements for medical school applications, I inevitably reflected on my teaching experience from the past year. I thought back to the reasons I first set out to teach science on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico through Teach for America. I ambitiously set goals to empower students to make better […]
My experience in rural India confirmed my affinity for serene, remote areas rather than bustling metropolises. A year later, I am again living over two hours from any city and feel completely at ease. My experience working for an NGO revealed that education is the foundation for community empowerment and ensuring physical, mental, and social […]
Throughout my stay at Chirag, I continuously pondered what my purpose was at the NGO. Given the huge language barrier, I could not fathom how I could possibly be more valuable as a volunteer intern than a student with similar academic qualificatio…
At times, it appears that globalization has been so forceful that everyone in this region has some knowledge about Western culture or other ways of life. On the television sets in many of these homes, both men and women alike enjoy watching wrestl…
Living in a community that is so vastly unfamiliar to me has challenged me to think about social cues and norms upon each action. Walking along the big road, I greet every woman without fail. Palms brought together in front of the heart. “Namashka…
Cue chirps and hoops of bird calls. I frantically awoke to nature’s alarm clock in Dewaldar in search of my watch to see if I had woken up in time to catch a glimpse of the much sought after Himalayas. The view is perfect during clear winter skies…
Hospitality in this region absolutely amazes me. I have felt incredibly welcomed in each and every home I have entered. No matter how long the stay, I have always been offered juice or Chai. Just yesterday ago, I tried the well-known Himalayan Rho…
A question I have been consistently asking myself as an intern at Chirag is how to make my time here worthwhile. My mind will not stop contemplating the ways that people’s living conditions can be made less challenging, particularly from a healt…
Just yesterday I concluded a two-night homestay in the village of Rheeta with an older woman by the name of Bina. She puts Ironman competitors to shame with her daily physical work on her farm located on the foothills of the Central Himalayas. By …
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