6/4 Namaste everyone! By contributing author and photographer, Michael Restivo – Mike in Nepal, The Official Blog
Well everybody this is it. The final post. I’m coming to you live from Singapore airport, I just had the greatest meal I believe I’ve ever had….a sandwich and a coffee, after 5 months of rice, this is heaven. So these last few days in Kathmandu I spent doing last minute shopping and getting to hang out with a fantastic new group of volunteers just now heading out to their placements. The new group had about 20 people and was a fun, united, and friendly bunch of people who were itching to know what it was like and who accepted me into the group even though I had been there only two days.
I also got to give a tour to two guys from Singapore who had come in to do adventure sports, and taking them around a city I knew so well really made it feel like home.
So I don’t want to draw out this goodbye, but as with any good film there has to be credits and thank yous. If I left anybody out I apologize and it wasn’t meant intentionally.
I would first like to thank my amazing group who I stuck with till the end, my friends who I suffered, laughed, and came to respect and love:
Mike, Emma, Brendan, Angela, Andrew, Danielle, Carlie, Laura, Veronique, Karen, Will, Josh, Seohee, Katie, Jessica, and Victoria.
I’d like to thank Bijen Aryal for putting together such a well run program and taking care of us.
In Pokhara i’d like to thank Krishna**, my wonderful host family, at the orphanage i’d like to thank Madur, Sita, and all the children that me look forward to coming to work everyday. I love you all. I’d also like to thank everybody at the Himalayan for the time we spent there, and all the children there as well.
**Krishna will recieve a half-thank you for picking us up from the bus station and….well…not much else than that.
In Chitwan I’d like to give a big thank you to Sanjiv Bikash, and Deepak not only for being such amazing coordinators, but being amazing friends as well. I’d like to thank Aama for her amazing Dal Baat and Kopila for her hospitality. I’d also like to thank Kathleen, Freddie, Andy, Elise, Anita, Maggie, Sam, Amberlyn and Janelle, all good friends at the Library House, I love you all. To all the village kids and at the orphanage, keep coming at 7, not 6:30. Special hello goes out to Bhote and Pintu (our puppies)
On the base camp trek I want to thank my amazing guide, Ram Krishna Gurung, who got me where I needed to go and was a great companion and friend. I’d also like to thank Steve, Les, Bob, Kimberly, Tracy, Jackie, and Red October. Walking and hanging out with you guys was one of the best memories of the trek.
I’d like to thank all my readers of the blog, you guys made this fun to write, knowing I got to share this with the world made all the difference, your comments really made me feel like I wasn’t along on this trip.
Finally i’d like to give the biggest most important thank you of all. My friends and family. To my friends, your support gave me the strength to do this. Getting to talk to you when I needed it and knowing you guys were behind me helped me through the toughest times, and i’ve never felt so proud to have all of you there. Thank you for your comments, for your words, and for telling me how absolutely insane I was. I love you all so much.
A miei amici, grazie mille per tuo supporto. A parlare con voi mi ha dato la forza di continuare ogni giorno, e parlare con voi mi ha fatto sempre sentire che non ero mai da solo. Ti voglio bene tantissimo, grazie dal cuore.
To my family, on both sides of the ocean, thank you mommy and babbo for pushing me to do this, thank you for the support when I needed it most and thank you so much for being there. Nana, Papa, and Dodi, you gave me the sleeping bag for christmas, it was the single most important piece of equipment that I needed on this trip and I cannot thank you enough for the support that you gave me on this trip. I love you all so much.
A tutti in Italia, Nonna, Nonno, Zio, Zia, Sandra, Francesca, Luca, Andrea, e le bimbe, grazie mille per aver stato con me e sempre per i commenti, i supporto, e di essere li quando avevo bisogno. Ho scalato le montagne sempre con i pensiero della famiglia mia in mente e non posso mai chiedere piu’ di quello che mi hai dato. Vi voglio bene tantissimo!!!!!
I’d like to save a single thank you for one person in particular. I’d like to thank Samantha Evans, now heading off on her own journey but for first planting the spark and getting me involved a journey of my own way back then. Thank you so much and good luck!!
So thats it everyone, its been an amazing, life changing 5 months. I don’t think anything I ever could do could top this and I come home stronger, feeling more alive then ever. So I say this for the last time, thank you and Namaste everybody!!
Ok…lets come home.
MiamiRealEstateCafe.com contributing author and photographer – Michael Restivo … Mike in Nepal – The Official Blog
