This month, the research team here in Nepal went on a short hiking trip to Lakuri Bhanjyang, a small hill southeast of Kathmandu Valley. Since we work in a shared office space environment, we invited everyone in the building to join us for the hike. The trip was another reminder of the perks of living in the valley and a getaway from the usual chaos of big city life.
The trip was full of good memories, but two things that stood out for me from the trip were:
1. Respect of each other’s time
Nepalese have very little regard for timeliness. It is in our genes to be late. That’s why I get excited once in a while when people show up in a relatively timely fashion. Such was the case when we planned for our trip. We had agreed to gather at the bus stop at 8 in the morning and leave by 8:15. I was a bit surprised when everyone was mostly on time, and we were on the bus by 8:30. As a result, we had a much better start to our trip.
2. Sharing is caring
One of my favorite things about the group hiking trip is that we ended up sharing whatever resources we brought with us; water, snacks, fruits. In addition, we made a rule to share at least one interesting fact about ourselves with each one in the group. After a while, we were not just sharing one but lots of interesting memories from our childhood. In the end, I found out that every one of us was a little mischievous in our youth.
Lastly, unlike my fellow millenials, I have never been a huge fan of “selfies.” But, I have come to realize that they are a good thing at certain times. For example, during our trip we wanted to take group pictures, and one of us was always missing. Hence, selfies were our only option for a good group picture!
