Our Habitat for Humanity team successfully finished our first week building the house. We left it with the walls completely constructed and with all door and window frames in place. Over the weekend, our trades people would be installing the tin roof. I felt that the team left the project on Friday feeling a sense of pride and connection to each other, the family, project and surrounding community. It was not time for some R&R on the weekend. As a team, we all decided to use our free weekend to travel to Chitwan National Park. Bharatapur, the city in which we were stationed, sits close to the border of CNP. CNP is located in the south lowlands (the Terai) of Nepal and is pretty close to the border of India.
Our team travelled to Chitwan where we stayed in a lodge within the confines of the Park. Chitwan, Nepal’s first national park, was established in 1973. Prior to its establishment, it was hunting grounds of Nepal’s ruling class. It’s seen a lot of damage. One of the stats I read was that at the end of the 1960’s 70% of its jungles were eradicated through the use of DDT. As one can imagine, it was totally destructive to the habitat of many animals who live in that area. CNP is the home of the Bengal tiger (it has one of its best habitats in the world) and the one-horned rhino. At the end of the 1960’s, only 95 rhinos remained.
Our team had an awesome time together. We started our stay by going on an elephant safari which was quite incredible. On the back of the elephant, there were three of us along with our mahoot. While we didn’t realize it at first due to the language barrier, our mahoot was taking us on a journey in which we were tracking a one-horned rhino and its baby. Man, he took us through bush that was so thick. The three of us were kept pretty busy ducking branches and thick brush, and fending off peculiar red bugs (there is a photo of one) which freaked the bejeezus out of me. I was distracted by branches and bush when I looked down to see four of them, some 2+ inches long climbing all over me. I had a hard time containing my squeals and the three of us (Emily, Krista and I) managed to muffle our giggles. At times our elephant made its own pit stops to eat. Eating trumped the mahoot’s desire to track the rhino. An elephant’s power is immense. Using its trunk, our elephant had no problems uprooting trees to feed upon. Apparently in Africa, it is not uncommon to see massive trees upside down – roots up and trunk down – which elephants do as a part of their feeding. Despite the unscheduled feeding stops, we did manage to get pretty close to the rhino. I swear that as we got within the vicinity of the rhino, our elephant had the shivers. It was a very peculiar sensation and one that not a lot of people can claim to have experienced. We were on safari for about 2 hours before heading back to our lodge where the elephants rested for a bit. It was time for their baths and we were able to go down to their bathing spot in the local river where we had the opportunity to get into the river and swim with them. It was my third time being on the elephants and equally exciting. They are incredible animals. There were only about 7 of us from our team who braved the water and jumped on the back on the elephants. What an experience! I had a banana in my jacket and when the elephants came out of the river, I was able to feed it. Team Member Kristin captured the moment on film and the photo is one of my favorite pictures of me on my trip.
We also did some beautiful jungle hikes on both days where we saw an assortment of wildlife – crocodiles, monkeys, snakes (spotted by Emily), tracks and markings of the Bengal tiger (along with a place where it had killed a rhino and left its remains), and various bird species. The only drawback was that I wished for more time to explore. I was happy with the experience – it was an opportunity to connect with my team members outside of our work, to hang out and relax. Chitwan was truly an oasis away from the chaos and noise of Bharatapur.
The pictures I have included have come from myself and a number of people from my build. Thanks to Kristin Savage Willoughby and Holly Cornell for permission to use some of their pictures.
The Travelling Psychologist 