Going for it! I earned a aggressive journey scholarship and landed in Kathmandu | FIU Information

Honors College scholar Mia Vallenilla, majoring in interdisciplinary research with a deal with political science, lately returned from FIU’s inaugural research overseas journey to Nepal. She made the journey with the monetary assist of the distinguished Gilman Scholarship, a State Department-funded program. The Nepal tour is sponsored by the Honors College completely for its enrolled college students, however loads of different study abroad opportunities on the college can be found to all.

Vallenilla describes her expertise as “transformational.” She shares what she discovered throughout her 30-day keep and encourages her fellow Panthers to likewise discover the world.

 
When I first heard concerning the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, I considered how unbelievable it will be to go overseas with out breaking the financial institution. At the time, I used to be hopeful that perhaps I had a slight probability to earn the scholarship. I knew that my tutorial efficiency was robust, however I additionally knew how aggressive nationwide scholarships like this one may very well be. Still, one thing in me mentioned, “Why not at least try?” So, I utilized. That leap of religion become essentially the most transformative expertise of my faculty life to this point. 

Before I knew it, I’d be stepping foot in Nepal, compliments of that very scholarship. I selected the journey as a result of I wished to be in a spot that did not remind me of dwelling – I used to be born within the United States however raised in Venezuela. I wished to find out about a totally totally different lifestyle. I had plenty of alternatives to do this, though, in the end, I skilled a variety of similarities as effectively.

A deep dive

My time in Nepal was made all of the richer for the semester-long class required prematurely of our going overseas. Our professor, Prem Chapagain, initially from a distant village within the foothills of the Himalayas, gave us a super introduction into what we’d discover in his homeland.

Among the information and knowledge we mentioned within the months earlier than getting on a aircraft: the nation’s greater than 100 ethnic teams. Although we did not have time to check every of them, we received a reasonably good understanding of essentially the most represented.

Once there, we met members of the 5 predominant ethnicities and discovered firsthand about their totally different histories, languages and traditions. We skilled the cultures, spiritual customs and meals of peoples such because the Newaris of Kathmandu, the Tharu of Chitwan and the Gurung of Sidhuwad.

One of my favourite elements of the journey was our homestay in Sidhuwad, within the mountains of japanese Nepal. Our group of 12 break up into two, every staying with a household.

There we ate the perfect Nepali meals I had all through the whole journey. Traditional dishes of the world embrace dal bhat, or lentils and rice, and totally different veggie stir-fries that our host cooked from scratch utilizing what was grown within the dwelling backyard: potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, spinach, onions and even the lentils picked earlier within the season.

I liked strolling round to take a look at all of the gardens. We would usually munch on lettuce as we did so or on berries as we hiked the mountainside. And we had the possibility to pet canines and goats and even water buffalo. Overall, we loved an actual window into the world of the Gurung folks.

At the identical time, we received a much bigger image: Nepal is a really conservative tradition, and girls normally keep at dwelling. Yet the girl in whose home we boarded in Sidhuwad was a social employee who went towards conventional norms. She and different girls collectively took on numerous initiatives, amongst them touring to a different village to feed the homeless “outcastes,“ actually these whom Nepali society relegates to the underside based mostly on their standing at delivery.

And that’s one thing we noticed: Nepal very a lot revolves round a hierarchical caste system. People on the lowest rung do not get schooling, job alternatives past handbook labor, nor another probability to flee poverty.

A spiritual expertise

Religion is a central a part of Nepali life. It guides folks every day and even infuses their politics.

Our professor supplied background on the historical past of Hinduism and Buddhism, the 2 most important faiths of Nepal. Although Hinduism is by far the bulk faith, Buddhism stays distinguished and influential.

Thanks to our preparations in school, we understood the importance of Pashupatinath Temple, a sacred cremation website for Hindus on the Bagmati River on the japanese outskirts of Kathmandu.

I wasn’t positive how I’d react to seeing a lifeless particular person for the primary time. Witnessing the rituals of the cremations in particular person, nevertheless, I used to be largely curious.

There isn’t any coffin, only a physique utterly wrapped in a white sheet. The ceremony entails the rinsing of the particular person’s face within the river after which the burning of the physique.

I wished to know extra and determined to focus my discipline analysis – an task on which my professor would grade me – on customs and traditions round dying and, particularly, how that compares with our practices and ideas round dying.

My remaining conclusion was that Nepali tradition generally higher prepares folks for the inevitable as a result of it’s represented in tales, in artwork and in different side of every day life. That strategy, it appears to me, signifies that folks have little concern of dying.

A connection

Raised in Venezuela, I noticed similarities in each the constructed and pure landscapes of Nepal that different college students on the journey probably didn’t. Used to dwelling for a few years in a growing nation, I didn’t register the poor infrastructure and limitless potholes in the identical means that another person may. The topography additionally jogged my memory of Venezuela because the mountain ranges are very related.

So the bodily setting contributed to my feeling considerably at dwelling. Despite being on a unique continent and in a totally totally different tradition, I discovered a way of familiarity.

But what moved me most wasn’t strolling by historical cities that appeared frozen in time or seeing the Himalayan peaks. It was the heat of the folks. The Nepalis confirmed curiosity in studying who we had been, the place we got here from and what we had deliberate throughout our time within the nation. Every encounter I had, from the scholars I met at Kathmandu University the place I offered my discipline analysis, to my hosts in Sirubari who welcomed me like household, taught me greater than any class might have.

The expertise total made me respect the chance to satisfy and find out about others midway internationally. I’d encourage my fellow college students to pursue the identical. I recommend that anybody all for such a visit go together with an open thoughts and benefit from it. Rather than a trip, this can be a probability to grasp the nuances of one other tradition in a singular means. As a vacationer, you usually see solely the perfect of a spot. But a research overseas offers you the possibility to grasp extra points of a society and get a fuller image.