They say yes to “Lawtze” – but leaving the day job isn’t a spur of the moment decision, instead it’s a courageous adventure into the unknown

On 25^th April 2015, encountering the immense magnitude-7.8 earthquake, Pink Lee began a fund-raising project and established the non-profit organization “Light On”.

An Chinese article done by JobsDB.com

(Translated by Hing Sing Yuen)

There’s a contemporary Chinese phrase ‘lawtze’(literally “resign nakedly”) meaning to leave your job with no replacement in mind. Pink Lee is one of them: here’s her story.

You might think people who “lawtze” do so because of their unreasonably demanding bosses, the worsening imbalance between workload and salary, or the need to work with helplessly idiotic colleagues. “I want to adventure outside Hong Kong before I am 30 (which is the age limit of apply for the working holiday visa)…” Everyone has their own reasons to “lawtze”, and quite a lot of people do so in order to realize their dreams. Pink Lee is one of them.

First generation guru of naked resignation – I am going to embrace the world!

Ten years ago, before “lawtze” entered Chinese slang, although she had respectable career as a finance journalist, Pink Lee followed an intense calling in her heart and traveled alone to Tibet as a backpacker. “That trip changed my life completely, and is still my most important life-changing decision.” she said.

Despite being poor, the Tibetans Pink met were happy; on the other hand, having plenty of resources, Hongkongers always seemed to have frowning faces. The most inspiring moment for her was when a backpacker told her, “if you grasp your fist tight, you only own the tiny bit in your hand. But if you release your fist, you own the whole world.”

She remarked, “those words opened my eyes in an instant. At that moment, I decided that when I got back to Hong Kong, I would save as much as I could and then ‘lawtze’ to travel around the globe and embrace the world.”

During her work as a finance journalist, Pink traveled alone to Tibet, encountered friendly locals, and learned life-changing lessons from other backpackers.

How many “workless” ten years are there in one’s life?

Having saved money for two years and handed in her resignation letter, Pink set off on her journey. “My former dream was the same as every regular Hongkonger, which was a promising career and wealth. So, when I resigned, my original plan was to come back and work in Hong Kong after roaming around the world like a carefree bird for a year.” Pink said.

Surprisingly, the money she saved was enough for her to travel around the globe for 2 years and 3 months, and even enough to pay for her expenses during her short-term stay after coming back to Hong Kong. “My experience during these two years utterly transformed my life. My craving to become a famous journalist had turned into a kind of vanity for me. Now I just wanted to go with the flow, and find happiness in my heart.” Pink said.

Having done “lawtze”, Pink realized her first dream – to travel to South America and learn Spanish. Mastering Spanish, she gained unique experience beyond what common backpackers could have, such as chatting with the Cuban old man in this photo.

That gap year unexpectedly shaped her into a Buddhist-ish girl, because of one stop on her journey – India. Encountering spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation, she realized that the most important thing was the present moment, and there was no need to fear the future or to keep harking back to the past.

Since coming back to Hong Kong, she has only been working as a freelancer (translator, writer, yoga and meditation instructor). Time flies, and it has been ten years.

“I’d never imagined that I could live without going to work for ten years. In fact, if you’re too anxious about money and derive your sense of security from it, you’ll miss a variety of opportunities. Reflecting on her ten-year experience as a freelancer, Pink concluded, “happiness doesn’t come from the external world but resides in your heart.”

Through her spiritual practice, Pink switched her outward attention to her internal world, and discovered happiness and love, which she had always been longing for.

Once again on the path of “lawtze”

Before Pink became a “slashie[1]”, her ex-boss almost persuaded her to go back as a finance journalist. “Although I could earn an even better wage than before, I didn’t feel I belonged to that world. The job didn’t mean anything to me any longer.” After a mere three months of work, she “lawtze”  again.

“The common idea is that people who “lawtze” are courageous people who can leave their comfort zones. But the fact is, we’re just following our instincts; We don’t care about negative opinions from people around us. If you receive too many criticisms or negative opinions, you’ll always stay in your snail shell, not knowing the greatness of the external world.” Pink chuckled, “I “lawtze” not because of courage but ‘recklessness’.”

Starting as a volunteer English tutor for the children at Edventure Nepal, seven years later, she has become a family member of these twelve children.

If she wasn’t “reckless”, she wouldn’t have the chance to roam around South America, Europe, India and Nepal, and she wouldn’t have started her volunteer work; if she didn’t “lawtze” for the second time, the non-profit charity for Nepalese children, “Light On”, wouldn’t exist.

“Even if I got a different job, I would still work selflessly just as I am doing for Light On now. Because when you’ve seen your path, the end destination is always the same.” Pink said.

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[1] A person with multiple jobs, whose job description has multiple slashes, e.g. artist/model/photographer.

A Hong Kong Girl Survived from the Nepal 7.8 Earthquake And Participating In Earthquake Relief Work

(Apply Daily) Pink is from Hong Kong. She has not had a full-time job for ten years, but instead has been travelling to and from a tiny land in the Himalayas – Nepal. After surviving the disastrous 2015 Nepali earthquake (which had a magnitude of 7.8), Pink felt that “It was really good to be alive”. She then established a non-profit organization to support earthquake victims.

Today, she spends more than half of her time travelling in various places in Nepal every year.

The 2015 Nepal earthquake made Pink emotionally attached to the country. “I was in a bookshop and suddenly I felt the earth quivering. I was wondering “Is it an earthquake?” But I continued to read because I didn’t think that was possible. The quivering quickly became much stronger.”

Although after getting out of the jeep, volunteers on the “Light On Your Path Journey” walk for one hour with their luggage to the site of the rebuilding project, many Hong Kong people are still willing to come and experience.

Pink compared the situation with an “extremely strong wave” on a ship. After the earthquake, she slept overnight in an outdoor car park in Kathmandu and reunited with her Nepalese friends the next day. Pink and ten-something Nepalese friends shared a tent for a few days, and experiencing the multiple aftershocks with different magnitudes throughout the month.

Pink did not take a flight back to Hong Kong. “I heard news of increasing casualties, but I was staying in that tent. I had food and shelter, and it was safe. I was so annoyed. Why am I in such a safe place, while others can only sleep on the street, not even having a tent? That’s why I really wanted to contribute something.”

Within only two months, she raised about four hundred thousand HKD on social media, and transported eight tons of supplies to the earthquake epicenter, Gorkha. “Experiencing the earthquake made me realize that being alive means happiness.”

After she returned to Hong Kong, she established the non-profit organization, Light On, to support rebuilding projects in Nepal. “If we build houses, we can only build about two for a few hundred thousand dollars. We think it is better to build public facilities instead, so we decided to rebuild schools.”

The Nepalese people like to introduce their country as “Never End Peace And Love (NEPAL)”.

Recruiting Zhigong (volunteers, 志工, lit. “will-workers”) to participate in school rebuilding, Pink hopes “Hong Kong people can show solidarity to the Nepalese.”

After visiting various sites affected by the earthquakes, she chose the sites for rebuilding schools, and recruited Hong Kong people to participate in the school rebuilding projects. ‘The name of the project “Light On Your Path Journey” implies my hope for the participants getting enlightened.’ Pink said.

Volunteers from Hong Kong have to fly six hours, and drive an entire day to the project site. (The cost is actually higher than using donkeys to transport building materials.) ‘I organized these projects because I hope the volunteers can show solidarity to the Nepalese.’ She hopes that Hong Kong people (who are relatively lucky), do not perceive this trip as “helping others”, but rather cooperating with the local people.

The stem “vol” of the word “volunteer” originates from the Latin word “volition”, meaning “will”. She thinks the term used in mainland China and Taiwan zhigong (志工 “will-worker”) is more appropriate, because it implies that it’s the volunteer’s own will to do this, while the Cantonese term yigong (義工, “responsibility-worker”) implies action out of mercy, which “sanctifies” the action and implies hierarchy.

Apart from participating in rebuilding projects, volunteers also teach and lead activities at the local school.

Woman Who Travels Around As a Full Time Volunteer and Big Sister to 12 Nepalese Kids

(Apple Daily) Being a big sister to 12 Nepalese children, Hong Kong volunteer Pink Lee has travelled to this small Himalayan country for 7 years on the income of various part-time jobs.

Pink survived the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015.  Happy to be alive, she established an NGO (Editor: Light On Charity) to support earthquake victims.   Nowadays, she spends half the year in Nepal.

Pokhara is the 2^nd largest city in Nepal and is a famous tourist destination.  Its centerpiece is the Phewa Lake: surrounded by Himalayan mountains, in the evening the sun casts its red fire onto the still waters, slowly disappearing behind the green mountains.  This is scenery best viewed at the right time of a year: March to May and October to December. In winter and during monsoon, it is rare to meet foreigners and some shops in the tourist districts are closed. 

7 years ago, Pink, by accident, visited Nepal during monsoon to enjoy rains.

If you close your fists you have just a little, if you open them, you have the whole world

10 years ago, Pink heard this saying in Tibet and decided to quit her job and travel around the world.  In the 3rd year she arrived in Nepal. By this time she had decided that instead of simply sight-seeing, she wanted to do something significant.  The long term bonding between Pink and Nepal began from the moment she saw a torn English advertisement pasted on a lamp post in Pokhara, recruiting volunteers. 

It was an advertisement from a children’s home called “Edventure Nepal”, which was established by a 26-year-old Nepalese called Amrit.  Pink recalled how surprised she was when she met the young man who was willing to put the life of 4 children on his shoulders.  Helping Amrit was a single mum called Tulasi: these two adults were responsible for the care of 4 children’s daily life and tuition fees. 

The Nepalese Government provided no financial support for children’s homes. So Tulasi and Amrit worked to earn all expenses.  “At that time, Edventure Nepal had been set up for only a month and apart from the enclosure walls, there was nothing, not even a bed,” said Pink.

At first the Edventure Nepal children’s home was located in rural area. To get there, Pink would take an hour-long bus journey from the city centre early in the morning and then walk for 45 minutes to arrive at the children’s home just on time to take children to school.

“Big Sister” Pink is a full-time volunteer for Edventure Nepal.  Since 2011, she has visited her sisters and brothers every year.

Call to support the children

To improve the situation at the children’s home, Pink recruited travelers who wanted to serve the local community. Communicating online, she invited people to bring clothes, stationery, furniture, and cooking utensils. The quality of public education was low, with teachers being unreliable, so she began collecting donations for private schooling. 

Since her early three month volunteering period, Pink has returned more and more often to Nepal to visit her “brothers and sisters”. 

She said: “It has been astonishing to see the changes in those children, whose hair had to be shaved because of lice, who didn’t smile, were so small and always scared of the past. They’ve grown up to be clean, always smiling and can now speak English.  It shows the importance of a good education, proper care, sufficient nutrient and love.  The love that Tulasi and Amrit gave them, helped them grow up healthily.”

Pokhara surrounded by snowy mountains.  Nepal’s second city is famous as the starting point for trekking in the Annapurna mountains.

“Uncle” Armit and “Mummy” Tulasi are taking good care of all the children, at the same time they are all positively influenced by their “Big Sister” Pink.  A few months ago, 13-year old Prakash said to Pink that he wanted to be a social worker to help her.  Pink felt so touched that the children wanted to help others and society.  She replied to Prakash, “I will wait for you but you have to finish college first.”

7 years on, Edverture Nepal has moved into the city and now houses 12 children.  With Pink’s help, the organization has developed a self-sustaining operational model, working with an NGO from Hong Kong to host “workcamps” for volunteers who come to the children’s home to carry out cultural exchange.  Part of the program fee is in the form as donations.

Pokhara city is in a valley.  Many years ago, Pink had to take an hour-long bus ride, followed by a 45 minute walk to reach the mountainside Edventure Nepal.

Although children call Amrit “Uncle”, he is actually more like their father.

A year ago, Pink and Amrit rented a building that they now run as a hotel in Lakeside, Pokhara – a social enterprise from which 20% of the revenue is put into Edventure Nepal with the aim to be the financial support in the future.

Everything was going well until the Nepalese Government changed the rules. Now, all children’s homes need to fulfill certain requirements in order to continue operation.  Edventure Nepal had to rent a house (instead of an apartment) and must provide a library, playground, a psychologist and social worker – all this with no funding from the Government. 

Pink and Amrit immediately set about fund-raising.  Luckily (at the time of interview) 70% of the target sum amount HK$350,000 was reached (Editor: and they had reached the target after 6 months of fund-raising).

Pink put her time on rebuilding Nepal and established an NGO called “Light On Charity”.

We Manifested a Hotel in Pokhara

Life is always full of surprises, It happens that I opened the “Hotel Love and Light” with Amrit.

It was six months before the 7.8 mag earthquake in Nepal.  I was in the Edventure Nepal Children’s Home (ENCH), in Pokhara, Nepal.  At that moment, sitting in a room overlooking the backyard, I was chit-chatting with the ENCH Chairman, Amrit.

I was still living mobile between India and Nepal.  I remembered, I had never told Amrit the following dream, a dream that probably every traveler has had.  So I told him, “I always imagined I’d stay in a place I like and open a guesthouse one day.”  I had dreamt about this so many times since I first quit my job and traveled around the world: the Inca town in Peru; the beach in Argentina where I saw whales migrating; the little Colombian town where I volunteered for a month; the Mexican town where I met encountered indigenous people; the Tibetan colony in Northern India.

Guanajuato in Mexico.  One of the examples of the fairy-tale places I’d love to set up a guesthouse.

This dream had faded as I moved around the globe year after year.  There were too many enchanting little places in the world, how could I just choose just one?  I couldn't do it because I was too greedy.  So how about opening guesthouses in all the places I like?  I couldn’t do that either because I couldn’t be distracted.

So that day at ENCH with Amrit, I was lamenting the fading of my dream.

Most of the time, if other travelers heard me pitying myself like this, they would probably join me, “Yes, me too…”  This is a common dream indeed.  But that day, Amrit’s response was very different from what I expected, “Are you serious?”

He surprised me by asking the question.  I felt that there was more meaning in his words.  I sat straight up on my chair, shot my eyebrows and asked him, “What’s up?”

He said, “I have a friend who is constructing a new building, he wants to rent it out as a hotel.”

“Erm?” I thought, I was merely sharing a dream, it hadn’t been a suggestion.

Amrit was getting excited. With a glint in his eye he asked me, “Would you like to have a look?”

With an open mind, I said, “Why not?”

We went to this construction site of his friend (It was indeed a chaotic construction site with dust rolling around).  Upon seeing the basic foundations of this building, I couldn’t help voicing my thoughts, “If you break this wall, the cafe area would look more spacious.”, “Why don’t you connect these two rooms and make it a dorm?”, “These two rooms can be changed to common bathrooms and toilets.”, “The rooftop could be used as a meditation and yoga room!”

Soon after, I heard all these comments had been accepted by the owner.  And without me noticing, it seemed like I was partnering with Amrit to run this hotel project!

There is a saying in Chinese, “An unintended willow’s seed grows in the shade”.  And this is absolutely true for me.  Although I didn't plan to have a hotel, a hotel had come into reality anyway!

From that time onwards, it required a lot of time to turn this construction site into a proper hotel (especially I had to factor in the Nepalese pace), so I put the dream aside and went to live in India.

I came back three months later to lead the fourth work camp of Edventure Nepal.  I planned to wait until after the end of the fifth workcamp before sitting down and discussing this hotel project in detail with Amrit. 

However, on 25^th April, 2015, a once in a lifetime earthquake struck Nepal.

Nobody expected that the earthquake struck Nepal, and nobody expected that I set up Light On Charity after the earthquake.

 After the earthquake, I started to fund-raise on social networks, delivered relief materials, established a non-profit organization, “Light On” and started school rebuilding…However, in September 2015, a border blockage kicked in Nepal, trebling petrol price.  As a result, our hotel’s construction came to a pause.  So I turned my focus again to the fund-raising activities of Light On.

In March this year, the petrol crisis finally ended and the hotel building resumed.  As I was busy leading “Light On Your Path Journey” in Nepal, I then invited architect friends from Hong Kong to do the interior and exterior design.  At the same time, I also invited like-minded Hong Kong people to invest in this social enterprise hotel project.

From the beginning, ENCH has always relied upon regular or irregular donations.  Three years ago, they started a workcamp project with a Hong Kong charity, but the profits were limited.  Also after the earthquake, the workcamp has been stopped for a year.

In order to support the children all the way to university, ENCH has to have a sustainable income source.  This is the reason why Hotel Love and Light comes in existence.

20% of Hotel Love and Light’s profits go to ENCH (there are 12 little angels) as operational and educational fund.  We believe, charities cannot only rely on traditional donations anymore, they have to find ways to self-sustain themselves. 

In such way, not only we can give more flexibility into ENCH’s operation, we can also let them to preserve their dignity.

The 12 little angels of ENCH.

Besides, “Hotel Love and Light” also put emphasis on employing disadvantaged Nepalese people and pay them a decent wage.  For example, the first cleaner employed by “Hotel Love and Light” is a single mom who escaped her violent husband with her 4 years old daughter. 

In addition, if the children in Edventure Nepal would like to learn more about tourism industry, this hotel will be a perfect stepping stone for them too.

In the middle of September, the installation of all the furniture and related stuff started.  In early October, I came to Pokhara and started to install all the other hard and software with Amrit.  From choosing cushion materials, buying plants, designing name cards, establishing a website, even about which food we shall provide on our menu etc. 

Installing solar panels on the rooftop.

Choosing flowers from the nursery.

Adding Dhal Bhat (curry vegetable and rice) into our menu.

“An unintended willow’s seed grows into a shade”: this willow tree is called “Hotel Love and Light” (hotelloveandlight.com).  This name originated from a volunteer workcamp I named, “Love and Light Action--to orphans in Nepal”.  This name also reflects our project goal: we hope to bring more love and light into this world.  We believe, we are all the embodiments of love and light.  As such, we all have the capacity to radiate love and light to people around us and to the world.

Hotel Love and Light ‘s cozy Cafe.

We believe, everyone is the embodiments of love and light.

Compared with other hotel in Pokhara, “Hotel Love and Light” social enterprise project would definitely be a piece of good news for visitors, as they can contribute to good causes by staying in this hotel.

Next time, if you come to Pokhara, the city at the foothill of the Himalayas, please visit us.  We also welcome you all to give us any valuable new ideas or potential cooperative opportunities, such as yoga and meditation or to volunteer as a chef in our cafe etc.  Our contact is info@hotelloveandlight.com

Last but not least, the fact that this hotel has come to existence is thanks to many people: the Aona architect team, Charles, Ricky and Yuisze.  Besides, there should be special thanks to Amrit brother-in-law, who acted as our driver, as well as the “porter” for every single day!  Last but not least, I am really grateful that Fiona helped us to collect stuff from Hong Kong, and she also carried the huge framed photos all the way to Nepal!

The story of Edventure Nepal

In order to let more interested people to know about the orphanage easily, I had interviewed the members of Edventure Nepal. So when some volunteers would make a website for them, the articles can be put on there. During the interviews, I was deeply touched by the innocence of the children and also by their determinations to contribute to the society. Although they are living in one of the poorest countries in the world and they all have their heart-breaking stories to tell, their determinations of humanitarian work are indeed much stronger than many people who are living in any developed countries. 　

Amrit, Chairman of Edventure, 27years old A simple man with high thinking

The seed of starting an orphanage in Nepal has long been planted in Amrit’s life.

When he was 18 years old, his father suddenly got cancer. With limited income, he had to drop out from school and worked as a teacher in a remote area in Kaski District(near Pokhara), so as to support the enormous expenses of his father’s medication. For 2 years, he and his sister were taking care of his father in the hospital. Nonetheless, his father still passed away painfully at the end.

During the time he was working in the village, daily stricken by seeing the suffering of his father and the condition of the poor children, he started to think about what he could do to help all those children.

After his father had passed away, he started working full time as a teacher in Pokhara, so as to pay off the tuition fees of his bachelor degree. In this school, he met Tulasi (the vice-chairman of EdventureNepal) who was a cleaner at the school. The fact that Tulasi was tortured by her ex-husband a lot struck him a lot. He was always trying to help Tulasi in the school kitchen and walking her back home in the late evening.

With all the compassion towards the misfortunate situations of Tulasi and the underprivileged children in the village, he realized that if he only worked as a teacher, receiving a very low pay each month, was not enough to help others than himself. So he left for Kathmandu to work in a travel agency which also had supports to an orphanage. From there, he learnt a lot about how to run a non-profit organization.

In the meantime, his sister was diagnosed with kidney failure. In the fear that he would lose another family member, he quit his job, together with his brother-in-law, they took care of her for months and they even went to India to search for better medication. To their greatest relief, his sister’s situation started to turn stable. He was relieved and went back to Kathmandu.

With no job, but bills to pay, he was thinking about his next move. The dream of starting an organization which helped poor children and Tulasi in his home town, Pokhara appeared to him again. With the advices of his brother-in-law, who worked in the Nepal Tourism Board in Kathmandu, he managed to register Edventure Nepal successfully in April, 2011.

He and Tulasi then rescued the 3 sisters Tulasi, Yemuna and Ganga, together with Tulasi’s daughter, Laxmi, 6 of them are now living in the orphanage in Pokhara.

With compassion, inner strength and implementing what he learnt, he would like to grow Edventure Nepal step by step and leads it to be one of the leading non-profit organizations in Nepal. Hopefully in the future, he could travel to other countries, except seeing the world to broaden his horizon, he would visit other non-profit organizations and be inspired by them, so he could implement the new ideas in this orphanage. In this way, they could uplift more and more underprivileged children and let them be the change of the future world.

Tulasi, Vice-Chairman of Edventure Nepal, 35 years old A tough woman with a tender heart

In Nepal, a country which is dominated by male, women always lack of care and supports. One may wonder, why Tulasi, an illiterate mother of 3 children is so devoted to work in this charitable organization, even though she needed to do hard labour to support the orphans’ living at the beginning.

It is all because of her similar childhood background and her unfortunate marriage. When she was a girl, her father married another woman. Since then, she had no more love and affection from her father and she was deprived of education opportunities.

When she grew up, she was first living with her sister and her brother-in-law as her parents couldn’t support her living. She wanted her marriage to be arranged by her father, but he didn’t even care about Tulasi at all. Finally, her brother-in-law arranged a marriage for her. Only when she got married, she found out her ex-husband happened to be neurotics and violent. All the three children were not conceived under her free will, they all happened when she fell unconscious after severe beating from his ex-husband. His ex-husband was always hitting Tulasi with his hand or kicking her with his leg without any reasons. He even tried to strangle his own baby when he was drunken. Shocked by this incident, she finally made the decision to leave her ex-husband with her children, and started to work days and nights as a low-skilled labour. Because of that, she got a permanent damage on her spinal cord and often suffers from great pain.

With the help of Amrit, her two sons were sent to a well-established orphanage in Kathmandu. Relieved to see that her sons are under good care and protection, she realized that a good orphanage can really change the lives of underprivileged children, so she would like to help other similar children with her love and cares.

Tulasi is devoting her time days and nights in the orphanage, she would love to see Edventure Nepal blooming, helping more underprivileged children with a bigger and bigger international network. Personally, she dreams to see and travel around the world, especially doing a pilgrimage to the ashrams of Amma and Sai BaBa in South India.

Laxmi, 15 years old A humble and loving young lady

She is the daughter of the Vice-Chairman at Edventure Nepal, Tulasi. Growing up in a single-parent family and seeing all the violence imposed by her father on Tulasi, she is far more mature than her age. Sometimes she shows a flash of confusion amid all her charming smiles. Because of Amrit and her mother’s devotion to help the unfortunate ones, she is also inspired and would like to be a social worker in the future. She wishes that when she could acquire more knowledge and skills, she could assist Amrit in running Edventure Nepal.

Girls in Nepal are usually married in a very early age. However, she doesn’t have this dream. She just wants to be a better person, so as to take care and support her mother and let her mother be proud of her.

Despite all that, she is still a teenage girl. During her free time, she likes to sing Nepali and English pop songs, dancing, drawing and learning computer skills. Her favourite foods are vegetable MoMo (Tibetan dumplings), pizza and chocolate cake.

The 3 sisters, Tulasi, Yemuna and Ganga

They are the poor children of Tika Ram and Guma Bastola. They are originally from the remote village of Paiyun (puranchaur VDC, Kaski). Their father suffered a lot from various diseases. Without any proper medical treatments, he was Paralysis. After he had passed away, the mother also went crazy and lost her memory. Since then, the children had been deprived of all sorts of basic necessities. When they were found, they were rescued to the orphanage.

Tulasi, 11years old The little adult

When she lost her parents, she was taken by her relatives to work in a hotel, washing dishes all day long. After Edventure Nepal has rescued her, she and her two sisters are provided with nutritious food, clothing and education opportunities. Though she is only 11, she is very mature and pro-actively helping to take care of her younger sisters in the orphanage. What is really impressive is that she even shows great care to the people around her and acts like a responsible adult. Her dream is to be a social worker or an English teacher, so she could helps other underprivileged children like what she was once to be. She would also like to do a pilgrimage to the ashrams of Amma and Sai BaBa in South India and to study in USA one day. In her spare time, she likes playing games and dancing. Her favourite colour is black, favourite subjects are Nepali and English and her favourite food are meat and orange.

Yemuna, 9 years old The source of joy

When She was first brought to Edventure Nepal orphanage, she was somehow disoriented and showed no interest in everything. After about two weeks, she started to regain her charm. Whenever she gets the chance to play, she will give out lots of laughter and always be energetic. Her dream is to become a pilot, so she could travel around the world and see all the wonderful places. She likes drawing and dancing. Her favourite colour is green, favourite subject is Social Studies (includes Geography and History etc.) and her favourite food are curry pumpkin and pomegranates.

Ganga, 6 years old The enthusiastic learner

Ganga is the youngest among the three sisters, but she loves to learn and she learns really fast. Sometimes you will see her reading her own books and studying by herself. If any volunteers are in the orphanage, she will definitely come to them and ask to teach her English! Her dream is to travel in a bus so as to see the world, she even imagines that she could become a bus driver so she could travel in the bus all day long.

She likes playing the traditional Nepalese game, carom board. Her favourite colour is Yellow, favourite subject is Mathematics and her favourite foods are dhal (lentils) soup and grape.

I am doing a fund-raising for them, so to equip them with essential furniture, cooking utensils, electrical appliances and a motorbike (as they live on the hill). If you would like to give a helping hand, please let me know by emailing me at pinkgata@gmail.com. Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Heart-opening journey

I still remember when I left India last year, my heart was full of love and compassion. So when I first came back to HK, I continued to practice what I learnt in India and spread selfless love around. However, facing such an extreme capitalist system and society like HK, it was a great challenge to keep my heart pure. After 7months in HK, I had already felt that it was getting more and more difficult to keep my mind and heart in balance.

Here in the orphanage, everyday playing with the children, receiving their innocent love and being like brother and sister with Amrit, I didn’t realized that I had actually become part of their family.

One day, Amrit invited me and Theo to his home which is 14KM far from the Lake Side. There live his mother, his brother and the three super cute buffaloes. His home is only a very simple two-storey stone house and I could see the old age was reflected on the wall. Beside the house, there is a piece of corn field, in which they only use buffaloes manure.

Amrit's buffaloes.

As in all Hindu families, women are always busy with the cooking and men are waiting to eat. Seeing the situation, I found that I was the only woman who was not in the kitchen! Seeing Amrit’s mother, his aunt and Tulasi were cooking the big meal in the kitchen, I was wondering should I help. On the opposite of what I was thinking, they offered me chai (mike tea, though I rejected as I normally don’t drink tea with caffeine) and asked me to sit and do not worry about the cooking. Though I could not really communicate with them verbally, I could feel their love and joy.

Finally, we were all sitting together with cross legs in a small room and eating the traditional Nepalese food Dhal Bhat (lentils, rice and vegetables). During the meals, they were talking and joking in Nepali, sometimes Amrit did the translation for us. Actually even if Amrit hadn’t translated for us, I could still feel that joy and peace in the house. I strongly felt that Amrit was really treating me like his sister and his mother was treating me like her daughter also.

We are such a big family!

At night, when I was back in the guesthouse and writing my journal, I suddenly realized that I was completely filled with the endless love by the orphanage and Amrit’s family. At that moment, I felt my heart was beating with all the love and compassion toward them! My heart was exploded with so much love that I felt so blissful, peaceful and happy. I had been away from this feeling for 9months already! Streams of tears slowly came down on my face, I was feeling so grateful because life had given me such a lovely family. I was not the person who was helping, they were in fact all God-sent angels, giving me love!

Angels of love

Amrit and the kids.



I and Theo or sometimes only myself are used to come to the orphanage every day. Setting off from the Lake Side at 6am, take a 20minutes bus ride and walk up the hill for 15mins. When we are in the orphanage, we usually teach them English or play with them in the open ground area which has a fantastic view of the snow mountain range.

Playing at the top with the kids.

Besides, I am also discussing with Amrit about how the orphanage can get more supports from some international organizations. For example, I helped them to sign in as the member of Couchsurfing and Workaway; I also put their information on the travel forums in HK and Taiwan to recruit travelers as volunteers.

Until now, I got many positive responses, many friends from HK and Taiwan are planning to come to the orphanage when they will visit Nepal. Recently, 2 HK friends, Florence and Patricia and 2 Taiwan friends Athena and Darren had just visited here and all brought along with them nearly 20kg supplies in total. I am so touched by their sincerity and hard work of bringing all those things.

Volunteers from HK and Taiwan.

Besides that I should say thanks to many passing-by travelers who stopped and gave a helping hand. One of them is Teri, a dear friend of mine whom I met in HK when I was hosting travelers on Couchsurfing. She is such a warm person that who is always smiling to all situations in life like an angel, sending out love and warmth wherever she is. She deliberately made a turn from India to Nepal to see me and she also volunteers in the orphanage, giving many creative and practical ideas. When I think about the happy moments that I and other volunteers were playing our childhood games on the grass, remembering their genuine smiles, I feel super grateful that the river of life brings me all these angels.

Teri, me and the kids.

Actually at first I was worrying how they could afford the daily expenditures in the orphanage. At the early period, Amrit was working in a temporary census job, which only paid him 8000Rs (around 114USD). For Tulasi, though she had severe spinal cord and uterus pain, she still worked in a food-packaging factory for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. And she only got a monthly salary of 4000Rs (around 57USD). With this amount of income, they had to feed all the 4 children! This is really incredible in the eyes of those who come from a developed country. How can they possibly manage it?

I thought, I could help them at that time, but it was not a sustainable way as I was only a traveler without a stable job. At last, I decided to ask for help from my dear HK friends. The amazing experience happened next told me that I and Amrit were really living out our life purposes.

After I had sent out emails for one week, I gradually got many replies from my dear friends, giving me creative ideas and also the generous financial support! Because of their selfless help, this orphanage doesn’t need to worry about food in the meantime. I feel so deeply that this is all just grace and I am the instrument of God, which helps the loving and kind-hearted Amrit and Tulasi to fulfill their life mission step by step.

Recently, all volunteers brought the kids to the Lake Side. It was their first time to eat Pizza and row a boat on the Phewa Lake. It was such a happy day!

The first visit to the orphanage

‘If you let the river of life carries you along, you will always arrive the best place for you.’ This is my living philosophy and it is always true.

One of my missions of living HK this time is to volunteer. When I first arrived the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, I didn’t have any good impressions on it, so I went straight to Pokhara. I was so happy that I could enjoy the beautiful Himalayas and the calm and beautiful Phewa Lake. Once I settled down in a nice and clean guesthouse, I started to look for healthy food. As I was always cooking fresh and organic food in HK and I seldom added salt, oil and chili, so when I first went out to the restaurant in Nepal, I could hardly order anything which were up to my standard.

So I used a whole day to search for another guesthouse, hoping to find a place where I can use the kitchen to cook, but it was in vain. Desperately I went back to my guesthouse and when I started to talk with the manager, he offered me to use the kitchen in the guesthouse! I immediately cooked my first home-made food in Nepal. Though it was just the simplest boiled vegetables and brown rice, it was the most delicious food in the world.

Every day I enjoyed the golden sunrise, sunset and the beautiful lake scenery at the roof top, it seemed that I had totally forgotten what was I supposed to do here. And it had already been two weeks since I left HK.

The beautiful Himalayas. One day, I got an email from my friend, he asked me how was my progress with the volunteer work. His email was like a bell in my head, it rang me up and reminded me that it was time for me to look for volunteer opportunities! Since I started to have this idea in my head, life also started to respond to me. Then when I was walking along the Lake Side, I saw a flyer on a telephone pole recruiting volunteers for an orphanage. I contacted the Chairman of this orphanage, Edventure Nepal, and I immediately visited the place next day. It is situated in a beautiful area in the middle of the hill and it is just 4km away from the Lake Side.

The orphanage is situated in a very beautiful area.

I found that this orphanage had just started for less than 2 weeks, Amrit and his sister-like friend, Tulasi had just rescued 3 sisters. So including the daughter of Laxmi, 6 of them are now living under the same roof and sharing whatever they have.

The lovely kids.

To be frank, after the first meeting with Amrit in the Lake Side, my mind kept warning me to be careful that they were cheating by the name of an orphanage, because they were looking for financial supports on top of volunteers. However, after the meeting, I suddenly got lots of ideas on how to help them like fund-raising and how to connect them with international charitable organizations. I found that I had learnt a lot because I have volunteered in different countries in the world.

Contrasting to my mind, I actually got a lots of God’s signs that told me they were the right people to help. For the first time, I saw the name, ‘Amrit’ on the flyer, I already got a familiar feeling, as my guru’s name is 'Amrita'. And so do all the names of them. For example, 2 of them are named ‘Tulasi’, which mean a sacred plant in India, and it is also seen as theIndian deity Krishan; 2 of them are named ‘Ganga’ and ‘Yemuna’, which both means the sacred rivers in India. And the last one is called ‘Laxmi’, this is exactly the name of the goddess of wealth in India. Maybe someone may think these are just common names in Nepal, but actually names like Ram, Hari, Sita, Deepak etc are far more common.

Teaching the kids English.

The most obvious God’s sign is that the orphanage is so close to the holy temple Bindavasini. And inside Bindavasini, the main goddesses are Devi and Kali. And you know what, my guru, Amma is worshipped as Devi and Kali!! After visiting the orphanage, I went to put incenses in the temple and meditated there for 10minutes. My heart told me, this was the place I should come and I should trust Amrit. Of course, before that, I had already asked everything about how the orphanage was set up and confirmed that there was nothing in doubt.

The peaceful Bindavasini Temple.