Ode to Ben

A few days after Heidi and I arrived in Nepal last August, we welcomed MCC Nepal's first Serving And Learning Together (SALT) participant, Ben Ippel (pause between first and last name). I'll admit that we were a bit nervous about meeting Ben. We realized that we would probably be spending a lot of time together, since the three of us were in unfamiliar territory and with the same organization. We knew Ben was young, only 20 years old, and you know how young people can be- needing lots of attention, thinking they have all of the answers, etc. Of course, these are unreliable stereotypes, but I was young not so long ago, and these stereotypes would have been a fairly accurate description of me at 20 years old. We had no reason to be nervous. I think we both realized we would get along well with Ben when he openly talked about his diarrhea during our first dinner together (in Nepal, it happens…a lot).

Over the past eleven months, we've had a lot of fun together. We traveled for three hours on top of a bus. We risked our lives paragliding and rafting. We've encountered elephants, monkeys and Sadhus. We've eaten hundreds of momos and our fair share of daal bhaat (although Ben ate much more than a fair share). We did spend a lot of time together. Ben is one of those rare people who are easy to be around. We spent hours hanging out on our balcony, eating ice cream and talking about life. Ben did his best to fit into Nepali life, despite being 6'4" and very white. His host family loved him, as did the children he worked with. It was not unusual for the three of us to be walking down the street and be stopped by someone from Ben's church or work. Everyone who met Ben became his friend.

Last night, we said our sad goodbyes at the airport. Ben is headed back to the U.S. to finish his degree. For Heidi and me, Nepal won't be quite the same without him around. In honor of Ben-ji, we wrote this heartfelt poem:

Ben in Nepal

Fairest of them all

He trekked & climbed

Nickeled & dimed

And won the hearts of us all

Ben is hot

And ate daal bhaat

With kids he played

But didn't get paid

He slept on a really short cot

La. Hunchha. Has.

You are one of us

Our dear saathi

You rode a haatti

La. Hunchha. Has.

Baby bear, don't go

Back to New Mexico

Kathmandu needs you

But not as much as we do

We love you so.

At the Boudha Stupa with our language teacher

Ben hanging out with Sadhus

At the peace pagoda in Pokhara

Traveling on top of a bus

Saying goodbye to Ben's family