My name is Louise and I joined LP4Y for several reasons, but the one that pushed me the most to go to the other side of the world was to learn. And I learned a lot more than I could have hoped for. Instead of telling you about my experience as a coach at GV Nepal, I am going to share with you the speech I gave to the Youth and my colleagues at my last Graduation ceremony at GV Nepal. It was one of the most emotional moments of my 13 months as a coach. More than one tear was shed (myself first).
"Dear Catalyst, dear Youth,
It is not without emotion, as you can imagine, that I speak in front of you. You know as well as I do, that speeches are not my specialty, but I will try. I have with me Pabitra who will act as a translator for this speech. I will go slowly, don't worry.
It has been 10 months I am with you in Nepal, far away from my family, my friends, from everything I know. It has been 10 months of happiness, of challenges, of learning, of growth.
Saying goodbye to my colleagues who are also my friends is so, so hard. I don’t want to say goodbye, actually it will just be a see you soon!
I want to say see you soon, Megha in your future shelter in India or Nepal, Maria in Nepal at the Government to make your country grow, Aashmani driving a car wherever you want in the world, Beauty in India at your wedding with someone you love, Puja in Nepal being a trekking guide and helping as much people as you can and Morgane in Bretagne drinking tea with your dogs remembering our good memories.
I will miss you so much. All of you. I want to truly thank you for being there for me at every moment, to be like my family 7,000 km from my house, to make me feel like home, and the most important: I want to thank you for your delicious dinner!
And you dear Youth of Nepal, how can I say goodbye to you? To be a Coach here? I struggle a lot when I arrive, and also during my mission. I remember me, 10 month ago completely lost in this Green Village. Manisha and Megha did the handover, I was not understanding their English, I had to handle 2 micro-companies, without knowing what is a micro-company! I had to fill a cashbook without knowing what is a cashbook, to make a budget balance without knowing what is a budget balance! I was very, very lost. When I see every month the new Batch arriving, I can see myself 10 month ago.
And after a few months, I was feeling more comfortable in my mission, every day I was talking better English, I was understanding more about how to be a Coach. There were moments where I was feeling so good about my mission and other moments where I struggled so much. I had difficulty communicating with you, to make myself understand, to push you to give the best of yourself. It was not an easy task. But I learned everyday.
I learned so, so much thanks to all of you. Every time you say "thank you Coach", "I learn so much here"... You have to know that as a Coach I learned even more from you. I learned how to truly listen to someone, how to speak in public, how to explain something, how to handle the finance part of 2 micro-companies, how to speak English, and "tole tole Nepali".
I also learned about myself, what kind of person I am and what I want to be, what I like, what I want, what I want to do after this experience. Thank you for teaching me what it is to be resilient, brave, hardworker, kind, smart, helpful… Thank you to all of you for trusting me and sharing with me your story, thanks to you I have another perspective of the world, I understand better which kind of world I am living in.
For you Batch 26, it is the end of your training. I remember the first Guidance with you, it was a BIG struggle for me! To make you enjoy and learn during the Guidance. And now, I see you making a speech in front of 30 people with such confidence! You can be so proud of yourself, it is amazing.
It is the end of something but the beginning of a new thing, same as for me. You may be afraid, like me, but it’s ok. We are strong, motivated and smart, so we will do it. We are together, you have to know that Green Village Nepal will be always be happy to welcome you as a Star or just as a former Youth. Never give up on your dream, you are ready to bring something to this world.
Never forget to dream big, never give up, never let people make you doubt yourself. You have so many capacities, abilities, don’t be afraid to use it because you are a woman, because you come from an excluded background or for any other reason. Be the person you want to be. Don’t be afraid. You can do it.
Thank you."