The Nepali Teachers House

Ok, I have absolutely no idea what the Nepali teacher's name is, at least I have no idea how to spell it but the very nice Nepali teacher at Saraswoti invited us to his house. This was actually a while ago but 1) the internet really hates me in Nepal (and so don't feel offended if it takes a while to send emails, I write them and then they don't send) and 2) the anniversary happened and so I wrote about that last time.

The first time I went must have been about a week and a half ago maximum, but it seems like a very long time ago. He walks back the same route as us from Saraswoti and once just invited me to his house, completely out of the blue. We had been told in the orientation course to expect this though, it's just a different culture. He has three grandchildren; Nitya (7), Subam (4) and Ankeet (19months). When first told the names I pronounced Nitya's wrong, and was very quickly corrected in a very severe tone by her. They are lovely kids and very enthusiastic. The Nepali teacher's wife is also the most welcoming person in the world, and immediately treated me as though she had known me for years. I got given food and tea (of course) and it's amazing how welcoming they all are, I think the children were also quite excited because one of the strange white people who wonders around Gorkha had come to their house!

I was also invited again yesterday. The children were slighly more used to me this time. I also had my bag which contained my stamper pens. This meant that when I left Nitya and Subam looked a little like they had chicken pox, much to their enjoyment. I also hadn't quite escaped. They also had great fun with my camera, and I managed to get some really nice photos of them. Hopefully I may be able to print out some photos to give to the Nepali teacher as I think he would really appreciate having a photo of his family. It also turns out that 'clap songs' are common all over the world, and Nitya was showing me some. I then taught her Baa Baa Black Sheep as I couldn't remember any of the ones that we used in England. She seemed quite pleased though.

At school the grade 10s (oldest year at Saraswoti) have exams at the moment. This means that school has been a little bit unpredictable in the past week. On Tuesday we had a half day, but they are now sending one year home early each day so they have enough classrooms. Exams here aren't quite the same as England. The teachers are allowed to talk to the students during the exams, but this is to clarify questions. We saw an exam paper and it's very much necessary. It was the English paper and a lot of the grammar was wrong and there were also a lot of spelling mistakes. The passmark is also very low but the questions are often ambigious so it's understandable. As Saraswoti is an English medium school they are all expected to pass the English exam, but all their other exams are also in English which must be very difficult for them. However, as all their lessons are in English I would guess they are used to it.

I hope everyone is well back home and feel free to post comments if possible, I don't know how easy it is...

Saraswoti's anniversary

The last two days have been celebrating Saraswoti's 38th Anniversary. This is a much bigger deal than in England and for the week before the kids were very very excited. Which means I did end up playing hangman for 30mins on Friday with my grade 5s as they were not listening at all and teaching was definitely a lost cause. It was a great success and there were even spectators standing at the windows (not an entirely unusual occurrence, there was just more than usual).

Saturday was technically the day off but they had games at school. This was amazing fun. The day started off late (perfectly normal, everything is much more relaxed here) and then there was a 4km race for the boys. I watched it with one of the female teachers, who was wearing one of the nicest sarees in the world, of which I have a picture. She's also going to show me were I can print the pictures and so I hope to give some to the school, as I have a few pictures of the games as well. I then watched the kids practicing dancing. The rehearsals were very popular to watch and the other kids were literally climbing the walls to watch their peers. The Nepali dancing is amazing, and the atmosphere is great, all the kids really enthusiastic and are there because they want to be.

The rest of the games were musical chairs, thread the needle, eating a biscuit from a string (no hands) and there were games for the blind children; getting the most amount of sweets (did involve some cheating) and who can write braille the fastest. Saraswoti has integrated the blind children really well, and they are able to go around the school perfectly freely and are often helped by the other children. The day finished with the final of the interhouse volleyball and then teachers volleyball. Volleyball is the equivalent of football here and the boys normally play it at lunchtimes and in free periods. Ed and Magnus both joined in the teachers volleyball, but unfortunately it's boys only. Shame.

The entire day was brilliant, the kids attitude to the school is subtly different than from at home. They will willingly bully teachers given half the chance but they realise that they only have one opportunity for an education. There is no second chances for them, and there is always the risk that they will have to be pulled out because their parents need their help.

Yesterday was the prizegiving bit of the anniversary and also the dancing. The speeches were all in Nepali, and although I can now understand the odd word it was still mostly a complete mystery what they were saying. The dancing was good, but there were some problems with the speakers. Prizegiving is a much less formal affair than in England with people willing to wander in and out as they please, which meant that we went to get tea and their equivalent of a fast food dish, which has varying amount of chillis in and is really nice. It, again, shows the children's dedication that the teachers were with us when getting tea and the parents had mostly gone when there was still a good few hundred children there.

We are very lucky to have been here for the anniversary as it is a fantastic representation of the school. Next week (we got a day off today as all the teachers have worked really hard for the anniversary) we only have four teaching days and so it is a much shorter week than normal. However, the Nepali schools have a lot more day holidays than we do, as next Nepali month there is something like 10 days off out of 29!

I have also got two rakis (a bracelet that was made for me by the Nepali teacher and is definitely a Hindu thing, but they don't seem to mind that I'm not a Hindu), have learnt braille and hope to get a Salwaar Kameez today. It's blue with pink flowers and also has some decoration on it in a greyish thread. I'll try and load up photos soon!

Hope that everyone's well.

Bet I have a better walk to school/work than you do

On my way to school I get a view of mountains and the farms that are built down the hillside. It's very hard to describe and, honestly, the photos really don't do it justice. When walking to school we are accompanied by the teachers who are all very willing to talk to us and on the way back from school we are accompanied by around 20 children. This was slightly unexpected the first time, we literally turned around and saw a procession of 20 children following us, who all started giggling and re-started giggling when we said 'namaste'. Ed raced some on them part of the way on Thursday, while I had language lessons from the girls. Apparently my Nepali accent is good, but as I'm their teacher I suspect they may not be entirely honest!

We were very lucky in having a two and a half day weekend. Normally we get Friday afternoons off and Saturday off but school on Sunday. However, there was a festival on Friday and the last day of the (Nepali) month is a day off so we had Thursday afternoon free. This was badly needed, and we used it to catch up with some washing. However, the washing is still not dry as there was mist around the house in the mornings and so we couldn't put the washing out before we left the house and by the time we got back the sun had gone in. Today was beautiful again (we're going to be very hot in the summer) and so I think now everything is mostly dry.

On Friday we went up to the Gorkha Durbar which is approximately 1376 steps above the main town of Gorkha. However, counting skills get a little lost around the 1200th step and so when we next go up the recount may be slightly different! 1376 steps is a long way up for those who are in any doubt and it took us about an hour. It was well worth it, however. The view at the top is stunning. You can see down into Gorkha (which was mostly shrouded in mist) but also down the other side of the hill/mountain. The mountains were in the background and then the mist covered the valley floor. Leading up to the Durbar and slightly to one side were the Nepali farms. Hari is a better photographer than I am so hopefully some of her photos will show what it was like.

The walk down only took half an hour and in the evening we went to visit another house of AVs who are a 45 minute walk away. Their schools were mostly closed last week because of exams so they're only just starting to get into teaching, but it all seems positive. We had a really nice meal of Dhal Bhatt with chipattis and honey and bananas for pudding (something which we haven't bothered with yet in our house...) We then stayed overnight and came back on a Nepali bus in the morning. This may seem horrific but it came quicker than a London bus and also wasn't that much worse. Plus the people on the bus are much friendlier.

Today we were teaching from a timetable for the first time. We're both teaching separatly but have similar classes; both have grade 4 and grade 5 english and I'm teaching grade 7 science. The lessons went quite well but the kids are still quite reluctant to answer questions. They are much better than they were though. And starting with simple questions (yes/no) are best and they all seem pleased if they're correct. I'd never really taught the grade 7s before and the lesson went surprisingly well. I was teaching about sound (trying to dredge up my GCSE knowledge) and they answered the questions correctly, which is always encouraging. We teach the same classes everyday and so hopefully tomorrow they will remember what was learnt, no guarantee however!

First Week

It's hard to actually believe that I've only been here a week. I'm sure most people say this about their gap year, but the first week seems to stretch out, as there is a lot to experience!

We first arrrived in Kathmandu (the capital) on the fourth, and one of the first things we tried was the Nepalese tea. This has spices in and is much milkier than the English tea, it's also much nicer! The roads around Kathmandu generally have no pavement and there are more motorbikes than there are cars. To warn anyone in the way they generally use their horns. This means that there is a constant blare of noise when walking in the streets, which you quickly learn to get used to. On the first evening we went to the Rumdoodle pub, this is where all the people who have climbed Everest come after they have done it. They then sign a footprint on the wall. However, when reading the footprints you generally seems to find out that most haven't climbed Everest, but instead got the base camp and just wanted their name on the wall, still an impressive feat.

On the fifth we then went for a day tour around three of the main Kathmandu temples. The first one, Pashupati temple, was Hindu, and is by a sacred river. They have cremations here every day, up to 10 in one day. Three were going on whilst we were there. The attitude to death is very different in Nepal and is much more open than in England. There is a seperate place where the Royals are burnt and after the massacre in 2001 apparently a large proportion of the population shaved their heads in mourning.

The Bhuddist temple we went to had the prayer flags everywhere. There are five colours; red, blue, yellow, white and green and these represent fire, water, cosmic, air and earth. They are draped around this amazing structure which is painted all in white and consists of a square base with a dome on top, and on top of this 13 levels which represent something along the lines of the 13 levels of enlightenment. There are also massive eyes painted on it near the top, and the bright colours contrast well against the white. As it was a warm day it also meant that the sunlight reflected against the white background and so, contrary to what was expected, most of us where standing in tshirts!

After Kathmandu we trekked to Shivapuri. It wasn't a long trek and only took a couple of hours, we also didn't have to carry our bags which made a huge difference :) The view at the top was amazing, and took us all a little by surprise as most of us had been concentrating on where to put our feet to prevent us from falling.

Shivapuri is an amazing place. During the day when the sun is out it's very warm, and wearing shorts and tshirts is normal. However, when the sun goes in or standing in the shade it gets very cold, and many people had to use their sleeping bags to stay warm at night. Luckily Hari and I had a fire in our room which stayed warm all night :) As there is very little air pollution that high up the stars at night are so much clearer and it's quite a shock to see so many. It's definitely something you have to see for yourself, as no picture would ever come close to doing it justice. I have taken some pictures of the views, however, and will try to upload them when possible.

On Sunday we moved into our houses. It was a relief to be based somewhere, as we had moved from England to Kathmandu to Shivapuri and then to a place called Riverside, where we stayed overnight to break up the journey before getting to our houses, in a week. The town I am staying in is called Gorkha, and is quite large by Nepalese standards. It is 1200-1400m and is spread along a hillside. The school that I am teaching in is called Saraswoti and is a 30minute walk from the house. The road is very dusty and yesterday a bus came past so we returned home with clothes that didn't seem to have been washed in a week!

We are all teaching in pairs, although there are four of us living in the house, the other two teach at a school slightly closer and more in the centre of Gorkha. My teaching partner is called Ed and we were thrown in a the deep end slightly. Being asked to teach a class having no idea what level they're at and having done no prep is not what we expected on the first day! To be fair, we were given the text book and so we could read from it but it's hard to guess how much they've understood. They kids are still amazed at our white skin, and apparently were telling the teacher how white we looked.

Everyone is really nice and helpful and I'm trying to pick up Nepali, a great source of amusement to the teachers at lunchtime, the food is really good and we're cooking for ourselves with some basic Nepali meals that we were taught, I'll try and put up some of the receipes.

Hope everyone is well and England isn't too cold.