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!
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