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.
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.
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.
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