Namaste mero saathiharu!
After being sick all day Saturday and waking up without a single throb resonating from my head, I knew
Sunday was going to be a great day. Early in the morning, I said tata to Nadav and headed on my own back to Nirmal Pokhari to continue work at the school. The roof top bus ride was as enjoyable as always especially with the random pieces of steel work bumping around.
Once I had arrived at the school, I then jumped off being greeted by many many students and staff. I then witnessed their assembly, which is an actual assembly: assemble everyone then send them to their rooms. First off I taught year 9 maths but was a bit out of it from my headache the day before and made a couple of errors which the kids quickly picked up on luckily enough. However, teaching ended with that for the day. Everyone was organised into lines in the yard and given banners and signs advertising the school's upcoming Golden Jubilee celebrations which everyone is super excited about. So Anna, Lauren and I marched west with half the school chanting slogans in Nepali, whilst pumping their fists, which we didn't understand that well. They were mostly about the celebrations and getting people to come see their school. Althought I don't know how effective the advertisement methods were since we only saw about 40 people as we walked for maybe 3-4 hours up and down hill. It was a great way to see the complete area that Nirmal Pokhari encompasses, but carrying my pack all day was not so good idea as sweat poured off me and my shoulders still hurt last night.
Volleyball on the way back was also exciting as the kids wanted me to block for them since they couldn't even touch the top of the net. They could actually time their jumping really well and connected impressively with their spikes, but the net was a foot too high for them. I did however dump the ball on some of the older kids which is always fun. I seriously don't understand their love of volleyball though if they are so small and can't jump. I saw them play soccer today and they were alright, but they don't seem to prefer it.
As we headed closer to the school we also chatted with Imu (pronounced ee-moo), a nice teacher who invited us into his home. We accepted and were privileged to drink a cup of his own chiyaa (tea) and home made coffee mixed together, which surprisingly tasted really really nice. After surviving the whole walk home, it was great collapsing on the bench and greeting Laxman and Seetha again. I then settled on the porch and read a book as Pramila and the others came home, walking by and calling out "Hello Ram/James". It seriously does feel like home now, which is very cool.
However, a few random things did happen whilst I was sitting on my own reading. Firstly grandma dropped the largest burp I have ever heard. I don't know if it was because I was so close or because I was deep in thought reading. But seriously, it was huge. I wasn't even mad, I was impressed. Also, flies just started dropping dead around my feet and I started getting a bit worried. When I say flies, I mean like 10 dead flies all around me. Then I realised it wasn't my stinky feet, it was the poison they had just laid down.
I did library in the arvo as well, mostly teaching Sabin maths and acting as crowd control for Ash. Sabin and I also played connect four for a while, which I think is beneficial, maybe. But I also talked more to Sabin about Charlie his dog who he says is naughty, showing me bite marks on his leg. His mum doesn't even feed poor Charlie much and so he gets his friend to feed him. Since I passed on my rabies shots, I'm avoiding Charlie. It was also Ash's last library session so we took some photos and played some games.
Night time was great as well yesterday as we played cards till late with Laxman, Pramila, Srijana (who had just returned from Pokhara, she is Laxman's daughter), Jeevan and Pradip. We played cheat ofcourse, which is Lauren's favourite. She claims she wins all the time, but I won twice last night. So Lauren, maph garnus. Laxman is classic though when he plays. I was watching and not playing the first few games and just watching him was hilarious. If he cannot drop a card, he just says bullshit and ends up picking up more cards. Then even when he had half the deck, including all the 9s and all the 10s, he let two people drop 9s and 10s without saying anything. I explained this to him and he stood up and erupted into an "Oh my god" rant. I ended the night playing cards with just the four of the kids, Srijana, Pramila, Pradip and Jeevan. They loved playing carribean poker, but obviously did not call it this. It was simply three handed poker, over and over again. I learned some new Nepali too, such as "don't be angry = nerri sha" and try again. I also taught them some blind mans bluff and had quite a few good laughs. I don't think they use maph garnus (i am sorry) in the way I used it when I saw pramila's bad hand and said maph garnus. But it was funny nonetheless.
Monday 26 Jan:
Happy Australia Day everybody! I woke up, put on my wallabies jersey and listend to some powderfinger. Then hopefully tonight, we'll get some aussie food and beer into us so it feels like home. I taught some maths this morning to year 6 and 7. And funnily enough, it was EXACTLY THE SAME maths. The books were different, so the chapter was different. But the questions were all identical. It was inequalities and number lines, which the year 6's managed much better strangely enough. The year 7s just want to talk to me too much I think so they can't concentrate on maths. It is really cool talking to them though, easily my favourite class.
After class, we then sung and danced with the kids as they demanded us too. We're not entertainers or juke boxes, but you can't say no to some of them. So we broke out our dance moves to black and gold, sam sparro. Then in the spirit of Australia Day sung We are Australian, Advance Australia Fair, Waltzing Matilda and danced along too. It was great playing around with them, I even kicked the soccer ball for a bit. It's a pity we're missing out a week due to holidays, but I guess we'll have an awesome time in Chitwan.
Finally, the bus ride back here was ridiculously bumpy on the roof. Then we got into an even smaller bus once we got to Pokhara and couldn't even stand up on the inside. So I don't know what is better really. But here I am now, my second home in Nepal. Should be great to catch up with the others tonight to celebrate Australia Day and probably our last night altogether as some start their journey home.
Hope everyone has a great Australia Day and avoids Manly.
- Ram
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