Saturday 24 January 2009

Nirmal Pokhari - what a place!!! UniBreak through James's eyes...

This week has been absolutely AMAZING!


After electricity nearly cut out on me last weekend, I headed back to Nirmal Pokhari on the roof of the bus as usual with the girls. We were welcomed back home as the sun was setting with a spectacular end to the day as you can see.

Then Sunday eased me back into the working week as school was off for the day due to exams. So I only did the library in the morning then chilled out on the hillside reading with Anna. After that we then explored the way to the boarding school donated by Japan. There were REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEdiculous views and we took some nice happy snaps as the sky was nearly the clearest it has been since we have been here.
I also met the enw dutch volunteer, Jack who is replacing Nadav and staying with us at Laxman's. He's a really nice guy, a bit older, but should be fun having around nonetheless. Towards the end of the day Anna was also feeling rather energetic as usual and I tagged along with her for a run. However, I cannot do half marathons and only lasted half the way really before having a break and letting her break loose. The uphill warm up didn't help me one bit either. Maybe by the end I can keep up with her. Maybe... It was then "washing" time at the natural tap as I cleaned myself down. And fortunately not as big a crowd this time to stare, laugh and make comments about god knows what in Nepali.

Monday was then my first day of school. I taught year 8 twice in the morning teaching them Maths for 1.5 hours straight. Luckily I was on the ball and stayed well ahead of them and could answer all the questions despite not seeing their maths before. I mostly teach algebra as well so if I put all the steps, the kids can follow without needing too much verbal explanation. It was a great feeling them learning from me as I did a question slowly on the board then made them do one and most of them got it correct. I also tackled year 9 optional maths on my first day which I had to warm up to because it was complicated trigonometric proofs using sec, cosec, cot and tan rules. However, it didn't take long to get back in form and teach them a trick or two. Seriously though, their maths is much harder than I expected. Finally I taught year 9 maths general which had our neighbour, Pramila, in it. Funny story just quickly, we didn't know her name because we didn't ask early on and we had become so familiar that it would be strange to ask. But I was teaching them to write cursive and got her to spell her name, BINGO. During tiffin time I also played volleyball a bit which is always cool and helps form a relationship with the kids other than being their instructor.

Tuesday went even better as I got to know the year 8's more and year 9. In fact, the year 8's may be sick of me as I taught them 3 periods that day, all maths. But they beg you to stay because their teacher may be away and you just can't say no. We basically continued from the previous day and it was especially cool seeing their improvement on the questions we were tackling. Once again I also did library in the morning but also in the arvo because Lauren was feeling sick and headed back to Pokhara with Ash. But this was great as I was spending even more time with the kids, getting to know them really well. We played alphabet games which I have become a big fan of as they satisfy the older kids with brainstorming and problem solving challenges as well as the younger kids who are just learning to spell. Another awesome highlight was naming Sabin's dog. He just randomnly asked me to name his dog so I said sure, but I told him I have to see it to get an idea. I saw it, it was pitch black and immediately Darkness came to my mind. But that's not a great name for a dog, so I named it Charlie as in CHARLIE MURPHY!

Wednesday was different at school as the year 8's and 9's who I had only taught were away. But the Year 7's and 6's were back so I taugh them maths once again. They were great fun but they had enough of maths in the morning. So in the afternoon I taught English to the year 7's. Although Anna had warned me that they were a challenge, I had an absolute blast with them. Their book was bizarre and talked about the origin of some languages and their relationships, ie latin to french, italian and spanish. So instead I revised their book and corrected some mistakes as in dating things 2000 years ago instead of 7000. My lesson was titled the origin of modern languages. I explained to them why english is spoken all over the world because the british explored and colonised different countries, likewise with Spanish and French which they were really interested in. I also showed them similarities between languages due to their origin like counting 1 to 3 in Spanish and French or Japanese and Mandarin. They are a fantastic class and are awesome to teach. Afterwards I stayed for one more lesson since their teacher was absent. So continuing on countries, I taught them countries of the world, their capital cities, their national language and a famous animal because I don't know all the national animals. In the end i walked all the way home smiling. The awesome day was capped off teaching the kids a bit of engineering in the arvo whilst making paper Jets. I also keep sneaking in ëngineer" in job bingo which Ash appreciates.

Yesterday was equally as awesome as Wednesday as I walked to school early on my own, smiling all the way and being greeted and returning the greeting to everyone I saw. I started with year 7 maths again followed by year 6 maths just like the previous day. It's still so cool seeing their improvement and seeing bright kids shine as well as slower kids step up. Sapana, a really friendly girl in the class, dropped a huge compliment on the way home as she explained to me that it is heaps easier to learn maths from me rather than their teacher and that they really enjoy it. I think I like the year 7's the most because they're not too cool for school yet, can speak enough english to communicate really well with some of them and they're super attentive to anything I say. After period 2 and 3, I then attacked a year 3 class which was vacant as they begged me to teach them whilst I passed by. I firstly tried to teach them a tricky part of their book then threw it out the window as blank faces appeared around the room and played food alphabet, nearling doing every letter. They had much more fun and hopefully learned how to spell some food words and think off the top of their heads. In the afternoon I then taught year 7 english again and followed the book for a bit teaching them time and question structure but throwing in much better examples. I have realised it's fantastic that room to read donated the school, but they just left it on it's own afterwards and it needs to be better maintained. I also stayed after english was over because their teacher was absent and told them to put their books away after a quick break. I then used this free lesson to teach them something rare in school. I wrote on the board, "Dreams and Aspirations". They only knew the meaning of an actual dream when you sleep. But I explained and discussed the concept of dreaming and wanting something. I explained dream jobs and asked them who wants to be a doctor, nurse, prime minister, athlete, singer, dancer, engineer. Or who wants to go to university, or just who wants to travel the world. They started understanding and got really excited as I explained to them the notion that it is important to having a dream and aim towards that goal. I explained tio them my dreams when I was a little kid of being an astronaut, then how my dreams changed and how I reached my goal of being an engineer last year. More importantly, I explained to them my aspiration to help people like them and create opportunities for those who don't have any. For homework they had to think over the weekend and write down their own dream. But some girls did it in class and followed the theme I had set saying they wanted to help cure all the sick people. Just amazing the vibe they sent with words like that, undescribable for someone like me. So I'm super excited about Monday. I also spent the last ten minutes explaining the idea of volunteering, giving up time and money to help others less fortunate usually. I told them that it is great that volunteers like myself come, but it would be even better if they followed suit and helped Nepal or their communite. But I said it can start at something small, so I asked them to give up some time and do something for someone else. Hopefully they have something to share when we next meet. Overall year 7 are amazing and I'm having a blast teaching them and spending time with them, especially walking home with an army of kids. The last big highlight of Thusrday occurred later at night when I was playing with Jeevan, Pradip and Pramila. We were playing volleyball and it was really dark when all of a sudden they yell at me and dive for the side of the road. I turn around and jumped in the bushes as a bull came storming down the road and nearly took me out. Funnily enough, it nearly happened early this arvo as we walked down. Seriously, that could have been the end of me, or the end of an intact behind at least.

Today was also pretty cool as I did the library on my own and closed the doors after a certain time. They're starting to be a lot more disciplined and our games are much more targeted to their level which is much more effective rather than just playing hangman with everyone. I then went to the school and taught year 4 english which was fun as we learned about the days of the year, months, calendars and other cool things. Then I sat in on the year 9 english class and helped out the nepali teacher. It was just fascinating watching their teaching method, I was quite impressed actually. He is a very good teacher. Then Lauren and I walked down through the valley to catch the bus here.

A few more highlights of this week that fit in randomly. I played with Jeevan and Pradip heaps, teaching them Judo other forms of fighting and exercises. Likewise they gave me their slingshots that they made and we practiced shooting things with them. Pretty violent, they mainly use them to scare monkeys or birds. We also discovered this record book which has daily entries by volunteers since 06. Seriously, it is the magna carta for us and it would have been heaps useful when we started. And that's all for now I think.

Next entry should be even cooler because I'm going parahawking tomorrow morninig. Details will come later. Also, I'm going to Chitwan next week which is a national park down south full of elephants, rhinos and other cool things.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying my notes.

Take Care mero saathiharu.

Ram

1 comment:

  1. it's a really nice blog thanks for add my comment...

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