Teaching begins, and a visit to Chitwan National Park

COUNTRY: Nepal
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Nathan Pauletto

So, from where we left off!

A few days after our arrival into the village we taken to visit a waterfall and the famous view point, Nagarkot. We walked for about 20 minutes, our host father Hem taking us with a small troupe of kids.

The waterfall was small but still spectacular! We soon learned it was the local shower spot
although we didn't strip down this time! Returning we stopped constantly to pick the yellow berries they call 'onsheloo', a type of raspberry. Nagarkot took a little longer to reach, about 2 hours there and 2 and half to get back. Leigh didn't make it to the top as he felt sick so Bella and I
continued to the top. The view was awesome, and we even spotted a few snow
peaked mountains!

Later on in the week we were welcomed into the school. The whole town (almost) came out to see us, covering us in swathes of flower garlands and thikas on a foreheads, (the red and yellow chalk). We were given our timetable thinking 'How cute, Kindergarten and Grade One to finish with
everyday!" We were so wrong.

Classes started out fine in the morning. We were all split into different grades and I taught Grades Three and Five. The older kids are great to teach, they know enough English for us to teach a lesson well and are old enough to at least respond if they can't speak any. The younger classes were
a nightmare though! After two weeks we were teaching the same thing as nothing we tried seemed to work. Even the teachers remarked that we couldn't really do much. The kids, after all, could barely read and write their own language!

This coupled with the lack of supplies and motivation from the teachers caused a lot of stress and tension in our classes. Our agent, Kabita, quickly fixed the problem. We now teach older classes with one grade one class as opposed to three! School runs from 10 till 4, Sunday to Friday.
There are seven lessons a day to teach over six classes giving 42 total periods, those of which we teach 18 of. I feel like we're finally settling into village life and adjusting to working in the school. It's actually enjoyable most of the time!

Today is Buddha's birthday according to the Nepalese calendar, which puts us about a month into the new year, 2069. We've taken a holiday and arrived in Chitwan National Park yesterday, spending Friday night in Thamel.

It's the perfect place to chill out and relax, it's like an island resort. The bus ride took about 7 hours as opposed to the regular 5 due to some accidents on the roads. We spent last night visiting the elephant breeding centre and meeting some great people, particularly a Swedish couple we've become
friends with. Today we trekked the jungle after an hour long cabbie ride down the river.

We didn't see tigers or rhinos but there were crocodiles, billions of bugs and birds, and monkeys. We then cooled off with and elephant bath! Easily the best thing we've done here. Nothing quite like
having a shower on elephant back with water from it's trunk. Unfortunately Leigh was quite sick last night, we think he ate some bad food. Bella and I are fine though and he's much better now.

Well I'm off to get some sleep under my canopy like mosquito net listening to the small Japanese group play the guitar - surprisingly well! - before we take off for our elephant back safari. I'll keep you posted!

Nathan.