Volunteers dive into teaching in Pokhara

 COUNTRY: Nepal - Pokhara
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching, Community Healthcare
WRITTEN BY: Adam Blau

So. seven hours on a rickety bus, plunging through stunning Nepal countryside at speeds barely over 25km/h, and a tired, bedraggled group of six Australians arrive in Pokhara (pronunciation debatable), Nepal. A short taxi ride takes us down a dusty main road; what seems like thousands of brown skinned Nepalese mill around, carrying shopping, babies, relax outside coffee shops. Tangled webs of electricity wires weave between dilapidated buildings full of character and bright wares. We pull into a walled compound and plonk down next to the camps most prominent feature: a largish red and yellow Buddhist temple, colourfully adorned with prayer flags and religious sacraments and bald monks. Looks of disbelief and semi-shock mingle with excited anticipation on the faces of our little group as we take in our first impressions of Paljor Ling Tibetan Settlement, the home to about 500 Tibetans who fled their home during China's violent seizure in 1959; and our home, too, for the next month.

Goats and sheep frolic free and happy, wrinkled Tibetan elders grin at us through broken teeth and shrivelled gums. The camp is a mix of one- and two-story blocks where the families live, often including extended relatives and grandparents. There's not a speck of privacy; It's communal living at its finest. So let's jump into it. Sonam, Antipodeans in-country partner and our new friend, guide and giver of wisdom, ushers us forwards and briefs us about the camp. Meanwhile, several individuals trickle forwards. They all feature gentle, smiling expressions - something we come to understand is almost permanent and a display of the Tibetans constant friendliness and hospitality - and we slowly realise these are our new fathers and mothers! Before we know what's what, we are shuttled off to our respective homes and families.

Katie and Gabi are made immediate sisters, as well as Alex and Sophie, and the two pairs led away. Myself and Clare* room alone with our hosts. I am ushered into a beautifully adorned room by my gleefully smiling Tibetan pala (father) and immediately a steaming cup of Tibetan tea is placed before me, as well as a mound of chocolate cake. My amala (mother) has taken the day off work to meet me; she ensures my tea remains full to the brim with military-like precision. A shining Buddhist shrine dominates the room. Otherwise there's family photos and plenty of couches. Oh, and drying buffalo meat that hangs from the window. All the homes two to three rooms, with en suite kitchens. It is basic, cosy and comfortable. I luck out: my family has a big screen TV and WiFi! Many families have relatives overseas and Internet allows easy contact for my new parents with their real children in New York and Toronto. They are nice perks, when they're not interrupted by rolling blackouts. Dinner is served and it’s our first meal in our new home.

I stuff myself silly with tukhpa, a scrumptious noodle soup packed with flavour. After a much needed sleep, and with everyone surviving the night, we spend the next day orientating ourselves with the new climate, town and lifestyle. The morning is spent in a formal classroom setting learning the finer points of tourist culture in Nepal and the basic points of the local language. And when our brains could take no more, Kalden (Sonam's son and our primary contact) led us on a tour around beautiful Pokhara, where we ingested religious monuments, cascading waterfalls, visit Tashi Ling Camp (another Tibetan Settlement, home of Sonam) and breathe in a scenery that includes Nepal's second most famous mountain range: Annapurna. Towering, snow-tipped mountains jut like daggers into the sky, appearing like some fantastical backdrop and dominating the horizon. A long day is finished on a sweet note as the group takes to Lakeside, the area of tourist-focused shops and restaurants, to celebrate Katie's birthday with some well deserved alcoholic beverages and birthday brownies. Everyone still manages to hit the pillows at a reasonable time for the following morning brings first day of volunteering placement. While nurses-in-training Clare, Sophie and Katie are placed at Manipal Hospital and Gabi placed at worthy charity Children Nepal (both which will be featured at greater lengths in future blogs), Alex and I have committed to spending our month volunteering as English teachers teachers at the Paljor Ling camps' local campus, Manjushree Primary School.

A brief meeting with the headmistress kicks off the morning and we are instructed to plunge straight into it. As expected the children as initially shy and with quite low levels of English abilities they are nervous and hesitant around us. Lucky we came prepared. First lessons of creating colourful nametags are received spectacularly, with stickers and balloons the premier icebreakers. Quickly choruses of 'miss Alex' and 'sir Adam' ring happily throughout the small school and we enjoy adoration from the masses as we attempt to engage with the children through English, challenging their rote learning and showing the fun of imagination and free thinking. A flood of hugs and hand-holding prevent us from moving around comfortably. With the older kids, a lesson comparing Nepal and Australia was highly successful; bringing out Vegemite as Australia's staple food had hilarious consequences as each child suffered through a taste yet still complemented us, 'its very good, very fine'.

Such is the ingrained politeness of these people. Daily tea in the staffroom is a highlight. Also, the kids have taken to AFL like a Sherpa to a mountain. It's quite a sight. Even two days of volunteering had lethargic effects and necessitated a short hiatus from the intensity of nursing/teaching/NGO work, so the Friday the group embark on a one-night bonding adventure to hill station, Sarangkot. Unfortunately, dearly beloved readers, this will have to wait until the following blog. Someone has a class to attempt to teach tomorrow, and morning is rapidly approaching.

*sincere apologies to any parties offended by the grotesque misspelling of Clare Bampton's last name in the previous blog. It was an honest mistake. I have since attempted to make personal amends with Clare through copious amounts of Kit Kat but you have my word, this will never happen again.