Only One You

Thanks to one of my good friends Katelyn, I was able to introduce the book "Only One You" to all of my students here and do some pretty sweet projects with them.

Let me first start by saying that when I tell them we are going to start a new project, I have their utmost attention.  I honestly can't believe how excited they get for projects!  They MUST be crazy. :)

Class 6 girls

Class 5 boys

When I wrote the name of the book and our new project on the board "Only One You", I asked them what they thought it meant.....they of course said it means "Only One You."   Thank you for re-reading the title to me. :)

This is a book that inspires not only children, but everyone. It's full of wonderful life quotes and has a very powerful message.  When I watched the Youtube clip of the book, I may or may not have started crying. :)

I couldn't get the actual book here, so thanks to Katelyn, I was able to print off the copies that she sent to me.  And since I'm super NOT artistic, I decided to color some of the pages. 
I was actually wondering what the kids reaction would be to the photocopied book...I wasn't sure if it would grab their attention.  But they of course LOVED it.  Which is one of the many reasons why I love this country.... because my artwork here is admired more than the Mona Lisa.

I read the book together with each class, and every time I turned the page they ALL said...."Oh WOOOWWW. SO NICE."  Literally. EVERY TIME.  Needless to say, it doesn't take much to please these kiddos. :)

Best Book Ever.

They Loved the shooting stars :)

I guess I am a pretty good artist :)

One of the activities was for them to color and design their own fish.   This would represent each individual and show them that everyone is unique and special in their own way.

One of our new students :)

LOVE HER

Love her too....Prapti class 6  :)

Another activity was for them to write out their reasons for how they will make the world a better place.  Many of them had some excellent answers such as donating blood and helping their school to be a better place.  Many of them also wrote that they should always throw away dust in the dustbin...aka throw away garbage.
As we were working on this, one of my little students in class 3 tried to throw some paper out the window.  Let's just say he learned a fun little lesson that day.  :)

At last, I gave them these worksheets to take home to keep.  I told them that sometimes at home I keep nice things under my pillow....when I went to one of my students houses just a few days ago...sure enough, under her pillow was her little worksheet for how she was going to make the world a better place.   I guess they do listen.  :)

All of their finished projects were hung in their room and are looking good.
Thank you again Katelyn!!!!

Class 4 with their fish

Class 4 standing in front of their finished project

Randoms

When I first entered the country, they wrote the wrong expiration date on my visa.  I arrived in Nepal on Sept 22 and they wrote that my visa expired on Sept 20th...ummmm am I missing something here?  Note to self and everyone else, always check your visa before leaving any airport!  In order to fix my visa, I needed to go to the immigration office which supposedly "opened" at 10:30am.....and by that they mean maybe 11:00-11:30am, or whenever people decide to start strolling in to work.  These immigration "officials" will literally show up for about 20 minutes and then disappear again, only to be found somewhere sipping tea when there is still a super long line of people. I think it goes without saying that going to the immigration office here in Nepal is an adventure in itself. 

Pretty sure I still can't understand this

I'm sure I've already mentioned this before, but every morning the Nepali people eat dal bhat for breakfast.  And in actuality they eat that for every meal...breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Which yes, also means that I am eating it for almost every meal. Bhat means rice in Nepali and dal means lentils.  So it's rice with lentils usually accompanied on the side with some curried vegetables and a tomato based sauce called achar.  And I'm not gonna lie, I love it.  Even for breakfast. :)

Typical Dal Bhat plate

If people here aren't eating dal bhat, they're eating momos.  Which are my all time fave!  They are just like a dumpling with your choice of meat or vegetables and then they're steamed.  Everyone's favorite are the buffalo momos.  SO.GOOD.

Momos with achar

The Nepalese also drink on average AT LEAST 3 cups of tea per day.  Everyone is always, ALWAYS drinking tea. But I do have to say, although their masala milk tea is probably not the healthiest and doesn't always make me feel the greatest because they use WHOLE milk...it sure does taste amazing.

On some occasions, if you visit someone at their shop, they will usually offer you tea. So obviously, I of course say yes...not to mention, I usually don't have a choice. :)  If they order from a shop, I sometimes find myself wondering why it takes so long for our tea to come....and then I see the owner of the shop moving ever so slowly, coming back with the milk that he just went out to purchase to make our tea.  I wouldn't be surprised if the place where he got the milk from had to quick go out and milk their cows.  There is no such thing as people being in a hurry here.  If you accept a cup of tea from someone, be sure to have at least 45 minutes.  :)

Sharing some tea with some of my faves :)

The culture here is very relaxed...I've learned that when someone says they'll be gone for an hour...that usually means it will probably take anywhere from 3-4 hours.
When someone says see you tomorrow...that could mean see you next week.  There isn't much sense of time here.  Except when it comes to the kids.  They DO notice.  A lot of them have these cute little watches that they are constantly looking at and adjusting to get the time right. During one of the basketball practices we had,  I accidentally ended the practice 3 minutes early....but was soon reminded once one of the girls looked at her watch and said "Teacher, Teacher it's 3:57...we have three more minutes still!!!  Needless to say, we did another few activities. :)

Class 5 b-ball

Class 3-4

Trying to keep these kids under control all the time doesn't always seem to work....but luckily for them, their cuteness makes up for it. :)