Until Next Time Nepal....

Here's to summing up BY FAR one of my favorite countries yet...

After living in Nepal for the past 5 months, I have learned 2 appreciate (and LOVE) cold showers.  Sometimes even 4 per day (what can I say, it was quite hot).  My new favorite food is definitely momos...which is the unofficial national dish here in Nepal. I can get a plate of 10 momos, which is definitely a full meal, for only $.50 cents.  Since I've also been having daal bhat (rice and lentil soup) for both lunch and dinner everyday for the last billion days, I do have to say I might be ready for a new diet.  :)

Momos from a great place in Patan

Many things that have become the new normal...cows roaming the streets, crowded hot buses, passing corn on the cob vendors everyday, paying $.90 for a full season of Modern Family and $.25 cents for an egg omelet.  Walking up to a street stall pharmacy and getting prescription medication (without a prescription of course) for $1 is not unusual either.

My last day at school the kids had a fancy dress competition.  They practiced for a over a week and it could not have been a better last day.  It was beyond the cutest thing OF MY LIFE.

A Princess

Nepali Babu

My class 2 boys :)

Last day with all the kiddos

To the temples, the Himalayas, the meditation courses, the children, and the people of Nepal, this country is a diamond in the rocks.  I am so extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to discover this beautiful country and it's people and could never have imagined this experience to be as amazing as it was.  I'll have no choice but to come back.  Oh Darn. :)

Temples of Patan

Kopan Meditation Class

View from Poon Hill

My Amazing Nepalese Family :)

A final few words from my Nepali grandpa....."We have the best of times, not the worst of times"  in regards to our conversations...which could not have been more true...considering we talked about everything from philosophy to religion and all of his amazing life experiences.
His ancestors told him "Dont be a beggar, be a giver."  Pretty sure he nailed that one along with all the other hundreds of thousands of Nepalis. :)



An African proverb I somehow just stumbled upon says "Every time an old man dies, it is as if a library has burned down."Let's hope THIS library doesn't burn down for awhile so I can come back to pay him another visit. :)

Nepali Family Life

Living with a Nepali family these past 4 months has been the best thing EVER.  My roommates consisted of my 96 year old Nepali grandpa, his son, and the two girls that do their cooking and cleaning.  Oh and how could I forget Uttum the dog. When I asked the gramps what kind of dog Uttum was, he said "A local kind."  :)

The fam :)

Me and my favorite dog :)

 The majority of my time in the house was spent with the gramps.  He's 96, but is still sharp as hell and can speak fluent English.  He is FULL of life experience and I've been blessed to have had the opportunity to hear all his wisdom he has to share.  He goes to work everyday where he grows many indigenous plants and flowers..especially rare orchids.  One day I came home to him chopping wood for his orchids.  He LITERALLY was sitting on this stoop for over 3 hours chopping away.  :)

Still workin hard

Here are just a few things to give you a picture of how amazing my gramps here is....

He doesn't drink beer and will only have an omelet made from the egg whites.   He is still watching his figure.  But yet it's ok for me to drink beer and have an omelet with egg yolks....

One night he spent about 25 minutes explaining to me how important it is to save the steam when cooking and to not waste it. So if you find yourself in the kitchen anytime soon and boiling vegetables or anything of that sort, use that extra steam wisely!

Another night he asked me if I knew the exact formula for making soap.  He says he's been trying to figure it out because there are so many raw materials here and that he could find jobs for many of the unemployed guys here.  So if ur wondering what the thoughts of a 96 year old Nepali man are...there they are.  How to make soap and employ a bunch of people.  :)

Over and over again he also tells me to "Live your life so you have no regrets."  His only regret to this day is that he never tried the meat of the tiger or bear.  Those are his ONLY regrets!

Since there is rarely power here in Nepal, which means no TV, the gramps and I spend plenty of time talking together every night.  Every night I come down to hang out with him for about 45 minutes before dinner.... and EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, he has a cup of brandy waiting for me..usually along with a little bowl of peanuts or some other Nepali treat.  :)

Chatting it up before dinner in his room...our usual spot :)

In front of my house :)

 Almost everyday before school and before bed he "Wishes me all the best."  Probably the cutest little line I have ever heard in my life.

My life here could not be more simple and beautiful.  :)

Handprints

So again, being the nice teacher that I am....I decided on doing another project...but this time for the whole school.  Lucky for the kids, this time around it didn't take much work on their part, got them out of class for a bit, and also involved a fun little mess with kerosene.  Apparently kerosene is good for getting off paint...so after the kids put their hands on the wall, they then dipped their hands into some petrol.  Needless to say there was paint and petrol EVERYWHERE.  Thank God no one lit a match.  Here are some pics of our fun little project.  :)

Class 5 waiting their turn

First Handprint on the wall goes to Prashish :)

Nysa - Class 6

Class 3 girls

Iksaa and I doing some writing :)

Final Outcome with hand prints from grades 1-10 and of course a few teachers :)

First two handprints

Watching the soccer tourney :)

Our lovely little school :)

 The kids loved the project...I think it's because they got to get paint all over themselves.  And the Friday fun day continued with a continuation of their "World Cup" soccer tournament.  :)

English Speech Competition

I guess when having an English speech competition it would make sense that the only native English speaker there would be the judge…aka me.   At first I was nervous that I was just going to pick my favorites no matter how good or bad their speech was…but don’t worry, that didn’t happen.  The speeches were amazing and their English is so unbelievably good, especially the older kids.  

Judges Table

Prashna -Class 3 on the topic of "My Mother"

  

  The topics of the speeches ranged from "Why is Science important?" to "The importance of the English language" to "My family" and "My mother."  The little kids got quite nervous and some of the them could only spit out a few words,  but it was an awesome competition followed by some Nepali dances and the guys doing some break dancing. They requested me to do a song, but I kindly refused since I'm not on tour right now.  :)

Awshika class 3

Class 3 girls a little nervous for a singing performance :)

I've tried to add a few videos since it helps to get a better picture of some of the kids.  Hope these work....and enjoy!  The Kids are SUPER cute and the videos are only about 40 seconds.  :)

Class 3 girls Dance:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7HSHYEVr0Q&feature=youtu.be

Class 10 guys break-dancing:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N8meha6Y8U&feature=youtu.be

Little tikes gettin' low
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Je1Bfh1Yxg&feature=youtu.be

Another event we recently had was a science fair.  Even the little kindergarteners participated...which was probably the cutest thing of my life.  They had a few different types of leaves on some paper and told everyone what types of the leaves they were.  Awesome.  Their favorite were the mango leaves. :)

Don't mess with them...they mean business

The first graders showed us a plant and a plastic bottle of coke explaining that the little plant can eat, drink and breath and the coke bottle cannot.  Hence a living vs. non-living thing. 

 

Class 1 - Living vs. Non-living thing

The older kids did their project on things like the periodic table, atomic elements, amoebas and a few other things that I definitely do NOT remember from high school. Yikes.  But go them...

They had real slugs. So gross.

Wish I remembered this stuff

Why We Love Life

Being the nice teacher that I am, I decided to give the little kiddos a project.  And to my pleasant surprise, they actually all began cheering when I announced there would be project work.  I guess I should have given them one earlier?

The project was called "Why do you Love Life?"  I've never seen kids so happy to have a project to work on...but maybe they were all so excited because I was taking their pictures..?

Their reasons for loving life ranged from "I love my life because I love lunch meat" (my favorite) to "I love my life because I ride my bicycle very fast and nicely also."  :)   After we finally got their papers and pictures on the wall, they all had to read their "reasons" in front of their classmates.  :)  And yet, even with a little public speaking thrown in there, they were still ecstatic.  :)

Class 6 :)

Sulav is apparently bragging about how great he is on his bike.  :)

"I love life because I'm a good man.  I love life because I love lunch meat. " And this is why he is my favorite.  :)

Ranjan class 2 :)

Class 3 :)

Jishank reading his paper :)

Kushum  - Class 5

Sudikshya reading Why She loves life :)

Class 5 :)

Class 3 has already started asking for another project.  :)

The lil tikes of Nepal

ATTEMPTING (key word here) to teach English has definitely been keeping me on my toes these last 6 weeks.  After never having taught before and getting thrown into working with over 55 kids, I'm pretty sure everyday for the first two weeks I was so exhausted I felt like I had ran a marathon.  Or maybe that's because my commute is quite the adventure in itself as well. Or maybe it's the 90 degree weather and no AC ANYWHERE.  I"m not quite sure.  But either way, I now feel a little more in teacher shape.  :)

My commute is about an hour each way... which includes nice long walks dodging bulls, falling bricks, hopping over cable lines, and trying not to get hit by a motorbike.  And of course a nice, crowded,sardine like bus with no air-conditioning.

My walk home

This is one of the nicer piles of bricks.

I really hope no one needs to use the internet

To sum up the Education System in Nepal, here is yet another quote from my 96 year old roommate...
"The Nepal education system is like a blind man, wearing a black hat, groping around in the darkness."   Which basically sums it up.












The kids here are soooooo eager to learn, it's unbelievable.  Before I even ask a question, all their hands are raised shouting for me to call on them.  I then call on one and they say "Teacher you didn't ask a question."  And then I say "Well you had your hand raised." They all shyly smile, sit down, and we continue on.  :)

Rishav- one of my favorite second graders :)

Jishank- my favorite 3rd grader...and yes i have favorites :)

The other day, one one of the 4th graders didn't think I was watching so he threw garbage out the window.  I then gave the class a 3 minute lecture on littering.  Most of them knew it was wrong, but then they asked me if there was garbage on the streets in Milwaukee.  When I told them no, they all looked around at each other in complete shock and couldn't believe it.  I think a garbage clean up project is soon in order....lucky them.  :)

Class 4

My class 3 kids saw a rainbow reflected on the ground in their classroom because of the reflection of a ruler.  I have never seen kids sooooo excited for a little reflection like this.  It was like they seriously just won a million dollars. They finally decided that it was really good luck to see a rainbow (after one of the girls announced that it was) and there were LITERALLY fist pumps flying through the air from excitement.

Part of Class 3 on the day of the rainbow :)

Both Nepal and India are known for the all too famous head bobble And what is that you might ask?  WELL.  Basically, if you ask someone a question and if the answer is yes, they shake their head no.  And it's not just a little shake, their head LITERALLY goes back and forth a few times in the direction we would consider no.  So OF COURSE this left me a little confused in certain situations.  For example, when I ask the kids if they understand.  They all shake their heads no, but say "Yes, teacher." But sometimes they just shake their heads...which takes me a few seconds to realize that really means yes. :)

4th grade boys

AFter 6 weeks, I've finally learned that to keep the second graders under control, stickers work great.  I've also learned that they don't always have to go to the bathroom when they say it's urgent...let's just hope nobody has an accident in my room.  :)

Class 2  :)