School Starting, and a Long Weekend
A few thoughts first
Hello again,
It's been a couple weeks since I've began keeping this blog, and so quickly my idea for a word of the day has proven a pain to upkeep. I was planning to throw together a small dictionary of words to have it automatically update with javascript, either I will do that today or it will continue to translate the Nepali word for "outside" for the next two weeks until I do.
Aside from that, I'm quite happy with how this site has turned out so far. It is still rather new so I have more ideas to add, but for the time being the school year has just begun and I have my hands full with the work associated with that.
I can't say I have any particular topic that I want to go over for this one, so this will be a bit more of a journal entry than anything.
Summer it's Gone
Last week the school year began. It was a pleasantly unremarkable beginning to my teaching here - I stuck to the textbook, the kids were a bit shy but attentive, and I made some good progress in all of my classes.
I do think that there will be a bit of a learning curve with regards to teaching here, and to teaching in general - I have done similar work in the past with regards to leading groups of children on various activities, but this feels much more open ended regarding the method. There is a curriculum to follow, but other than that it's rather flexible. Method of instruction, activities, games, etc. are all up to me. It has been one of the more daunting pieces of this job, and I imagine it will continue to be a bit daunting whilst I find my footing teaching here. Still, the students are engaged and interested, so it seems as though whatever I come up with they will be happy to learn alongside me. This bit of discomfort is one that I am eager to overcome as a chance to develop my own skills and become closer with my community here.
A Long Weekend
This past weekend was a three day weekend, as Friday was Buddha's birthday, according to the people of Nepal (it seems like opinions on the exact date may vary). On Friday morning I was woken up by my host Bhaauju, or sister in law. She came to my door and said we're going to Kathmandu to visit her family, staying overnight. This was a bit abrupt but rather standard for Nepal - scheduling is handled rather differently here, if it happens at all.
I threw together an overnight bag, walked down to the kitchen for a quick meal, and before I knew it we were on the bus heading to Kathmandu. As I got on the bus, I reached out to Peace Corps staff to verify the validity of this trip. Technically, volunteers are not supposed to leave their district within the first 3 months of being at site, and Kathmandu is well out of district - however, I have heard of exceptions being made in the past for family trips and the like, so I figured I could shoot first and ask questions later, especially since I was with my host family.
To make a long story short, about 15 minutes later I was faced with a roughly one hour walk back to my house as I was requested by Peace Corps staff to get off the bus as I would not be granted the leave to visit Kathmandu with them. This was unfortunate, but I have to admit it got me up for a really pleasant walk early in the morning.
My view, shortly after disembarking the bus
A photo I took on my walk home
A cool caterpillar I saw
An unwelcome discovery
After returning home, I helped my Didi (Nepali for sister) with some cooking prep, and then after we ate daal bhaat I went off ambling around in search of something interesting. The first thing I came across was an absolutely immense truck trying desperately to perform a 3 point turn on a small dirt road. I thought it was funny so I took a photo.
Kitchen prep work
A difficult maneuver.
Afterwards, I came across several of my students playing soccer (or football as it's called here, and in most of the world.) I was invited to play for a bit, so I did. They insisted I come back the following day for a big game, and I obliged. They repeatedly stated that I must arrive at 11 AM the next day, and I agreed that I would be. Despite my best efforts I was sidetracked with other duties at home, and left closer to noon. When I arrived almost an hour and a half late, I walked up and saw many of them wearing cleats and shorts and holding a soccer ball, having not yet made it to the field yet. They asked me where I was going. When I told them I was coming for the soccer game, they seemed a bit confused. Like I said, scheduling is done a little bit differently here compared to the states.
Soccer (football) is a very popular sport here. The only tricky thing is finding space to play, because Nepal's terrain is not particularly flat. There are a few fields around (they usually refer to these spaces as "soccer ground" or just "ground") but in many cases you will see them playing next to a huge hill, often taking turns running down said hill chasing after the ball. These kids were playing on a sort of mini field, maybe about 25 feet by 50 feet, with a brick wall on one side and the other side being a very non-uniform mix of shrubs, uneven ground, and hillside behind that. It makes for a perhaps not very fair but interesting game. At half time the teams switch sides so that any imbalances in the two sides of the field are nullified.
Playing with the kids is a lot of fun - I find that one of the hardest things in Nepal is the language barrier, wanting to express things or understand others and being unable to. Sports are an excellent equalizer - we all know the rules, and as long as we know each others names (which frankly I'm still working on) we are able to communicate everything that needs to be said. It also is a good ice breaker - nothing shakes off the shyness like accidentally drop kicking a deflated soccer ball into the back of your new english teacher's head. I had a great time and it seems the kids did as well - I intend to make this a frequent weekend activity.
Soccer
Soccer 2
At the top of the hill by my town there's a big view tower. I had actually been once before, but forgot to take any photographs, so I made a point to go back again. Supposedly, on clear days you can see the mountains. I walked up on Saturday which was unfortunately not a clear enough day for that, but I did manage to get a nice arial photo of my community. I've made the image a bit smaller for the blog post, but I'll upload a full sized version in the gallery with more indicators as to what is where.
Now it is Sunday, and after a busy weekend of much walking and soccer playing, I am taking a quiet day in to write my blog post and get ready to go back to school tomorrow. All in all it's been a nice week, and I'm looking forward to the next one.
Have a nice day!
-Basanta