First, though, a quick update:
We had our first overnight (infact, overweek) guests when Tansy and her 3 friends Lavinia, James and Ben, came to stay. Tansy is the sister of Lorna who, regular Blog followers will know, is one of Mel's ex-students who, bravely, accompanied us on the overland journey to Nepal. The 4 intrepid travellers are going, entirely overland, from the UK to India, working on organic farms for a few months, then going overland back to the UK. They called here to recharge and remind themselves what cooking in a real kitchen is like. We put this last wish to good effect by graciously allowing them to cook several tasty meals for us! This caused shock and controversy amongst our Nepali friends because in Nepali culture you NEVER expect guests to cook. Our 4 visitors also got in some training for their organic farming by attempting to resuscitate Mel's ailing tomato plants. We enjoyed having guests, especially such ecologically aware ones, and wish them well with their onward journey.
Unfortunately, there are no photos to show you of the above, because we have lost our memory-stick which contained all of our digital photos. As you can imagine, this was a bit of a blow. Luckily, we have all the information backed up onto CDs but still lost all photos from the last couple of months. We even broadcast an appeal on the local radio station and offered a reward to the finder, but to no avail. Still, to keep this blog interesting, here is a photo taken by other recent guests to Mahendranagar, VSOs Miranda and Marri. It shows one of Mahendranagar's bustling streets:
On the subject of Mahendranagar, we should inform you that we no longer live there! Now we live in a town called 'Bhimdattnagar'. This happened a few weeks ago when the government decided that all towns that were named after the discredited ex-monarchy, such as King Mahendra, were to be re-named, with immediate effect. Bhim Datta was a martyr from the time of revolution against the royalty.
We have been busy visiting schools. We were hopeful that, with few festivals this month, we would be able to get a good routine going but, alas, exam week and sports week have come along to slow things down. Nonetheless, we have both been giving training to teachers, Mel in schools and Steve to a collection of science teachers and also to some 'informal' education teachers. These are teachers with an NGO called RUWDUC. This organisation works with ex-kamaiya (basically, freed slaves) and some of the teachers work with 'out of school' children and others work with adult women. Steve has visited several of these classes and was very pleased to see that some of his ideas were being used. It is always pleasing to see teachers who are dedicated , cheerful and try to do their best, even in the most difficult learning environments.
This brings us to the theme for this week. We decided to talk more about classrooms. We have each chosen 3 photos (of the ones that weren't lost) to illustrate some things which give us cheer in our professional work. First up, Mel's selection:
"I have chosen this photo because it was taken in a damp, concrete classroom with no doors and nothing, not even paint, on the walls. Despite this, the children in this nursery class still have alot of fun and learn, thanks to their dedicated and imaginative teachers. "
"This photo shows a teacher whose class I observed. After the lesson, she asked me for advice on how to teach the next lesson. One suggestion was to use real objects for language learning. The next day I was delighted to see that she tried everything that I'd suggested. I was even more happy when I met her some weeks later and she told me that the class had enjoyed the lesson and asked if she could teach that way all the time!"
"This picture shows a young boy playing contentedly with a broken toy. Up to this point he had been very upset because of the appearance of a (very strange) stranger (me). When I asked the nursery teacher whether there were any toys for the children, she brought out a broken letter abacus and started to try and fix it. I pointed out that the children could happily play with the broken pieces, as this young boy proved, after wiping away his tears."And now for Steve's selection:
" I chose this photo because it shows the condition of some of the classrooms. Despite this, the students are engaged in their dialogue recital and the teacher stands supportively by."
"Even more basic, this photo shows a class of young children in their 'classroom'. Many schools, such as this one, don't have enough rooms for all the children. Despite that, they continuue to come and this class were happy to be here (even more so when they knew I was taking their photo!). When the sun is very hot, the class moves under the tree that you can see behind."
"Another shot of an outside class. It is often the nursery age children who end up outside as the rooms are given over to the older, 'more important' grades. These children don't care though. Who needs walls, blackboards and plastic toys when you can pretend to be a tree?"That's all for this time. We hope you enjoyed our selection. No doubt there will be more on schools and children in future blogs. Don't forget to send any questions or comments.
