Volunteering At A School In Nepal

Guest post from Emily Sherr, my 19 year old daughter, who is studying Education with History at Durham University.

I've now been in Nepal for over two weeks and I can safely say that this is a great experience for me, and not just someone else's daughter!! Those of you that read my previous blog will know that my mum was less than happy about me going to Nepal to teach in a charity school for 6 weeks and coined the phrase that it would be "a great experience for someone else's daughter".

Having never been to Asia before, Nepal has been a great culture shock which began as soon as we touched down in the airport in Delhi before getting our interconnecting flight to Kathmandu. The whole experience was highly different to the efficiency present in European and American airports. There seemed to be a total lack of organisation yet everything still managed to work fine! When we left the airport in Kathmandu there was a bustle of people trying to get us to take their taxi or help us with our bags - it was so chaotic but highly relaxed at the same time. Nothing is a stress or problem to the people - it's an odd mix. The culture shock has continued in the school where we use squat toilets and there are only cold showers! Even walking down the street is completely different - pavements don't seem to exist and there's a constant stream of beeping from the motorbikes, cars and buses!

Someone from the school collected us from the airport and took us to what they like to call our "home away from home". And genuinely that really is what it has become. Everyone here is so friendly and has really welcomed us into their family. The school is a day school but hostellers also board here. There are about 400 day students and 40 board. Most of the teachers live elsewhere but a few live here.

I am in a dormitory with the other volunteers - 4 of us are from Hatfield College at Durham University and the other 3 are from Cambridge University. We spend nearly all our time with the children or planning lessons.

A usual day would be:

8.00 am - Wake up - I thought it'd be much earlier so no complaint there.

8.40 am - Breakfast - here we get our daily fix of western food with toast and eggs served everyday.

9.30 am - First lesson - each lesson is 40 minutes long and I am teaching English. Each class has 40-45 pupils in it. Luckily two of us teach the class so we have split it in half so I only teach around 20 children per class. We teach 3 lessons a day. First up I have Class 7 who are roughly 14-15 years old. Classes here are done on ability as well as age so some of the children are younger/older, I teach them a mixture of English grammar and literature. The grammar is surprisingly hard - for us it's all instinctive but when it isn't your first language it's much more difficult to learn and when it is its difficult to teach!

10.10 -11.55 am - I don't teach during this time so I'll be marking homework or planning lessons

11.55 am - I teach Class 6 who are about 13-14 years old. 

12.40 pm - Lunch! The hostel children eat before us in the dining hall and the day children eat packed lunches in their classrooms or outside. Unlike in England, packed lunches don't consist of sandwiches and a yoghurt. Instead it will be rice and curry. All the food brought into the school and served by the school is vegetarian. Our daily lunch is rice, some form of curry (usually potato) and dhal bhat which is like lentil soup.

1.35 pm - I have Class 4 who are around 10 years old. They are my most energetic class and are all very keen which is great but definitely takes it out of me!

2.15 -4.00pm - I am done teaching for the day so I will spend this time either marking, planning tomorrows lessons, playing with the children during their break times or just resting from the day!

4.00pm - Tea time - school has finished so all the day students leave and the hostellers have tea which consists of biscuits or Nepali foods including noodles and dried rice. On Tuesday's we get doughnuts!

4.30 - 5.30 pm - The children have free time which usually consists of playing football for the boys and the girls teaching us dances! If not, we'll be marking/planning again. One day a week I go to the Ashram after school. The Ashram is a community outreach project which is run by the school. One of the programmes they run is a homework club for local children who don't get given homework help at home. They also have projects for women and older people to help educate them and improve their literacy.

5.30 - 7.30 pm - Homework time for the kids which we help with.

7.30 - 8.30 pm - Prayer Time - this is a time when all the hostellers come together and sing, dance and meditate. Despite its name, prayer time is not really religious - more spiritual. It is about bringing everyone together and connecting on some level. Religion is very important in Nepal and everyone has a religion - mainly Hinduism but there are Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, and other religions. The thing is it doesn't matter what religion you are in Nepal because it means something very different here - it's about coming together and recognising there's something greater than yourself. In prayer time, every god is prayed to and every religion referred to. Songs are sung to Jesus, Harri Krishna, Allah, and a variety of other deities. Religion is a way of uniting everyone as opposed to separating them. The volunteers are encouraged to play a very active role in prayer time so we sing English songs for the children, showcase our talents and participate in their traditional Nepali dancing. They love hearing about England and the other place the volunteers are from.

8.30 pm - Dinner - it's more of the same food wise - rice, curry, dhal. Occasionally we get roti which is a bit like a pancake or other Nepali delicacies.

9.00 - 10.30 pm - More homework time where we help/play with the children or get some much needed time off.

10.30 pm - Bed - for the children but us too as we are usually shattered!!

So this is my routine from Sunday through to Friday. We teach for 6 days a week with Saturday being the only day off. We usually explore the local area in this time and go on day trips to various places in the Kathmandu Valley. There's so much to see! The problem is that Sunday comes round far too quickly and we haven't really had a rest! Then it's 6 more days of teaching!

I hope this has provided you with a brief description of Nepal and what I've been up to. When I get some more time I'll write a blog on the difference between Nepali and English schooling. Any other blog requests are welcome!

Namaste (Greetings) to you all!

Comments

[Midlife Singlemum]

What a great experience. I hope you enjoy the rst of it and get some time to do more travelling at the end. - Rachel (a schoolfriend of your mother's).

[RobertsMF]

Why does the temperature of a liquid remain constant as it freezes? I would be extremely useful if anybody can respond to that query. I'm caught with this issue for very last week and I'm not capable to locate houses answer for that situation. Any reaction will be very appreciated. Thank you quite significantly and have a great day. Apologies for my weak english language. Cheers !
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