Change is in the Air

      With the chaos of the holidays finally winding down, and the completion of my first three months passing me by from out of nowhere, life here has blossomed into an experience I could never have predicted. Honestly, my life is different here than I had expected - with  the many unexpected cultural differences and teaching challenges. But I also never could have expected that I would be so happy.


         For one thing, teaching feels like it has finally clicked into place. During the holiday I spent a significant of amount of time at local stationary shops creating forty copies of a thirty-page English coloring/activity book. Despite using a tree and a half to make it, the coloring book has been the best thing I've ever created. The book has given my lower students a graphic organizer to help them learn to write and it has given my higher students the ability to go at their own pace. My behavior problems have somewhat lessened - my relationship with my students has changed. I have finally earned the respect of my higher level students. I may be the first teacher to recognize their ability and provide them with the respect and challenge they deserve.
        And the lower level students, often ignored, have become more attached to me. Taking the time, even when it's not available, to meet each of their individuals needs, to sit with them and patiently count on fingers, has paid off in a million different ways. It's taken a while, but I think my respect for the students is slowly but surely being reciprocated - and I'm starting (with relief) to see that what I'm doing in the classroom makes progress in time. I'm reminded that one must be patient to see change.

Making Paper Frogs

Because We Were Learning the Word "Frog"

And Because Learning Should Be Fun.

*Side note: Even on bad discipline days, I absolutely adore my students (especially my first graders). I have no idea how I will ever say goodbye to them - It might be the hardest thing I ever have to do.

        Also, my Nepali has developed a considerable amount over the past three months. I've come to realize that I can understand a whole lot more than before, even fast conversation I'm sometimes able to pick up on. This has definitely come in handy, like the time it allowed me to defend myself when I realized that my Ama was telling the whole community that I lost my voice because I had put iodine tablets in my water (more interesting health remarks to come in a later post). Communication is so important to me, and though I know I have a long way until fluency, becoming conversational in just three months is highly motivating. Not to mention I think my Nepali family and I are both proud when we can answer "yes" to the oh-so-common question from strangers: "Does she speak Nepali?"

My Fifth Graders Practicing Their "American" Dance

    Another great change is that I've finally begun to connect with the older students at my school. I've been dancing with class 9 and 10 students for sports week - we have our big dance show today - and the week has allowed me to learn a few more names and faces. As a result, I now receive many more "good mornings" and smiles when I pass through the school, and it's so nice to feel that connection with some of the older students. All the kids were eager to learn an "American" dance as well, so I have spent several afternoons teaching sixteen eager fifth graders simple steps to an Ingrid Micheals song. Teaching it was a chaotic process which involved shoving excess people out the door, going over the same step twenty or thirty times, and nodding yes to a lot of my fifth grader's questions when I'm not really sure what was asked. But despite that, I don't think I've ever felt so proud or such happiness as when I watch them dance (even if their a bit off the music most of the time). The joy I see on their faces warms my heart so so much. One thing that Nepal is surely not lacking - despite its poverty - is joy.

     With the dance show over, I have a student/teacher tour to Lumbini (the birth place of Buddha) to look forward to and a new baby arriving soon (my Bauju is currently very pregnant). Last but not least on that list is the promise that in three weeks a private car will drive the four hours out to Gorkha to take us ETAs to a real Thanksgiving dinner at our adviser's house in Kathmandu. Talk about spoiled.

Nepal has officially become one of those experiences in life that makes me think that it doesn't get better than this.