Brenda's day

Mon November 15

Well, quite a day.

Off to a good start with the news that Margaret had been up all night with diarrhoea and was in no fit state to go to school, so I was on my own!

Help!

Brenda's birthday today so she had celebration No.1 with card and little present.

We went straight in to mass ( approx 2,000 children) assembly in the courtyard, children lined up in neat rows and Sushil talking and singing into a microphone. We three had to introduce ourselves and were greeted with applause.

Conditions are very overcrowded and under-resourced, but all the teachers were welcoming and keen to cooperate. I was able to observe the classes with no pressure to teach yet. Anny and Rosemary, teaching maths, got on well and have reached an arrangement which will involve teaching more advanced classes too.

Break time

Uttam (the founder) appeared briefly during our break but was more interested in a visiting group of sponsors, and Sushil spoke proudly of the progress the school has made in achieving distinctions in the school leaving certificate.

Altogether Uttam has made places for 18,000 children in 10 schools, with 8 more and a college under construction.

There are 2,500 pupils, about 50 in each of our classes. One of my teachers only passed her own SLC 2 years ago and is in her third year at college studying to become a journalist, teaching being a stop-gap.

Thanks to many reports from previous volunteers, everything so far has been pretty much as expected. Far from what we are used to, but they get results so there must be a lot we can learn from them.

When we picked up Brenda and Margaret from the orphanage we heard about a frustrating day. 40 children live there; 28 go to school. The remaining 12 are taught there during the morning, but the teacher removed 9 of them, leaving B & M, a nurse and a teaching assistant with only 3 children all morning. Lunch 1 – 2 pm was followed by compulsory 2 hour nap for the children, which took them to 4 pm and hometime. There are going to be some changes! More later.

B2

5 pm at Social tours for a “debriefing” which turned out to be Celebration No.2 complete with cake and presents.

B2

B3

Dinner at the hotel was accompanied by Nepali song and dance and Celebration No.3 – the birthday cake we had ordered and presents from Saga. Even Margaret F staggered down to share the occasion, though not the cake.

B3

B3

No need for the G&Ts to get high tonight.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Tuesday November 16

Our experience of the teaching and the classes varies a lot, largely according to how much English the teachers have. When we can converse with them, we can participate more easily. (Margaret was sufficiently recovered to come with us today, thank goodness)
The lower grades do a lot of chanting passages in English word by word at the top of their voices, after their teacher or another pupil. Not sure what this is supposd to achieve.

Our smallest class has 45 and our largest 57 children! Strangely, it doesn't seem anything like that many to me, probably because they are so closely crowded on their benches!

Class 4P

Class 4P

Lunch boxes are a daily surprise. Yesterday we all asked for various sandwiches made with brown bread. We got a half-round of white bread sandwich and two thick, dry unbuttered pieces of brown bread. But the fruit cake is delicious. Today, after a second attempt at explaining, we actually had brown bread sandwiches. The real difficulty, of course, is knowing whether you have been understood, as it invariably appears you have. They don't like to disappoint.

After lunch we were told that the government has just declared a national holiday tomorrow for Eid, so we will have the day off. This is not uncommon apparently, and I imagine it perplexes and inconveniences many of the tourists who might not be aware of such a sudden holiday.

Margaret and Brenda had a better day at the orphanage today, and stayed on till 5 pm to meet the school-age children. They had more of the children to play with (sorry - instruct/educate) and consequently had a whale of a time. They will have a full house tomorrow, ie 40 children, as the children will be on holiday.  Stories of paper balloon making and parachute games at dinner, as well as children's games of jumping from one rooftop to the next!

No birthdays today, but looking forward to a visit to a nearby village with a botanic garden.

There are lots more pics if anyone's interested on
  http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/on81lHQvwhkKc4BKdOHMzg?feat=directlink

If this link doesn't come out well, copy it out with no spaces from http to directlink and paste into the address bar. Or email me for the link.