Hello again,
There was time for
one last trip before schools started again, this time a visit to my friend
Biju’s village. Biju has been a good friend to me out here and had been asking
for some time that I come and visit her family and her village so I was pleased
to finally have some time in which to do this.
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| Not too much room to move in the jeep! |
It was about a five
hour bus journey to Rampur, along some of the scarier roads I have been on with
very steep drops falling away from the bumpy tracks. We safely reached there
though and had a quick walk around and some lunch before getting on a jeep to
take us the remaining two hours, high up to her village. It was incredible the
amount of people packed in and on that jeep. I counted 22 of us inside, one sat
on the bonnet, and many more either hanging onto the side or on the roof. There
must have been at least 35 people on it and possibly more like 40!
We made it though
without incident and the welcome from the village was very warm despite the
fact I was not there to work with the school. I think that they would be very
keen to work with us but it would be difficult given the huge distance and time
it takes to make the journey.
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| Biju and I were given a lovely welcome in her village, Gohrekot. |
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| Biju (right) with her mum (left) and sisters. |
The first evening
was very quiet and I was all too happy to have an early night after another
tiring journey. The next morning we went for a walk up to a village called
Anandy (meaning relaxing place), where Biju’s old school used to be. As ever
the walk offered great views, though it was rather cloudy.
In the afternoon I
went up to the school which was closed but there were some teachers there who
were keen to get some ideas for teaching and so I did a few simple activities
with them such as the drawing round the body. After we had done that I organised
lots of games for the children to play which they really enjoyed. Having
started with about 10 children we ended up with closer to 30! Some of the games
worked really well, including ladders and bulldogs but others I had real
difficulty explaining such as stuck in the mud where they didn’t seem to
understand if they should be tagging others or running away!!!
It was a really
nice afternoon though and the children seemed to love it. We finished with some
relay races and a wheelbarrow race which they found very funny!!!
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| Last two boys left in bulldogs against everyone else - reminded me of the Adidas advert with the caption 'impossible is nothing'! |
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| Kept this picture small!!! |
In the evening
there was a dance program but unfortunately I was feeling quite ill with a
bad stomach – probably due to the amount of meat that had been presented to me
which I had politely tried to get through!
Biju was very good
though and as a trainee nurse was able to give me some medicines which did help
and I joined in with the dancing and merriment as best I could. I didn’t get a
very good night’s sleep, feeling rather poorly, but thankfully by the morning I
did feel a little better.
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| Some of the more 'senior' members of the village. |
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| Some more traditional dancing than my attempted efforts! |
It was amazing the
amount of people who gathered to wave us off – Nepali hospitality really is
second to none. It would have been nice to stay an extra day and unfortunate that
I had not felt too well for the last night but I had still had a really good
time.
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| Way home from Biju's village. |
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| Left to right: Melanie, Regina, Bec and Roisin. |
I had a couple of
days back in Tansen and enjoyed the company of Roisin, Bec, Melanie, and
Regina, an Irish and three Australian girls working on a placement at a hospital
near Chitwan. They were staying at home-stay and were good fun. We went for an
evening walk along Shrinegar hill, just above Tansen and also the next morning I
took them up to see the sunrise (I am becoming quite a tour guide now). In
between these times I also started to get ready to go back to school, which
after a long time off for exams and holidays, I was quite looking forward to.
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| Jumping pictures at sunrise! |
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| Two of my home-made clocks! |
My first school
trip after the holidays was to Bagnas, a short walk from Tansen. I had three
days at Bagnas and taught a variety of lessons including the science
experiments to test friction and the separating experiment – making alien soup.
I also did some English lessons on asking questions about what time it is. I
tried to keep the lessons as practical as possible and also incorporated lots
of display work. One of the lessons on time the children had to match up cards
which asked the question e.g. ‘What time do you have breakfast?’ and the answer
‘I have breakfast at 8:00’. I encouraged the children to do lots of speaking in
the lesson which is important though not always easy in Nepali classrooms as
the children are just so shy and not used to speaking up.
'Alien soup' proved to be a really successful lesson (mixing sand, salt, water, rice and paperclips and then separating them using magnets, different seized sieves/ filters and evaporation). The children clearly loved doing such a practical activity of which they are clearly not used to doing. It worked really well and the children could see the salt starting to crystalise on the plate after a couple of hours left out in the sun. Unfortunately someone picked up the plate and cleared it away before all of the water had evaporated!! The children did at least see that it was working though and hopefully the teachers saw how much the practical nature of the exercise benefited the children and enhanced the learning. From the pictures you may think that this is a very colorful school with good resources, whilst this is true of the library, which was built as part of another charity's project, 'room to read', the classrooms in the school require much work.
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| This picture and above: 'Alien Soup' activity. |
By the end of my
trip to Bagnas there was a bit more display work in evidence in the classrooms
– there is still much to be done but I was really pleased to see one of the
teachers put up some of the times tables on coloured paper I had given them and
another teacher using the building blocks we had provided to demonstrate something
in maths. It is really encouraging to see things start to happen and whilst
they may be small things it is still good progress.
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| Making a start at getting more display work up. |
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| It might be small but was great to see one of the teachers put this up off their own back - hopefully the message is getting through that display work is important!! |
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| A lesson on the five human senses. |
During my time
teaching in Bagnas I had one night where I stayed in the village (the other
nights I walked back to Tansen) and had a really nice evening playing games
with the children and the next morning walked up to the top of the hill which
gave some of the best views I have had so far this trip.
It has been another
successful and encouraging trip and whilst there is still much to do – it is
good to see some progress being made. I am hoping when I return to Bagnas I
will see both the display work I put up, still there and some new things too…we
will have to wait and see though! It was another good visit though and good to
get back to some teaching!
Andy. X
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| The lovely children of Bagnas school. | |
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| Stunning views from Bagnas. |
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