Volunteer Week

May 27, 2014

What a week!!!  It was both exhausting and rewarding - the village turned out to be a collection of houses smattered throughout the hill side, food was rice and potatoes three meals a day, English was close to nonexistent, wake up time was 5:00 am, witch doctors roamed the neighborhood, my house was a retreat for giant spiders, and yet students asked us every day to do art with them, teachers cried when it was our final day,  and our host families begged us to stay. 

This cute 4 day old goat sucked my fingers, while I seriously started to wonder what I had gotten myself into!

Here’s the grandma, Anita, and the mother, Sangita, (she’s my age - 32) making dinner of dal bhat - rice, lentils and potatoes.  The whole ceiling above is blackened from the open fire.  Not the best kitchen for those with asthma.

My feather soft bed for the week.  I slept right on top of that pink sheet . .  on top of the wool blanket . . . on top of the plywood . . . when I could fall asleep.

That’s beaten rice (literally rice that has been mashed into flakes) with potatoes and soya balls - the school fed us lunch every day.  Usually eaten without a spoon.

Play dough making just like our ancestors use to.  

Here’s a picture of the Shree Kali Devi Secondary School, where Jenn and I volunteered for the week. 

Here are class 1/2 kids making rainbows and learning their colors in English.

School is optional here (for both children and staff) so the numbers varied every day.

Here is the principal admiring the handiwork of class 5 - they are making sun catchers out of transparencies and fabric paint.

The school morning starts with calisthenics and then the grades march to their individual classes.

Here is class 10 working on sun catchers too.

Here is the “village” of Lalitpur.

We taught classes the ABC song and had them make the alphabet with play dough.

Note the new rainbows hanging in the classroom.

The sun catcher final project with class 5.

Our walk to school in the morning.

Still walking to school! - I have yet to cross that meadow and climb up the other side.

Here is play group coloring the alphabet with their teachers.

Apparently it’s the first time they have seen anyone cut tape.

Jenn and I hung the alphabet they colored and the numbers in their classroom for play group.

Here’s Jenn and I with play group - I think they loved having their art work on the wall.

The sweet teachers lounge - where we had a 30 min break each day for lunch at 1pm.  The school day starts at 10am and ends at 3 or 4 pm - depending on your grade.

A view of the house from the outside.  There was electricity for a few hours every day . . . usually. . . although no schedule as to when it would or wouldn’t work.

Class 8 working on bubble painting and a name poem.  They were without a teacher the whole week we were there.

Here is what happens when there aren’t teachers in a class - and the school is short teachers every day!

Here is the family I stayed with - Pramala is taking the picture so imagine another 12 year old girl in the picture.

RING - goes the morning bel!

Play group loved waving hi and bye - they normally say namaste and put their hands in a prayer position.

The entire school gave us a farewell ceremony.

We were draped in flower leis and Buddhist scarves - a sign of an important person departing.

The families also gave us a blessing and wished us well with a small ceremony involving fruit, words I couldn’t understand, and tika marks.