Leaving Manasarovar Academy and Nepal

Friday (26th) was my last day of school. How quickly time flies! Maybe the short day times and the busy weekends helped, or maybe the school day goes so quick because lessons are only 40 minutes long (minus the the time the earlier teacher run overruns). Whatever the reason, I genuinely didn't expect this to be over so soon. It hit me really late that I had one week left and I was really busy sorting out my visa during school days that I only got to tell my kids on the penultimate day that I was leaving them. I hated that, just telling them so suddenly.

What did I spent the last day doing? I spent a helluva lot of time writing my signature, which probably changed at least 20 times. I wrote my full name and email address on the board but the kids insisted on having my autograph in their books and then to rewrite my name and email again. For the first time I regretted having a long email address but I didn't want any kid to feel left out. Some kids asked for my password, which I initially thought was a mistranslation but they said they wanted it so they can check my emails... The cheeky kids also tried to ask for my number too!

I also realised I didn't take advantage of my camera properly. I took photos of the little kids but I didn't take good photos of my friends or me with the kids. So maybe this was very trusting of me but I taught some of my kids how to use an canon 1100D, which many of them unsurprisingly was eager to use. It was cute seeing the kids trying to use the functions properly and I was proud to see they took the responsibility seriously (didn't get a heart attack once that a kid was going to drop it or ruin my lens). It's hard to photograph kids but they did a very good job! Within minutes, they were teaching each other how to use the separate functions. Pretty impressive kids they were.

I went back to school on Monday. My flight wasn't until 4pm and I wanted to spend my last few hours at my most favourite place in Nepal (Manasarovar Academy if you haven't guessed). I went to take some more photos and to say goodbye properly. The boys, forever full of (cheeky) requests asked me to kiss them on the cheek and I thought 'why not?' and gave one boy a kiss on the cheek. It didn't take long before a crowd of eager boys formed around me and a second crowd of boys formed who were pretending to faint after I kissed them on the cheeks and sighing 'Aye hai'. Throughout the day, I kept getting requests for kisses. I've never been this popular with the boys before! One boy sneakily stole a (wet) kiss on the lips. Regrettably my response was to yell out 'Ah frick!' I hope I didn't break his heart!

Never been so popular with boys before!

The kids are sweet and I didn't expect much but I wanted to give them all hugs. I received cards, origami and letters as well as a book and a pen. The hand made cards are beautiful. Peanut cookies a student made me were a life saver for my trip to Kolkata. Two students even honoured me with a khada scarf!

As for Miss Tsultrim and Bijaya, I love them so much. I saw them as family. Miss Tsultrim, very opinionated but charismatic. She can be strict with the children but she'll also make them laugh. Determined to get good education for the children and not settling for less, she's an amazing role model. Miss Bijaya is like the caring mother, in fact she reminded me of my own mom! Also had genuine concern and put others first. She use to teach before her voice was at risk but that doesn't stop her from working with children. I tried to talk to them as much as I could on the last day but I didn't want to leave. They also honoured me with a khada scarf as well as normal scarf, both which I will treasure forever.

The amazing main staff <3

I do hope that I can visit Manasarovar academy again someday soon.

Happy Teacher's day!

We walked into school Monday with one student greeting us with "Happy Teacher's day". Wait, what did she say? Another boy ran towards us and offered us lollipops while another kid handed us a red pen each. This looks exciting, we thought! Little did we know this was only the start of the celebrations.

During our first period (class 3), we were greeted by a lovely message on the board. We struggled for a few minutes deciding if we should wipe the board or not but it had to be done. During break, members of class five came rushing in with chocolate cake and coke for the teachers and members of class 3 had Khada scarves for the principals and a letter of apology for when they have been bad. Before lunch, we had class two where the children overloaded us with handmade cards and origami flowers. There were a few cheeky students who had written cards for another teacher but crossed their names out and written ours! Some of the classes decorated their door with a message for the teachers and with balloons.

Class five wouldn't let us enter, they were still preparing after lunch. When they let us pass, the class shouted 'Happy Teacher's day' and showed us their board with a lovely message and a drawing of me and Harriet. Yes, we spent the first five minutes taking photos and again, we had difficulty deciding if we had to rub the board off. Some children gave us sweets (and mints) along with cards and red pens again (these kids love having their mark worked with red pen).

We ended the school day by teaching class four. They didn't have as much time as class 3 and 5 to prepare a board for us (but they did try) and we were greeted with more lovely messages along with a photo of Katrina Kaif and a recipe on roast chicken (???). The children also put their money together to buy boxes of laddu and jalelbi to give all the teachers. I was overwhelmed with all the food that I didn't know what to do with them. Harriet, being the more professional one, put hers on a card whereas I enjoyed eating the jalebi as I taught so my lesson went something along the lines of:

"Put your hands up if you know who *bites jalebi* William Shakespeare is *bites jalebi*?"

"He wrote mainly two kinds of *bites jalebi* plays: comedies *bites jalebi* and tragedies *bites jalebi*."

"Shakespeare wrote *bites jalebi* Romeo and Juliet, *bites jalebi* Hamlet and *bites jalebi* Macbeth."

So now at home, we have bags full of red pens and a bed with a mountain full of messages, letters and cards from the children. I think Teacher's Day is one of my favourite moments in Nepal (:

First week in Nepal: Monkey fever, getting lost & Manasarovar Academy

Monkey Temple



Saturday morning we were greeted by the monsoon rain. We've managed to escape it so far but the day we set our heart on exploring Kathmandu, with the Monkey Temple as our first stop, the weather decided to be an obstacle. We sat in, reading for a bit, trying to avoid an alternative plan. Harriet was clearly determined to go to the temple today. We're been looking forward to it before we even arrived. We made a back up plan in case the rain doesn't stop, but we 10:30, we made our way to find a taxi. Nepalese taxi drivers don't seem so keen on using the taxi meter, but you have to insist or just step out. The prices they suggest are possibly higher (not by too much but still).






The monkey temple did not disappoint. The cab trip on the way showed sneaky monkeys peaking out as we got closer. The temple is located on a hill and the main part is the stupa at the top. It didn't take long after we entered to see the monkeys playing about freely. Sometimes food was left for them, the pigeons seemed to be better feed, but the monkeys preferred to climb the stupa, the railings and the trees. The excitement of being so close to monkeys never died away! I'll happily visit it right now if I could.



I have to admit, I was a little bit afraid of Nepal's stay animals. I'm afraid of dogs, a little bit less of cats after having them forced on me but I'm still scared of being near wild animals. Not sure how I'll cope in Borneo!



Manasarovar Academy



We went to our school the day after we arrived. It's a 5 minute walk from our house but you could easily recognise it by the screaming and laughing that came from the hall. As soon as we walked in, the children were aware of our presence. They are use to having volunteers and they knew what to do! They started running up to us with cheerful faces, greeting us with 'Namaste' or trying to shake our hands or poke us. The way they treat us hasn't changed us at all!



My favourite thing about Manasarovar is how tuneful it is. During the lessons, you could hearing the younger children 'singing'. It's probably their Tibetan class I'm listening to. We've always been told how children are forced to memorise by 'chanting' in developing countries. They have very little resources to learn from, it's one of the few methods they have. What we don't know is the rhythm they learn it with. They have memorised the capitals using a song, sounds boring but it's so catchy. The school is never silent but I prefer it that way. The altering low and high pitch, the terribly cute voices of the younger children make me feel very comfortable.



The second thing I love is lunch time. You haven't seen team work until you have seen the children work together! The school has limited resources so it uses the benches and tables in the classroom to be used to make the dining room. We tried to help the kids, but the boys preferred showing off how they could carry a whole bench on their own. The older children help out in the kitchen and distributing food in the larger pots while younger children help set the table. Younger children eat first but the older kids will help feed them if they want help. You should see the expressions of the older kids trying to help, almost maternal! When lunch time is finished, they all work together to take back the chairs and roll up the carpets. Sometimes children go out in the balcony to work if they need to catch up. Bearing in mind kids can come in for P.E at 7.30 am and some stay after school past 4pm, that is dedication!



Getting lost

Buy a local map. Despite how much you suck  at reading one, it's a valuable resource.

In fact, use two different maps together! It's what we had to do...

Sunday morning, Harriet and I set off again to explore Kathmandu. This time we decided to walk to the centre and visit Darbur Square. We only had a lonely planet guide at hand and a screenshot of a Google map. What we basically gathered that we would have to follow the main road west and that's what we did, or so we thought! After several hours of walking, we couldn't recognise the the street names but then again, the lonely planet guide's maps hardly have any street names. We past a bookshop and decided to have a look at a map. We thought we were near the centre but it turns out... We were in south Kathmandu, less than an hour's walk from the airport. Well then!



Did we give up on the walking? No! We made our way to the centre, changed our itinerary a little (because it turns out the map we bought is also a little funky). We spent our day in the garden of broken dreams, garden of dreams and Thamel. Garden of broken dreams was what we thought was the garden of dreams but turned out to be its car park. We knew the buildings looked too eery to be a romantic hotspot! We eventually decided to walk back however, as successful as we were using the two maps, I was feeling unwell and it was getting late. We (I) gave up and took a taxi but turns out we were on the right path!