After getting ready for the day, I make my way into the kitchen for breakfast which usually consists of bread, Nutella (yay!), peanut butter, fruit and eggs. Because I need the energy to get me through a day trying to match the energy of very very hyper and energetic (but wonderful) children. One of the main concerns many of the volunteers express, including myself at times, is the lack of protein in our diets. Besides the hard boiled eggs that we get, there really isn't much protein around here unless you want to venture outside. While I eat breakfast, I sometimes look at the Kathmandu times, in English, which gives you daily updates on any political situations the country is undergoing. I'm particularly interested in the newspaper when there was a Bandh which means "strike" in Nepali. This is sort of a frequent occurrence that most Nepalis are accustomed to since the civi war brought with it many Bandhs. Basically what happens is the whole entire city shuts down and for a bustling and constantly moving city that Kathmandu is, it's a huge paradox to what one normally sees whilst walking through Kathmandu. Everything shuts down: stores, buses, taxis, schools, etc. From what I've read, this seems to have an extremely adverse economical effect on Nepal as the transportation of goods is put at a stalemate for an entire day which is huge to people whose incomes depend on selling goods. When a strike happens, It's literally like being in a weird post-apocalyptic ghost town. And I've heard of some accounts when people defy the strike, protestors would throw rocks at the passing dissidents. Luckily for tourists, however, the locals seem to be okay with tourist buses traveling during a strike since they understand it's a domestic affair between Nepalis. Wow, I kinda went off on a huge tangent about those strikes! Anyway, back to the point of this post, telling you what it's like everyday for me. There is also a television in the kitchen that is constantly streaming hilarious Nepali/Hindi music videos on MTV (At least their MTV actually plays music though as opposed to ours) I have found them extremely entertaining to watch while I eat my breakfast. After having riveting conversations with my fellow friends at the volunteer house, I set off with my co-worker to the orphanage. My path to the orphanage is either good or bad depending primarily on the weather. If it's raining, or has rained recently, we have to traverse through disgusting mud puddles filled with stinky trash and a whole bunch of other things I'd much rather not discover what they were. Many times I find myself putting my head deep into my shirt to attempt to suppress the disgusting smells around me. Luckily though, that's probably the worst part of my commute to the orphanage. We pass a lot of local shops, men who are wheeling around trays of fruit, kids on their way to school, bootleg DVD shops, etc. Our path takes us through some narrow streets at times and it can sometimes be an ordeal to maneuver yourself around the constant flow of traffic. Not to scare people but once my arm was hit by a passing motorcycle but it didn't hurt at all. You just gotta be careful and drivers are usually used to having to pass around pedestrians so it's not a huge concern.
When we finally arrive to the orphanage, we are greeted by smiling faces coming from the windows anticipating our arrival. Sometimes they get too excited and come dashing out to say Hello to us. After taking off our shoes (which is customary before entering a Nepali building) we go into the classroom area which is a small little room with about 6 little desks and a whiteboard for us to use to teach. I'm going to be honest...the room is in pretty bad condition. The walls are yellow and have pencil marks all over them. The floor is permanently stained with urine and other things. There is a tiny trashcan which never seems to contain the mess. There are carpets but they are also, like the floors, stained old and worn down. Actually, my co-worker and I are planning to repaint the entire room a fresh calming blue. We really feel that with a little paint we can really make this room out to be a comfortable learning environment. Considering the kids we teach are probably distraught that they can't go to school like the other kids at the orphanage, they probably would feel much better if their learning environment was more comfortable and appropriate. Anyway, it's usually a bit of an ordeal at first to find a dry erase marker that actually works. The orphanage severely lacks working markers and I definitely need to make note to stock up on some. You never really realize how beneficial a board can be for learning; sometimes it's all you need and, without it, you're at a loss of what to do. So when we finally find a marker that works relatively well we start our English lessons complete with other necessary topics such as math and science- but we usually stick to English and math! (Science is tricky to teach in English to those who are novices). To start off the day, I use a method I learned from a former co-worker of mine who showed me the ropes of the orphanage when I first arrived (Thanks Mallory) What we do is we go over what day it is, what day tomorrow is, what day yesterday was, what the month is, what next month is, what last month was, and what the weather is like today. I feel it's a good warmup to get the kids speaking and coming up to the board to write sentences (Today is Monday for example). Instead of calmly saying the answer, however, sometimes they like to just scream it out. It's quite funny and cute actually. Before, I was just having them answer these daily questions but now I have them both answer it and go up to the board to write it since they need a lot of improvement in terms of writing English words. I'm beginning to discover that it is damn hard to learn English and some words just do not make sense when paralleled with their pronunciation. I've been trying to sound out the syllables and letters so that they can guess the corresponding letters without me feeding them the letters one-by-one without any self-reliance on their part. But seriously a lot of English words are not spelled as they are pronounced and it must be extremely frustrating for people just starting out! End rant about the English language for now. After the class warmup, my co-worker and I usually come up with different vocabulary topics that we could introduce to the kids and then follow it up with a little game such as hangman or charades so as to get them proactive in their learning to help them understand it better since it's hard to explain things. When trying to explain new words, I use my body a lot to get the general idea across until I finally see they've got it. Topics like places, people, body parts, colors, animals, etc. are covered. We also do some light sentence structure. For example, today we had the kids write what animals they like and do not like. So yeah, we're pretty much teaching on a very basic level. After about an hour and a half or so of teaching, the kids start to get restless and begin begging that we end the lesson for the day and commence play time. Play time usually consists of me breaking out my iPad and watching as all the kids, usually the boys, storm over and plead that they go first. I usually randomly just pick and order and they deal with it and attempt to patiently wait their turn. The girls, on the other hand, aren't that interested in video games but, luckily, I'm fortunate enough to have a fellow female co-worker who loves to bond with the girls--She made them necklaces one time and they loved it! In addition to playing video games, the kids love it when I pick them up and spin them around until both the kids and I are stumbling from dizziness. I have to be careful, though, because as soon as I treat one child to a soaring ride the others are soon begging for me to do it and it can get tiring at times. They love it, though, and are always laughing and screaming after. Also, we've been showing them some Disney movies lately (We've watched Hercules, Aladdin, and some of Mulan) The kids seem to be entranced by the animation and diagnose the story through the visuals since obviously they can't understand it. It's proven to be a great way to just relax and just watch nostalgic movies with the kids. Eventually, around noon, my co-worker and I say farewell to the kids and promise that we'll come tomorrow. Sometimes, though, that's not good enough for them and I've walked out with around four kids gripped onto my legs as I try to walk away with attached children to my legs. With a little fight, though, I free myself and exit to make my commute to the monastery
Now my commute to the monastery is much more interesting than my commute to the orphanage--main reason: the monastery I work at lies in close proximity to the world-famous Buddhist temple called Swambyanath which, according to some people I've talked to, is like the Mecca of Buddhism and holds enormous significance to Buddhists which explains the fact that there are so many monasteries built around it. But anyway, when I leave the orphanage I walk for about 10 minutes and then it's time to take the microbus which I have a love/hate relationship with. The way up to Swambyanath is very steep and long and I don't think I could walk there so taking a microbus is pretty inevitable. Ok so a microbus is this white-van looking thing with about 4 main seating areas in it. With the way it's laid out, one would think that it could only hold around 15 people in it but no these manage to hold much more people than I could ever imagine in a tiny little bus. If you're claustrophobic , this is not the bus to ride. I always get a kick of how they still are continuing to let people in yet it is obvious that it has reached full maximum capacity. But anything goes here: sitting on people's laps, crouching down, squatting, etc. One time, there was absolutely no room for me but they insisted I go in anyway and I was leaning over three people sitting down. Not to mention the fact that this is a really bumpy journey so I've had a number of instances where I fell onto people. Personal space is non existent when riding these buses. But, they are one of the cheapest and efficient methods of traveling so you do what you gotta do I guess. Anyway, it's a 15 minute bus ride to the Swambyanath (also known as 'Monkey Temple') and this is, by far, my favorite part of my commute to the monastery. I basically walk around the Monkey Temple which, relevant to it's name, has monkey's constantly passing my way, jumping over my head, or giving me dirty looks. The edge of the temple is also adorned with magnificent prayer wheels ranging from small to huge. It's always a pleasure to observe monks walking and spinning them as I wonder what prayer their sending as they swipe the wheel. Like I said before, this area is abundant with monasteries that are so incredibly beautiful. Walking with my iPod music playing being surrounded by all this always makes my commute very calming and peaceful which is a good way to prepare myself for teaching again. Also, because the monkey temple is up on a mountain, I always get panoramic views of the surrounding Kathmandu valley which combined with the
majestic monasteries makes for one hell of a view. In addition, everyday I pass a site that is dedicated to holding funeral ceremonies. But funeral ceremonies here are a bit more open than Western one's. Basically, there is a pavilion-type gazebo area where a deceased body is burned while the families and friends of the loved one's watch in plain sight. And not just them too-I can even see the bodies being burned as I make my commute to the monastery. I have to say seeing the smoke rise from a cremation funeral service had me in a surreal perplexed moment as I tried to fathom the fact that it was smoke coming from a dead human. It is intoxicating to watch and I find myself sometimes just stopping and sitting to watch it happen. Yes, it's a bit morbid but I just think it's so interesting. Anyway, with every good comes a slightly uncomfortable downside and while the commute to work is beautiful, there are a lot of severely impoverished people living around the perimeter of the monkey temple right where I walk by. So, everyday I have to literally walk through somebodies makeshift house where I can blatantly see someone sleeping looking malnourished and dangerously skinny. I also pass an elderly woman everyday who pleads for money with her hands in a prayer position and kids who beg me for money and follow me for a few blocks for eventually giving up. It's a hard sight to witness and I feel like I'm becoming desensitized to it since it's part of my daily routine but I still like to contemplate the situation and try to imagine what it must be like to live in such conditions. I've learned, however, that giving money just perpetuates the never-ending cycle of poverty since it creates a dependency to begging. I try to tell myself that every time I see someone clearly desperate for money. Also, according to my friend and fellow volunteer who works at a human rights organization advocating against human trafficking, notorious human traffickers will sometimes use children that they've trafficked to beg for money to give directly back to the trafficker so, in some ways, giving money would be contributing and helping the human trafficker--yep, definitely a bad idea!
When I finally make it to the monastery, I walk through the monastery which is sort of like a mini-campus in that it has many different buildings for designated purposes. I, however, enter one small room with a few beds and a chalkboard where I teach the monks English for about two hours. Teaching the monks is a bit more difficult than the kids at the orphanage because the monks range in ages 4-12 and some are more advanced while some are more just starting kind of things so it subsequently makes it difficult for me to find a happy-medium teaching style that will benefit all the monks. I am working on it though! The thing about the monks, however, is that they are much more well disciplined than the kids at the orphanage (nothing against them of course). In fact, they always ask me "May I go to the toilet?" and "May I come in?" and "May I get a drink of water?" It's a much more organized and regimented atmosphere. I was astounded at first and laughed when they kept asking "May I come in?" I always respond with "Yes, of course!" I'd like to assure them they don't need to ask but feel like it might be good to let them since they are learning politeness in English which is always good to know! Being monks, the kids have their heads shaven and wear yellow and red robes. I was curious as to why they did this so after a little research on the internet, I found out that the shaved head and robes are to symbolize a detachment from vanity and materialism which I found to be very intriguing. A lot of Buddhist philosophy evokes a sense of simplicity and detachment from everyday pleasures like hair and fashion. As I spend more time at the monastery teaching, I'm becoming more and more interested with Buddhism and really want to ask some of the elder monks questions and possibly sit in on a meditation session or something but I'm a little apprehensive to ask them right now haha. With the monks, I usually do a lesson plan similar to how I teach the kids at the orphanage, sometimes different. The monks seem to be a little more advanced probably because they spend a lot of their time just reading and writing. In fact, today we did daily schedules and according to what they told me, they wake up at 4am and immediately read and write then have prayer sessions that last for a while followed with more reading and more praying and the time they spend with me learning English. It's amazing, though- They all live in that monastery and it's like a tight-nit community that lives together. While I've spent a lot of time with the kid monks, I have yet to spend time with the older monks although they sometimes peak in to watch me teach. In fact, one elder monk came in to the learning session and started to participate in the lesson. It turns out his English was actually worse than most of the kids but he was determined to learn and told me that he'll be back sometimes. I'd really like to get to know the monks around the monastery. There is one who speaks impeccable English who told me a little bit about my program. When I first met him, he offered me traditional Tibetan tea and it was delicious! By the way, all of these monks are Tibetan monks and the older monks came from Tibet and settled in Nepal since the situation in Tibet with the Chinese is abit unstable according to my limited knowledge of the issue. All I know really is that China invaded Tibet and forcibly declared it a part of China resulting in violence between the Chinese military and Tibetans who wanted sovereignty as the Chinese government attempted to cleanse Buddhism from the area. I think once when I was covering geography I mentioned China and got awkward stares and vibes from the kids--Touchy political subject. Anyway, their favorite game to play is definitely simon says. I taught it on one of my first days there and they instantly fell in love and always ask to play--It's a great way to end the day with them. And finally, at around 2pm, I set off back to the volunteer house in another dreadful claustrophobic ride in a microbus but eventually get back very tired and worn-out and take a nice relaxing nap.
Well that's pretty much what I go through everyday while volunteering here in Kathmandu apart from weekend excursions and weekday hang outs with my friends at the volunteer house.
Thanks for reading everyone! Till next time, Namaste!
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