Second Week in Gaunshahar: School Begins

With Dashain over, it was finally time to get to teaching at Heaven Hill Academy. The first day of school left me feeling nervous and intimidated by all of the children, some of whom do not speak much English. I have tutoring experience with high-schoolers and college students, but up to this point I had never been trained to teach children. I have to say that this was quite the trial run, as these kids are packed with energy. They are soo wild, it reminded me of how energized I used to be at that age... And I honestly felt a little envious of these precious kiddos. I can't even keep up with them unless I have had my cup of coffee!

Eventually I settled into a rhythm, teaching Math, English, and Science. While some classes were more difficult to the point that I left school feeling more than a little frustrated on some days, eventually the kids cute little faces and smart little brains began to win me over. Aside from getting into the swing of things in school, I had some more lovely experiences in this rural Nepali village as well.

October 13th

These buffalos are all over the place here. I am glad this little guy won't have to worry about being sacrificed for at least another year.

If you haven't gathered as much from my spider photos in last week's post, pretty much every insect and arachnid in this place is bigger than what we have at home. In some cases, the bigger size translates to more beauty. There are some truly spectacular moths and butterflies around here.

A couple of our hosts were sick, so we went to check in on them at the Lamjung Community Hospital down in Besisahar.

Mountain peaks peeking through the clouds.

Some local village boys. The villagers love to come sit at the tree by our homestay.

October 14th

On my first day, I helped out a couple more experienced volunteers. We had the kids make pizzas to practice their fractions and percentages.

October 15th

Every morning the kids line up and do a dance. They sing the Nepli national anthem as well.

"Welcome Back to School" is probably one of the cutest dances the kids do.

October 16th

This moth is so stunning. I wish I had a cape that looked like its wings.

October 17th

Today I woke up at 5:45am to catch the sunrise. It was more beautiful than I could have imagined. It had rained quite heavily the night before, and I speculated that the sky must have dumped down all of the clouds from the previous day, as this morning we had a completely clear and cloudless view. It just so happened that most of the other volunteers woke up to see it as well, and we all stood together in awe.

As the sun starts to creep over the horizon, it first lights up the peaks of the tallest of the Himalayas, several minutes before its light hits us directly here in Gaunshahar.

The first point of direct sunlight begins to glimmer as it rises above the eastern mountains.

I decided to film the entire process of the sun climbing above the peaks, bringing forth the morning.

The fog rising up from the warming valley catches the rays of the sunlight so perfectly. It looks like a wall of light is extending in front of me in this picture.

The sun shining down on the river and valley below.

I came up with my own fractions homework for the 5th graders today.

October 18th

The clouds today were immaculate.

In this picture the mountain peak in the background seems to melt into the clouds in the foreground, as though we are looking at an abstract painting. it really is cool how in Nepal, the clouds are always low to the ground, sometimes seeming close enough that you can reach out and touch them.

October 19th

"Keer smile every day!"

A closeup of mushrooms growing at the forest temple at Kaulepani.

Someone must have paid a fresh visit to these shrines, as the salt sigils today were new.

When walking up around Kaulepani with some other volunteers, we were beckoned by a sweet young girl from her porch. She invited us to sit down and have some tea and sliced fruit, both of which were delicious!

Such a good host! I think she was really happy to have some company.

I was playing my ocarina while we sat down, and she really wanted to see it. I let her play with it and she was having a lot of fun!

So precious.

She played it on the swing.

 We walked along the road that cuts back into the jungle behind the pond at the top of Kaulepani. This allowed us to enjoy the benefits of photogrphing the lush nature without having to worry about swarms of leeches.

October 20th

A little black kitty has been popping up around the homestay, but at first she was too skittish to let anyone touch her. One day, the little toddler son of one of the hosts was chasing her. He caught her around her neck and began strangling her. I quickly jumped up and saved her from his sadistic clutches. Ever since then, she began trusting me and letting me pet her. She soon started to warm up to the other volunteers as well, especially the ones who are fonder of her. Today, she came and sat in my lap, and got so cozy with me petting her that she fell right asleep and stayed that way for over an hour. Her little "meow" is so cute, and she is really one of the most beautiful creatures I have seen here.

I decided to name her Margo, after my friend back home who loves cats.

The host family will sometimes leave the kitty a bit of rice, but knowing that cats are obligate carnivores, I often feed her a little bit of canned tuna. Thankfully an adult female cat has taken the kitty under her wing. I think she'll be alright.

High-fiving all of the kids as they leave at the end of the school day is one of the best parts of my day! I just make sure to wash my hands as soon as I get back to the homestay.

A dead rat makes a good plaything for a hungry kitty.

The bigger cat brought the kitty a nice, freshly kiled rat! Good to know that someone else will keep taking care of her after I am gone.

Even though it was not Tihar yet, another volunteer and I decided to answer this sweet doggy's pleas for some food.

He was a happy boy.

The first praying mantises I have seen showed up tonight. I think the bottom one might be a female and the top one a male. Either that or the bottom one is an adult while the top one is a younger one.

After the first week at school, I had settled in to teaching. We had about 11 volunteers at this point, making for a lot of fun when everyone is around. I was finding a little less time to read and write than before, but helping out with something as important as the kids' education is very fulfilling. I came up with an idea to test out an animal empathy workshop with the kids for the next week. I will talk some more about how that went in my next post!