Entertaining classes, our first visitors and power cuts- week 2 at school
We began our second week at school a little more secure and confident of what we were doing. We were asked to teach grade 10, the eldest class in the school an English passage. I was certainly more nervous about this mainly because we had no idea what their level of English was. We did not get off to the best start as Alice walked into the tiny doorway on the way in and we couldn't find the page in the book. Once we got started the class was fine but I must admit it was the most entertaining class yet. Firstly, the girls were quite awkward and the boys had an attitude which was amusing especially as this changed as soon as we asked them anything. Furthermore, we asked if there were any words they did not understand from the passage, there was silence but when they were asked to do the activity they asked the meaning of all the words in Nepali... not great. We were also asked a bunch of random questions including what the difference between Hinduism and Buddhism is, something completely unrelated to the passage and something they know far more about! We were also trying to check their understanding of the passage with some questions but they just looked at the back of the book for the answers... we will not be caught out next time! Finally, the teacher does not have the best English and would frequently contradict us which did not help our cause. Overall, although it sounds like a bit of a disaster of a lesson it went quite well but it was quite amusing to look back on. It was interesting to see the different stages in the school and it was nice to have a change and teach some more advanced English!
We also took a grade 9 class this week which was good fun and quite interesting. They're English was acctually better than the grade 10's so it was a more productive lesson! It was still a bit strange as they too asked us some random questions and the teacher continued to contradict us but it was a good lesson.
The younger students have been a bit sleepy and slow this week so have been quite unproductive. Group of girls from grade 1 and 3 have paid us a few visits and cluster around when we go to the class next to there's so it takes about half the lesson to persuade them to go away!
On Wednesday, we were told there was another English girl coming to visit the village so we were not to teach our last class. Instead we did some Nepali dancing whilst the local ladies sang and played a drum. We were terrible at the dancing but it was very entertaining. When the other English girl left we learnt that the locals thought she was very unfriendly towards us and they did not like her. We spent the rest of the afternoon showing the teachers pictures of back home which they really liked and it helped break down barriers a bit.
We also experienced our first proper power cut which lasted 3 days. This was quite annoying but the locals were definitely prepared for it and it did not phase them. We have also enjoyed going for walks down the hill but we do get a lot of strange looks as walking does not seem to be a pleasure activity for them! We do get a little overwhelmed as all the school children run after us and hold our hands or want to talk to us but it is very sweet. We even got asked for our autographs the other day which was extremely funny!
Overall, it has been a good week and we feel like we are settling in more. We have got some more food supplies which makes a big difference and we had a visit from the other AV volunteers at the weekend which was nice.
