Naughty children but still loving it!

Each week we seem to feel more comfortable and enjoy school more which is nice. Having said that the novelty of us is beginning to wear off thus meaning we have a class full of naughty 6 year olds! Unfortunately our grade 2 class have established that we will not hit them like the Nepali teachers do, making discipline quite difficult. The other day we were drowning a bit as they refused to sit down or do anything we asked but by the end they were finally settled. I think we are going to have to think up our own forfeits or punishments of some kind!

It has been nice this week as the grade 5 class seem to be making progress with making sentences and we started doing exam practice with them which was encouraging. It was weird to look at their exam as they are so different to ours and the format is the same from grade 2-10 which is strange. Our combined class are quite difficult to teach as their abilities range so much but we have done some activities with daily routines and that has gone well which is encouraging! Overall, we are getting to know the children better and the lessons are going better which is nice and rewarding!

On Thursday the children asked us to stay for their games which seemed to occupy the rest of the school day. It was great fun to teach them some of our games and was very sweet as we both had about 10 children clinging to each arm wanting to hold our hands. This was lovely but also quite exhausting! Our fan club, a group of about 6 children from ages 4-8, have paid us quite a few visits at our house after school. They are very sweet but they are getting more adventurous and naughty! They now go into the house and raid through our things. One of them got hold of my deodorant and started rubbing it on their faces and another started to stick her fingers in our hand sanitiser but we are getting better at stopping them. They also love playing with our playing cards or just watching us which is sweet. However, the main fascination seems to be the tap and soap so they all want to wash their hands now- probably not a bad idea! They are lovely and very sweet but they can be annoying at times so we often go off for a walk to get them to go home.

We have explored the area a bit more, walking down to another village and up Bahakot hill although the locals still don't understand the concept!

Overall, it has been a good week and we are getting to know the locals better which is nice. There have been tough times of missing home and all it's luxuries but the amazing mountain views and the sweet children help take these thoughts away. We are going to Pokhara this weekend with some of the other volunteers which is very exciting!