Teaching Monks

To teach monks is much more rewarding than it was to teach in school here.

Me and the monks

I started teaching in a monastery last Sunday and I had to change my host family at the same time. My new host family is good but I miss my old host family.The monastery is just half an hour on bike from where I was before so today I will go back and visit the orphanage and my old host family. In the monastery there are 12 monks between ages 10-16, they live together in a tiny temple and so far I have been teaching together with a Margaret from Latvia which has been great. Margaret wanted to learn Swedish as well so I taught her Swedish in the evenings. Turned out she was a really fast learner and she could make real sentences on her own after just three days. Fun to have someone to talk Swedish to, even if our conversations were very basic.

Back to the real teaching. So, we divided the monks into two groups and she taught the ones who barely knew how to answer questions in English and I taught the other group. My group knows English quite well, for instance they know how to form easy sentences and their pronunciation is most of the time easy to understand. 

Our classroom

The hardest part of teaching the monks is to know what to teach, because they don't have any books, at all. Sometimes I complain in Sweden when we don't have books to all our student, but here we don't have books in any subjects and we don't have computers. Another thing which makes it difficult is that I don't know what teachers before me have done. There is no plan or curriculum for them and the only way to find out what they have done earlier is to look in their note books. There is no regular teacher, except for their Lama-teacher but he doesn't teach English. The only teaching of English is done by volunteers, which is what I thought teaching in Nepal would be like. I thought I would be needed here and that I actually would be able to help out through my experience as a teacher. In the monastery I feel like I 'm really needed which is good but at the same time I feel bad about how the teaching of the monks is structured (or not structured). What they need is stability and someone who can stay with them and teach them for at least half a year. 

Teaching

It takes time both for teachers and students to get to know each other and I therefore think it would work so much better if they could have the same teacher for a longer period of time. The worst thing is that I don't think it's lack of volunteers that is the problem but that the organization (RCDP) mostly is after my money rather than to actually help the students. If they wanted to help the students then surely they would have sent volunteers to one place for as long as possible instead of sending volunteers to different places for one or two weeks. I would have loved to stay in the monastery for my entire stay and from what I've heard from the other volunteers they feel the same say. We are here partly because we want to learn about other cultures but also because we want to help and support teachers here in Nepal.

I believe one of my strengths as a teacher is my structure and planning so I will try to use this strength and make a plan for the monks, at least for the rest of this year. The plan is not to force volunteers after me to teach something they don't want to teach but I would have liked to have a rough plan to follow just so that I know what has already been taught and what I could teach. I'll try to make the plan this coming week because  I will leave for Kathmandu and then Everest Base Camp on the 7th of October. I don't know if I'm coming back to the monastery in November or not.

I guess I have to mention the flight crash in Kathmandu (http://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/flygkrasch-kan-dodat-19-i-himalaya). The flight was heading for Loukla which is the same place that I'm flying to next week. Apparently two planes have crashed on their way there just this year. Scary but I'm sure I'll be fine. I was thinking about going to Annapurna to trek instead but in Annapurna there was an avalanche last week which killed about ten people. So I guess both treks are a bit dangerous, however I'm sure I'll be fine. The thing that worries me the most is actually that I'm spending way too much money. Trekking is really expensive and when I'm in the monastery it costs me $25 extra each month, so these last weeks I've been spending a lot of money. But on the other hand, how often are you this close to the highest mountain in the world? Of course I have to go there.

Julia from Germany, Elli(?) from Taiwan, Margaret from Latvia and me at Manakanama temple

A school we walked past in Manakamana

House in Manakamana

Cloudy view of the mountains

All in all, I'm having a great time, it feels like I can actually help and I've meet a lot of really nice people from all over the world. I hope I will stay in touch with them even after we all leave Nepal. I am doing a lot of tourist things so that I can absorb as much as possible of the Nepali culture and the Nepali landscape. In the picture you can see me and three other volunteers on a one-day-trip to Manakamana, which is one of the most important Hindu temples. The temple is on the top of a mountain and you have to take cable cars up there, unless you feel like walking uphill for five hours. We walked around and saw a small school, a village and a small cave with a Hindu priest in it. 

Goat about to be sacrificed?

Goat 180 rupies

Goats are sacrificed here and you can by a one-way ticket for the goats on the cable cars. It was awful to see the goats trying to fight their destiny and it made us very uncomfortable to be there. I know it is part of their religion and I don't judge them I just can't be around when they kill animals in the middle of the street. The temple itself was not as interesting as we thought it would be and we had hoped to see mountains from up there. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day and we could only see the closest mountains, no ones with snow on them...

More cloudy views

I'm amazed by how friendly people are in this country. Everyone says hi to you on the street and they stay and talk to you all the time. I think I will miss these friendly people when I go back to Sweden.

Lumbini and the Women's Festival

From being bored to death I now find my self busy all the time. I will try to  include a lot of pictures this time so you can see that I'm still alive and not starving.

Monks

Lumbini
Last weekend me and five other volunteers went to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. I thought Lumbini would be as touristy as Pokhara but there were no tourists anywhere. All restaurants were empty and it felt as if we were the only ones visiting Lumbini. You would have thought that many people would go to Buddha's birthplace but apparently that is not the case, at least not this time a year.

Buddha's birthplace

Hanging out outside Buddha's birthplace

Buddhist temples are nothing like churches, they are more like a circus

Lumbini

The Peace Padoga in Lumbini

In Lumbini we rented bicycles and rode around looking at different temples. Sarah from the US got in a bicycle accident because she was riding on the wrong side of the road, which easily can happen when you're not used of riding on the left side. Sarah payed the guy 500 rupies (50kr) and after that everyone was fine, except for the other guy's bike which was totally ruined.

The bicycle accident

Riding bikes in Nepal = getting stuck n the mud

Lumbini is a small place so I'm glad we only spent one night there. Me and Sarah walked to a Buddhist temple were monks  between the ages 11-14 (or something like that)were living. The monks found us very exotic so we stayed there and talked to them while we waited for the ran to stop. However the rain didn't stop so we ended up getting soaking wet just before we got into the cab back to Rampur. On Sunday I'm gong to the temple in Rampur were the Buddhist monks live. I'm exited about actually getting to do some real work but not for leaving my host family. This week has been a really good week even though I haven't one any teaching...

Me and Sarah with monks

Inside the monks' temple

The Women's Festival
The women's festival is a festival were women pray for the husband's good health and long lives. The festival is also a time for dancing and singing. My Nepali singing is not very good so I stick to dancing (which is not very good either but hopefully it's better than my singing). Yesterday me, Julia and Josana went to a holy place called Devghat, I will write more about it another day. However, when we got back to Rampur my host family took me to someone's house for dancing. I was really tired from walking in the sun all day but was forced to dance. It s really hard to say no when everyone is asking m to dance and when my host sister tells me "Come on, you have to dance, everyone wants to see you dance". I guess they just want to watch someone else dance and that they find it funny to watch me dance. I'm getting used to it though and have stopped fighting it. Today is the last day of the festival so guess we're gong to the temple tonight for more dancing.

Dancing with the kids from the orphanage

Me and parts of my extended host family

Dancing n the temple with Josana, Julia and Monique

Mamata, one of the cute kids from the orphanage

My host family dressed up for the festival in saris

More dancing in the temple

Me and my lovely host sisters Kamela an Jamouna, I'm wearing a korta.

My host daughters

Sad Orphanage and Happy Festival

I told them to smile and these are the smiles I got...

I went to the most awful orphanage the other day. I went there with the Japanese group just because I wanted to see an orphanage which doesn't have as much money as the one I'm working at. We took a tuck-tuck (?) for an hour and ended up in a very rural area close to the borders of the national park. When we arrived we got to meet the children leaving there. They were 12 children in total and most of them were in year 3-5. We were told that most of these kids had been left by their mothers who had been raped by army men guarding the national park. I don't know if we were told the whole truth but one thing was clear; this orphanage did not have the same resources as the one I'm volunteering at has. 

The orphanage

On our way to the orphanage

The orphanage got their food from families in the neighborhood and had to fight really hard in order to collect food for the kids. When I was there I got almost the same feeling as when I went to Auschwitz a few years ago. I know it's not fair to compare but the feeling I had was still similar. I felt rally sad and almost depressed, I just wanted to help them but it felt like I could do nothing at all for them. It felt hopeless. Still, it was clean and the staff seemed caring and good with the kids. It was just a feeling of sadness that overwhelmed me. Maybe it was because the kids didn't smile or show any emotions at all or maybe it was because the where so quiet and shy, I don't know. It was just so different from everywhere else I've been in this country, where kids scream, laugh and wave to you wherever you go. 

"Note book action", the Japanese group's project

Julia showing videos on her camera 

The only kid who could write a full sentence in English

We were told that it is hard for this orphanage to collect money because the military doesn't likes criticism and one of the aims for the organisation running the orphanage is to change the laws of the national park to create better conditions for the women in the area. It is a bit complicated to go into details but the result is that kids have been left alone in the jungle and then been taken care of by this orphanage. The staff don't know the exact age of the kids since they were found without any family or anyone near them who knew when they were born. In the orphanage it was the first time here that I really felt like I want to work hard and change their situation. It felt like a good place but they really lack money. I talked to the Japanese group and we are going to keep in touch and see if we can do something together for this place. Feels really good that I didn't go there on my own. Hopefully I will be able to go back there in a week or two and maybe I can help out there for a bit, the only problem is that no one there speaks English...

A more uplifting things that has happened in Rampur this week is that there are a lot of volunteers here now! There is Julia from Germany, who works in school with me, Sam and Sarah from the USA who works with planting food for the orphanage and two Australian girls who work at the orphanage with me. It feels great to have people to talk to especially this week when there has been a strike 3 days out of 6 school days. Me, Sarah and Sam are probably going back to the national park on Saturday morning and maybe we will sleep in a tower inside the jungle, that would be amazing! We wanted to leave tomorrow, but tomorrow is strike (probably) and that means that no taxis or buses are running. 

Thikka (rice in red colour) for everyone!

On Tuesday next week is the real Women's festival, this week was just some kind of warm-up apparently. I'm really looking forward to the festival since the warm-up was great. I have included a few pictures from the temple were we've been dancing and singing for three days in a row this week.The teachers even texted each other about me dancing so when I came to school the day after everyone knew that I had danced. 

Host mother dancing dressed as a man

In the temple

Dancing (everyone is watching the weird westerner of course)

Women's Festival

Women's festival this week and three new volunteers!

Today is a holiday in Nepal, which is something I just found out this morning. You might think that it could have been in the calender, but no. In Sweden when there is a day off, all kids are really excited about it but here the children seem to like being in school more than being at home. Maybe this is due to the fact that they have to clean the house if there is a holiday (and you're a girl).

Yesterday and the day before yesterday we celebrated the women's festival in the Hindu temple just round the corner from my school. It is more a shed than a temple really, but it works well for singing and dancing in.  Live music and a lot of dancing is what happens during the night (until 10, when everyone goes to bed) and a priest is talking during the days. Everyone is trying to get me to dance but I know I'm really bad in comparison to the Nepali people and I also know that everyone will stop what they're doing and stare at me if I dance. I have danced a bit however, just because I've been forced. It was a lot of fun, I really liked it. What bothers me is just that everyone starts pointing the light as well as their fingers at me as soon as I get up and dance. Three new volunteers arrived yesterday and they were just as bad at dancing as I am so that was good (for me). These two last nights have been great because I have actually known a lot of people in the temple, more than I thought I knew in this town. I have become friends with a really nice Nepali girl named Josana and I have talked a lot with the woman who is running the orphanage.

The other day I found out that the family I'm staying with has money problems and they don't know if they will be able to send their only son to university. I think (I'm not totally sure though) that the cost for a month in university is about 700rupies, which is about 70 kr. Feels like I should contribute with money to make the university possible but I'm not sure of what to do. Ideas? Many people have asked me for money but I have no idea of what to do about that so up until now I haven't bought anything.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the most interesting thing that happened today. I woke up and was told that there had been a rhino running in the rice fields just outside our house. The kids in the orphanage had seen it and so had the daughters in my host family, I did not see it. I can see why people don't go out when it's dark if rhinos are running through the streets at night. Exciting, hoping I will see the next rhino!

I will try to upload pictures from the festival soon!



  

Popcorn For Lunch, Why Not?

Daal bath

I just realized I haven't talked that much about food in this blog, which is strange since it is almost all I can think about. This picture is of the famous daal bath that I eat twice a day (the only real meal I have). It might not look its best in this particular photo, and it isn't the most delicious looking food but it is actually really tasty. Daal bath is always rice and lentils plus a lot of spices (curry and chili are the ones I recognize) and it is always very spicy even so they manage to vary their daal bath quite a bit. Sometimes you get eggs, sometimes pumpkin seeds, if you're unlucky you'll get something that looks like spinach but taste more like dandelion or grass...

For lunch I usually have tea and cookies but yesterday I got pop corn(!). Anyone who knows me knows that I love pop corn and that I easily can eat it every single day, so why not for lunch? Pop corn here has just been picked from the maize plant and is either popped or half-popped, you know like the unpopped pop corn that always is left at the bottom of the bowl when you have it at home. The unpopped ones are much tastier here than back home though, they are not as hard so you can actually chew them. Otherwise pop corn here taste just like home but a bit maizier I would say. For my pop corn lunch I was given a bowl with pop corn in it and a spoon to eat it with. Not so strange maybe considering they eat everything with their fingers while I always eat with a spoon. I did however leave the spoon and ate with my fingers. Hoping for more pop corn-lunches!

By the way, I'm starting to figure out more and more about my host family. Yesterday I found out that the man in the family actually is married to two of the women. He had a wife before that but she passed away after giving him 4 children. His new wife after that was apparently a bad wife because she couldn't cook and she didn't given him any children, therefore he had to get married to a new wife. The father told me this with both his wives present which made me feel very bad for the rejected wife. The rejected wife is also treated really badly in the household. She gets her food last, she does the cleaning, most of the washing and laundry, she always eats on the floor and it is easy to tell that she is a bit of an outsider in the family. It is really hard to see and I don't know what else to do than to try talking to her. Even talking to her is hard when she knows just about as much English as I know Nepali (still not much...). She looks really sad and miserable which is no wonder considering that she's treated as a slave in her own house.

Project Smile with class 4 and 5

Members of project "Smile"

Yesterday I spent some time with the new volunteer, Sarah from America. She seems really nice and she will be here for three more weeks. I'm guessing that she sees me as a person who's very desperate for company, which is true even if I try to hold back. Everyone in the Japanease group are also very friendly so I try to spend as much time as possible with them (again without looking desperate of course). Their project is very appreciated by all the kids but not as much by the teachers. I was told by one of the teachers that Nepali people are not interested in Japanease songs, or fairytales, they don't need to learn their language either, they are "just not interested in Japan". Do I have to add that this is the same teacher who comes into my lesson and beats up students? However, I'm hoping to get to spend more time with the Japanease group and help with their project in any way that I can. They are also going to another school in this area so I'm hoping I can join them on that trip, but we'll see. I got a cold from the English girl in Pokhara, hoping it will pass but today I feel like just staying in bed and doing nothing at all. Not going to happen though, considering the fan is not working, homework session in half an hour and grandma's birthday is today which means the house is going to be crowded.

Birthday girl to the right

Today it is grandmother's birthday and everyone is really excited, even grandma. Sometimes she reminds me a lot of my own grandma, Martha. For instance, when it was raining like crazy the other day she comes in with a towel around her body and told me with a laugh that she had been outside showering in the rain, She twirls around to show me how showering in the rain is done. She also makes roti (bread similar to the Finnish bread rieska), she eats people's left overs and everyone in and around the family loves her, just like everyone loved my grandma. I wonder if there will be cake tonight? Probably not but maybe some really fancy potato to go with tonight's daal bath...

A Weekend in Pokhara

Pokhara seen from the World Peace Pagoda

This weekend was spent in Pokhara, which is one of the biggest tourist cities in Nepal. Pokhara is known for its beautiful view points, its big lake and for being the starting point for many trekkers.

Why did I go to Pokhara?

Joe and Eleanor by the World Peace Pagoda

I went there by bus and met two other volunteers who I went to the national park in Chitwan with. Joe from America and Eleanor from England, it was great to have two native Englsih speaking people to hang out with for a few days! The thing I miss the most here in Rampur is someone in the same situation as I am in who can speak good English. Not having anyone to talk to drives you mad, only hanging out with children is not at all the same as hanging out with your friends. In order to have the strength to continue this teaching project I need to be able to talk about what is happening around me and to discuss it with someone else. Therefore I was really happy when I found out that both Joe and Eleanor were coming to Pokhara with me. Both of them are volunteering in Kathmandu and that seems a bit easier because they have plenty of other volunteers to meet up with and discuss things with. So if it gets too lonely here in Chitwan I might go to Kathmandu instead. I will however try to stay in Chitwan for at least one more month.

Leaving Chitwan now would feel like giving up, both on myself and on the children. Except from being lonely it is also very hard to never getting any positive feedback from the other teachers or caretakers. I guess it could be because they don't speak very good English, because they feel like I'm not doing it right, that they don't need me there or maybe you just don't give positve feeback in Nepal? It felt good to discuss this with Joe and Eleanor because they told me that it doesn't really matter what the teachers think or say, the important thing is the kids. The English teachers they have in school are almost impossible for me to communicate with due to their lack of English and it is easy to tell that the children like me because they keep giving me flowers after lessons and staying even though they've had their last lesson for the day.

I guess I do some good even in the orphanage. I try to contribute with English when they do their homework but I actually think that the most important thing for these children is to feel that someone cares about them and to have someone to play with. I love the kids at the orphanage and they love my iphone. They can use my phone for hours, playing temple run or angry birds. I have also taught them to play a few different card games, for instance the game "bubble" which always makes me think about my cousins and my sister. All in all, I might be doing something good by being here even if it doesn't feel like I am all the time.

My trip to Pokhara

Waiting for the bus to Pokhara

I arrived to Pokhara at 3 o'clock and was by then really tired from a long bus ride and a lot of waiting. On my way to Pokhara I was photographed and starred at while waiting for the bus in a not very touristy area. I was driven to the bus on the back of a motorcycle, which if you've seen Nepali traffic would know is a bit scary.

A lot of people go to Nepal to bungy jump, go rafting or go trekking. people want adventure but really, the most risky thing in Nepal is probably the traffic. The traffic is worst in Kathmandu but the roads are quite bad all over the country. Even so, I have been on the back of motorcycles and on a scooter and I'm still alive. 

Joe called this road, "a bit bumby" which is true in a way I guess

In Pokhara we managed to get a room for only 500 rupies per night (around 40 kronor), for three! Our room did have cockroaches but it did also have a western toilet and a really good shower so it was definitely worth the money. We stayed there Saturday to Monday.

What to do in Pokhara?

Tibetan flags can be seen everywhere

The main reason for going on this trip for me was to meet other foreigners. It did however turn out to be a very good trip in so many different ways. We started our Pokhara sightseeing by having steak and french fries, which is a luxury compared to all the rice I've been eaten for the last couple of weeks. The entire weekend had a bit of a food theme, we tried to eat as much as we possibly could, we avoided everything with lentils or rice in it and we at a lot of unhealthy food just to compensate for all the rice... May not have been a very good strategy but it was needed. I might not have needed all that french fries but I did need food that I'm used to from back home. The one thing that I really miss but didn't have this weekend  is a salad. I miss salads so much but I'm not sure it will be safe to have it here since they often rinse their vegetables in tap water. Rule number one for staying away from sickness is don't drink tap water. I guess the salad will have to wait until I get back to Sweden, which is only about four months from now...

In Pokhara there are a lot to see but unfortunately it rained a lot when we were there. Therefore we didn't have time to see everything that we had planned on seeing. We did however see the World Peace Pagoda which is a Japanese Buddhist temple on the top of one of the mountains close to Pokhara. We drove there on scooters, which was a lot of fun, a bit scary but there was almost no traffic so it was probably one of the safer traffic experiences I've had here in Nepal. 

What else did we do, except from eating? We walked around in town, we went to see Davi's fall, which is a waterfall, we saw the sunset from a boat in the lake Phewa Tal, we listened to live music and we watched the sunrise from the top of a mountain. All, in all it was a great weekend and I'll try to remember that during this week when I once again have to deal with talking students, beating teachers and children which won't let go of my hand.

Devi's fall

Buddha statue at the World Peace Pagoda

 

Sunset, seen from the lake

Sunrise, seen from a mountain. Unfortunately it was very cloudy