Some Endings and Some Beginnings

One week left in the third term at KISC! This term has seemed very long in many ways, but now that it’s almost over I can’t believe how quickly it’s flown by! Sometimes time is funny like that… :). I’m looking forward to having a nice break and then heading into Term 4, which promises to be action-packed!

Tearful Goodbyes

Okay, so technically no one has cried, but I AM very sad about saying goodbye to two of my first grade students. Last week we had a farewell party in ESL to say goodbye to 5 ESL students, two of which are students that I teach. They will be going back to Korea for furlough and will come back to Kathmandu, but I won’t see them again. 

One student, Aehee, left for Korea yesterday. She added a lot of humor to ESL and was always a very hard worker. She has quite an attitude, too, especially for a first grader! Also, Seong-Hyeon will be leaving after next week. I know I shouldn’t play favorites, but IF I did, Seong-Hyeon would be it. I’ll be so sad to see him go! I still have two really wonderful first graders who are staying, though, which is definitely a silver lining.

My first graders and I after our farewell party. Seong-Hyeon (on the far left) and Aehee (on the far right) will be leaving, but I'll continue to teach Pratyush (the little boy in the middle) and Sebin next term. Here, Pratyush is making his dinosaur face :).

Tutoring and Training

Last week I started doing after-school tutoring for a Year 10 student. This student has English as a second language, but is planning on taking the native-speaker IGCSE English exams next year. To give her a little extra boost with her language skills, I’ll be tutoring her twice a week. I’ve had two sessions with her so far. We’re going through some practice exams, focusing on vocabulary, grammar, and writing style. The teaching is a lot more academic than what I’m used to, so it’s right up my alley :). 

In addition, tomorrow (Sunday, 3/25) I’ll be traveling out of the Kathmandu valley to observe English classes in a Nepali school. As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Megan and I will be observing English classes and interviewing both teachers and students, and using these observations to plan a few English teaching workshops for Nepali teachers. We’re both really looking forward to this opportunity :). 
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Thanks again for all your continued support! Please check out some updated prayer requests and praises to the right --->
 

Holi Excitement

Hello again, friends! The past couple weeks have been business as usually. Well, other than having to dodge water balloons being hurled at me from rooftops every time I left the house…

Holi

Last Wednesday was a Hindu festival called Holi. I’m not really sure what the deeper significance of the holiday is, and it seemed like most people I asked weren’t even sure, but the celebrations include throwing water balloons from rooftops and covering each other with colored powder. People all over the city were walking around, soaking wet and covered with bright colors. I had heard some stories of water balloons being filled with not-so-nice things, so I decided to take refuge in my house and have a relaxing day reading my book on the roof, but even there I wasn’t safe! Some of the neighbors saw us on the roof and managed to target us with slingshots! Overall, I escaped unscathed, but some of my friends who ventured out came back looking like this:

My friends who dared to go outside during Holi.

 New Opportunities

Although my time here is quickly coming to a close, I’ve been blessed with a few exciting new opportunities! First, next week I will start doing some private English tutoring after school for a secondary student getting ready for upcoming exams. Between that and swim practices starting up next term I’ll soon be very busy after school. 

In addition, a friend and I were given the opportunity to do some teacher training! We will be holding a couple of English teaching workshops for Nepali teachers outside of the Kathmandu valley. We’ll be visiting the school and doing some observations at the end of this month and start planning a couple workshops in the months to come. 

This photo is from my recent trip to Pokhara. We crossed the lake by boat and hiked to the top of a hill to see the World Peace Pagoda, build by Japanese Buddhist monks. 

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I just added some new photos to my Facebook account! You can check them out here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.572126078282.2064217.69102077&type=1&l=48b560a067