Swimming Through the Next Term

Hello everyone!

Tomorrow it will be exactly two months untill I leave Nepal! Sometimes when I think about that it seems like time has really flown by, but other times it seems like I’ve been here for a lot longer than nine months. Even though my time is ticking, I still have quite a bit that I have to think about a quite a bit to accomplish before June 29^th rolls around.

Nepali School Observation

Last weekend, I went back to the Nepali school where I had the opportunity to observe some classes. It was amazing to see the school while classes were in session and would take me too long to describe all the ways that this school is different from schools that I am used to in America. Some of the more obvious differences, however, are the class sizes and the apparent lack of an organized schedule. Teachers seemed to pop into classes and start teaching at random. I’m sure, however, that there was some method to the madness – only it was simply one that I couldn’t decipher as an outsider. In addition, the classes were huge! As many students as possible were packed into small classrooms. When we entered a class for observation and the teacher invited us to sit down, my initial reaction was panic as I scanned the class for any empty space or even considered sitting on the floor. The students adapted, however, and somehow made some room for me on the bench. 

One of the secondary English classes... there were over 80 students in this one classroom!

 I think this observation was really valuable, however, and will give us a lot of direction as we plan a training workshop to be held next month.  

The front side of the school.

Swimming, Swimming, and more Swimming!

The past week has been filled with planning workouts and making trips to the pool… Swim season has started again! Hooray!!! We now have four practices a week, two before school and two after school. My own responsibilities with the team have changed a lot for this term. Now, instead of having merely a support-role, I am planning and running all of the team practices. This is more responsibility and is keeping me busy, but I’m really enjoying it and plan on really whipping these kids into shape :). 

Some members of the KISC swim team.

In addition to the high-school swim team, this coming week I’ll be starting teaching swim lessons for primary students during their PE time. I’m so happy to be able to help out, but I’m a little worried about controlling a class full of hyper children at the pool.

Busy Week/Busy Term

Between my teacher-training project, high school and primary swim lessons, and after-school tutoring, this is looking to be my busiest term yet. There are also several other little bits that I’ll be covering for, lots of meetings, and the expected end-of-year busyness. This past week, especially, was incredibly busy and may have been one of my busiest here in Nepal.

Last week one of my extra bits involved going to a wedding! One of the TA’s at KISC got married last week and everyone from KISC was invited to the reception. Here’s a picture of the bride and groom: 

The bride, my coworker Nandana, and her new husband. This was an arranged marriage... an interesting concept to think about coming from a Western culture.

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Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter!!!

I hope you all had a great holiday!

It’s easy to overlook Easter in Nepal. Most Nepalis don’t celebrate this holiday, so we don’t  get the bombardment of Easter eggs, Easter grass, pastel-colored everything, and all the typical Easter sights. That, however, does not take away from the importance of the day. We had a nice Good Friday service at the international church, an Easter Sunday service, and an amazing family dinner afterwards… and even an Easter egg hunt! Yes, the Fairchild family tradition lives on in Kathmandu!!

Nepali Teacher Training Project

Last time I posted I was about to head out to interview the teachers at the Nepali school that I’ll be doing some teacher-training with. This visit/interview went really well and now we’re working on figuring out what the next steps will be and how to best proceed. 

The school is in an area called Dhading which is about an hour and a half outside the Kathmandu valley. It’s in a much smaller village, but still very close to the main highway that runs across the country. 

Here I am in front of the school in Dhading.

The school is both an elementary school and a high school, and the teachers there face some difficult challenges. The secondary teachers have about 60 students in each class and the primary teachers have about 90! That’s 90 students for one teacher! I don’t know how they do it! Plus, their classrooms are quite different from what you might see in the US. In order to fit so many students, the classrooms are simply rows of benches and tables crammed into a small room with a blackboard in front. Although this situation is very different from any teaching experience I’ve ever had, I hope that we can give them some quality training to really help them out and encourage them. 

Soon I’ll be making another visit to the school to do another observation so we can plan our first training workshop next month.

School Break

There’s not much to report as far as KISC goes. We’re on our term-break right now and have another week before the last term begins. Most of the other teachers have gone trekking, but I decided to stay in Kathmandu to relax and begin the job-search process for when I come back to the US. 

My first few days I spent house-sitting for a family that I know. They have a beautiful home with a huge garden, a trampoline, and two dogs and a cat to keep me company. Although my living space is pretty nice, I really felt like I was living the high-life :). 

Two of my constant companions last week when I was house-sitting :).

Now I’m back in my own room for a few days. I've been doing a little shopping and relaxing with friends and I also hope to get quite a bit of work done before Thursday when I’ll be leaving for Pokhara for the final few days of my break. If you remember from my previous posts, I’ve been to Pokhara two times before and it’s the closest thing to paradise here in Nepal, so I’m really looking forward to going there again. 

While out shopping I found a Wal-Mart!!! Unless Wal-Mart chaged to a pashmina specialty store, however, I doubt it's really the same.

While out shopping with friends, we stopped to pose with this cow sleeping in the middle of the street. I don't understand why it would choose the busiest street in the area for a nap, but whatever floats your boat, I guess...

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