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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