Pokhara

Friday 13th!

How wonderful this place is after Kathmandu.
Imagine the peace of a large lake in a fair sized town that actually doesn't have too much traffic so you don't feel like you are taking your life in your hands every time you step out into the road. This was the view from the hotel:

We flew Yeti Airlines again from Kathmandu into Pokhara. It is a few hundred feet lower than Kathmandu so the air is not so thin and the pollution is so much less which means it becomes easy to walk longer distances again.
We arrived at about 9 am, the flight was a mere 30 mins. Having made use of the Lonely Planet guide we stayed in a nice hotel called Travel Inn. The manager apparently learnt his trade in Morrisons and Travel Inn in the UK! It was bliss staying there for two nights: hot shower, air conditioning and beds imported from Germany :)
Nepali beds are something to be experienced. They basically consist of a thin mattress pad of about two inches lying over hardboard sheets and a pillow that feels like it has been stuffed with sawdust.
So this was a little piece of heaven. Nice room, lovely town and peace and quiet.
We sat with a cup of tea and waited for our rooms to be prepared just taking our time and we realised it must get very windy in Pokhara as they have a novel way of keeping roofs in place:

Yes, every roof you look at here is covered in boulders.


After settling in our room we had some lunch and had a chat about what we would do that afternoon.


We decided to have a little wander around the town and get our bearings and that's when we saw the buffalo family.

Only in this part of the world would you get buffalo wandering happily down a street!


Next we decided to go and look at the lake, and what views there were. The lake stretched out in front of us with an amazing backdrop of the Annapurna range mountains behind.

And suddenly the mountain appeared as the cloud cleared: it was breathtaking.

Next thing the buffalo appeared again...it was time for their wallow :)

12th August 2010

Well, it has been an interesting week!
I was asked by the school to run a teacher training session on behaviour management as this is an area many Nepali teachers find difficult. It is common practice to beat children here if they do wrong, both parents and teachers do this. However, the school stopped corporal punishment about 18 months ago and now they are finding it incredibly difficult to find other ways of maintaining order.
The children here are like any others all over the world and respond well to positive reinforcement. So my whole training was about helping the teachers to find ways of making the lessons more interesting and making sure the lessons are inclusive.
This is a lot harder than it sounds. Teaching here is about making sure the government curriculum is followed to the letter, and this means reading out of books and writing the answers to set questions.
But how to make things more interesting? What is wonderful is having some of the teachers trying out new methods, like group work and mixing the girls and boys together. Basic things like introducing the lesson and giving a learning objective for the lesson are missing so children that may have been absent have no idea what is happening. The teachers have now started to do this in some lessons and have begun to get the idea about different learning and teaching styles. The science teacher has even promised me he will bring in flowers so the children can see at first hand the anatomy of a plant!
English lessons have taken on a more intuitive feel by using more group work and discussion and the idea of project work is starting to filter through. So maybe Liz and I are making a difference! (Liz is a fabulous 18 year old American student who will make a great teacher one day)

Namaste!

Namaste!

To the left is Everest at 8848m and the next-door peak is Makalu at 8481m


Hello there,
Day off today and a very early start at sparrow o'clock as we had to catch a plane for an 8.00 flight from Kathmandu. We were very pleased to find out that it was Yeti Airlines we were travelling with :)




We had the most amazing experience flying over the Himalaya range, the clouds were like fluffy cotton wool below us and these majestic peaks were reaching up through them. They really are the top of the world!

On being a school inspector!

The children are at school in Nepal for six days a week, Sunday to Friday with Saturday being the day of rest here.
It's a very interesting experience seeing at first hand the education here. The children rote-learn every lesson and everything is taught in English. For each subject the children have a text book with a passage and questions to check knowledge. Lesson planning is almost non-existent as the lessons consist of just working through the book. For differentiation the children write in exercise books for the higher ability, or answer the questions in their text books if they are not so able!
I am constantly amazed at what these children manage. We would not expect a 6 year old child to copy and answer long passages in a foreign language, but this is what they do. All subjects including topics such as health, the books are in English. The children really have no great comprehension at this age; they are just learning to read the passage and find the relevant part to write the answer. When you question them deeper, the understanding is often not there. Another problem is the shear amount of homework they are given. The lessons are 40 mins long and there are 8 per day. Nearly every subject teacher sets homework per day, this means that the following lesson which is fairly short anyway is taken up with homework checking, followed by the next page of the book. There is no introduction to the lesson, no objective and no real assessment of where the understanding lies. And therein lies the problem.
The headmaster of the school has asked me to observe and give feedback to the teachers. There are complaints that the children are ill-disciplined, lacking in respect and do not do their homework always. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?? :)
It definitely sounds like every school I've ever worked at!
Many of the teachers are new at the school and corporal punishment is still a big part of discipline control in Nepal. Since the school is run by an Australian charity, this was stopped about 18 months ago. The teachers will often struggle to maintain good discipline in the classroom as they are so reliant upon one method of control.
So, I have become that most dreaded of beings - I feel like an Ofsted inspector!
Luckily, it has got easier and the teachers understand that I am there to help and give advice as much as I can. There are several of the younger teachers who want things to change and do not like the rote method.
The biggest thing is children talking and shouting out. It's showing the teachers other ways of gaining respect other than hitting to make then behave and it's teaching things like demeanour so that the children are more likely to respect them. There seems to be an attitude of 'It's cultural, the children behave like this' to which I reply, they are exactly the same in England. :)
The other big issue is use of resources. An example recently was a lesson with the older children of 15/16 years who were studying physics and light rays. One of the questions was about the type of lens used in a microscope. So I drew one on the board to explain and the question asked was 'Where do you look in?' Because they had never used one, they were trying to answer a question whereby they had no real concept of what they were talking about. How can you learn science which is such a practical subject, without actually touching and working with the things you are trying to learn about? So many concepts are lost on the children, as I said, they know the rote answer but they have no real idea of applying it.
That's not to say that I am criticising the efforts of the teachers here. I am full of praise for them because I certainly couldn't teach a subject in something other than my own language. The teachers have varying abilities in English ranging from fairly basic grammar to a Masters. I'm wondering if it would be better to teach the subjects in Nepali and use English words for the technical language only? I understand that they are pushing education forward rapidly here, but it really might be better if the teachers can teach in their own native language rather than try to translate into another language. In depth questioning and checking understanding really needs to be at a level both child and teacher are comfortable with.
The difficulty with this would be the text books. All are written in English and the exams are written in English, they are not always proof-read by a native-English speaker so some phrases are really unusual. I’ve ended up sometimes saying, ‘I’m very sorry, I think it means this but I’m not sure!’
I’ll end by putting the link in for the school again for those of you that may have missed it. Please look at it and if you feel so inclined add this to your charity list. People are working incredibly hard to make sure that all children get access to a good education here, but it takes money and every little helps.
HEARTLANDS CHILDREN'S ACADEMY
Video about HCA

Saturday 31st July continued...

Again apologies for delays, it is taking a long time to upload pictures and the power cuts have been increased to 8 hours a day! Nepal is powered by hydro-electricity and they are at present doing maintenance on the dam.

We visited a couple of different places on Saturday, the Pashupatinath Temple is a world heritage site, being the oldest Hindu temple in Nepal, established in the 5th century. It was originally dedicated to Lord Shiva and is where the cremations take place. The temple is in a pagoda style and non-Hindus are not allowed entry.

Nuns sit around the courtyards and yogis with their dust covered bodies intermingle with the crowds.

To the side is a elderly care home, little cells where old people who have no family to take care of them can live; a charity takes care of their needs. Interestingly, the first time I saw a cat was in this shelter, it must be something about old people and their feline companions.
It is so obviously a mixture of Tibetan and Indian in Nepal. You can guess people's origins by studying their faces, some look very Indian and others have the more Tibetan look that you expect in Nepal.

The other place we went to was the Swayambhunath Buddhist temple also known as the 'Monkey Temple'. It's an amazing structure thought to have been established as a place of worship by 460 AD. Legend tells that Kathmandu valley was originally a lake (the mountain surround would concur with this) and the temple was built on a mound in the middle of this lake. 'Swayambhu' means self-risen.






You really can't visit a temple like this and not be tempted to use the prayer wheel! It stands about 3 metres in height and the bell makes a lovely resonant sound when the wheel is turned.

Saturday 31st July

We are very fortunate to be in Nepal right now as there is there is a great Hindu religious festival happening. Many pilgrims are travelling to Kathmandu right now for it. What a sight, seeing generations of families sitting together making lingam. They have 9 days to make 10 million of these things out of clay!

Those that help are all fed whilst they are here. Environmentalism has been taken to the extreme as the food is served upon plates made of leaves that are discarded into tanks for the wandering cows to eat!

It is fascinating to see animals just meandering through traffic; so far we have come across goats, cows, numerous dogs, the odd cat and monkeys.

The baboon-like red monkeys live in many of the temples around Kathmandu and are treated warily by locals as they can give a vicious bite if you get too close. They are not beyond scrapping with each other also and we saw two fights break out. The first one involved a mother telling a juvenile probably for some upset to her youngster, they scrapped with the mother’s young one joining in, both fighting. The mother of the juvenile carrying a fairly small baby then decided to stick up for her own and attacked the other mother. Mother and baby ended up falling in the river. What a bedraggled sight that poor little one looked snuggled up to his mother after they climbed out of the river.
Kathmandu is a wonderful mix of religions with many Hindu and Buddhist peoples living well alongside each other. Something that will stay with me for a long time is the sight of the Hindu open-air cremations that take place. The bodies are wrapped in white and draped with an orange cloth. The river is considered quite sacred to Indian Hindus as it is a tributary to the Ghanges. The bodies are lain down with their feet uncovered so the water can gently lap at them, washing away any sins and preparing them for their ascent to heaven clean. When all the family have arrived the funeral can commence –it is the right of the oldest son to set the funeral pyre of the father.






Some people are asking what happens to the ashes...well the pyre is checked for any remains, then if there is only charcoal left, the river is just over the edge :)

Namaste!

Friday 30th July
Arrived safely
Firstly my apologies for the delay in posting – the internet connection has not been the best and there is a power cut of at least two hours every evening!
Well it feels like a very long 24 hours as aeroplanes don’t make the most comfortable of beds. There were the most amazing views, though, from the air as we flew over the western side of the Himalayas. We passed over the mountainous regions of places heard of in the news so often these days in Afghanistan – Kandahar, Herat and Helmand. The views over the mountains were lovely, barefaced and cut by the odd river showing. The peaks themselves were so high that snow could be seen atop them.
We had a very short stop-over in Delhi, rushing through the next check-in and queuing for an hour for my connecting flight. An interesting situation in the airport, as I was redirected from my line entering the scanning machine into another queue which apparently all ladies had to go through. After entering the scanner you have to go into a separate cubicle with curtain for the female officer to check you are not carrying anything you shouldn’t. I can only guess that this is done to preserve the sensibilities of ladies needing to maintain their full body cover without being revealed to men!
The flight to Kathmandu was pretty uneventful but it was lovely to be met by Ram. He is just how you would imagine a native of Nepal to be, welcoming and friendly and a very good guide to the city.

Our hotel we are staying in for two nights is very basic – I’m not sure it would even get a star rating in the UK! However, the family that run it are very good at making you feel at ease and nothing is too much bother. The view from my window is just a riot of mixed up jumbled buildings with the fabulous mountains as a backdrop. Kathmandu appears to be settled inside a ring of mountains as everywhere you look there is a peak stretching up in your background scenery.

There have been some interesting introductions to the Nepalese cultural differences, the food generally is quite spicy and they seem to live on rice and dahl, a lentil. The tea is very different here as the milk and tea are boiled up together rather than milk going fresh into the cup, probably due to milk being unpasteurised. A fast and effective way of making the milk safe. It is actually not unpleasant to drink it without milk as it is a more subtle black tea that is used rather than the stronger Darjeeling type we favour in Britain that tends to be quite bitter without milk.

Leaving!

Namaste

It's Thursday and it's nearly time to go. My case is (almost) packed, having to take out stuff that doesn't fit with a tint of sadness as there are so many lesson things I want to take with me.

Make sure you check out the hyperlinks on the first blog for the school and the charity that runs it, you can see what it's all about then.

See you all on the other side!

Jeanette x