First impressions

Ashvi and I (Urmila - उर्मिला) have now almost taught a whole week at Annapurna Basic School - Sunday to Thursday. It’s been so busy though, and it feels like we never have a moment to relax; it’s only the monsoon and the pouring rain that gives us some rest. Even in the rain sometimes we have young children at our door shouting “guitar!” (they want us to give them the guitars to strum on the untuned strings). Although it can be a bit much at times, it’s really lovely feeling so welcomed (even if it’s hard to catch a moment of silence). The first week was results week so luckily we got a week to relax and settle in a bit before teaching - the other teachers at Jhimpa started straight away. When they visited us at the weekend they arrived really exhausted, telling stories of noisy classrooms and tiring days which I know I would have found hard to deal with when we first arrived, especially since there are so many different things to learn here. There’s making food twice a day (dal bhat) and then there’s also hand washing clothes and dishes, filling up water buckets for bucket showers and washing in general. Then there’s getting up in time to make food and shower before school, which can be tricky with children handing you flowers every five minutes (cute, but tiresome too). Also, there’s the walk to the squat toilet in the night when it’s pouring with rain and it’s pitch black (it’s so hard to motivate yourself to get out of bed). Both Ashvi and I have felt a bit sick at times due to acclimatisation to food and environment probably, but luckily we’ve made it to every day at school so far. Although there’s a lot to learn, and a lot more manual labour, the friendliness of the community makes everything so much easier. We’ve been shown how to cook almost every day, and also how to clean our clothes and clean the dishes properly (it sounds easier than it is). Everyone is so willing to help us out and offer us food, and everywhere you go, you always get a “Namaste” or a “how are you miss?”. I started trying to learn the Nepali alphabet yesterday, because it’s really helpful to know how to write in the classroom, particularly if you can’t explain a word. I’m struggling with some of the sounds - there are differences between ka and kha, ga and gah, which got quite a few laughs in the staffroom today. Ashvi is good at sounds because she can speak Gujarati which also comes from Sanskrit, so I’m alone in my bad imitations of the Nepali alphabet. I want to keep practising the script too, because it’s a really lovely language, and being able to write, read and speak will make me feel much more at home in our little village. It’s crazy how strong all the children and Nepali women are (there are more women than men in the village because lots of husbands have gone to work in countries like Saudi Arabia and Dubai in order to earn more money). One day, Ashvi and I wanted to go to Devisthan to buy some clothes and explore but the children wanted to come with us. We ended up with a group of five children, which got larger as we walked down the hill. In that group was a tiny four year old with flip flops on, who ended up walking all the way down and back up the hill. It took hours, and by the end of it I was exhausted. We did get some really tasty mangoes and apples in Devisthan (the apples were eaten by the children but we managed to save the mangoes), which made the trip worth it.

Edit: we have now finished the first teaching week, (it’s Tuesday) and I have now been sick - I vomited on Sunday on the way back from our friend’s house to school so had to stay in Devisthan in bed for the day before walking up the massive hill in the afternoon to get home. I’ve been trying to set up a hotspot on my phone to post this but the internet is very slow (I think we need to buy different sim cards).

This blog is a personal blog written by Orla Fawcett, therefore the views expressed in this blog are those of Orla Fawcett and NOT those of Project Trust.