Children teach in Nepal Experience report

Adventure volunteering in Nepal - colorful, warm, unforgettable!

"Did you eat rice?" A question I was asked daily not so long ago. A question that sums up two essential aspects of the Nepalese mentality: their care and warmth, and the national dish "dal bhat" (rice with lentils). I had the privilege of spending six unforgettable weeks in the beautiful country of Nepal with the friendliest people I have ever met. I start my report on my experience in a very unconventional way with the conclusion:

My time in Nepal was far too short!

The first time in Asia, the first time ever on a foreign continent outside of Europe, it didn't take me more than a few days to get used to this completely different world of the Nepalese and finally to learn to love them. Surprisingly, this adjustment phase took a few weeks back at home. It actually took me more time to acclimate back to clean, orderly and cool Germany.

First acquaintances

I got my first foretaste of the country and its inhabitants on the plane to Kathmandu through a short but nice encounter. I sat exhausted in the middle of the night at the airport on my stopover in Doha, completing my six-hour wait half asleep and half awed by the white-robed sheikhs (pulling a pack of burka women) strutting past me. At that moment, a young man from the opposite seat spoke to me hesitantly: "Hello...where are you from?" And so we got talking. A young Nepalese who, like many other young women and men in Nepal, dreams of studying abroad, flew home for the first time in a year to visit his family. He was looking forward to his home and enthused about his country: "If you are the first time in Nepal you'll love it! The people are much more friendly there!" A promise that was to come true. I was very grateful for his company, he relieved me of the nervousness that was slowly building up in me as we got on the plane. Now I could look forward to the following month and a half!

Arrival in Kathmandu

Arriving in Kathmandu, after the overcrowded airports in Munich and Doha, I was a bit surprised to find an airport in the capital of Nepal where nothing can be found apart from bricks and officials. Just nothing. Outside, a heat awaited me that I was not used to in Germany in February, as well as a horde of taxi drivers who rushed towards me and promised to drive me to the end of the world. A little overwhelmed, I looked around and discovered one with my name on the other side of the street among all the people with signs in hand. I quickly rushed towards it and was greeted warmly with a typical Nepalese welcome scarf. Not a minute later I found myself in a car in the traffic chaos of Kathmandu. Actually, Sher was supposed to pick me up, but since he was still in Germany, I was greeted by a very helpful employee of the travel agency.

My first impression of Nepal

We, or the driver, fought our way through the streets of Kathmandu and I couldn't get enough of this completely new world and I looked and looked and looked... There was so much to see! My first impression can be described with the words "dirty" and "colorful". I had never seen so many colors in such a small space! Some of the buildings looked like they were about to collapse and the streets were full of dust, so most people wore face masks. The best way to describe Kathmandu is with the word "crowded". The often very narrow streets are simply overcrowded. Full of people, dogs, cows, cars, bicycles, stalls, motorcycles, dirt and dust...

We drove to Thamel, the area where my hotel and Sher's travel agency and apartment are located. The hotel is simple, but equipped with the essentials, I got a nice room with a large bed and a small bathroom. Right next door was a small restaurant where you could have a good breakfast. Opposite is a money exchange office, where I exchanged my euros immediately after arriving and, in my ignorance, was surprised by the thick wad of bills I received. At that moment I thought I had never held so much money in my hand, although the largest bills, 1000 rupees, are worth no more than about 8€. The travel agency staff were available to me almost XNUMX hours a day, if I wanted to know anything they patiently took their time with me.

The streets of Thamel

Upon my arrival, I was immediately drawn to the alleys of Thamel and threw myself into the fray, which turned out to be more of a challenge than I thought. Four hours later I found my way back to the hotel and realized that I hadn't walked right past it just once. With no street names, it's truly an experience walking the streets of Thamel on your own! Narrow streets full of shops that all sell roughly the same thing, tea, pashmina or yak wool scarves, mandalas, jewelry etc. On the way you suddenly come across small squares where you can see mini temples or stupas . Crossroads, where the traffic backs up even more, loud honking, motorbikes weaving through and pedestrians who are obviously weary of life complete the picture.

Nepalese dishes

That evening I had been invited by Munu, Sher's wife, to have dinner at her place and I had my first Nepalese meal. Dal bhat, rice with lentils and potatoes as well as some chicken and various other vegetables, which is eaten with one hand in large tin plates sitting on the floor, has actually become one of my favorite dishes over time! By this point, however, I was struggling to balance the rice on one hand into my hungry mouth, leading to amusement on the part of Munu. Then there was the typical Nepalese milk-tea, black tea with milk and lots of sugar and a unique yoghurt, the classic dessert. After the meal, Munu told me a lot about the family, Kathmandu and also Chitwan, my next big stage. I felt cared for and Sher's wife assured me that I would feel at home with Shiri's family in Chitwan, that there was a large community there. That day I fell asleep in my bed, exhausted and full of the many new impressions of the day, as I did almost every day for the next six weeks.

City tour of Kathmandu

The next day Buddhi, my absolute favorite guide in Nepal, was waiting for me right at the hotel after breakfast. We had a big city tour with our own driver in front of us, organized by Sher or his employees from the travel agency. Buddhi speaks German, English and Korean, always has a smile on his face and is always ready to have fun. He showed me the most important places of Kathmandu and introduced me to the world of castes, ethnic groups, gods and sagas of Hindi and Buddhists. It was impressive to experience this culture! The country is characterized by its religions, mostly Hinduism, but the Buddhist faith is practiced almost equally, although it accounts for a much smaller percentage of the population.

The morning before the trip to the project

The third day in Kathmandu started for me at dawn when I rumbled down the hotel stairs with my suitcase and woke the man at the reception to check out. I had received my bus ticket with detailed directions to the bus stop from the Sher employee the evening before. My early morning departure caused some confusion though, I thought the bill was settled, but the friendly, sleepy, middle-aged man didn't know what I was talking about. So I paid him the amount for the past two nights, which for us in Germany was comparable to an apple and an egg (the misunderstanding was then clarified back in Germany).

The first rickshaw ride

I dragged my broken and unfortunately much too heavy suitcase along the street, whereby the sight of me probably caused amusement among the Nepalese, I was not only asked once where I wanted to go. Finally I gave up trying to move forward without help, the suitcase was broken during the flight and was much too heavy to carry, and I didn't resist any longer when the tenth rickshaw driver, who spoke to me, grabbed my suitcase without further ado and charged. So we bumped over hill and dale at an unexpectedly high speed, regardless of the losses, to the "bus station". When paying, I experienced for the first time the attitude, I would almost say the prejudice of the Nepalese towards white people, when he said: "If you can give me more money....You see, I am poor and you're not." An unpleasant situation, as it should unfortunately still often happen. He had no way of knowing that as a student I had to make every penny and that I had worked hard for the trip. Life in Germany is more expensive than he probably thought.

Finding the bus at the bus stop wasn't difficult. Friendly and open as the Nepalese are, I was helped immediately, a man took my suitcase and led me to the right bus with the words: "I am not a bus driver, I am just helper." Thank you, my helper!

The adventurous bus ride to the volunteer project

Apparently the bus driver was already waiting for me, he addressed me by my name. There were already a lot of white tourists on the bus, so it couldn't be because he knew who I was. But to this day it is a mystery to me where it came from. The journey was long, seven hours we boarded along the "highway", in serpentines along the mountains, more and more meters down. The "autobahn" in Nepal is remarkable, in Germany even a dirt road is better developed. Partially unpaved, with huge potholes that the bus either just drives into or swerves to the other side of the road, causing a traffic jam on that side, accompanied by loud horn honking. I never got bored the whole trip.

The landscape is impressive! Mountains or "hills" (everything that measures less than 3000 meters in altitude is counted among the hills, i.e. the majority of the Allgäu Alps in my home country) as far as the eye can see. If in Kathmandu one was shocked by some of the poverty one saw, one will be struck by the sight of the people living on the side of the road. A few boards stacked, corrugated iron on top and a fireplace in front of it, this is a seemingly adequate home for a whole family with several children. They jump carelessly at the side of the highway wrapped in towels through the dust and suck their lungs full of exhaust fumes... Some days the children there stretch long cords across the road to stop the cars and only for payment do they lift this roadblock. This is their everyday life...

As the landscape changed, the final hills were a few hours away and we were driving alongside the river that meanders through the dry land, I realized we must be near our destination. Just what was that called again? I knew the area, Chitwan National Park, and the name of the village, but even then I wasn't sure. We passed village after village, soon coming to a big city, as I found out later Bharatpur, the first big city in the National Park. The bus stopped here every few meters whenever a passenger leaned out of the bus (which ran with the door open all the time) and knocked on the driver's cab from the outside to make it known that he wanted to get off here. I was slowly getting uneasy, I didn't even know where I was supposed to get off... Was there something like a fixed stop? The man next to me spoke some English, but unfortunately not enough to answer my question. At least I had found out that he was going home to his wife and child and had business to do in Kathmandu. Interesting but not very helpful...

In the end I stayed seated until the end, which turned out to be the right decision. I had arrived in Sauraha, in the heart of Chitwan. Here, too, all the passengers on the tourist bus were attacked by men in jeeps who held up signs with hotel names and made us all what was probably the best offer of our lives. A spectacle that I should follow more often over the next few weeks, when a tourist bus arrived, they were already waiting at the "bus stop" for the new arrivals.

Arrival in Sauraha

So I got out, fended off the men and stood lost next to my luggage. I was asked which hotel I had booked, whether they should take me into town or where I was actually going. Yes, where did I actually want to go? I waited a while hoping that someone would recognize me and speak to me like the mysterious bus driver in Kathmandu, but slowly the space cleared up and I was almost alone. Finally I called the number that the employee of the travel agency in Kathmandu had given me. Luckily I got the Nepalese area code from a couple who had traveled with me on the bus. Then everything happened very quickly, a jeep was sent to pick me up, less than 3 minutes later he drove up with a cloud of dust and a nice man dressed in green loaded my luggage and me on the back. We bumped back and forth into the village, Bacchauli and then I was home, Hotel Parkside.

My accommodation on site

Shiri gave me a warm welcome and immediately took care of my luggage and that I got something to eat. He then led me to my room at the back through the hotel grounds to his home, his wife and child, and the whereabouts of most of the staff. Here was the kitchen, a large adobe building with a fireplace and sink, which turned out to be a gathering place of sorts. In addition, and from this I could not take my eyes off, there was an elephant under a kind of shelter! It was a female and she lives here, goes to work every morning and comes back in the evening. Namely elephant rides, for the tourists. Of course there are also two elephant riders who take care of them. In front of the kitchen, some women in kurta, the traditional robe, were sitting on the floor or on wicker stools washing and chopping potatoes, ginger, garlic, etc Washing and cutting clamped. Very few of the women spoke English, which made communication difficult but not impossible. Sushila, Shiri's wife was at my side from the start and a contact person, her two-year-old daughter Salwa was adorable!

That was the beginning of a time that was unforgettable! I experienced so much warmth and kindness as well as seeing the poverty and realizing the importance of saying no.

The first days in Chitwan

The first days in Chitwan were like a dream, I was allowed to do a jungle walk with two guides from the hotel, saw rhinos not twenty meters away from me, had to climb a tree to avoid getting in the way of these rhinos, saw crocodiles , monkeys and of course elephants galore. I was also allowed to take part in an elephant ride. When I had time, I would help in the hotel kitchen, make the room or cook meals for the staff and myself.

A typical daily routine

The day started very early for most employees, sometimes from half past five, when the buffaloes had to be milked. Luckily I was able to sleep longer. After getting up, I could always pick up a chiya tea in the kitchen. From about 6 a.m. there was the first Dal Bhat. I either ate here with the others or I had the choice of having breakfast at the hotel, pancakes, toast, eggs and tea.

A few days after my arrival I knew the whole hotel and Munu hadn't exaggerated in Kathmandu, it really was like one big family! But my real task was still waiting for me, the school!

My volunteer work in school

Three days later, Shiri drove me to the school in Jhuwani, about 3 km away, on his motorbike. Here I was introduced to the principal who welcomed me to the primary school. Shiri said goodbye to me and promised to pick me up after school. Immediately afterwards, the principal accompanied me to a class and introduced me with the words: "This is Anna, she is from Germany and she is our new teacher." Then he turned to me: "So, then I let you alone. Bye." He handed me a pen and some kind of brush for the blackboard (there actually is a "white-board" for every classroom) and he was gone.

Then I stood in front of 20 children who looked at me with wide eyes. I didn't know what grade I was in, what subject I was supposed to be teaching, and whether a child would even understand me. I wasn't prepared for that! Then I unpacked the first teaching materials from my full backpack, which I had fortunately brought with me from home, and began to teach. Seven hours a day in seven different classes. The school in Nepal is indescribable. There is no such thing as structure and rituals or rules. Neither the students nor the teachers seem to come and go as they please. Maybe there is some kind of system behind it, I didn't discover one in the four weeks I was part of the school day. I was in all grades from KG class, the preschool class, to 9th grade in the building next door, the secondary school. I hardly had any free periods, partly because I wanted to teach. Sometimes I was asked if I still wanted to, or if I'd rather sit down. Of course I wanted to! I struggled from one class to the next and it took me a while to understand how to teach these kids. And until they understood my way of teaching.

A typical lesson in Nepal

A lesson in which I was allowed to watch the principal's class after a few days was very enlightening. The students are used to frontal teaching, only frontal teaching. They work with the book, if you can call it a book. It is not necessarily poorly structured, contains texts and exercises, and is still almost useless, since the children do not have school bags and carry the books and notebooks on the luggage rack or under their arms through the dirt and dust of the streets. In addition, individual pages from the book have to be used if there is no paper available. In class, the teacher reads a text aloud, the teacher speaks new words out loud and the children repeat them, with or without any understanding, until they can. If a child doesn't do the work assigned, is busy with someone else or chats with the neighbors, then the teacher, as I have observed, marches through the rows and, without warning, smacks such a child from behind, sometimes more, sometimes less hard back of head. It's quiet in the class. be quiet.

Initial difficulties

But not in mine. I flew to the developing country with the attitude that I would have lots of children in front of me who would sit in front of me and couldn't wait to learn something. This idea turned out to be an illusion in the first hour, when I saw a horde of 9-year-olds rushing towards me as soon as I pulled the red cards I had brought with me from my backpack. They literally snatched them out of my hands and until I knew it it was pure chaos. It took almost the entire hour to calm the children down and get them in their seats so that I could give them the instructions on what to do with the cards. Then the time was over and I was faced with the challenge of making it clear to the children that they had to give back the beautiful red cards because I wanted to keep using them.

Nice moments at school

There were wonderful moments with the children, the little ones who hardly speak English and loved touching my white skin and then beaming at me. The same goes for the grown-ups, who rushed towards me singing and dancing on the way to the classroom and wanted to let me know that they liked my movement song from last time and would like to do it again. Every morning I was already overrun at the gate by laughing and screaming children, who stretched out their hands to me for the "ZAZ" - the Nepalese "high five", I sometimes felt like a pop star in the fan mile...

Dealing with the prevailing poverty

However, I have also had some depressing experiences, especially when the children begged me for candy or pencils and I didn't know how to react. If I give something to one, I have to give something to everyone and I don't have that much. And then they keep begging. But saying NO to a kid with torn and dirty pants, gapped teeth and a runny nose, holding out both hands to you, is really not easy… I took the kids to my heart, even if it was hard work with them at times. I introduced "punishment methods" like standing alone in the corner or sitting facing the wall. It worked from time to time, but not always. Even in developing countries, it is and will remain children who are sometimes smart asses.

The Holi festival

Another wonderful experience was the Holi festival. It is usually celebrated in different districts of Nepal on different days. I celebrated it in the same place for 3 days. First at school, which I wasn't prepared for. After the first lesson, there was no more lesson to think about and everyone ran around screaming to shower the others with colored powder and wish them "Happy Holi". Of course, there was no stopping me either and I was soon part of it all. It's the Hindu festival of colors, it's in honor of a deity, but no one could really tell me what it's all about. "We dance and sing and play with water and paint!" was the explanation I heard over and over again. That's how it is and it's great! On the same day there was a farewell to a teacher at school, a kind of ceremony with the whole school, which I was able to witness.

Excursions and travel

In the meantime, I found out through a visit from Sher that a group of German tourists were starting a trekking tour from Pokhara, and he had offered me to join them. Having planned such a tour in advance in my two weeks off, I didn't hesitate and said yes! I spoke to Shiri and the principal of the school, so two days later I found myself on the bus to Pokhara. Five days of hiking in the Himalayas followed (again with Buddhi – my favorite guide!), four wonderful days in Pokhara, where I was able to experience a paragliding flight in addition to the tourist spots (World Peace Stupa, gorge and caves)! It is an uncomplicated life in Nepal, as I felt. People don't worry about what's tomorrow or in an hour. Now is now and we make the best of it!

As colorful and light as it may seem at first glance, I quickly got to know the downsides of this attitude to life. Plans are constantly changing, fixed times do not exist, nothing and nobody can be relied on one hundred percent. Of course, this also applies to the bus. The public buses are worth the ride! You get on and off when you meet a bus and it leaves when it's full. You really shouldn't have any deadline pressure. I noticed this especially on a trip to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, where I spent a total of seven hours on the bus for a distance that would have been covered in 90 minutes by motorbike. In five different buses. At some point I no longer knew whether I would still arrive that day, but I was sure that I would have a place to sleep in the evening. That's the beauty of Nepal, you can be sure of the warmth and openness of the people!

Exam time at school

After my time in Pokhara I came back and finished my time at school. Now the exams were coming up, which I was supposed to supervise. Again, I was shocked about the education system in Nepal. The students get their exam papers and if they have any questions they can ask the teacher. And he answers them with the solution! The school also attends some blind students who are completely lost in everyday classes. However, the exams for these children made me doubt the sense of schooling. These were tasks in which a picture was shown and this picture had to be described. When I asked how a blind child should describe a picture, I got the answer: "You describe the picture and the students listen to what you say. They write it down."

Farewell to Nepal

3 days before my flight back to Germany I made my way back to Kathmandu, always anticipating that the bus might not arrive on time and that it would take me an extra day. That's why I always planned more time, which is recommended to everyone. Once there, I took a taxi back to Thamel, to the hotel I knew from the first days in the capital. However, since this was fully booked, I got a room in a nearby, slightly more expensive hotel. The last few days were a nice end, I got all the gifts I had been asked to bring for friends and relatives, was able to let the events of the last few weeks settle and also met Buddhi again, my favorite guide.

Time passed quickly and before I knew it, I was back on the plane on my way to Germany. I had hardly settled in, known some of the children's names from school and recognized the greatest weaknesses in the school system and the points where one had to start, when I had to leave. I got on the plane with the thought that in a few years when I'll have finished my studies, I'll be able to come back for a longer period and really be able to help more effectively!

Teaching children in Nepal Report by Anna N.