Amar Jyoti Primary

Sunday 30^th October

I went to school today full of good intentions.   The first thing I wanted to do was find the resources supplied by past volunteers – but the Headmaster was not in school and again, no-one else knew anything  about them.

 I started teaching in the kindergarten, talking to the  children about their names and sounding them out. Then we worked on the S and A sound, so far so good. 

  
After that things started going down  hill.  Tara asked me to teach Year 1, whilst she had the next class  in the same room.   It was impossible to hear so I went outside with my group and a small whiteboard to talk about the M sound -  they had just done an exercise about mangoes, mouth and moon.  Ths was difficult as many Nepalis pronounce  M as ‘yam’ (and H as yach!) 

Susmita is 3 and has amazing pencil control
She is copying capital letters

Then I was asked – yet again to go to the secondary school.   I stressed no teacher, no volunteer, so watched an English lesson.   There were only 10 children in the class – 20 were absent!  One of the children read out from a text book with great difficulty

‘We cook food for various reasons.   The cooking process partly sterilizes food.   The growth of bacteria falls off rapidly above 40 degrees Celsius.’ 

The teacher then translated into Nepali.    The children learnt a little science but not much English.   I asked them what foods they liked  and if these foods  needed  to be cooked The children struggled to tell me anything at all about food or cooking. 

One of the children in the kindergarden

31^st October

I decided to follow on from yesterday’s lesson to discuss food.   I asked the children about yesterday’s lesson and it was all a fog to them.   I simplified by discussing fruit and vegetables writing lists on the board and describing and sorting etc.   Then I asked the children to write two sentences about a food they like.   Most of them found this difficult, and just 4 managed it easily.   At the end of the class when I talked it over with Besh Raj the teacher, he told me this task was too easy for them.     His grasp of English was  not good enough to understand my reasoning

At last I have met the Headmaster.   He looked worried when I asked about previous volunteers’ resources.   After 40 minutes with Year 1 he called me over and showed me where they were – it was a very very dusty pile and much looked as though it had been eaten by rats.   It so obviously hasn’t been used.   He apologised for it not being in the Science room in the cupboard  where it had been put last year,but he said that as that room had been donated they had to keep it for Science (his subject)

I spent the afternoon sorting out what would be useful and putting it all in the primary school ‘staff room’.  It was a very dirty job as everything was covered in so much dust. Will try and get cardboard boxes from the Lodge – hopefully some of the provisions come in cardboard?

Then surprise surprise, it is another holiday tomorrow!

 So – another opportunity to get to the Internet Café – and if I can find a lift, possibly a visit to the Tibetan Buddhist Monastery?

                                                         

Felt really ill this evening and one of the bites on my leg has blistered. My legs are not a pretty sight, even worse than usual

YUK!  And this is just one of the many blisters on my legs!

(Dont worry all,  I will be careful and look after myself !)