Basically the last 2 days haven't been doing much. On wednesday, we had 3 hrs of language class in the morning / afternoon, then lazed around a bit, and had teaching training class from 5-7 in the evening. the class was really useful coz the guy (ishwra - a person who's studying master or phd in teaching english as foreign language) -he gave us really handy tips on how to craft a class, how to make the class very engaging and how to plan the class before we go for it. so at least we sort of know how to handle the class. we'll all be given a textbook of the class we're teaching so at least the syllabus is fixed. we just need to p lan it to make it fun for the kids. after the class, jusr hung around the VSN office and chatted with brian and anne who also attended the class with us. anne has really interesting stories to share coz she just came over from india where she also did some volunteering work there, and also basically told us about her travel adventures in slovenia, and many other countries. we'll probably do some travelling together on our off days.
then yesterday (thursday), we had our final nepali class...but i might request for some extra classes coz i'm still barely grasping the language. in the afternoon at 1pm, sophie brought us for a walk to some other town..half an hour away. felt like a walk that took forever coz the roads we were walking on were not tarred roads, so everytime a bus or car went by, we'll be engulfed in dust. i think if i had to do a body check, it'll show all the breathing airways in my body totally clogged with dust. the town was called gataghar or something, i'm horrid with remembering names. anyway, the walk was really worth it coz this town is slightly higher on a hill, and the view from there is amazing. overlooking a city and we can see bodthnath's stupa from here. the air's a tad bit fresher and the view is just gorgeous. took a couple of pics, bought some bananas to eat (was crunchy coz not ripe on the inside even though the outside was almost black), then headed back to our house.
after that, at 4pm, together with suzana and her younger cousin sister, we went to VSN office to collect some bananas to distribute to the orphanage we were posted to. the orphanage is about 15-20mins walk from the house. this is really the highlight of the days we've been here for the last week. the kids are staying on the 3rd floor of an old broken shophouse, which frm the outside looks like a warehouse. when we enter, the stairs are barely lit and its dark and the cement floor has holes all over. the kids were not back from school when we arrived coz they finish school at 4 but they have to walk one hour to reach their home coz the orphanage doesnt have enough money for them to catch a bus.
there's 38 children living in this orphanage, all sleeping in 2 tiny rooms with double-decker beds. Usually a double-decker bed is for 2 pple, but here, they have to squeeze 4 children in one. the rooms are really bare and they dont even have proper cupboards. me and chase we lost for words when we saw the place. they have a small toilet area just across the rooms and the place they have dinner..very smalll as well. this is the only area they have to eat, do their homework, play etc. its really tiny. bout 8 kids have to squeeze on one table. from my experiences of going to orphanages in m'sia and s'pore....the kids back home live in paradise really.
there's a woman and her husband who run the place, and they've got 2 women to help them take care of the younger kids, cook, etc. they all stay on the 2nd floor of the shophouse. after waiting for bout 10mins, the kids finally came back. their average age, 5-9, the 2 oldest girls are 13 and they help to take care of the younger kids. there was so many of them, really disciplined. once they came back, they hung their bags on nails that were surrounding the dining area and went to wash their face and legs, changed out of their uniforms and sat at the dining area. we were a bit lost, coz we didnt know what we were expected to do. and we were still overwhelmed with the condition of the place. den we started distributing the bananas ,2 each, which they rather quickly gobbled up. dont think they get to eat a lot. all very polite and sweet kids. den we just pretty much played with them for a bit, got them to do their homework and had to leave coz it was getting dark.
my goal is to remember all their names in 2 days which will be a challenge coz their names are all so long!!! (like pupalama, gotharinda, etc) suzana was telling us that the lady running the orphanage was relying only on a handful of rice given by the lamas to feed the kids and there was no other orginisations supporting the place. BUt sugandha told us that VSN is gonna provide them with a year supply of vegetables and fruits.
thankfully we brought supply of pencils, books, colour pencils, erasers etc which we wiill be giving out to them today. me and chase were also thinking of buying rice and food for the kids.and probaby on one of our off days (Saturday) which the kids don't need to go to school, might try to arrange to bring them out to the zoo. but that is gonna take serious planning coz there's too many of them and too little of us. might try to work out something with brian and anne. and furthermore, i'm really not too sure if the cash we have on us is enough to do it. but we'll try to work something out and keep u all updated. really regretted not doing a fundraising before comig here.
we could really see the joy on the children's faces when we were there, coz i think they really lack attention. also another challenge is how to spend time with all of them because there were a few that were really shy and quiet and the louder ones were getting all the attention. there's just too many kids to handle. but they're so obedient and so lovable, not like the spoilt brats we get at home. anyways, gonna head back to the house soon coz brian's coming over to our house to go with us to the orphanage. he was posted to a different smaller orphanage but they have school today till 5, so he'll only go there later.
till then....
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