Teaching in Nepal

As I emerged from the airport, I was on the lookout for a red umbrella which the school principal said he would be carrying. Sure enough, the umbrella was there, underneath, a smiling Anupendra who bore a strange resemblance to the late Freddy Mercury (it must have been the moustache!). Soon, I was in a dodgy cab and was on my way to my lodge where I'd be staying for my trip. I booked into a place in Patan Durbar Square, a world heritage site. From my room you could see the Karma Sutra temple (which was covered in loads of detailed carvings of various sexual positions), and the krishna temple (a beautiful temple made completely from stone and metal).

Krishna Temple

Locals chilling out on Patan durbar square

School Introduction

The day after I arrived, the headmaster came to my lodge to collect me. I jumped on the back of his motorbike, and we headed to the school. The traffic was complete chaos, and I didn't feel to comfortable riding on the back of this bike with no helmet whilst navigating cows, pedestrians and potholes, and playing chicken with other road users.

But we made it to the school, and I was greeted by the warmest reception I have ever experienced, and am likely to experience. All of the kids from the school were lined up along either side of the driveway, most of them clutching flowers to give to me as I walked past. There were so many flowers, someone had to walk behind me with a basket to carry them all. At the end of the driveway was a large red banner with the words "We welcome our dear sir Mr.Tony. We thank you very much for you stay". It really was a very touching moment. It dawned on me how much me being there meant to these people, and motivated me to help to the best of my abilities in the coming weeks.

Later I was given a rickety old bike with no gears and virtually no brakes for my daily commute to work.

The bike I used to get me around.

At the school principal's house. Eating in the traditional Nepali style - with the hands.

The 5 day Bandh (economic shutdown)

For the following week, I was unable to teach in the school because it was closed due to a nationwide economic shutdown imposed by the Maoist rebels. This caused great inconvenience to the whole country, and also stopped me from doing what I went out there to do - teach. It also made it difficult to find anywhere selling food. One of the plus sides was that nobody was supposed to drive a car or ride a motorbike, meaning 5 days free from the noise and air pollution the is rife in Kathmandu. It also meant you could stroll around the streets without fear of getting run over by a vehicle coming from some random direction. I took the 5 day strike as an opportunity to relax, do a bit of sightseeing. I also found a yoga master who gave me a some fantastic yoga lessons.

A taxi driver who decided to ignore the Bandh and use his car - see he has blanked out his number plate so the Maoist rebels cannot track him down.

I got stuck in a buddhist temple for about 3 hours due to a massive storm. I ended up playing cards with the locals

Teaching the kids

Having never taught before, and having never done a 'teaching English as a foreign language course' when faced with my first classes I felt somewhat dropped in at the deep end and I found myself basically making it up as I went along.

I was around 5 classes a day, and it was bloody hard work standing up and shouting at kids all day. On the whole I'd say the kids were quite well behaved (with the exception of doing their homework), certainly compared to the unruly mob that attended my school when I was growing up (myself included).

It is standard for Nepalese people to wobble their heads when answering a question. I found this extremely confusing when asking questions in my classes because you could not tell whether they were nodding or shaking their heads.

From what I could gather a side ways left-to right wobble was a kind of yes, and a complete 360 degree wobble could mean anything from 'yes sir' to 'my dog has just died'. In the end I found this whole head wobbling business was so misleading, I learnt to ignore any kind of head movement and just concentrate on their facial expressions instead.

Herbs

One day on my way into school, I noticed that the was ganja growing on the sides of the road, pretty much everywhere once you get out of the built up areas. So the following weekend, I took a herbal bike ride around the valley and did a spot of harvesting. There were quite a few buds on offer and after 12 hours drying on my window ledge I was ready to sample some of the local stuff. Considering I had just picked the stuff off the side of the road, it managed to get quite stoned. It was quite a heavy buzz and I just stared out the window at the Hare Krishna temple for while before going for a strange walk around Patan.

Ganja grows everywhere in the Kathmandu valley

Travelling around Kathmandu is a hazardous experience. There appears to be only one rule on the road - the bigger vehicle gets the right of way. So being on a bicylcle I was at the bottom of the food chain.

On my second from last day in Nepal, I was involved in a minor road accident where I was cycling along the road on my way home from the school when one guy on a motorbike over took me on my right and then decided to cut in front of me so he could turn left. At the same time, another guy on a motorbike undertook me on my left, and then cut me and the other motorcyclist up so he could pull out into the middle of the road. So there I was sandwiched between 2 motorcyclists both cutting me up and trying to cut each other up. The next thing I knew one of the motorcylist had slowed down whilst pulling in front of me and my front wheel was locked onto the footpedal on the side of his bike. My right hand was jammed between my handle bars and the back of his bike, my me and my bike were being dragged along the road behind him. Luckily I managed to jump off the bike and pull my hand free before I could get hurt. The guy on the motorbike then stopped and said it was my fault!?!. Needless to say I was extremely pissed off. After letting loose a verbal assault on the guy I was extremely close to a physical one, but I held myself back and told him to fuck off. He got the message and scarpered.

Prayer wheels in a Buddhist temple

An amusing menu from a restaurant - click to enlarge

A crowd of people watching a Hindu festival

The level of hygene in Nepal is really low. The way they treat there meat is unbelievable. You would see a big chunk of rotting meat lying on a surface by the edge of the street, with someone standing over it waving a stick to stop the flies landing on it, whilst a crowd of street dogs wait around with bated breath.

Sometimes when walking the streets, you've just got to hold your breath coz of some foul smelling skank by the side of the road. There are no bins, and most evenings on the main square, someone would round up some of the litter and set fire to it releasing toxic plastic fumes into the atmosphere.

I had to deal with a couple of cases of 'gandhi's revenge'. Even though I was avoiding eating meat, only eating in the cleaner restaurants, and drinking bottled water. All this aside, there is a very wide range of tasty food on offer, and the service from the waiters in the restaurants was excellent. Plus it is extremely cheap.

Leaving the School

On my final day in the school, they laid on a special assembly where some of the children did some traditional Nepalese dancing, and some singing. One girl did a lovely speech thanking me for the visit and asking me not to forget the children of their school. Lots of the children gave me cards and flowers. After such an amazing experience, how could I ever forget them! After the final assembly, everyone requested that I get up on stage and play them a song on my guitar, which was quite an experience.

Before leaving I decided that between my parents and I, we would sponsor the education of 2 orphans.

A makeshift table tennis table

Inkblot - A girl who managed to cover herself and her work in ink during a lesson.

The kids were fascinated by my netbook computer.

On the whole, I found the whole teaching experience extremely rewarding. Everyone at the school was very helpfull and friendly, and there was an atmosphere of love and friendship in the school which you simply don't get in English schools. You got the impression that everyone in the school wanted to be there and were grateful to have the opportunity of education. Something we take for granted in the West.