Well, it’s all over. After 2 months of teaching 6 days a week, my volunteering is officially over. Thankfully, I will be seeing the kids at the end of April when I come back to Pokhara, or else I would be really sad right now. Instead, I just feel confused…
The last 2 weeks have been a complete whirlwind. There was soooooo much preparation involved in making the final exams for my students – first, I had to look through each book to see what the students had learned throughout the year before I taught them. Then I had to compile the information and choose the most important material. Then I made a study guide for each class, which took a surprising amount of time. Finally, I had to make the exams, which took close to 15 hours. When I thought my work was finally over, over 100 final exams were shoved in my face to correct. I knew this was going to come but I didn’t realize how time consuming and monotonous this would be. Over the past 2 days, all I did was think, eat, and breathe final exams. I got no respite from this work even in my dreams.
It’s strange because, just as I was feeling entirely overwhelmed from work that all other aspects of my life were suffering (cleanliness, organization, rest, family life) the same thing was happening to my environment – we lost water for like 3 days (except enough to drink and cook rice with) and we ran out of toilet paper. How ironic that the disorganization of my body and environment mirrored that of my mind.
Anyway, after over 20 hours of correcting and re-checking final exams, calculating final grades, and making enlightening comments for each student, it’s all over…
What to do now? (A Nepali expression)
Here’s the plan, for those of you that don’t know: I will stay in Pokhara until maybe Wednesday of next week. Then I will take a bus back to Kathmandu (possibly with some of my family members, who feel like taking a trip to the capital) and do… well… whatever I want. I have friends to visit, music to play, shopping to do. I also want to go to Chitwan, the National Park in the south of the country; camping; white-water rafting… the list goes on. So, I will not be idle… except for when I want to be. By the third week of April, I plan to return to Pokhara. I will visit my family and school, but I also have some touristy things I want to do around here that I didn’t do because I was in school 6 days a week (not part of the original plan). I will not likely get to Tibet, which was also part of the original plan. It’s so expensive and difficult to get to, and I was counting on meeting musicians in Kathmandu and being in school 6 days a week…. I guess I’ll be saving Tibet for another trip.
Today, I brought the corrected exams to school and spent a little time with the students. I also brought my little sister, Muna, with me. She has continued to show great interest in her “studies” so I agreed to take her with me to show her what going to school is like. When we arrived, all the students were so interested in who my little friend was. We stayed there for a long time, talking to the students, walking around, visiting classes. She was completely overwhelmed by the attention and the sheer number of children. I talked to Deepuk, the man in charge of things at the school, and he agreed to admit Muna for the next term (next month). And – bonus – she only has to pay for her books and uniform. He’s going to take care of her tuition because she’s my sister. It’ll be great! The school bus passed by our house every day so she’ll simply hop on the bus, spend the day at school – learning great things and interacting with other kids – and come back, again, by bus, at 4pm. The only thing is that in order for her to go into LKG (lower kindergarten) rather than Nursery (like pre-school), she has to learn all her letters, numbers from 1-100, and Nepali characters – by next month. I figure, though, that at the pace that she’s learning and with the interest she has (her obsessive tendencies remind me of my own, for those of you who know that side of me), that will be no problem!
The last 2 weeks have been a complete whirlwind. There was soooooo much preparation involved in making the final exams for my students – first, I had to look through each book to see what the students had learned throughout the year before I taught them. Then I had to compile the information and choose the most important material. Then I made a study guide for each class, which took a surprising amount of time. Finally, I had to make the exams, which took close to 15 hours. When I thought my work was finally over, over 100 final exams were shoved in my face to correct. I knew this was going to come but I didn’t realize how time consuming and monotonous this would be. Over the past 2 days, all I did was think, eat, and breathe final exams. I got no respite from this work even in my dreams.
It’s strange because, just as I was feeling entirely overwhelmed from work that all other aspects of my life were suffering (cleanliness, organization, rest, family life) the same thing was happening to my environment – we lost water for like 3 days (except enough to drink and cook rice with) and we ran out of toilet paper. How ironic that the disorganization of my body and environment mirrored that of my mind.
Anyway, after over 20 hours of correcting and re-checking final exams, calculating final grades, and making enlightening comments for each student, it’s all over…
What to do now? (A Nepali expression)
Here’s the plan, for those of you that don’t know: I will stay in Pokhara until maybe Wednesday of next week. Then I will take a bus back to Kathmandu (possibly with some of my family members, who feel like taking a trip to the capital) and do… well… whatever I want. I have friends to visit, music to play, shopping to do. I also want to go to Chitwan, the National Park in the south of the country; camping; white-water rafting… the list goes on. So, I will not be idle… except for when I want to be. By the third week of April, I plan to return to Pokhara. I will visit my family and school, but I also have some touristy things I want to do around here that I didn’t do because I was in school 6 days a week (not part of the original plan). I will not likely get to Tibet, which was also part of the original plan. It’s so expensive and difficult to get to, and I was counting on meeting musicians in Kathmandu and being in school 6 days a week…. I guess I’ll be saving Tibet for another trip.
Today, I brought the corrected exams to school and spent a little time with the students. I also brought my little sister, Muna, with me. She has continued to show great interest in her “studies” so I agreed to take her with me to show her what going to school is like. When we arrived, all the students were so interested in who my little friend was. We stayed there for a long time, talking to the students, walking around, visiting classes. She was completely overwhelmed by the attention and the sheer number of children. I talked to Deepuk, the man in charge of things at the school, and he agreed to admit Muna for the next term (next month). And – bonus – she only has to pay for her books and uniform. He’s going to take care of her tuition because she’s my sister. It’ll be great! The school bus passed by our house every day so she’ll simply hop on the bus, spend the day at school – learning great things and interacting with other kids – and come back, again, by bus, at 4pm. The only thing is that in order for her to go into LKG (lower kindergarten) rather than Nursery (like pre-school), she has to learn all her letters, numbers from 1-100, and Nepali characters – by next month. I figure, though, that at the pace that she’s learning and with the interest she has (her obsessive tendencies remind me of my own, for those of you who know that side of me), that will be no problem!
