Christmas in Nepal

Let's face it, if you come from a small family, like me, the holiday season can feel quite isolating in the United States. After I passed the age of about ten, Christmas lost it's magic. I became desensitized by the holiday. Christmas was just another day on the calendar. 

Throughout my high school years,  I yearned to experience just one Christmas with a big family, full of warmth, vitality and tradition. Christmas with three people just felt so lonely. Yet, with the distance of going away to college, I began to see the beauty in celebrating Christmas with my parents. After some years, the holidays became a time of reflection and creativity, trying to define what coming and being "home" really means. 

And here I am celebrating Christmas in Nepal with three wonderful Fulbright ETAs and one Fulbright Clinton Scholar. I may not be in the United States, and this Christmas is a bit untraditional, but for the first time, I'm celebrating the holidays with the big family I missed having as a child. From hot showers, to delicious food, wandering up a hill following a woman collecting sticks, to watching the sun rise over the himalaya at dawn, this has been an incredible Christmas that I will never forget.

 

Lisa made a paper Christmas tree, and for our Christmas breakfast, we turned an ordinary tree into a magical one.

The Christmas tree queen and her masterpiece 

A new friend is a good present! 

YUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

We live in a beautiful world! The lake on Christmas morning. 

Although I have not seen any real shih-tzus in Nepal, this cute fuzzy friend was a gift to stare at for a few minutes. 

Bridges bring the world together. 

While wandering through the woods trying to reach the peace stupa at the top of the hill, we met a wonderful woman collecting firewood. She gave us directions that caused us to walk for about two hours on uncharted paths.

We made it through the wilderness! What a beautiful stupa. 

We are family! 

Nameste! 

A Nepali family asked to take a photo with us! We made so many new friends!

Nature knows it's Christmas! 

Chocolate with a beautiful view = HEAVEN! 

The sunrise over the mountains

Nepali milk tea, a beautiful view, and great company

Yummmmmm!!!!

This is the definition of a "good" morning.

Wee!!

Yay! 

One...two

three!

Jump!  

On top of the world, jumping for joy! 

Hands and Words for Helping: Friendship Bracelets with a Cause

Violence plays a prevalent role in the lives of many Nepali children.

I am haunted as I write by the heart-piercing shrieks of a three-year-old child being beaten for not knowing how to write the alphabet. 

A student in second grade comes to school limping one day. A student in class three has bruises on her arm in the shape of two large hands. She is sitting next to a boy with a swollen lip. A student in class five has a black eye.

The two-year-old baby that lives at my house, picks up a bamboo stick and viciously beats her doll, imitating her mother. 

There are other stories that I will not share online...

Sometimes, I feel helpless seeing children's validation be stolen by the violence they encounter every single day. 

I have had to step back and start telling myself, "what you are doing is enough. By teaching, you are giving these children a valuable gift. Your job, in the  classroom, is to give the children the tools they need to create their ideal lives."

So, my goal became simple: I wanted to help build a safe, violence-free, classroom environment where students could feel safe, valued, and empowered. It is a goal that we are still working to bring into action. 

I decided that I wanted my class five students to make a pledge--a pledge that they would no longer harm any of their fellow classmates--with words, or with physical force. As the oldest students in the school, I wanted them to help set the tone of non-violence for the entire school, because many of the younger students look up to them as role models. 

To showcase that we pledge to not harm others, I taught the fifth-grade students how to finger-crochet using woven yak wool that I purchased at the bazaar. During our Creative Arts class, I soon realized that the students really loved finger-crocheting. I decided to give them an assignment. "You are going to make a bracelet, and you are going to give it to one of your classmates; but, every classmate must receive a bracelet, and you cannot keep a bracelet that you make," I said. So, the students all made their bracelets. Then, I had each student give a bracelet to one of their peers. "By accepting this bracelet from your classmate, you pledge that you will not harm any of the students in our school either with words of physical force." After each student received a bracelet, I was happy to see that the students wanted to make more! "Let's make these bracelets for all of the students in the school!" one of the boys said. So, in the coming weeks, the fourth and fifth grade students are going to make bracelets for each student, so that all of us can pledge to use our hands and words for helping instead of hurting. 

Check out the pictures below to see the fifth grade students making their "hands and words of helping bracelets." We wear them every day with pride. 

 

Take me to America

I see the longing desperation in each mother's eyes when she asks me, "will you take my child with you to America." I fumble to form coherent sentences in Nepali. "I am a simple teacher," I say. "I cannot get your child a visa; that is the job of the American Embassy." I see their eyes turn glassy before they look down at the ground. "What about my husband?" They sometimes ask. I give the same reply. The mothers walk away, but still smile at me when I walk to school, only to ask me the same question a week later.

"Where are you from?" friendly strangers ask on buses, dirt paths, in shops and restaurants. "I am from America," I say knowing what will follow. "Oh! The United States! Will you take me to America?" (silence) "Nepal is beautiful isn't it?"

My host mother tells me stories of what it was like to be married at the age of 13, leave her parent's home, and drop out of school to work in the fields. She too dreams of America. "We will start a farm," she says. "I will cook and clean for your parents as they go old. We will sell vegetables grown without chemicals. Buba will teach math, Sabita will be a doctor, Sirjana and Samjana will be business women while Sankalpa and Saugat finish college."

I think back to the village where my host father and host mother grew up, a three hour walk from the nearest bus stop. I see families living peacefully side-by-side in the houses their grandparents built by hand from mud and cow dung. I see fields and fields of rice, corn, potatoes, cabbage, spinach, apple trees, orange trees, and guava trees as far as the eye can stretch. "This is the way my grandmother lived and her grandmother lived and her grandmother's grandmother lived," my 94-year-old hajuraamaa says with a toothless smile. There was something so beautiful and organic about the village, given that every meal was a result of a relatives' hard work—anything needed to live either came from the earth or the diligence of the villagers' hands. "When the school came, it changed everything," my grandmother explains. "Our children were no longer here to help in the fields, and they began to dream of leaving our village for the city to find work."

I listen in silence, afraid that I will witness "what happens to a dream differed," the innocent notion that simply by coming to America all dreams will come true. I think back to my family's history, their sacrifices, and how such deep tragedy and desperation brought my grandparents to this country. I re-read the words of Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, and Bill McKibbin, questioning the price of industrialization and consumerism. I watch the world news on a ten-inch TV screen in Nepal and start to cry when I see that people are still murdered because of their skin color. I am haunted by Harper Lee when I sleep—along with a thousand Americans asking themselves "where do I belong? America is the land of the free for who? And at what cost?"

My experiences abroad make me question everything—what the presences of schools have done to communities around the world, what will happen if humans continue to turn their back on their relationship with the natural world, and how the price of freedom seems to equate to a t-shirt on the clearance rack at Walmart that no one will ever buy, sewn by the hands of a 13-year-old girl in a developing country longing for a better life.

So sometimes I ask myself, would I trade my life of education and shopping malls for a simple yet arduous existence, planting and harvesting rice, living in a hand-made house, at one with the landscape that generation upon generation of my ancestors had called home? If I had been born in Nepal, would I too beg to ask, "Take me to America?"

A Trip to “Choice Radio Station”

It was the last day of second term government exams, so students and teachers returned home around 1pm. I was excited to go home and read books on Waldorf Education so I could prep for my job interview later that night. I had planned everything out, Mr. "TBU" sir, the English teacher at my host father's school and NELTA focal person for the Gorkha ETAs had agreed to take me to the bazaar on his motorbike and use the Wi-Fi at his language learning institute, where I teach adult English classes three times a week. "We are going to stop at the radio station and do some recording first," he said. Being Nepal, I did not understand what that meant until we showed up at the radio station…

First there was the commercial, Mr. TBU wanted me to record a sentence saying "Hi I'm Emily, welcome to our English language class!" Then there was the "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!" announcement. I was totally fine with recording these two things, they were in English….but then, I was told I was going to be interviewed ON THE AIR in Nepali. "You want me to do WHAT!?!?!?!?!?" was my initial reaction. Before I got an answer, I was escorted back into the recording booth. I heard the cheery Nepali music in the background, and then the Radio personality man Mr. "K" began talking like a car going a million miles per hour. I understood the Namaskar part, but that was about it. I felt my heart beating quickly, as my hands began to tremble. "Just breathe, just breathe" I told myself, "what's the worst thing that can happen?" So, I just started talking about how much I love my students, school, co-teachers, and host family. I have no idea if I actually answered any of the questions he asked me, but I talked. At the end of the fifteen minute interview, I wanted to run under a desk and hide, but before I could do that, I heard the Radio personality re-recording the questions he asked so that they matched the answers I gave.

This morning when I entered the school, I was greeted by our school's youngest student, a two year old who has been known to get up from her desk and start dancing in the middle of class.
"Miss, miss!!!! You were on the radio! My mother understood your Nepali!" she said with a smile in her high-pitched two-year-old voice. Some of the older students soon gathered around and said things along the lines of "yeah, you spoke such good Nepali and you said you love us on the radio!" My day was officially made when one of the more quiet children came up to me and his peers and said, "Emily miss can speak Nepali and we can speak English now" in a serious, calm, and confident manor.

Some of the once in a lifetime experiences I have had in Nepal, like being interviewed in Nepali on Choice Radio, jumping out of the window of a Nepali bus, and dancing on stage in front of hundreds of people, have helped me gain the confidence to just "go for it." I've been pushed quite far out of my comfort zone, but things have always turned out okay in the end. You never know what you will learn or teach others by trying something new. Although it was a bit scary being interviewed in Nepali, it was worth it because it helped affirm to my students that I really do love them.

Question Everything!!!

Questions are an important part of learning through which individuals learn to explore and discover personal identity, interpersonal relationships, and the world. Without questions, there is no opportunity to find answers. Questions are the essence that spark the fire of learning and celebrate the innate curiosity of human nature.

The ability to ask and answer questions both orally and on paper are fundamental skills for English language learners. One day, a student asked me "who old is you?" Instead of simply dismissing the student as being wrong, I decided it was time for them to practice learning how to ask questions. Thus, I designed a unit to help students learn how to answer questions by first practicing how to ask them.

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? Nepali and English Matching Cards 
We started the unit by exploring the meanings of each of the six question words. I made self-correcting flash card puzzles for each word in English and Nepali, and the students played a matching game finding the correct Nepali word for the English word. (yes, this activity also helped me learn some important Nepali words.)

The way the game works is, you divide the class into two equal teams. Then, put the English cards on one side of the front of the classroom, and put the Nepali words on the other side of the classroom. Have the students stand in two lines, putting students with equal ability levels opposite one another. On the count of "1,2,3 go!" the two students on opposite teams run to match an English question word to the Nepali question word. The first student back with a correct match gets a point for his/her team.

Question Word Comics
I have found comics to be a great way to reinforce concepts with my 2-5th grade students. They call for a degree of creativity, but also show whether or not the students understand the topic being studied. In the comic below, a fifth grade student is drawing pictures to match self-selected questions using the "who, what, when, where, why, and how" words.

Question Word Post-It Game
I LOVE post-it notes. They are also very useful in the classroom for teaching anything that involves categorizations. I started this activity off by writing a series of ten questions on the board. I gave each child a different colored pack of 10 post-it notes. (There are only six students in my 4th grade class, so this was not too much work. I would not, however, recommend this activity for large class sizes). Anyways, I had the students copy ten questions from the board. But, the questions were missing their question words! Throughout the classroom, I taped up pieces of paper with the words "who, what, when, where, why, and how."  Students had to individually put their post-it notes, on the correct question word.

When all the students were finished, we practiced correct pronunciation and intonation when asking the questions. Once the students understood how to ask questions, it was time to begin answering them!

  

Finding the Answers 
I did a few different activities to help the students begin answering the questions. I started doing this orally. I simply put the students into two lines, one with "questioners" and the other with "answerers" and I had them practice asking and answering questions with one another. After practicing asking and answering the questions orally, I had the students practice writing and answering the questions in a self-created and illustrated mini-book called "My Question Diary." The question diary contained a number of questions such as "what is your name? where do you live? what sports do you enjoy?" I made a list of questions on the board that students could choose from. For their question diary, they had to choose five questions, and write the question and answer in a small mini book that they made from computer paper. Along with writing and answering the questions, they had to provide illustrations.  I was amazed by how beautiful their books turned out! Unfortunately, they took the books home to show their parents and siblings before I could snap a picture, but I guess its a good thing because it shows that they are proud of their work.

I used the "My Questions Diary" as a means of assessing the students written ability to write and answer questions, but I wanted to find a way to also assess the students' oral ability to ask and answer questions...on the final day of the unit, it was game time! I found a really cool game which uses a deck of cards to ask and answer questions.

Talking Cards

Materials required:

One or two packs of playing cards and the questions sheet.

Objectives:

To get the student used to answering general questions at a level that resembles normal speech and to build conversational confidence.

How to play:

You distribute the cards among your students. If you have a large class use two packs of cards. The student answers the corresponding question to that card. The student is awarded 4 points for a complete answer, 3 points for a reasonable answer, 2 points for an incomplete answer, and 1 point for any answer at all. If your class is up to it, you can get them to award the points.

Spades (Describing things)

Ace

Describe your face.

King

Describe your clothes.

Queen

Describe your mother.

Jack

Describe your father.

Ten

Describe an apple.

Nine

Describe your bedroom.

Eight

Describe your best friend.

Seven

Describe what you had for breakfast today.

Six

Describe your English teacher.

Five

Describe the difference between a dog and a cat.

Four

Describe a pencil.

Three

Describe your favorite hobby.

Two

Describe this game.

Hearts (what questions)

Ace

What did you have for dinner last night?

King

What did you have for lunch today?

Queen

What is your favorite sport? Why?

Jack

What did you do last night?

Ten

What type of music do you like? Why?

Nine

What is your favorite game? Why?

Eight

What does your mother do?

Seven

What does your father do?

Six

What is your favorite subject at school? Why?

Five

What did you do last Sunday?

Four

What is your favorite television programme? Why?

Three

What would you do if you could do anything in the world?

Two

What is the one thing you would change about yourself?

Clubs (mixed questions)

Ace

What is your address in English?

King

What time do you usually get up?

Queen

Where did you go for your last holiday?

Jack

Where were you born?

Ten

Why are you studying English?

Nine

Which do you prefer, summer or winter, and why?

Eight

Which magazines do you like to read?

Seven

How many hours do you usually sleep at night?

Six

Do you like shopping? Why?

Five

How often do you go to the cinema?

Four

What was the last movie you saw?

Three

Would you like to travel to other countries? Why?

Two

How many friends have you got and who are they?

Diamonds (if clause)

Ace

If you could have a pet what would it be?

King

If you had a million dollars what would you spend it on?

Queen

If you could meet any person in the world who would it be and why?

Jack

If you could change something about your school what would it be?

Ten

If you had to live in another country which one would you choose?

Nine

If you could do anything in the world what would you do?

Eight

If you could speak three languages well, what would they be?

Seven

If you were rich, what would you do?

Six

If you had to spend a day alone at home, what would you do?

Five

If everyone in the world suddenly disappeared, what would you do?

Four

If you could choose how old you were, how old would you be and why?

Three

If you could choose any meal you wanted, what would it be?

Two

If you found $100,000 what would you do?

If you haven't already inferred this from my posts and pictures, I absolutely love my students. I am amazed by how hardworking they are and am blessed with the opportunity to feed their hunger for learning. Since teaching this unit, my students have been more vocal speaking English outside the classroom, and the skills they learned from it helped bump up their government exam scores. I am very proud of the progress that has been made over the past three months.

We are Queens and We are Kings!

When teaching class one about the letters "Q" and "K," we embarked on a magical adventure filled with music, movement and song. We learned about the differences between boys and girls, like how we say "she is a queen," and "he is a king." We listened to stories about famous Nepali queens and kings, sang songs, and learned new rhymes (like the one in the video below). Of course, we made crowns in which students practiced writing their names (a big learning goal for all class one students) and created golden rings out of post-it notes. Nothing beats the genuine enthusiasm of Shree Gorkhkali Primary School's youngest learners! 

Circle Time (the first 10-15 minutes of class each day)

The Royal Portrait 

Q for "Queen"

In the video above, students use their bodies to mimic the shape of "K" and "Q" in the kinesthetic movements. The rhyme and rhythm of the chat is helping build their phonemic awareness and speaking fluency. 

Nature Walk Picnic

Why keep children in the classroom when there is a world of learning outdoors?

This week, the staff of my school decided to take our students on a nature walk picnic to a nearby jungle. Students came with drums, makeshift musical instruments, and organic vegetables to share.

One of the most successful teaching methods I have experienced is taking my young learners on weekly nature walks to local farms, forests, and hills. Children are excited to be outside, explore, and express their curiosity. Not only are nature walks enjoyable, but they are helping my students learn new English vocabulary words in natural contexts. I am amazed by how quickly students are speaking in English about what they see and experience. Only three months ago, many of them could not write their own names. From the walks, I have learned a lot from my students and co-teacher about native Nepali medicinal plants, organic farming, and the many fascinating animals that live in the jungle. Nature walks give my students the confidence to explore, share, and expand their knowledge of the local Environment while practicing English.

Our first whole school nature walk picnic was a big success. I especially enjoyed cooking locally grown organic vegetables with the students, singing traditional Nepali songs, and, of course, dancing.