The New Year

With the New Year comes a new class. Due to trouble with the bus we didn’t get back from Nepal till late Sunday night and school started the next day. No preparation. Ahh! Oh well, how bad could it be? In the morning I went to class at 8:45am expecting to teach math, however the schedule was changed. Now I teach English from 10:30 to 11:15 everyday, Math from 8:30 to 9:15 Wednesday-Thursday, and Science/Health from 11:15 to 12:00 Thursday-Friday. This means I only have one class Monday and Tuesday. What am I going to do with all this free time?! Don’t worry, I’ll find something. Oh, I could play with the babies!

This new class has 17 kids, 4 more than the last class, and those 4 more make a difference. They are a lot noisier, whinier, naughtier and more stubborn. The first week was a struggle. Friday, teacher Joya came up to me exhausted saying she missed the old class. I agreed. They are testing both of us to see what they can get away with.

During the second week they started to get better but then Thursday hit, the worst day of teaching so far. For math class everyone was chattering, reading other books, and complaining that they didn’t understand because they weren’t listening. I was so relived to escape to breakfast. English class went okay but I finished early and started reading a book to them. As soon as they sat on the mat chaos ensued. There was hitting, pinching, calling names, talking, and getting up to wander around. I started science class and nothing changed. I sent two girls, Annemarie and Suzanna, to two opposite corners. If I was the architect of building that classroom I would have made a corner for each of the kids. With those girls in the corners the class was a little better and more attentive. However, those girls did not stay in the corners for long. Annemarie moseyed over to the door and managed to lock us in the classroom from the outside while being on the inside. A couple of the kids tried to unlock the door with no luck. We had to get the attention of someone outside to open the door.

After class I had Annemarie and Suzanna stay to talk to them about their behavior. After talking I looked them each in the eyes and asked them if they were going to work on being good girls in class. They both responded with a confident NO. Okay, we know are going to talk to Papri (the principle). I took them each by the hand and led them down to Papri’s office. She wasn’t there. So we wandered around some trying to find her. We found mommy instead. Mommy informed me that I have to punish them and that I needed to spank Annemarie. If Papri punishes her she will learn to listen to Papri but not me. I understand that but I really didn’t want to spank anyone, so I sent them to their rooms without lunch. I found Papri in the café and let her know they will not be joining them for lunch. On my way back to my room Annemarie was walking outside laughing and smiling at me as if to say I can do what I want and you can’t stop me. Why did she have to do that? Now I have to spank her or she will never learn. I walked straight over to her, took her back into her room, set her over my knee and spanked her good. She was shocked. I left her with some strong yet encouraging words and headed to my room. As soon as I left her room tears started welling up in my eyes. That was my first time spanking a child and it was awful. I bypassed my room and went straight to the roof where I cried out all the emotions I had been bottling up since I got here. I hadn’t felt that helpless in a long time.

Life in the classroom is still hard and chaotic at times but overall they are doing a lot better. Each child has its moments of defiance but I think that is natural. Annemarie is always nervous I am going to wallop her again. I guess this fear is good. At least she listens to me now. I love teaching, I just don’t like the classroom management. I‘m not good at it. I hate being the bad guy; I just want to be their friend. Bless those who find enjoyment in managing the little ones. You are saints.

Nepal

taxi ride to the airport

Our adventure started December 26 with the night bus to Dhaka. Between 10:00pm and 5:30am I inhaled lots of cigarette smoke, witnessed several beatings, froze a little, and slept less. When we arrived in Dhaka everything was still asleep so we sat outside the dental clinic’s gate like homeless people eating the food Shuati had lovingly prepared for us. Around 6:30am Simpson came out and let us in to sleep in the guest rooms. We all zonked out till noon. Then took a taxi to the airport, and an hour and a half plane ride later we were in Nepal. It was cloudy landing. We could see the mountains above the clouds but then descended beneath them. I got through customs first and proceeded to find the hotel taxi that was supposed to pick us up. As I stepped outside waves of voices were hitting me demanding a taxi and signs were pushed in my face of the names of the people they were supposed to pick up. As soon as I saw my name on the white piece of paper it all stopped. I had found my ride. Once everyone got through customs we headed off to the hotel. That night we got the lowdown from the hotel supervisor and than went exploring on our own.

Flying into Kathmandu

The next day we wondered around with a detail-less map. We found Durbar square, got really hungry, played battleship, ate mint chocolate chip ice cream, and ended the day in an unstable kingdom where we all fought to be royalty (aka. playing Kings, Queens and Poppers). It was a good day of unplanned wandering around. I got a knockoff North Face jacket because I was not prepared for the cold weather. When packing for Bangladesh I completely forgot about going to Nepal and only had one sweatshirt. Oh well, thank goodness for cheap well made rip-offs.

The Buda eyes

The goal for Monday was to see some monkeys, specifically the Monkey temple. After reading up on it we figured out where it was and that we wanted to go around sundown when the ceremony of lighting candles occurs. So we wandered around the other side of Thamel in the morning and set out for the Monkey temple after noon. We needed to go through town, over a river, and then up a hill. Or so I thought. We made it to the river with no problems but the other side of the river was another town with lots of streets that weren’t on the map. Also the streets had no street signs. Needless to say, we were lost. Not lost in the sense that we didn’t know how to get anywhere, I could get us back to the hotel, but lost because we didn’t know how to get the where we wanted to go. At one point we saw the Monkey Temple sitting on a hill and headed in that direction. We eventually found it. So many monkeys! And they all stayed near the temple. I guess it was because that is where their food came from. The temple was pretty neat. So many stairs! It was cool to look down on Kathmandu from the top of the hill. By the time we left it was getting dark. That made it harder to navigate the nameless streets back to the bridge. We made it across the river but used a different bridge. Oh well, we’re smart cookies and figured out where we were.

Monkey Temple

Tuesday was the day we were heading for Nagarkot, but first a friend of Caleb’s mom showed us around the other side of Kathmandu. He is a bible worker for the SDA church, specifically a librarian that translates books into the local language. He took us to the main Hindu temple and burial sight. They cremate the bodies and pour the ashes into the holy river. When we were there they were burning one body and preparing another. It was nice wandering around with a local. He took to the non-touristy places. We got to see the real Kathmandu. After taking him out to lunch we took the hotel taxi to Nagarkot. Getting out of the smog filled city was wonderful. We took a windy road up through giant trees. It reminded me of California. And we could see the mountains!

In Nagarkot

In Nagarkot we wandered around gawking at the grand mountains. Other than a mishap with a thorny plant that numbed half of my right hand for several days, it was by far the best part of the trip. My soul belongs in the mountains. I would have been content just sitting in our hotel window basking in the awe. There is something about being high up in nature that feels holy and closer to God.

Mountains!

We brought in the New Year in Nagarkot. I celebrated with a Twix bar and soda from the airplane. January 1 I went rock climbing in Nepal. Well, it was actually bouldering, and super easy bouldering at that. We all wanted to stay in Nagarkot longer but I had already paid for the next hotel back in Kathmandu. So we stayed most of the day, went to the lookout tower and then road back into the smoggy city.

Momos

Finding our hotel took quite some time. The taxi driver didn’t know exactly where our hotel was so he dropped us off in the middle of Thamel. The map we had from the first hotel wasn’t very detailed. There were a lot more roads on the street than on the map. We had to stop for directions twice but eventually found the hotel. There they gave us a better map that actually had their location on it. Thank goodness, I didn’t want to wander down those dark allies again.

The next day we cooked like locals. Oh it was fun to be in the kitchen again! We got to make momos. Very tasty. Then we finished buying gifts for people and left the next day. Over all, this trip was filled with lots of walking, eating yummy food, witnessing different religions, and seeing God’s grandiose. I definitely want to come back, but next time I will get further into the mountains.