Welcome to Pokhara

The contrast between the bustle of Kathmandu and the calm of Lakeside, Pokhara, is soothing. I arrived at my new home last Saturday and have not really stopped since. Today is my day off, and I am indulging in the peace of the day by sitting by the lake, sipping a cup of mint tea and taking in the views.

After a rather long and painful bus ride along the pot-holed rodes from the capital, I arrived in Lakeside last week with two other volunteers from the UK and we were taken to our new house – Bindu’s guest house, nestled in the back streets of the town. 

Being the longest serving volunteer staying at present, I was honoured with the best room – perks include a balcony with views of the lake and mountains. Bliss. The combination of hotel and home makes it a very comfortable place to live and Rex the dog serves as a welcome tail-wagging guard every time I come home.

The first day’s orientation took us around the lake side town and to visit the various projects that PoD have set up links with: Ward 6 – a day care centre for under 5s; SOS Bahini – a women’s refuge home; Street Kids Centre – an orphanage; Asha Foundation – an orphanage, plus four small schools in Lakeside, three primary and one secondary. We then took a bus to the remote hill village of Bhalam to visit the final two rural schools.

The new, long (and somewhat nerve-wracking) bridge over the river makes the journey an exquisite blend of mountains, river and rolling countryside, with small stone cottages and schools nestled amidst the greenery.

Cows and buffalo roam freely, both in the towns and in the villages, and I have at several points this week been waiting to cross the road with a large horned buffalo.

Having taken a “tour” of the projects, we were then asked to decide which project we all felt we had the most connection with and would like to spend our time working with. My first thought after visiting the schools was of great sadness; not just due to the immense poverty they are immersed in, but more due to the limitation of the teaching and the schools’ development. All of the teachers I spoke with said they were never given training when they became teachers and were keen to learn teaching techniques. All of the lessons I watched involved simple chanting and rote learning, with no creativity in the teaching and limited learning by the children; with everything being taught in English by teachers who do not really speak English. 
No need to say more.

I spent the next day at one of the town schools, Anapurna Primary, watching the teachers and observing their practice. 

In one day I saw enough to sadden me deeply: a total lack of hygiene (with a nursery child urinating on the carpet and simply being left to sit in it for the rest of the day due to a total lack of the concept of hygiene), intense corporal punishment, a lack of any praise, no learning motivation, no creative teaching, no pictures on the walls, games to play, fun elements of learning. For a primary school for children aged 2 – 11 who spend five hours a day, six days a week there, the conditions, teaching and environment were heartbreaking to see.

That night I sat up late thinking, planning and reading the Nepal Ministry of Education’s website to find out what the curriculum and development plans for Government schools currently were. I came up with a proposal the following day which I worked through with the charity manager. The proposal we have created is that I am going to prepare and run a teacher training day for the Chairmen, Headteachers, many of the teachers and Committee Members from each of the six schools who have asked to get involved. I am going to run the training day and hire a Nepalese interpreter using some of my funds. I am going to make a detailed training pack for each person with key topics explained, and hire someone to translate each page in to Nepalese so the pack contains the training in both languages, introducing five key areas for the general training:

Discipline

Hygiene

Creative teaching

Development of learning

Assessment

I will then ask the staff to return to their prospective school to implement key ideas and return for a follow up meeting with me after two weeks to talk through any problems or concerns that they may be having.

In the meanwhile, I will spend time in each of the schools and observe their key areas for development and create an individual development plan for each school, with simple ideas to implement. During that time I will visit and observe each school using these ideas and support them if they feel they need additional help. I also plan to use a chunk of my fundraising to be able to supply basic products to each school such as pencils, soap, exercise books, posters for the walls, small library book boxes for each class and other essential items.

So pressure’s on now this week for me to write something clear, accessible, motivational and easy to implement for each of these six schools. Mmm, I do enjoy a challenge but just hope I've not bitten off more than I can chew here! We'll see. 

Vive le revolution…