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Gap Year and Volunteer Opportunity in Nepal
Added: (Sun Jul 20 2008)
Recent Volunteer’s Experience
Michelle Ferrer - UK - 15th Sept 2007
I arrived in Nepal knowing that my time here would at times be very challenging. I also hoped it would be very rewarding. It has been both.
After my weeks training, I had 7 weeks volunteering. I started in Syabru Besi (one of its many different spellings) in the Langtang Region but was not sure if I'd spend my full time there.
The town is at the end of the bus route so although it's in the mountains, it's not completely remote. There is also an internet café there but if you go there be prepared for it to be very slow and expensive.
When I first started there was another volunteer already there, which was a big help. I had no real teaching experience and it was nice to get an idea of what was going on and get eased into it gently before being left on my own.
Our main role there was to teach English in the library at the entrance to the town. We had a really good group of 4-7 kids aged around 12 that came before school. Their English was already pretty good and we were able to do some really good activities with them. There was meant to be an adult lesson during the day and up until the day before I arrived Mary had been teaching a couple of women and a man but during my time there I only ever had Ammar come. He was a soldier and I think was mostly self-taught so although his knowledge of the language was pretty good he needed conversation practice. For this it was good that there was just the one of him.
In the afternoon there was a mixed and varied crowd of kids. Apparently the week before I arrived there were a lot less. I'm not sure if word had spread that a new volunteer was coming or if it was just coincidence but my first day there were lots of kids that Mary had never seen before and they just kept on coming. Their English was very poor and I couldn’t even work out if they spoke Nepali or Tamang. It was very hard to keep them occupied for long and it was a great relief there were two of us.
As well as the teaching in the library there is a secondary school across the river that has had computers for just over a year. I was asked to help with the lessons but what I found was the loosest use of the work 'lesson' I have ever seen. The kids would run in and sit down in front of the machines then just do whatever they wanted. They were pretty much allowed to do anything apart from play games so during my first proper session I went round with the Windows CD and uninstalled the games but made sure Paint was installed. There was a typing tutor program to use or they used Word or Paint. If they didn’t feel like using these they would just randomly click on anything they found. So you would have lots of unwanted files, icons, shortcuts, copies of shortcuts etc. Between lessons I'd go round and tidy up the desktops. They did have a teacher but the only thing I ever saw her actually show them how to do was draw a house in Paint (not exactly a useful lifeskill). It also didn't help that her English wasn't very good so I found it hard to communicate with her. I'd spend most morning at the school then head back at their 1pm break fro the adult lesson at 2.
It would be a great help if someone had the time, knowledge and commitment to actually start proper lessons in the school. It would need to be properly planned with both the headmaster and the computer teacher being involved.
They have a great resource there that is currently being wasted.
After Mary left, things got more hectic in the afternoon classes, even though I had spent a lot of time planning (I really didn't dare to venture into these classes unprepared). The first week I was on my own was a real struggle. The group continued to get more varied with more of the very local children coming. There English was better as some of them went to the better primary school. Numbers still fluctuated.
I didn't know if I'd last the full 7 weeks up there but I was determined to not just quit when things got difficult. I'm glad I stuck it out for as long as I did. After nearly 2 weeks on my own Andrew arrived to join me.
Things were ok, carrying on as they had been, while there were two of us but, knowing we were having another volunteer come to join us and they would be left on there own, we decided to split the afternoon group into 2 classes. This worked surprisingly well on the first day but then numbers started dropping a lot and we sort of unofficially made it one group again. I think the numbers changing were partly due to exams coming up.
I decided that although I'd enjoyed my time there I'd like a change of scenery and get away from pure teaching. So I headed back to Kathandu at the same time as Andrew to move to the orphanage in Pokhara.
I came back from the mountains and after spending a couple of nights back in Kathmandu I went to Pokhara to work in one of the cities many orphanages. There are about 28 children there, with ages ranging from 4-13 (I think). 8 of these children go to school, including the 4 girls. There is a couple who live there with them and another woman that comes to cook for them.
The day I arrived was the first day of an English lesson for teenagers that was being started in the orphanage so I got stuck in and tried to establish what sort of level we would need to teach at.
As well as these teaching sessions at 4pm every day the routine consisted of teaching the children that aren't sponsored to go to school. They have a lesson at 10.10 and then another at 11.45, with a Nepali lesson in between. Then we were free from 12.30 while they had science and maths lessons.
My most enjoyable and rewarding time spent at the orphanage was outside of these classes. There were a few English story books there and I tried to get some of them reading them. With only classes in big groups and at very different levels, the children are not getting a lot of reading help. We also played out in the yard and generally gave the kids the affection they are not getting from other adults.
The orphanage has not been up and running for very long but hopefully we will continue to see improvements, both in the behavior and English of the kids, and in the property itself. The rooms get quite damp and the roof leaks and also makes the rooms very hot in the sun.
I wish I had had more time to really try to make a difference there but I'm also quite glad in a way that I 'm not there long term. It was hard enough leaving and having to say goodbye to the kids after only 2 weeks. I'm sure it would be a lot harder after a few months. They really are a great bunch.