Reflecting

I have been back in Australia now for one week and in that time there are a few things that I have been able to reflect upon in regards to my time in Nepal.

Firstly, I am surprised at how much I am missing Nepal now that I am home. In part, I think it has to do with my feelings of insignificance here. What I mean by 'insignificance' is that in Nepal, I feel as though I was doing good things and had a real purpose. I feel as though I was making an impact in people's lives by helping them and learning important life lessons in the process. I guess what I am really saying is that I feel as though I have so much more to give and now that I am home I don't know what to do. So many tasks seem so menial and pointless. This gives me an opportunity to think about how I can match these feelings here in Australia.

Secondly, I am amazed with how much I have learnt in such a short time period. On a personal level I have learnt to be more patient, more forgiving, more compassionate, more tolerant and more open. On a professional level I have learnt to make do with limited resources, better scaffold learning, allow more thinking time and collaborate with peers better. I think these are all important attributes that will help me in my teaching career; especially with the amount of ESL (English as Second Language) students in Australian schools now.

In Nepal, I think I got accustomed to things very quickly, so when I got home it was a little weird to see how good we have things. For example, the roads in Nepal are, by western standards very poor yet the locals do not seem to complain; in fact, the taxi drivers would get a laugh out of our reactions to their extremely bumpy roads. The funny thing is that if there is one piece of asphalt out of place on an Australian road, then you can guarantee at least ten people will complain to the local council and demand it get fixed. We are very fortunate in Australia to have the level of infrastructure and services that we do but it is amazing to me how much we take it all for granted.

I think if you have read my blogs since day one, you will see how much of an impact my trip has had on me. The places I've seen and the people I have met have made it so memorable. On top of my 'to do list' for 2014 includes fundraising for Mitrataa (I have no idea what I will do or how I will do it yet) and planning a return trip to Kathmandu (this time I will drag Cody along). If anyone reading this is presented with an opportunity to visit Nepal either to volunteer teach or just to holiday then do it! You will not regret it.

Final week in Nepal

I have only just realised that I haven't blogged about my final week in Nepal yet; I have written notes but not gotten as far as typing them up.

My last week was spent teaching and I loved every minute of it. The Friday we were made to feel so very special by the entire school and we were all given a 'token of love' to thank us for our time with Riviera. It was sad to say goodbye to so many wonderful people; especially my teacher Kanchan. I think I will miss her most; she is just such a beautiful, wonderful, happy person who deserves the best in life. I gave her a few farewell presents and she in turn gave me a wonderful wall hanging of some Hindu gods (which are already up in the living room). The final assembly felt quite emotional and I was lucky enough to be able to give a farewell speech on behalf of our group, as follows;

Respected Principal, Vice Principal, Teachers, Staff and Students. On behalf of all of us from CSU I would like to extend our gratitude to Riviera International School for being so very welcoming to us. 

Although we only shared one week with you (thanks to the strikes) we all leave here with many fond memories that will last a lifetime.

As we are all teachers in training, I can say that the experience we have had here has been invaluable and it will make us better teachers in the future.

To our partner teachers; thank you for allowing us to take over your classes and practice our teaching in this environment that is foreign to us.

To Principal Prajwell and Vice Principal Rajesh, thank you for giving us a chance to improve our skills, even though it might seem we do things a little differently.

To the various other staff in the school, you have all been so friendly and helpful to us and have made our experience better. We thank you for this.

Finally, a HUGE thank you to each and every student here. You are all amazing in your own special way and we are so very thankful that you have been so polite, respectful, fun and welcoming to us. You are a credit to Riviera and from the bottom of our hearts we wish you all the very best for your future.

Thank You. 

Final day at Riviera

After school on Friday, myself along with 7 others from our group boarded a plane for Nepal's second largest city Pokhara, for our final few days. Pokhara is such a beautiful city and is much cleaner and greener than Kathmandu. When we got off the plane we all just soaked in the clean(er) air and marvelled at how green the countryside was and how close the snow capped peaks were compared to Kathmandu. We spent our time here just chilling out as friends; a last hoorah before heading our separate ways in Australia. On the Saturday we took a relaxing boat ride to Tal Bahari Temple in the middle of lake Phewa. We then continued to the opposite side of the lake where we climbed a small mountain to reach the World Peace Pagoda.

Bits and pieces from Pokhara

On the Sunday morning, I faced my fear of heights head on by paragliding from Saragkot. To say I was petrified would be the understatement of the century, just ask any of the others I went with. I initially chucked a tantrum like a 3 year old child saying that I wouldn't do it but was eventually roped in to it (and I use the term 'roped' lightly; it was more blackmail - hahaha). My tantrum did garner me the most experienced pilot, so that was a plus. It's funny, because once I was at the top of the mountain I wasn't as nervous as I had expected; this may have been because there were so many paragliders up there (or it could have been because of the almost whole bottle of calming oil I drank earlier). Turns out it was actually fun. We soared above the mountains at around 2,300 meters and had terrific views of the Himalayas, Pokhara, Lake Phewa and the beautiful countryside. Apart from a little motion sickness towards the end, I would say that I enjoyed it (but once was enough).

The mountains in the distance seemed so much closer to me. Breathtaking!

After a great weekend in Pokhara we headed back for one more night in Kathmandu. We all did our last minute shopping for loved ones and then headed out for our final dinner at the Mitrataa Hostel. It was so much fun because the kids put on a bit of a concert for us with singing and dancing. We reciprocated by putting on a pretty awful rendition of 'Home Among the Gum Trees' with our own Nepali twist. We were fed some delicious Dal Bhat Thakari as our final meal. It was especially sad to say goodbye to the Mitrataa family as we bonded with them so well on our first 2 weeks in the country.

So that is my trip to Nepal but stay tuned for my final reflection :)

Farewell Mitrataa