This is how we start our days here at Maya school, standing in a circle with all the children of the school, holding hands.
My feet are so dirty I think I will never get them clean again.
Red dusty sand, wherever I go.
I'm lying in my room, walls covered with red dusty mud, with my red dusty feet hanging off the side of my bed. Welcome to the village life in Nepal.
This morning I was sleeping in the main house together with all the children ( I couldn't find my flashlight so I couldn't walk home last night. Also, the old lady at the campfire kept on saying how she saw a tiger last night and May-our dog- kept on barking into the darkness) and I was woken up by the sound of screaming children. The new children had arrived, more children to live at Maya school. They look very excited for a bunch of children who have just been traveling all across the country all night long without getting any sleep.
They school-a sister school of Maya-has problems with the government so they either had to go to a shitty government school or come to live at Maya Universe Academy, where I am volunteering.
Maya is a private school--but it is for free. At this school the parents do not have to pay money to get their kids educated, they have to pay by working for the school 2 days a a month. And seeing that we have about 50 children enrolled at the moment-some from the village and some from the sister schools on the other side of the country, we have a lot of parents who help us out every day.
I love it here.
Every morning we walk down to the stream to wash and brush our teeth and fill up big water containers which we put into baskets and carry back to Maya by securing it to our heads with a rope. It's only a 10 minute walk, but it's quite heavy still so a good morning exercise:P
My feet are so dirty I think I will never get them clean again.
Red dusty sand, wherever I go.
I'm lying in my room, walls covered with red dusty mud, with my red dusty feet hanging off the side of my bed. Welcome to the village life in Nepal.
This morning I was sleeping in the main house together with all the children ( I couldn't find my flashlight so I couldn't walk home last night. Also, the old lady at the campfire kept on saying how she saw a tiger last night and May-our dog- kept on barking into the darkness) and I was woken up by the sound of screaming children. The new children had arrived, more children to live at Maya school. They look very excited for a bunch of children who have just been traveling all across the country all night long without getting any sleep.
They school-a sister school of Maya-has problems with the government so they either had to go to a shitty government school or come to live at Maya Universe Academy, where I am volunteering.
Maya is a private school--but it is for free. At this school the parents do not have to pay money to get their kids educated, they have to pay by working for the school 2 days a a month. And seeing that we have about 50 children enrolled at the moment-some from the village and some from the sister schools on the other side of the country, we have a lot of parents who help us out every day.
I love it here.
Every morning we walk down to the stream to wash and brush our teeth and fill up big water containers which we put into baskets and carry back to Maya by securing it to our heads with a rope. It's only a 10 minute walk, but it's quite heavy still so a good morning exercise:P
Me, Niki Miss and a goat somewhere on the hill
In the morning we eat rice and dal, in the afternoon nothing (but sometimes cookies and I've seen the children sucking on the little garlic-salt packages that come with noodle soup) and in the evening again rice and dal. I've been here only for a week but my stomach is starting to get a little upset at the sight of rice-with-potato-cabbage substance, but i guess I'll have to make do with it because it's all we have. Unless I want to kill a chicken of course, but we've already killed two this week and I shouldn't exaggerate. This Sunday I will take the bus to Damauli together with the other volunteers and Prabesh and Manjil to buy lots of food (fruit!!! ahh) and use the internet to post this.
In the morning we eat rice and dal, in the afternoon nothing (but sometimes cookies and I've seen the children sucking on the little garlic-salt packages that come with noodle soup) and in the evening again rice and dal. I've been here only for a week but my stomach is starting to get a little upset at the sight of rice-with-potato-cabbage substance, but i guess I'll have to make do with it because it's all we have. Unless I want to kill a chicken of course, but we've already killed two this week and I shouldn't exaggerate. This Sunday I will take the bus to Damauli together with the other volunteers and Prabesh and Manjil to buy lots of food (fruit!!! ahh) and use the internet to post this.
Goma taking a buddha shower at the stream
Children around you all day long, seven days a week. That's what I wanted and that is what I got. And they are quite the children:) They are really active all day and all night (often they wake up the volunteers with a very loud ' good morning sir, good morning miss' at 6:30 in the morning) , and they want to hold your hand all the time and play all the time and it's so delightful and tiring at the same time.
Last Friday I have my first art lesson to the toddlers and I was pleasantly surprised at the level of English they understood. It's also really cute because the Nepali way of saying ' yes' is by bobbing your head left to right and saying ' la' --and it's really funny to see 8 children do this at the same time.
Children around you all day long, seven days a week. That's what I wanted and that is what I got. And they are quite the children:) They are really active all day and all night (often they wake up the volunteers with a very loud ' good morning sir, good morning miss' at 6:30 in the morning) , and they want to hold your hand all the time and play all the time and it's so delightful and tiring at the same time.
Last Friday I have my first art lesson to the toddlers and I was pleasantly surprised at the level of English they understood. It's also really cute because the Nepali way of saying ' yes' is by bobbing your head left to right and saying ' la' --and it's really funny to see 8 children do this at the same time.
Some women in the village carrying manure down to their field.
I arrived to Maya School on top of a bus. The only bus going up the hill was full so we climbed on top together with all our luggage and tried to squeeze ourselves into moderately comfortable positions together with everybody else who was also sitting on top. It was actually a pretty scary busride because I was sitting on the edge with a bag of rice leaning against by back and at every bump it kept on shifting and trying to push me off, and there are a lot of bumps in the road here, believe me:) But i survived, so that was adventure number one for me here, and I'm sure many more are to come (I mean, I also got out of the village on top of a bus again, I'm getting more and more comfortable with it:) )
Anyway, even though I have lots more to say and lots more adventures to tell of, I need to go now and buy some fruits and have lunch again so that I will have something else to eat than rice and dal this week, hurrah:)
I arrived to Maya School on top of a bus. The only bus going up the hill was full so we climbed on top together with all our luggage and tried to squeeze ourselves into moderately comfortable positions together with everybody else who was also sitting on top. It was actually a pretty scary busride because I was sitting on the edge with a bag of rice leaning against by back and at every bump it kept on shifting and trying to push me off, and there are a lot of bumps in the road here, believe me:) But i survived, so that was adventure number one for me here, and I'm sure many more are to come (I mean, I also got out of the village on top of a bus again, I'm getting more and more comfortable with it:) )
Anyway, even though I have lots more to say and lots more adventures to tell of, I need to go now and buy some fruits and have lunch again so that I will have something else to eat than rice and dal this week, hurrah:)