Christmas in July

I love my job. 

Yesterday I spent four hours cutting jigsaw puzzles, crafting cardstock dice, coloring flash cards and bouncing up and down in my chair while singing "The Wheels on the Bus." And yes, obviously with the accompanying hand movements. Witnessing 8 other ETAs do the same around our crowded table reminded me of the creativity and ingenious activities that make learning fun, a fact that has been motivating me throughout this first week as we prepare to teach in our schools.

Our classroom-prep teacher, Christine Stone (literally) rolled into the Fulbright Commission compound on her bike before promptly hopping off, lifting her Border collie, Nim, from the basket in the back (no easy feat, considering he probably weighs almost as much as she does!) and bounding past us into the classroom, exclaiming, "Cheerio! Right then, let's get to work!" The best word to describe her is 'firecracker.' At 72 years old, she has more energy than the 9 ETAs combined and noted how she's more busy now that she's retired, helping write curriculums, train teachers, and write Nepali children's books to promote literacy across the country. In short, she's kind of a big deal...

At the start of her lesson, she handed out teacher packets, complete with all the necessary supplies we would need to get started in the classroom. Watching everyone's faces as we lifted cardstock, flashcards, scissors, markers, and glue from our bags was better than Christmas morning! (Keep in mind this is coming from the girl who color codes her planner and grew up giving alphabet lessons to her Beanie Babies...) Christine will accompany us next week as we travel to Gorkha to visit the first six site placements, meet with teachers, and of course, continue with Nepali language training in the hopes that Nepali will start to sound a bit more comprehensible and less like the babble of the minions in "Despicable Me"...

Off to be treated like a human pincushion at the travel health clinic (hurray for good ol' japanese encephalitis and rabies vaccines!) and try out a Bollywood dance class!



Some sights/foods from this week's adventures: