First Day of School! First Day of School!

August 20

After an early morning start (you can only sleep in until about 6am with a buffalo moo-ing outside your bedroom window…), I took tea with my family and entertained Stuath and Spandan while Anita did her prayers in the small worship room.

Here in Gorkha, mornings are slow-paced and savored –instead of rushing out to work with a travel mug of coffee, families take their first two meals of the day together, one of which is, you guessed it –dhal bhaat! I watched as the bazaar rumbled to life, shops rolling open their gates, revealing bangles, boots, bananas and everything in between. My dai headed off to school with a “Namaste! Tapaaiko din raamro hos! Have a nice day!” and I soon set off for the short walk to Mahendra Jyoti.

I met with my co-teacher Shova-Miss a few minutes before the first period bell rang and we walked together into class 7, where I opened with my rehearsed introduction:

“Namaste! Mero naam Annie ho. Mero desh America ho. Ma yahah sot mahinah baschu ra malaai Nepal ekdam raamro laagchha.”

Before I could take a seat in the back of the class where I had intended to observe for my first day, Shova-Miss flipped open the textbook to “Unit 9: Expressing Obligations and Giving Instructions,” handed me the textbook and said, “You teach? Thik chha?”

Oh boy. So much for taking a few days to observe.

It was in that split second of “what-the-heck-am-I-going-to-do?” moment when I realized how grateful I am for my Solomon Islands teaching experience, as well as the past four weeks of Christine’s training. Both helped me at least feel a bit confident in taking a class if not completely prepared.

I soon found Christine’s advice to be true: students, especially the older ones, have been trained to copy directly from the blackboard and repeat whatever the teacher says. It is going to be a challenge to get them to do more interactive and improvisational activities, which will eventually help them with communication skills. And managing a class of 56 seventh graders may prove to be a bigger challenge, including trying to match unfamiliar names with 56 faces squeezed in close together in the small classrooms.

After feeling out the classroom dynamics, I decided to try out Christine’s tried and true “run to the board” game. Students, two at a time, ran to the board to be the first to select the correct time from a choice of analog clocks. It was a tie of girls versus boys –there will be a tie-breaker to determine the winner on Thursday!

Although I returned home exhausted and a bit overwhelmed after similar periods teaching in grades 5, 7, and 8 (I’ll spare you the details of my attempt to sing a chant in class 5, at the request of the teacher), I am optimistic and excited to begin teaching and working with teachers at Mahendra Jyoti for the next few months!