Asia,  Nepal,  TDM,  Travel Journal

Birgunj (Nepal) – one week of volunteering in a Nepalese school

Birgunj is a Nepalese city, on the border with India, where we will spend a week of volunteering in a Nepalese private school. The aim is to make the students discover other working methods and to arouse their curiosity. We heard about this project through Couchsurfing and we answered present

Day 1: Nagarkot -> Birgunj

The hotel in Nagarkot reserves us a car with driver, 8 seats from Nagarkot. Departure at 8 am to Balkhu (where the bus station is located). We regret bitterly our choice because the car makes us feel every imperfection of the road whereas the cabs, smaller, are more advantageous on this point. We note to always take cabs for 1h30 of road

Arrived in Balkhu, we are shown a Jeep ready to leave for Birgunj. The local price is 1034 rupees for 2 but we are charged 1200 rupees. It isn’t too serious, we laugh while saying that we must pay the “tourist price”. The jeeps leave only when it’s full (there are 10 places in all) so we were lucky not to wait too long. We are the only foreigners

A long 7-hour trip begins where, sitting very uncomfortably (4 people per row), we must demonstrate absolute confidence in the driver. We drive most of the time 30cm from a cliff, in the rain, honking our horn at all times (especially in the surroundingss where there isn’t even a mirror) with a tire close to a puncture

But the landscape is magnificent and even the Nepalese are ecstatic about the beauty of their country

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Arrived in Birgunj, we discover a polluted city, not at all pretty, very dirty (the ground is muddy after the rain), that’s why nobody comes here as a tourist, except to travel from India to Nepal

We still manage to take a rickshaw (by bike) with all our luggage. The announced price is so cheap compared to the effort that we pay the double to the rickshaw. Our “generosity” (we only gave him 0,4€ more) is rewarded by a huge smile full of happiness and gratitude, so sincere that it makes us too happy too

Vishal comes to pick us up at the meeting point. He is the director of the school and the person I came in contact with via Couchsurfing for our volunteer project in Nepal

We follow him home to discover that he has reserved a royal suite for us: a private room bigger than our apartment in Paris

You should know that in Nepal, many students go to private schools, where the quality is better than in public schools. In order to spare parents the headache of babysitting, students have only 10 vacation days per year (on average). However, they only go to school in the morning or afternoon

Day 2 :

We visit Vishal’s school which is just 15 minutes away from his home. The idea is to see how it goes and see how we can help and what classes we can give to the students. With this in mind, we are in “cool, I smile to the students” mode ..

The school has students from 3 to 16 years old (up to the 3rd grade). The infrastructures are very good for a private Nepalese school (generator in case of power failure, fans, water corners…). The students are very polite, always say “Thank you Mam”, “Thank you Sir”, get up when we enter the classroom, get up when we ask them a question etc. So much politeness bothers us too much because the teacher-student distance is much too great

We don’t put too much pressure on ourselves until Vishal gives each of us a direct 3rd class. My first class, on the subject of “studying abroad” is the result of a long and boring improvisation in English. I don’t know how but I ended up drawing a baguette, the plan of a typical canteen in a high school in France and what my plate full of meat looks like in France (knowing that the majority is vegetarian in Nepal)

From my long speech, the students mostly retained the selfie at the end. I meet JB who is also in a state of despair: “I taught them a few words in French but I don’t know how it can be useful to them”

Then we go on to two other classes where I explain how a wedding takes place in France, how to recognize the married people by looking at their hands and how to wash clothes at the dry cleaners. Don’t ask me how these subjects came into my head, but they catch my attention so much that I tell myself that our simple and banal French life can be so different from that of the Nepalese that it becomes fascinating. Who would have thought?

After these moments of total improvisation, we ask ourselves how we can be less lame next time, how to teach them a working method or give them the opportunity to speak

We are too lucky to arrive on “Teacher’s Day”, the students really put their hearts into it. Each class buys a cake and lots of candy, there is a little gift for each teacher. As we go around the classrooms, we get the cakes and sweets too

To improve ourselves, we are looking for ideas for interactive courses on Pinterest. We stop at
– the mime for big and activities like team building + html
– Craft for the little ones and music (work on rhythms/percussions)
– cooking classes for adults (pancakes)

The activities decided, we then list the shopping list for the next day’s Craft activity: 8 triangles of 2 colors to be stuck on an A4 sheet of paper in an artistic way

We are far from imagining the debate that will follow between the leaders of the school on how to buy cheap colored papers, what sizes, how many glues are needed, etc.. A simple activity is finally not so simple when I am told that it is OK but it is for 140 students spread over 4 classes

JB and I will spend the whole evening cutting the triangles. 140 students * 8 triangles. I’ll let you do the math

At Vishal’s, a multitude of people, young and old, hang out. Two little ones love us very much and are learning to play UNO with us. We take the opportunity to test our game ideas with them (mime in particular) and the very good results we get reassure us a lot about the lessons to be given the next day

Day 3 :

JB takes 4 mime classes for the older kids while I take 4 collage classes for the younger kids and 2 English classes for the older kids

With JB, modesty and shyness make them less successful at mime than the two little ones seen at Vishal’s the day before. But they still have a good time and we have a feedback that it was super interactive

With the little ones, I have a lot of trouble with 7 year olds who don’t understand the purpose of the exercise and who spend 35 minutes sticking 8 poor triangles with the help of two other teachers (each class here lasts between 35 and 40 minutes)

But I take the time to show everyone’s work and congratulate them one by one. I read somewhere that you shouldn’t be stingy with compliments, especially to the little ones, and their proud smiles confirm that I did well

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Very discouraged by the first class, I continue with a class of 8-year-olds (older than the previous class). They are too smart and finish the exercise in just 15 minutes. Taken aback, I don’t know what else to do after the compliments. So I teach them to clap their hands in rhythm, which is a lot of fun and which they do better and better

I will do the same with another class. For the last class, unfortunately, there is no more glue left, so the exercise falls apart. I suggest that they draw a dog instead (?!) and I miraculously remember the Arabic telephone. The Nepalese teacher helps me to make the Arabic phone. The result is always at the meeting: between the initial message and the final message, there is a big difference (it’s done in Nepali so I didn’t understand the fun side of the thing) but the little ones seem to have a lot of fun

Two moments that warmed my heart
– after working on the rhythms with the little ones, I leave the class saying goodbye. As soon as I leave, I can hear them clapping their hands in the rhythm that I taught them, all alone
– i asked one class if they had heard the class next door clap their hands and if they would like to do the same. I read in their eyes a kind of spark and excitement that warmed my heart

The afternoon consists of another discussion on how to get all the ingredients for the pancakes. We thought it was going to be the simplest recipe in the world but it’s not. The wheat flour that we are used to exists here in a less fine version and so it costs more to get it. Other tools are also a problem: spatula, non-stick pan, whisk. Fortunately, thanks to the resourcefulness of Vishal and his friends, we have everything we need for the next day

The two little ones from Vishal’s come to our room to play cards. Not very inspired by the UNO, I give them activities to do with paper and they are so happy that they go from activity to activity. It’s kind of fun to see that they prefer it to their tablet. Soon they will be joined by two older cousins who are about 15 years old and our room will be transformed into a DIY workshop

Day 4 :

The morning starts with two painting classes where the little ones draw with vegetables. Jb prepares colors in small pots while I show the little ones how to stamp with the vegetables. They are amused to see that it is done with the “lady finger”, a vegetable that they all eat at home. The result isn’t as good as what I saw on Pinterest, partly because of the water-based paint we use

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JB and I follow with three pancake classes. It’s kind of fun to cook in a classroom like this with a gas canister in the middle and ingredients all around us

The first successful pancakes, we propose them to the students and discover that during this month, many Hindus eat only vegetarian, which excludes eggs. We had however been far-sighted when we asked Vishal if the majority of the students ate eggs, he had answered yes to 90%

In short, we make pancakes that we send to the other classrooms for the teachers. It’s pretty demotivating when you make pancakes that are a little bit in the wind like that, but the students are starting to volunteer to make pancakes too and seem happy

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It’s a real test for me who likes things to be well planned/perfect. But that’s life and I have to learn to live with it because perfection doesn’t exist anywhere

One of the students says “We want to learn more”. This makes us very happy and makes us forget our tiredness

Exhausted by 3 hours of pancakes, we decide to spend some time in an air-conditioned restaurant to recharge our batteries

The two little ones knock on our door several times, hoping we’ll offer them DIY like the day before, but we’re so exhausted that we have 0 energy to play with them

Day 5 :

JB tries to explain HTML to the students. Not easy when the students don’t all have a computer at home and creating a new folder also requires explanations. JB is a bit demotivated by the fact that some students take the opportunity to open games instead of taking the opportunity to learn something useful

We end the day with two classes of 8 and 9 year olds. If the first class does the triangles exercise, the second class has to create a 3D map and a personalized paper house. These two classes are particularly touching for me because I saw some very discreet but moving gestures

– two little ones, sitting at the back table, do their best to sit at the front table to be closer to us
– a student gives us his entire stock of candy, bought with the little pocket money his parents give him
– every time a class realizes that we’ve come to give them a lesson, they’re so happy they clap with a smile on their face
– after teaching them “We Will Rock You” (just the chorus), you can hear the whole class singing “We will rock you” from a distance as the class is over

Exceeded by the sustained rhythm of the last few days, the heat, the lack of electricity (in Nepal, the production of electricity only covers 55% of the demand…), the lack of meat, and the two little ones at home who often knock on the door to play with them, I become nostalgic. I spend a long time looking at pictures of Rosalie (my cat), wondering what fly has bitten me to travel to developing countries AND vegetarians while I can be quiet right now playing with my cat, in my comfortable Parisian apartment, away from the heat, enjoying a huge rump steak with béarnaise sauce

We also analyze our own reaction: what’s wrong while we are living an enriching human experience? How dare we complain? We are ashamed when so many people appreciate our presence and ask for it. Why is it that JB, 10 years ago, was doing exactly the same thing for 3 weeks in even harsher conditions, can’t stay here for more than a week? We finally realize that so much solicitation and attention is simply not in adequacy with our personality. That I am too perfectionist and must learn to accept imperfection. Pollution prevents us from breathing, destroys my skin and irritates me. Finally, we are so spoiled by the richness of French (and Vietnamese) gastronomy that we have to adapt

JB suggests that I take a good rest. After my 6h non-stop nap (while I already sleep 8 hours a day – to tell you how much energy it pumps me up), we agree on a program 100% rest and pleasure the next day (the students only have one day off: Saturday). We also promise ourselves to take a SUPER hotel on the way back to Kathmandu and at least a quiet week in Pokhara (in the mountains, where it will not be hot and the air much less polluted). We project ourselves so far that we begin to look at the tickets Kathmandu – Mandalay. 500€ the outward journey, 4 stopovers, 40h of travel frightens us. So we decide to add Thailand in our route to pay less, and why not two good weeks at the beach? Here, to think about the future and the good moments makes us relativize

Day 6 :

After a well-deserved sleep-in, we go to the cinema to watch an Indian action movie called “Kalabi”, apparently very awaited because an Indian super star plays in it. The Nepalese are very surprised to see us buy two cinema tickets. Luckily, we buy two seats upstairs (on the balcony). The movie theater looks like a theater in France, with fans everywhere, which cut off from time to time but start running again as soon as the audience is annoyed

The sound is very loud to make you forget the noise of the fan and the spectators do not hesitate to call during the film

Even if the seats aren’t marked on the ticket, a cinema employee places everyone. The movie lasts 2h30, with a 10mn break between two parts of the movie. The audience is super enthusiastic, applauding each appearance of the main character in “bad boy walking in slow motion” mode. It’s not too difficult to understand even if it’s in Hindi and we have a great time, for only 100 rupees per person (0,83€)

We then go to the Vishuwa hotel, apparently the best in town, which has a nice little swimming pool, open to visitors for 300 rupees. The Nepalese elite is there, including one who organizes a “welcome party” for about twenty people (?? welcome for whom, for what? we won’t know)

I take the opportunity to order real chicken at the hotel restaurant. I don’t like the recipe at all, but it’s been so long since I’ve eaten chicken that it’s finally working for me. The waiter will do it 3 times before giving us a more or less correct bill

We go home, it’s dark, no rickshaw on the horizon. We walk through small unlit alleys, telling ourselves that we are lucky to be in such a quiet town, where the houses aren’t even locked. We find on the way a collective auto-rickshaw (which works like a bus) that will take us to our home for only 20 rupees per person

Day 7 & 8

Our last classes are held under the overwhelming heat. JB’s class is very gifted and he was able in one hour to have two html pages created with a link from one page to the other

We go home to buy 2kg of mangoes to offer to Vishal’s mother as a thank you. The seller must be cheating because when we come back from the house, I weigh the mangos with my portable luggage scale and see that there is only 1.5kg 😸 but at 0.83€ per kilo, we aren’t going to cry

We will spend the most unpleasant night of our entire stay because the temple opposite has the good idea to broadcast the prayers via loudspeaker from 5am, non stop

We say goodbye to Vishal’s parents who want to take a picture with us. The father woke up early to go to the barber shop. The mother is looking very beautiful, all for us

We take a collective auto rickshaw to go to the bus station. We expect to see km of jeeps lined up, ready to leave for Kathmandu but it’s not the case

A gentleman explains to us that today a political party has decided to go on strike and we will have to wait until 5pm

It’s raining like hell, we don’t want to stay in this muddy city anymore. Leaving at 5 pm is very risky, it is very dark from 6:30 pm and the muddy mountain roads will not ensure our safety

After thinking about it, we tell ourselves that it is always possible to bribe a driver by putting in the right money. We approach a group of people who are thought to be striking drivers. In fact, they are passengers waiting for a jeep for Kathmandu. The driver assures us a Jeep in 15 minutes but at 800 rupees instead of 500. We try to negotiate by saying that we take 4 places for two people, the Jeep will fill up faster and will leave faster but at 600 rupees the place. The negotiation falls apart and too impatient to leave, we accept the initial price. We will learn later that the locals also pay 800 rupees because of the strike, and that everyone is told “if the police ask you, you paid 500 rupees a seat”

If we give ourselves the luxury of having 4 places for two people, it’s because JB had a lot of trouble last time to contort himself with the little space he had. We are happy of this choice because finally the trip will not last 5 hours but 11 hours

Indeed, the police stopped our car for 1 hour for some reason. And we were stopped for 4 hours because of two cranes that are making roads. Fortunately our wire of cars went first once the road was finished, and this, thanks to an ambulance in our wire. Our driver was amazing, saving us from getting stuck in the mud when the freshly built road was just a pile of muddy dirt. I must admit that I got scared at one point, fearing that we would end up at the bottom of a cliff

We arrive in Patan in the middle of nowhere, under a torrential rain. The driver calls a cab for us. We will eat nothing else but the fruits offered by our hotel because all the restaurants are already firm.

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