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Monday evening I fell off the wagon for the first time and enjoyed a 'medicinal' hot toddy. The manager of the local business who I had met in Kathmandu was visiting so he had dinner with me and Feddie and treated us to a drink. I still haven't had any raxi (the local spirit) but need to try it before I leave. We chatted after dinner and then headed to bed.
Tuesday morning and day two with the children. We headed to the learning centre where they were still fitting the lights but we were able to help with the homework at the same time. The children were a bit boisterous and we ended up playing skipping before they headed off to school. We had breakfast and then made our way up to the school for 3rd grade.
We started in the lesson but before long some of grade two were at the door pestering as they had no teacher. I decided to give it a go and see if I could teach them for a bit while Feddie carried on with grade three. It started off promisingly with them welcoming the attention but after about 20 minutes their attention span was spent and the class descended into chaos. I gave up at this point to go back to grade three for the end of the lesson feeling quite deflated. Feddie had had a good hour with some success though. We left the school and headed to the child care centre for some cuddles which brightened my day.
After lunch we headed back to school with a quiz in tow for grade 4 that we had prepared on the months and days of the week. We split the class in two and I took half the class outside to play a game while the other half did the quiz. My explanation of the game didn't really translate and just as they looked like they were about to get it, it was time to swap groups. Having only known these kids a few days it was hard to figure out who had done the test and who hadn't so the slyer ones managed to get away without doing it at all. Also there was no hope of playing the game with the second group as spirits of home time were far to high. We managed to get as many done as possible and then the kids went home. We were further disappointed when we looked at their answers too. Not a good day.
We opened the library in the evening but neither of us felt in the mood to play much. That evening we decided to cheer ourselves up we would watch a film on the iPad so, chocolate and fizzy drinks at the ready, after dinner we settled into bed and watched a chick flick. The small things really can cheer you up!
Wednesday morning and a new day. It is funny how good and bad day switch around. Down to the learning centre and I had an interesting situation with a girl and her maths homework. I could help her get the answer but I didn't understand the method she had been given by the teacher. I knew that if I taught her my way it wouldn't really help her so in the end I did have to leave her to struggle. That was a shame.
After breakfast and grade three. I had decided to go straight into the grade two lesson and see how I got on while Feddie stuck with grade three. I actually had a good session with them and a bit of a breakthrough with one or two of them. It made me smile at least! Onto child care and we did some drawing for them and also got some affection. We tried to teach them if you are happy and you know it, so it was very cute watching the little ones do the actions.
After lunch we then headed up to grade four. We had decided to make sure as many kids as possible had done the quiz so if they didn't get a paper handed back they had to stay inside and do it. I took the rest outside to carry on trying to play the game (ladders) I had started on Tuesday. Eventually they got it, and to such an extent they disrupted the other class, whoops! But it was really good to know I had managed to explain something to them.
We opened up the library again for the evening and I actually felt creative so I had a little draw myself! Dinner was continental again some lovely comfort food and then off to bed. Thursday morning and Feddie and I were going rafting. We had to get the bus at 7am and arrived at Trisuli at around 10. We were joining another group so waited for them and at around 11am we set off.
It is a very pretty valley to raft through so we enjoyed the scenery but rafting is certainly harder work than tubing and a drink along the way wouldn't have gone a miss either! We had fun though and did a couple of bigger rapids. I fell into the boat twice but fortunately not out of it. We arrived at the campsite where we were staying over night and got out of our wet clothes. Trisuli is where another of the GVI projects is so before dinner we went to see if we could find the volunteer that was there. We interrupted their music session to say hello and then went to play football/vollyeyball with the children. Kris the volunteer eats at the campsite anyway so we chatted and compared notes about placements over dinner before heading to the campfire for some rum punch before bed.
An absolute lie in today, getting up for an 8.30 breakfast and then a leisurely morning before rafting at 11am. We went back over to the village and saw the giant fig tree which is the largest in Nepal. Rafting today was shorter in time and distance but the river was faster and there were more rapids to go through. It was great fun and no one fell in which was good. We had lunch on the beach before getting into the minibus to head to Bandipur (the rest of the group were going there too so we had a posh transfer!). We arrived back 'home' in time to open the library this evening and have a shower and I am now waiting for dinner and then an early night I think.
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