Now I have been here working for over 4 weeks already and I find it very rewarding. The kids are all very unique in their own way, very polite and well behaved and gives me great respect, maybe because of my age since they are taught to respect their elders, sometimes being one of my age has it's advantages and trust me there are fewer as the years go by, no... more like fly by, so I will enjoy the ones there are. I start every morning by getting up at 6:15 to get ready for my daily meeting with Karna where he tells me what my schedule for the day will be. At 7:15 we all have tea where one of the kids talk about a word everyday, afterwards we share any dream we might have had, or more like nightmares some of them sounds like.The kids go to 2 different schools and now they are both done with their exams so they are home everyday for 3 weeks, just my luck since now I have to teach them something everyday for 1.5 hours which might not seem long to you, I guess the biggest challenge would be that there are 23 kids between the ages of 5 to 17 , so trying to come up with something that would interest them all is a job in itself, the class is called analysis class so I have to go more into depth of whatever topic I choose to teach them. After morning tea I do exercise with them for 60 min which is great for me to try to stay in shape, this takes place outside in the yard which is cobblestone and dirt no grass, no running shoes but slippers, they only have that and their school shoes. The only problem is, and that is one of very few and one I will never get used to here, that lots of times it is to the smell of smoke from burning garbage that people put a match to when the piles gets too big in the streets, so not sure how good exercising like that is for your health. Dal Bhat time for the kids is then at 9:00 where I help serve that, and after time for brushing teeth, then finally time for the adults to eat breakfast, I am even getting used to eating rice and lentils and the spicy curry vegetables at breakfast time. Now prepare for my 10:30 class, they finished writing a book each that they have to publish, before I was on the topic of happiness, which branched out to lots of different topics trying to make them believe in themselves, positive thinking , visualizing +++ and then we did some meditation which they all love to do. I know what my boys are thinking after reading this. As you can see everything is very punctual which is necessary when you have so many kids.. we got 3 new boys so now there are 23 kids, 7 boys and 16 girls. I have free time in the afternoon, time depending what is going on, the kids are doing their duties, cleaning the house, washing their clothes, which I by the way have to hang up on a clothe line that wraps around the 3rd floor and there is a 2.5 foot cement ledge to walk on, no railing so a bit scary, I just have to make sure not to look down, I have gotten used to this too. When the kids are at school I would pick them up at 4:00 and then 4:45 is teatime where they eat a big plateful of beaten rice, so just raw rice beaten flat with a little bit of nuts and spicy squiggly things, that is the only thing I cannot eat, just too dry and tasteless. On Saturdays which is their only day off school they have fruit or carrots instead, for lunch they get fruit or carrots every day, so that is what they have every day for food never anything else, oh Fridays they have popcorn at tea time. The reason for no meat is because it is just too costly and they are on a very tight budget. After tea it is play time for 45 min. And then we have chatting where we can sing, dance, read, tell stories, play games or whatever we feel like, but we have to be in the girls bedroom to do it. I am in charge of that as well, when they go to school they do homework instead of exercising and chatting which I help out with, in all this I think I have leaned more than they have:-) today we went to pick up report cards and they are all at the top of their class in one school but probably not in the other one which we will find out next week. After chatting, where I read a book at the moment and they sing and I love to listen to that, the sound of their Nepali songs are so beautiful!!!The kids have their night Dal Bhat at 7:45 and they brush their teeth and do more homework if needed, so they go to bed at 9:00pm and we adults finally get to eat, by then I am really hungry, but with the help of a lot of little bananas I manage to survive to then. We then chat to about 10:00 and to bed, that I have even gotten used to by now, I am usually really tired and sleep very well, no worries here, I have gotten used to all the different noises, another added one though is security guards walking around in the streets using their whistles really loud in the middle of the night, not sure what reasonable reason they would have for getting away with that one, but no problems, I sleep like a baby. This didn't sound very interesting maybe, but we have lots of fun in between, one thing the girls take great pleasure in is hiding my things when I forget it in the dining/ study room.. and try to play tricks on me, they ask me many questions and love to hear about my life, but their lives are very restricted in many ways, no computer no TV, no video games no leaving the place at anytime only for school and buying fruit for afternoon tea when there is no school, but by being here they get a great chance of getting an education, food and a bed to sleep in, even though they do sleep 3 in each, which they otherwise might not get. It feels good for me to be here helping out and to see how life is on the other side of the globe, it is an eye opener for sure and I really am so glad that I came here to be part of the kids lives.I hope I can make a difference somehow, I am already starting to worry about leaving them behind, the little 5 year old is so cute I might have to bring him home with me, but really they all are. All for now
Namaste Inger
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