teaching at CPH

A typical day in class. The first day was horrible as I didn’t know what to do or say to them. I had nothing prepared, no workbooks or anything, plus I has all age ranges in the same class. Luckily I had my backpack with me and I pulled out the handouts I had received at the Global Peace initiative of Women (GPIW) seminar while I was in Kathmandu. (I was happy that they didn’t use a double-sided printer when printing their articles!) I gave the children the blank side of the paper and poured out my trusty bag of colored pencils and said “Draw me a picture”. Then to the older ones, I told them to write an essay about themselves and tell me whatever they want to; such as what is your name, where do you live, who is in your family, etc. Here’s part of some of the essays:

“My name is Joras. I live in Dang (Tulsiper). I read in class 8. My school name is Hindu VidyaPeeth – Nepal which is situated in Ghorahi. My school includes everythings which is essential to student such as swing, bus (2), cantien, prayer hall, class room, desk, bench and about 20 teachers to teach good lesson to student…”

“…I’m very happy to be in CPH because of the following reasons. Big family, frank and intelligent children, fresh environment, knowledgement program in every evening, fast friends, teacher as a guardian, good and delicious food. I want to open such a peace home where a lot of children are kept. I love children, in future I want to open an organization from which backward, helpless, and poor children can get chance to study. Good will help me.”

“My name is Amrita. I live in Peace Home. I am so happy because to live in peace home there are many mango, trees, many dogs and chicken. In peach home very nice people…”

And one cheeky student added this to the bottom of his paper:

“What is your name. What is your father, mother, sisters and brothers name. What is your country name….Do you like Nepal and CPH, Parsa Dang. You like our children. In my opinion you are interested to teach younger children. It is a good idea to get to know each other and we also get chance to earn knowledge. You teach us better, play games and tell story to small children. It is your hard work.”

I LOVE reading to kids so I spend a lot of time reading to the younger ones. They have a lot of books, thankfully! This little stinker, who at 3 years old is the youngest child in the peace home, now reads her book like this since she sees me reading all the time to them this way. I laughed and turned her book around so she could see it herself and she promptly turned it around and proceeded to “read” it. She then chose another book and did the same. What a cutie!!