Jan 26th 2010

This morning was our very first day of teaching. It was so nice to see so many kids in their lama robes, however i was really nervous to teach them. Our students consisted of two classes, class 1 and class 2. Class one were younger than the second one. Class one had 22 kids, while class 2 had 13. They didn't speak much english, which was a problem, but thats what we were here for. We first started with their names and went around the class asking them to share who they were and how old they were. I wanted to give them nick-names because their names were way too long and complicated. We then went through numbers, starting with one all the way to 100. We went through fruits, animals and they all seemed pretty comfortable with these. Each class is one hour long. In our second class, we went through similiar things with the exception of, days of the week, months of the year, and shapes. We played Board Rush with them. Splitting the class into two teams, they each had two mintues to come to the board and write as many words that we went through today. Team B, were very slow to start at first as they had four of the eldest monks in the class. And of course, they felt a little childish to play such games against the little ones. However, when they came to realize they were loosing and there was 30 seconds left, their competitive side kicked in and they also started participating. In the End, team A won by 3 points. Class was over and they all left the room saying " Bye, See you Tomorrow." - In their fresh Nepali accents. We took a taxi back to Thamel, there was so much traffic on the way, it took longer than normal.
For Lunch we went to Delicatassen, i had paneer makhini, which was in fact very tasty. After lunch, we walked around Durbar Marg, which is a shopping square, then went back to the Guest House for a nap. On the way back, my foot got runover by a motorcycle. After a two - hour nap, we went for a short walk and it was time for Simone's going away dinner. Simone is a lady from Capetown who had been teaching here for three months. We had dinner at Pizza Hut. It was a treat for Simone and Manmeet, as they havent eaten Pizza Hut in over 5 months. They never knew there was one in Thamel. A girl named Sarah also from England joined us, she had taught at our monastery in Nov/Dec but then went back home for Christmas. She is now back for two months. The meal came for four pounds each, not bad for 4 pizzas and drinks. We all headed back to the GH and went to sleep.