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Julia Lindsay
Prabatipur - March to May - 2007
Only two weeks in Parbatipur but it doesn't take long to
feel at home there. Host family were fantastic, wake up to
fresh chiya and daal bhaat is on tap from about 9am to 9pm.
With Rama, your 'ama' you can learn to cook and generally
have a girlie gossip about the other villagers. She is
extremely generous, especially with her rice portions so
just keep saying 'Pugyo!'Anything you need is just a
45minute bus ride away in Narangat.
Riding top-deck with the luggage is pretty normal, top up
your tan and avoid the goats and sweaty men coming back from
the market. "Munchtime Café' is a friendly place to go get
some lunch with some Other volunteers; bring along your own
CDS to help them build up their music collection.
With the kids, do not worry about having no
experience.they've been at school all day and they are not
expecting a structured lesson on English grammar. The most
important thing is that you divide the kids up, vaguely by
ability. What worked well for us was 7am and 8am classes of
about 10 children in each who are intermediate level. Then
my 4 o' clock class were the ones with really limited
English so that class tended to be more art based and 5pm
are the practically fluent boys, a small group so we can
race ahead.including my host brother, Sagar, 13 - very good
English (very useful as an interpreter..he also brings you
tea in bed in the morning so lots of reasons to get along
with him.)
Amelia and I also threw a huge party for the kids on a
Saturday. Making the food and the 'pinatas' took up a couple
of classes and of course the kids love getting messy.papier
mache, balloons, glue.all allowed as long as they clean up.
We organized a sort of British style sports day with 'egg
and spoon', 'sack', 'three-legged' races and had a fantastic
day, divided into teams and taking over the local field. You
also have the challenge of shopping for all the stuff in
Narangat.try explaining brush cleaner, food colouring, blue
tack, sack, even string.to a shopkeeper in broken Nepali.
Bringing a sample and then asking 'Tyo chha??" generally was
the best
method.
This was the scramble for the sweets that came out the 'pinata'.we
weren't sure whether this game was fun or a little
dangerous, but the amas and baas were quite happy to watch
their kids wrestling eachother- in the style of their
greatest heroes "Triple X", "John Cena" and "The Rock".
Stock up on WWF stickers for prizes in class and you'll win
a few hearts.
Lisa and Amelia must take credit for this fantastic sign
that we painted with the older kids. Some of the adults gate
crashed the painting sessions and we found a secret
artistic talent in a deaf villager, Manoj, who became a
great friend. Oh I do miss them all. It is a great place to
be.a few words of warning: get used to going to bed early
because the music shop starts pumping Nepali hits at 5
50am.also, beware of the switch in the shower (a little
shock to wake you up in the morning). Lastly get your
dancing shoes on as there's not one person in the village
who won't ask you to dance for them.it seems to be the
universal language.a personal favourite - "chiya barimaa"!
Enjoy and enjoy and any questions, queries please give me
an email -
giulialindsay@hotmail.com
Great success - mix up some salt dough
2 cups of flour (atta)
1 cup of salt (nune)
1 cup of water (pani)
Drop of food colouring (which I left in the cupboard in the
room) Everyone loves it! And whatever happens on your
placement, it's always a fun to get back to the
Happy Home kids, for more daal bhaat and a good dance with
Bicky and the
boys.
Miss them all already! |