Photobucket Album
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Sister sister!
Sister sister! the common attention getter by the kids in the children's home, they yell it ALL the time, it is so cute in the nepali accents!
now, to catch you up on LAST week (we have not had internet for a while!)
Last Friday, no children came to CBR! Of course, there was no petrol for the jeep... so, we had an entire day with the teachers. We sat down with the director, didis, and teachers and did simulations and “lessons” for the teachers on how to run a special education classroom, basically. We helped them make picture schedules, and modeled their use. We also modeled ignoring and positive reinforcement, among many other behavior management techniques. The six hours we spent with the teachers were some of the most influential moments we’ve had at CBR. We are looking forward to seeing how the teachers act in the future.
Last weekend, we went and stayed a couple of nights in Thamel. We arrived on Friday afternoon after a day at CBR. We decided that we would make a trip to the US Embassy so that we could register and let them know that we were volunteering in Nepal. Right down the road from our bus stop at Ratna Park, there is a heavily guarded area with huge walls and automatic doors that has signs on it saying “United States of America.” Like normal people, we assumed that this was the actual embassy. When we approached the gates, we were told that this was actually the diplomat’s sports club. Seriously? Do they really need a freaking sports club half the size of Nepal? Who knows what it really is – this is just what we were told. Anyways, they told us to walk a ways up the road and we would reach the actual US embassy. So, we started on what ended up being a trek across Kathmandu. We kept walking, and walking... we passed the French, British, Israeli, and Japanese embassies, but we still had no sign of the American embassy. We started our little walk around 3:50 pm, and around 4:45 pm, we finally arrived at our destination. It was in the middle of nowhere, wayyyyyy outside of Kathmandu. When we walked in and asked to enter the embassy, we were told that entry hours ended at 4:30 pm. Jessi pushed and pushed until the guards finally called someone inside. When we got on the phone, we were so excited to here a man with a southern drawl say to us “Hey there kids!” The man came out, helped us fill out our forms, and sent us back on our way. What an afternoon...
Later in the evening, we went to the Chabad house for Shabbat. Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest that begins on Friday evening and lasts until the end of Saturday. It was interesting because almost everyone, save Jessi and another guy from Washington D.C., was Israeli. There were not any Chabad people and there wasn’t even a Chabad rabbi, but it was interesting to meet all the Jewish tourists come together in a place like Nepal and celebrate Shabbat.
Last Saturday, we spent the day at one of the new children’s homes that VSN is serving. Two Israeli women whom we met at the Chabad house the previous night accompanied us to the house – one is a pediatrician and the other is a social worker. Two of the girls in our volunteer group, Ruchi and Tanya, are currently placed there. Before they got there, the place was barren and dirty. The managers at the center are nice and love the children, but their main interests for the children are making sure they receive an education and getting them enough food. Although these two are very important, they hardly paid any attention to the children’s health. Ruchi, Tanya, and the rest of the health team performed full health checks on these children, and they now receive daily care based on their health check results. They also spent a lot of time and effort decorating the place and making it seem more like a home. The walls are decorated with drawings and paintings that the children made and also with their pictures.
When we first arrived, we spent some time watching Ruchi, Tanya, and the children finish up a group painting they were working on. They then turned the radio on, and we all begin dancing to Hindi film songs. After the cassette finished, Jessi pulled out her guitar, and we sang and played music for them. We sang them some country songs as well as some children’s songs such as “Twinkle Twinkle” and “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” We all had so much fun, and the children really enjoyed listening and singing along to live music.
We had the opportunity to watch Tanya perform physiotherapy on a boy with cerebral palsy and a girl spina bifida. It was interesting to see the different exercises that they had to do. This is all so new for these children because before Ruchi and Tanya arrived, the children with disabilities in this home usually just sat in makeshift wheelchairs. With Tanya, they exercise about twice a day for about an hour or so.
We stayed at the center until about 5. Ruchi and Tanya have made such a difference in the house – the children are so lively and they are finally beginning to realize the importance of their own health.
Last Sunday, we visited Baktapur with Ryan and Andrea, two volunteers from our group. Baktapur has many squares known for their numerous temples dedicated to the many Hindu gods. Out of all the temples, however, Baktapur is most widely known for its erotic elephants temple. This temple has carvings of elephants in various suggestive positions all around the top. There is another temple that has the 24 positions of the kama sutra carved into it an all four sides of the temple... no wonder this place is a major tourist attraction. The area is also known for its woodwork and pottery.
The bus ride back to the village was THE craziest thing we’ve ever experienced! Both buses were packed beyond belief... it was rush hour and it was raining. On the second bus, Jessi lost count at 37 people, while Rachna was busy being evangelized by some meditative monk who wanted to show her his ways. One of the many memorable bus rides back to the village...
This week, we have introduced the idea of inclusion to CBR! The children at the VSN children’s home in our village do not have school because they had exams last week. We have had the chance to walk the typical children over to CBR where they read, play, and interact with the kids with disabilities at CBR. The children from the VSN home have loved going to CBR, and it serves as a reward for them. Every time we visit the home (every morning and evening) the kids go, “When can we go to CBR again?” They work so well with the kids with disabilities and even help us with modeling good behaviors for the kids and didis and translating in Nepali. It has been so exciting to see this week unfold with inclusion in Nepal!
We have also been shooting a movie with the kids for fun, they have a nepali script, and recording their singing on Garage Band, a mac program on the laptop. They are such high tech nepalis!
now, to catch you up on LAST week (we have not had internet for a while!)
Last Friday, no children came to CBR! Of course, there was no petrol for the jeep... so, we had an entire day with the teachers. We sat down with the director, didis, and teachers and did simulations and “lessons” for the teachers on how to run a special education classroom, basically. We helped them make picture schedules, and modeled their use. We also modeled ignoring and positive reinforcement, among many other behavior management techniques. The six hours we spent with the teachers were some of the most influential moments we’ve had at CBR. We are looking forward to seeing how the teachers act in the future.
Last weekend, we went and stayed a couple of nights in Thamel. We arrived on Friday afternoon after a day at CBR. We decided that we would make a trip to the US Embassy so that we could register and let them know that we were volunteering in Nepal. Right down the road from our bus stop at Ratna Park, there is a heavily guarded area with huge walls and automatic doors that has signs on it saying “United States of America.” Like normal people, we assumed that this was the actual embassy. When we approached the gates, we were told that this was actually the diplomat’s sports club. Seriously? Do they really need a freaking sports club half the size of Nepal? Who knows what it really is – this is just what we were told. Anyways, they told us to walk a ways up the road and we would reach the actual US embassy. So, we started on what ended up being a trek across Kathmandu. We kept walking, and walking... we passed the French, British, Israeli, and Japanese embassies, but we still had no sign of the American embassy. We started our little walk around 3:50 pm, and around 4:45 pm, we finally arrived at our destination. It was in the middle of nowhere, wayyyyyy outside of Kathmandu. When we walked in and asked to enter the embassy, we were told that entry hours ended at 4:30 pm. Jessi pushed and pushed until the guards finally called someone inside. When we got on the phone, we were so excited to here a man with a southern drawl say to us “Hey there kids!” The man came out, helped us fill out our forms, and sent us back on our way. What an afternoon...
Later in the evening, we went to the Chabad house for Shabbat. Shabbat is the Jewish day of rest that begins on Friday evening and lasts until the end of Saturday. It was interesting because almost everyone, save Jessi and another guy from Washington D.C., was Israeli. There were not any Chabad people and there wasn’t even a Chabad rabbi, but it was interesting to meet all the Jewish tourists come together in a place like Nepal and celebrate Shabbat.
Last Saturday, we spent the day at one of the new children’s homes that VSN is serving. Two Israeli women whom we met at the Chabad house the previous night accompanied us to the house – one is a pediatrician and the other is a social worker. Two of the girls in our volunteer group, Ruchi and Tanya, are currently placed there. Before they got there, the place was barren and dirty. The managers at the center are nice and love the children, but their main interests for the children are making sure they receive an education and getting them enough food. Although these two are very important, they hardly paid any attention to the children’s health. Ruchi, Tanya, and the rest of the health team performed full health checks on these children, and they now receive daily care based on their health check results. They also spent a lot of time and effort decorating the place and making it seem more like a home. The walls are decorated with drawings and paintings that the children made and also with their pictures.
When we first arrived, we spent some time watching Ruchi, Tanya, and the children finish up a group painting they were working on. They then turned the radio on, and we all begin dancing to Hindi film songs. After the cassette finished, Jessi pulled out her guitar, and we sang and played music for them. We sang them some country songs as well as some children’s songs such as “Twinkle Twinkle” and “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” We all had so much fun, and the children really enjoyed listening and singing along to live music.
We had the opportunity to watch Tanya perform physiotherapy on a boy with cerebral palsy and a girl spina bifida. It was interesting to see the different exercises that they had to do. This is all so new for these children because before Ruchi and Tanya arrived, the children with disabilities in this home usually just sat in makeshift wheelchairs. With Tanya, they exercise about twice a day for about an hour or so.
We stayed at the center until about 5. Ruchi and Tanya have made such a difference in the house – the children are so lively and they are finally beginning to realize the importance of their own health.
Last Sunday, we visited Baktapur with Ryan and Andrea, two volunteers from our group. Baktapur has many squares known for their numerous temples dedicated to the many Hindu gods. Out of all the temples, however, Baktapur is most widely known for its erotic elephants temple. This temple has carvings of elephants in various suggestive positions all around the top. There is another temple that has the 24 positions of the kama sutra carved into it an all four sides of the temple... no wonder this place is a major tourist attraction. The area is also known for its woodwork and pottery.
The bus ride back to the village was THE craziest thing we’ve ever experienced! Both buses were packed beyond belief... it was rush hour and it was raining. On the second bus, Jessi lost count at 37 people, while Rachna was busy being evangelized by some meditative monk who wanted to show her his ways. One of the many memorable bus rides back to the village...
This week, we have introduced the idea of inclusion to CBR! The children at the VSN children’s home in our village do not have school because they had exams last week. We have had the chance to walk the typical children over to CBR where they read, play, and interact with the kids with disabilities at CBR. The children from the VSN home have loved going to CBR, and it serves as a reward for them. Every time we visit the home (every morning and evening) the kids go, “When can we go to CBR again?” They work so well with the kids with disabilities and even help us with modeling good behaviors for the kids and didis and translating in Nepali. It has been so exciting to see this week unfold with inclusion in Nepal!
We have also been shooting a movie with the kids for fun, they have a nepali script, and recording their singing on Garage Band, a mac program on the laptop. They are such high tech nepalis!
Friday, July 25, 2008
Just across the rice patties!
We have had a great week of volunteering in the village and are in the city now for a night. We have made a lot of progress at the daycare center, i.e. seeing kids spontaneously say "more" in sign language and didis and teachers using their visual aids to communicate with the children, ilke picture communication systems and boards. It has been great to watch the practices in use by the Nepali teachers, not just us two American volunteers.
On Wednesday, Nepal elected its first president, so there was no school Thursday. we got to spend the whole day with the children's home in teh village, playing a huge game of football (soccer), guitar, drawing, dancing, and lots of other activities.
We had the chance to walk across teh rice patties this morning to another children's home... what a walk!! 5:30am never looked so good...
More details from the week to come later!
On Wednesday, Nepal elected its first president, so there was no school Thursday. we got to spend the whole day with the children's home in teh village, playing a huge game of football (soccer), guitar, drawing, dancing, and lots of other activities.
We had the chance to walk across teh rice patties this morning to another children's home... what a walk!! 5:30am never looked so good...
More details from the week to come later!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Micro Buses and Little Bahinis
Ratnaparkrantaparkratnapark!!!!!
So, Rachna and Jess both fell ill on our day off. We managed to make it to Kathmandu, but were not about to brave another crowded, bumpy, two-hour bus journey back to the village, so we stayed the night, woke up the next morning, and went right back to the village in time to volunteer at CBR! We are getting pretty savvy at navigating these Nepali bus junctions, you only see us, two little American girls pushing our way through the crowds, yelling “Laghenkel?!?” or “Ratna Park?” in the most American accents that they’ve ever heard. Yesterday evening, walking home from our volunteer placement we saw the bus driver who drove us on our morning journey... he yelled out his window in a mocking American accent and high voice, “Laghenkel?” Haha, we’re famous.
Yesterday was an amazing day at CBR, despite the fact that there were only three children who showed up. Rachna was not able to go because she was still a bit ill. There is still no petrol available for CBR’s jeep, but somehow a different group of kids arrives each day. There are always around 3-5 kids to show up when there is no petrol; their parents bring them on foot or motorbike. Yesterday there was a little girl with Down syndrome, the boy with obvious autism who is classified here as “deaf and hyperactive ADHD,” and an older girl with hydrocephalus. It was wonderful because Jessi got to devote all of her attention to the usually uncontrollable boy with autism! He came so far, it was so exciting.
For example, he always requests a very spicy pepper during lunch by making a hand motion to his mouth and biting noise. The child who the didis and teacher think is deaf has surprising communication abilities if you pay close attention. When a didi gave him the pepper, he found it so unusually spicy that he drank all his water in one gulp.
Jessi has been working with this child on using the “more” sign-language motion to request more of a food or activity. When we wanted more water so badly, he independently said “more” with his sign language! Jessi was floored and immediately served him an overflowing cup of water in excitement.
Later that afternoon, he got into the book cabinet, of course a place easily accessible to him, even though he usually gets physically reprimanded when he goes to pick out books. When he pulled Jessi’s hand to go to the book cabinet, Jessi realized his attempt at communication and pulled out a communication picture card that read “book.” The boy took the symbol, handed it to Jessi, and together they got books. Each time the boy finished a book he would grab for the symbol rather than just run over to the cupboard. You have no idea how exciting this was since this boy is usually seen as completely out of control and hyperactive.
After CBR, we went to the VSN children’s home down the road and played a geography game and taught some mass guitar lessons. The children on one side of the room were guessing the locations of countries on a map eagerly with Rachna while the other half of the orphanage was chanting “down down up up down up” in unison, learning strumming patterns with Jessi. We are making great strides in our service work and can’t wait for this weekend in Kathmandu! We plan to do a music program at one of the new orphanages in the city on Saturday, so we will stay overnight in Thamel, the tourist district of the city, for the weekend.
The wailing child...
Contrary to what you might think, this is not a child at CBR. Typically developing, very cute, but way too loud. Every morning around 5:15 am, the little girl, our bahini (little sister), in our house starts wailing like she’s eaten by a leopard, trampled by a cow, or any of the other likely situations that could occur in Nepal. She usually comes and bangs on our door around 5:45 am and continues to wail until her grandfather or mother comes and picks her up and takes her downstairs where she, again, continues to wail. The wailing has barely ceased when the mother comes up and knocks on our door at freaking 6:15 am to give us some chiyaa... when her mom goes back downstairs, the wailing starts up again. Please keep in mind that this is no baby... she’s 18 months old. We usually leave to go to the placement around 9:45 am, and when we return, guess what? The baby’s still wailing. We sing to her, and she’ll stop crying and start dancing. Once we start going up the stairs to our room, however, she starts crying again because she wants to come into our room. During the evening after dinner, she’ll usually come bang on our door until we let her in and come straight to Jessi’s side of the room and start chewing on her toothpaste bottle. If we try to take something away from her, she starts crying. We usually try to lure her out of the room and try singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or the ABCs to make her stop crying. She falls asleep around 9:00 pm and we finally get some peace and quiet until the next morning around 5:15.
So, Rachna and Jess both fell ill on our day off. We managed to make it to Kathmandu, but were not about to brave another crowded, bumpy, two-hour bus journey back to the village, so we stayed the night, woke up the next morning, and went right back to the village in time to volunteer at CBR! We are getting pretty savvy at navigating these Nepali bus junctions, you only see us, two little American girls pushing our way through the crowds, yelling “Laghenkel?!?” or “Ratna Park?” in the most American accents that they’ve ever heard. Yesterday evening, walking home from our volunteer placement we saw the bus driver who drove us on our morning journey... he yelled out his window in a mocking American accent and high voice, “Laghenkel?” Haha, we’re famous.
Yesterday was an amazing day at CBR, despite the fact that there were only three children who showed up. Rachna was not able to go because she was still a bit ill. There is still no petrol available for CBR’s jeep, but somehow a different group of kids arrives each day. There are always around 3-5 kids to show up when there is no petrol; their parents bring them on foot or motorbike. Yesterday there was a little girl with Down syndrome, the boy with obvious autism who is classified here as “deaf and hyperactive ADHD,” and an older girl with hydrocephalus. It was wonderful because Jessi got to devote all of her attention to the usually uncontrollable boy with autism! He came so far, it was so exciting.
For example, he always requests a very spicy pepper during lunch by making a hand motion to his mouth and biting noise. The child who the didis and teacher think is deaf has surprising communication abilities if you pay close attention. When a didi gave him the pepper, he found it so unusually spicy that he drank all his water in one gulp.
Jessi has been working with this child on using the “more” sign-language motion to request more of a food or activity. When we wanted more water so badly, he independently said “more” with his sign language! Jessi was floored and immediately served him an overflowing cup of water in excitement.
Later that afternoon, he got into the book cabinet, of course a place easily accessible to him, even though he usually gets physically reprimanded when he goes to pick out books. When he pulled Jessi’s hand to go to the book cabinet, Jessi realized his attempt at communication and pulled out a communication picture card that read “book.” The boy took the symbol, handed it to Jessi, and together they got books. Each time the boy finished a book he would grab for the symbol rather than just run over to the cupboard. You have no idea how exciting this was since this boy is usually seen as completely out of control and hyperactive.
After CBR, we went to the VSN children’s home down the road and played a geography game and taught some mass guitar lessons. The children on one side of the room were guessing the locations of countries on a map eagerly with Rachna while the other half of the orphanage was chanting “down down up up down up” in unison, learning strumming patterns with Jessi. We are making great strides in our service work and can’t wait for this weekend in Kathmandu! We plan to do a music program at one of the new orphanages in the city on Saturday, so we will stay overnight in Thamel, the tourist district of the city, for the weekend.
The wailing child...
Contrary to what you might think, this is not a child at CBR. Typically developing, very cute, but way too loud. Every morning around 5:15 am, the little girl, our bahini (little sister), in our house starts wailing like she’s eaten by a leopard, trampled by a cow, or any of the other likely situations that could occur in Nepal. She usually comes and bangs on our door around 5:45 am and continues to wail until her grandfather or mother comes and picks her up and takes her downstairs where she, again, continues to wail. The wailing has barely ceased when the mother comes up and knocks on our door at freaking 6:15 am to give us some chiyaa... when her mom goes back downstairs, the wailing starts up again. Please keep in mind that this is no baby... she’s 18 months old. We usually leave to go to the placement around 9:45 am, and when we return, guess what? The baby’s still wailing. We sing to her, and she’ll stop crying and start dancing. Once we start going up the stairs to our room, however, she starts crying again because she wants to come into our room. During the evening after dinner, she’ll usually come bang on our door until we let her in and come straight to Jessi’s side of the room and start chewing on her toothpaste bottle. If we try to take something away from her, she starts crying. We usually try to lure her out of the room and try singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or the ABCs to make her stop crying. She falls asleep around 9:00 pm and we finally get some peace and quiet until the next morning around 5:15.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Everest!
Cultural considerations of volunteering...
There are many things at our placement that are just downright awful, such as constant negative reinforcement, hitting, and lack of educational materials, but there are many other aspects that we are skeptical of or disagree with that make us wonder if their way is inappropriate or just unfamiliar because of different cultural norms.
For example, there is one young girl, about five or six years old, who is incontinent. The first day we watched her pee in her clothes three times during nap time. Every time, the teacher/didis would just change her clothes. The next day, a didi had the girl sit on a little baby potty, near the teacher’s desk and the center of activity of CBR, for long periods of time. She almost never went when she was sitting on that toilet! As volunteers, we both asked each other, “Is this called toilet training? I don’t think so!” The teacher would plop the little girl on the toilet, make a, “ssssss” sound, and expect the girl to pee! After being appalled at this seemingly degrading activity, we came home the next afternoon to see the mom in our host family making that same “ssss” sound to her 18-month-old daughter sitting on a similar blue potty. Even with the age difference, we realized that maybe that is a culturally appropriate way to toilet train children. It is so hard to cope with the fact that they do not wear diapers, especially because children with disabilities have to deal with changing their clothes all throughout the day! But, even the 18-month-old in our house does not wear a diaper.
Some other cultural differences that are difficult to keep in mind as “normal,” especially when it is our job to help take care of children, are the fact that it is completely normal in Nepal to bathe once a week, and hair and bodies are constantly oiled. Oily hair at home would look unclean and unacceptable, but here it is what is normal and even expected.
WE SAW EVEREST!
This past weekend, we spent most of our time touring and sight-seeing. We got into Thamel on Saturday, July 12th, and made our way to Pashupatinath, the holiest Hindu temple in Nepal. It is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Because the temple is reserved for Hindus only, Rachna and one of the other girls on the trip went in. There are huge doors made of silver and gold that lead to the main temple (inside of which no one, except for priests, is allowed), and there are many smaller buildings in the area that are available if someone wishes to pray or make an offering to the temple. Outside the temple, we all walked across a bridge to a ledge overlooking the temple... the view was gorgeous even though it was pouring down that day. One of the most interesting things about the temple is that they performed public cremations right behind the temple. None of us had seen a cremation, so it was a very new experience. We had always thought of cremations as a more private ceremony. We later learned that the river that runs behind the temple leads to the Ganges River, the holiest river for Hindus. Once the body is cremated, the ashes are spread over the river.
The next morning, we all woke up at 4 am, got on a mini bus and drove to the Kathmandu airport to take a flight to go see... EVEREST! Before we bought our tickets for the flight, we were told that the flight might not take off because of the weather. It is currently monsoon season in Nepal, so many of the flights get cancelled due to rainy weather. When we got to the airport, the sky was overcast, and many of us thought that the flight would be cancelled. We got into the airport, and they informed us that the flight was still leaving but we were all aware of the fact that not many people get a good view of the Himalayas during this season. Well, it seemed as if we had picked the perfect day... we saw every single mountain that broke above the clouds. It was the most amazing experience! To see mountains that floated above the clouds... Mt. Everest is close to 30,000 ft high, and the other mountains around it are not too far off.
There are many things at our placement that are just downright awful, such as constant negative reinforcement, hitting, and lack of educational materials, but there are many other aspects that we are skeptical of or disagree with that make us wonder if their way is inappropriate or just unfamiliar because of different cultural norms.
For example, there is one young girl, about five or six years old, who is incontinent. The first day we watched her pee in her clothes three times during nap time. Every time, the teacher/didis would just change her clothes. The next day, a didi had the girl sit on a little baby potty, near the teacher’s desk and the center of activity of CBR, for long periods of time. She almost never went when she was sitting on that toilet! As volunteers, we both asked each other, “Is this called toilet training? I don’t think so!” The teacher would plop the little girl on the toilet, make a, “ssssss” sound, and expect the girl to pee! After being appalled at this seemingly degrading activity, we came home the next afternoon to see the mom in our host family making that same “ssss” sound to her 18-month-old daughter sitting on a similar blue potty. Even with the age difference, we realized that maybe that is a culturally appropriate way to toilet train children. It is so hard to cope with the fact that they do not wear diapers, especially because children with disabilities have to deal with changing their clothes all throughout the day! But, even the 18-month-old in our house does not wear a diaper.
Some other cultural differences that are difficult to keep in mind as “normal,” especially when it is our job to help take care of children, are the fact that it is completely normal in Nepal to bathe once a week, and hair and bodies are constantly oiled. Oily hair at home would look unclean and unacceptable, but here it is what is normal and even expected.
WE SAW EVEREST!
This past weekend, we spent most of our time touring and sight-seeing. We got into Thamel on Saturday, July 12th, and made our way to Pashupatinath, the holiest Hindu temple in Nepal. It is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, and it is absolutely gorgeous. Because the temple is reserved for Hindus only, Rachna and one of the other girls on the trip went in. There are huge doors made of silver and gold that lead to the main temple (inside of which no one, except for priests, is allowed), and there are many smaller buildings in the area that are available if someone wishes to pray or make an offering to the temple. Outside the temple, we all walked across a bridge to a ledge overlooking the temple... the view was gorgeous even though it was pouring down that day. One of the most interesting things about the temple is that they performed public cremations right behind the temple. None of us had seen a cremation, so it was a very new experience. We had always thought of cremations as a more private ceremony. We later learned that the river that runs behind the temple leads to the Ganges River, the holiest river for Hindus. Once the body is cremated, the ashes are spread over the river.
The next morning, we all woke up at 4 am, got on a mini bus and drove to the Kathmandu airport to take a flight to go see... EVEREST! Before we bought our tickets for the flight, we were told that the flight might not take off because of the weather. It is currently monsoon season in Nepal, so many of the flights get cancelled due to rainy weather. When we got to the airport, the sky was overcast, and many of us thought that the flight would be cancelled. We got into the airport, and they informed us that the flight was still leaving but we were all aware of the fact that not many people get a good view of the Himalayas during this season. Well, it seemed as if we had picked the perfect day... we saw every single mountain that broke above the clouds. It was the most amazing experience! To see mountains that floated above the clouds... Mt. Everest is close to 30,000 ft high, and the other mountains around it are not too far off.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
14 glucose buscuits later...
Our volunteering at CBR has been demanding and frustrating, but equally rewarding as the week progressed. Before we instituted positive reinforcement, these teachers simply babysat and gave attention for misbehaving. The children would get hit or simply dragged to where the adults wanted them to go... they had no opportunity to gain control of their own actions.
We have seen one student progress; he was always physically held down by the adults due to his extreme hyperactivity. We watched him get hit by the teachers, and also the other kids. These kids constantly hit each other because that is what is modeled for them! A few days ago we found that he would run after a balloon, so we started to give him the balloon when he was sitting with the group or even remotely participating. Needless to say he is now very dependent on the balloon for his behavior, but at least he has some control over his own actions! We are trying to explain to the teachers that he should be weened off slowly from receiving immediate rewards, and that it will take time; however, due to both the language barrier and the absolute unfamiliarity of positive reinforcement for children, it is difficult to really get through to the adults.
There was one girl (L) who always asked for a balloon, but always when she was misbehaving. She did not understand that the balloon was a reward for when the other child acted correctly. We went to the nearby VSN home to get some translations for "You only receive a reward if you act well." We have repeated that, making it our Nepali mantra at the daycare center, and the didis/teachers have started to catch on!
Yesterday morning, L requested a balloon as soon as we arrived. In our best Nepali, we asked, "What do you like?" and she pointed to a yellow star drawn on a piece of paper. We asked her to sit down (in Nepali), and when she did, we immediately gave her a piece of paper with a yellow star. Soon, all of the kids at the daycare were requesting yellow stars, and we only gave them to people who followed our directions. It caught on really well; we finally discovered a sustainable reward system for CBR! The teachers even began to catch on after a few hours and we caught some didis actually rewarding positive behavior with a yellow star! All we did was carry around yellow markers and draw more stars on the pieces of paper, so simple, yet it meant so much to these kids. They finally were receiving attention for being good rather than bad.
After CBR, we went to the VSN children’s home nearby and had a music night with them. We all had so much fun, teaching them American songs and learning Nepali songs. There are 31 kids in that one home, but they are all so incredible. The managers there are some of the coolest people we’ve met, college graduates from Nepal spending twenty-four hours a day as fathers to 31 children. We are having a great time, trying to make a difference at CBR, and learning a lot from the Nepalis here!
We have seen one student progress; he was always physically held down by the adults due to his extreme hyperactivity. We watched him get hit by the teachers, and also the other kids. These kids constantly hit each other because that is what is modeled for them! A few days ago we found that he would run after a balloon, so we started to give him the balloon when he was sitting with the group or even remotely participating. Needless to say he is now very dependent on the balloon for his behavior, but at least he has some control over his own actions! We are trying to explain to the teachers that he should be weened off slowly from receiving immediate rewards, and that it will take time; however, due to both the language barrier and the absolute unfamiliarity of positive reinforcement for children, it is difficult to really get through to the adults.
There was one girl (L) who always asked for a balloon, but always when she was misbehaving. She did not understand that the balloon was a reward for when the other child acted correctly. We went to the nearby VSN home to get some translations for "You only receive a reward if you act well." We have repeated that, making it our Nepali mantra at the daycare center, and the didis/teachers have started to catch on!
Yesterday morning, L requested a balloon as soon as we arrived. In our best Nepali, we asked, "What do you like?" and she pointed to a yellow star drawn on a piece of paper. We asked her to sit down (in Nepali), and when she did, we immediately gave her a piece of paper with a yellow star. Soon, all of the kids at the daycare were requesting yellow stars, and we only gave them to people who followed our directions. It caught on really well; we finally discovered a sustainable reward system for CBR! The teachers even began to catch on after a few hours and we caught some didis actually rewarding positive behavior with a yellow star! All we did was carry around yellow markers and draw more stars on the pieces of paper, so simple, yet it meant so much to these kids. They finally were receiving attention for being good rather than bad.
After CBR, we went to the VSN children’s home nearby and had a music night with them. We all had so much fun, teaching them American songs and learning Nepali songs. There are 31 kids in that one home, but they are all so incredible. The managers there are some of the coolest people we’ve met, college graduates from Nepal spending twenty-four hours a day as fathers to 31 children. We are having a great time, trying to make a difference at CBR, and learning a lot from the Nepalis here!
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