A day at school!

After a 15-minute walk through the village center and the weaving farm trails past cows, goats and chickens, we arrive at work, the Prajwal School. The Prajwal School was founded 21 years ago by a 16 year-old Nepali visionary named Purna Shrestha. The school’s mission is to provide quality education to all students, regardless of gender, religion, caste or socio-economic status—an extremely radical approach in a country with a broken-education system and a literacy rate of 48%. In conjunction with the school’s progressive approach to education, we have come with Tara Education, a nonprofit aimed at strengthening teaching practices across Nepal. Together we are working to replace authoritarian teaching styles and mindless rote-memorization with child-centered education: lessons that incorporate group work, inspire creativity, and challenge students to think beyond the textbook. Here is a day in our life:

Cassie on the road to school.

If you arrive on time you can enter through the main gate

And get a good spot in the parking lot.

But if you sleep through your alarm, you have to sneak in the back door

Each day commences with morning assembly

We usually start our day with a meeting in our library office.... which is frequently interrupted by the school's mascot  

Unfortunately we can't use the school's water fountain

We spend our days working with teachers to introduce new teaching methods and collaborating on ways to improve the education of the students

Cassie engaged in discussion

A couple of the ideas we have introduced are:

1) Raising hands (and not all screaming out the answer in unison at the top of their lungs)

Greatest risk associated with raising hands: students dislocating limbs when asked to hold in their answer

2) Working in groups- in order to encourage collaboration and student accountability for their own learning

Proud of their hard work!

Greatest risk associated with group work: Students succumb to the Nepali concept of personal space and group work turns into group cuddle-fest

One thing is for certain: students are eager to learn and excited to share their work with their classmates and teachers

Happy students = happy teachers

Students working to improve their English skills in a grammar class, and share their independent work with the class

Prajwal's diverse ethnic makeup: You can see Tibetan, Hindu and Newari features in these cute nursery faces

In the afternoons we teach music class

Prajwal students attend their first ever music class

Learning about rhythm

Having a blast playing clapping games

At the end of the day the students pile on the bus to head back to their respective villages (some as far as two hours away!)

And in true Nepali fashion, the teachers celebrate! We sent the students home early in order to celebrate Mary's birthday (the founder of Tara education) with the Prajwal staff

Our new life in the village

After a week and a half in the backpacker mecca of Kathmandu- where restaurants overflow with pizzas, burgers and iodine-soaked (ie: SAFE) veggies, we knew we were in for a lifestyle change when we got out of the jeep in our new village homeland. Putali Bajar, literally ‘butterfly market’ is a 20-minute ride via a dilapidated 3-wheeled tin box (almost resembling a vehicle) to the ‘bustling’ city of Hetauda. One of the bigger cities in all of Nepal, Hetauda consists of about 4 paved roads intersecting at a statue of the Buddha. To our great surprise and utter glee, there is one shop in town that sells toilet paper and peanut butter.

Despite the lack of Western comforts, we have genuinely grown to love the slower pace of life, the friendly faces, the strong sense of community in our village of Putali Bajar—and we're starting to feel like we are live inside a fairy-tale land.

Our village marks the exact dividing line in Nepal where the epic mountains of the north meet the plains and jungles of the south. We get to enjoy the best of both worlds from the rooftop of our home shown above. 

75 degrees by day and 45 by night, the early morning mist shrouding our farmland merits the 5AM wake up call... (now and then)

Our shower, laundry mat, dishwasher, sink, bathroom

the flapping prayer flags of Kathmandu are now replaced by something equally holy... our first round of clean clothing!

Avi picks a papaya, one of the many crops found in our backyard jungle/farm (including, but not limited to: coconuts, pineapple, guava, mango, ginger, avocado, pomegranate, coffee beans, garlic, lichee, paan, turmeric, oranges, lemons, bananas, assorted berries, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, radishes, potatoes, yams, mustard greens, onions, thyme, coriander, medicinal tea, peas, kidney beans, soy beans, wheat, rice and cotton). We are not joking. 

We're not the only farmers in town- most people in our village subsist off their own land

Signs of a modernizing world- many villagers have built brick or concrete houses next door to the mud/straw houses in which they were raised 

Our daily commute to the center of town

Where you can find a vegetable market, a handful of shops and this restaurant.

We are fortunate to have a local cyber cafe- but it is difficult to get online when you only have electricity 6 hours/day!

Vibrant colors paint the village sky over a roadside food stand

Front cover of the next sci-fi meets spooky-halloween-in-the-village blockbuster?

Cassie out for a stroll by the light of the moon

Mystical Putali Bajar

Easier said than done.

It may only be 50 miles from the ‘Big City’ of Kathmandu to the rural village where we have been be teaching, but a vehicle can only move so quickly when it is headed directly through the Himalayas— on roads comprised of rocks and boulders of varying shapes and sizes. Due to road conditions (or the lack there of…), herds of goats and buffalo, broken down jeeps, and buses that appear to have been constructed 600 years ago, traveling ANYWHERE in Nepal is easier said than done. Here are some views from the hills throughout our 5-hour bumpy jeep ride to Hetauda.

Minutes after leaving the jeep station in Kathmandu, the pavement ends... 

Before you could say Kathmandu 10 times, we were high up in foothills 

We were beginning to wonder what Nepali tires are made of... 

In the hills, people survive because of terrace farming techniques 

Many homes are supported by bamboo posts and rest precariously on the mountainside 

Rivers snake through the valleys 

Just when our ears were starting to pop, we were humbled by the snow-capped Himalayas towering in the near distance 

And as we felt that we were continually staring death in the face, we were once again humbled by the massive quantities of Nepalis atop the speeding rickety buses  

We stopped in a peaceful village to stretch our legs and use the facilities  

Maybe next time I'll hold it in.... (please enlarge to see Cassie's face) 

Wasn't so bad for the men 

Finally some smooth pavement to sooth our insides as we neared our destination 

Were people ever really this short?!?

Are you sure that is where our heads are supposed to go? 

Historically, the Kathmandu Valley was the homeland of the Newari people and today much of the Nepali food, architecture and culture stems back to the Newars.  The Newars are famed throughout Asia for their farming techniques, skilled artists and distinct architecture.  Unfortunately for Avi’s head, one of the most distinguishing characteristics of Newari architecture is the ‘hobbit-sized’ doorway.  Among our favorite low doorway pictures, we’ve also included a few of our favorite walls that we’ve stumbled upon throughout the past two months (some of which feature normal sized doorways)

Avi's back is starting to hurt....

Yes, there are several people working in there. And no, that is not an extra large motorcycle

Another close call... catastrophe avoided!

At a towering 5'6'' even Cassie has to bend her knees to enter this restaurant

No, that isn't a window. Were the guards in this watchtower in front of the palace really going to protect the king? Or would they get stuck in the doorway leaving the watchtower? Guess we'll never know....

Is a chocolate bar really worth another lump on my head? The choices we have to make each day...

Normal sized doorways do exist in some regions: