Update from Elisabeth Meinig

Elisabeth Meinig, alumna (class of ’11), Kathmandu, Nepal

Namaste from Kathmandu, Nepal!

After a slightly difficult summer spent adjusting to living in my parent’s house again and studying for the GRE’s (ick), I have finally made it to my lifelong dream destination: NEPAL! Upon arriving, I had very little idea about what I’d be doing, but I knew it was something with kids and somewhere at a school! Well, SURPRISE, turns out that I am now their visiting creative writing teacher (!!!) at Ullens School, one of the top ranked schools in all of Nepal and home to the country’s single IB program!!! While it has been slightly stressful (I taught my first lesson three days after arriving in Nepal), it has truly become an amazing experience! Without the preparation from Amy Ryken’s EDU420 class, I would truly be flailing about in the classroom, completely unsure where to begin, but THANKFULLY I had a little experience planning lesson plans (now I teach a lesson 5 days a week grades 1-5) and right now we are doing poetry! The administrators at the school have said that Nepali children are very conditioned to memorize what they are taught in class, but they have difficulty creating their own thoughts and recording them. We are doing a lot of creative writing exercises as well as learning some simple elements (yesterday I taught first graders how to rhyme and then we went around in a circle and each student made their own rhyme..my favorite? “I was cleaning the wall and then I got a call *long pause* from a friend!”

Life in Nepal is pretty exciting! And so different! They have power cuts so at anytime in the day the power might get completely shut off.  It was quite shocking at first, but has now become normal. My headlamp has become key and I have to make sure that it is never too far away (a trip over my suitcase and a severely stubbed toe taught me that lesson).  The food is pretty delicious (a lot of rice and vegetables, but not a lot of carbs which I am truly beginning to miss!) and the people here are amazing! I live right across the street from a Tibetan Refugee camp that is surrounded by prayer flags and prayer wheels and sometimes in the morning, I can hear chants coming from inside the walls! There are cows everywhere and because they are considered holy here, they are allowed to roam wherever they want, whenever they want (sometimes causing traffic delays!). I’ve seen an elephant lumbering up my street a couple of times now and the taxi drivers and busses get really annoyed with it and honk their horns at it, which I find really funny. Who honks at an elephant and expects it to move? I can assure you, the elephant does not heed to the honking, it continues on its happy way. Yesterday  while stuck in traffic in a taxi, I saw a monkey walking along the power lines in Kathmandu. What? The sights are extremely exciting and seemingly limitless! The poverty here is heartbreaking though. It is everywhere. The drinking water is completely unsafe to drink, there is dirt and pollution everywhere, and it is not uncommon to see beggars on every block. Sometimes, beggars send their children out to beg, thinking that the children will elicit more sympathy and more money from people. In some extreme situations, parents will blind their own children or abuse them so as to make them look even more desperate.  It really is heartbreaking! LUCKILY, however, there are foundations in place to help alleviate poverty and these awful side effects. The foundation that I am volunteering for is one of these foundations and it has houses for abandoned, disabled, or orphaned children, children with HIV/AIDS, a program that seeks out girls who have been sold into slavery and rescues them (sometimes trading them for a goat or piglet), and a hospital for malnourished children to regain their health while teaching the mothers about nutrition and healthy food preparation. So, while it is hard to walk to school everyday and see these horrifying sights, I have to remember that there are foundations and agencies doing their best to help!

It sounds like all my fellow psych majors are doing swimmingly well, and I am so proud of everyone! Look at us, all over the place! Each doing our own special thing, it’s truly amazing! I am so proud to be a part of such a brilliant class–psh, who needs a fancy building anyway! Even the dungeons of Howarth have produced some pretty amazing individuals! Keep up the great work 🙂 And keep those blog posts coming, I love hearing your stories!

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