rainy morning notes

It's raining here today and there hasn't been school for three days because of a national teacher's strike.  I just started writing this and there's already been about 20 bursts through my door.  The children are extra rambunctious this morning.  I swear some days they remind me of the lost boys from Peter Pan living in a big tree house.  I feel like Wendy.  Right now they are playing bananagrams, and computer games, and doing art.  

Marissa taught some of the older children the cutest dance routine and they performed last night at satsung in front of everyone.  I'll try to get it on tape.  I can't wait to show it to them when they're in their twenties.  Speaking of them getting older, they definitely are.  There's a new tween attitude vibe in this house among the girls all of a sudden that we've all been noticing.  I'm 23 and I don't even feel like I'm done going through puberty yet.  I'm definitely not ready for them to start.  And they've picked up the "rolling your eyes when you're annoyed" mannerism from me.  I have to stop doing that! 

I had a meeting with the Minister of Education yesterday.  In an effort to make Surkhet schools more sustainable the government has just created a rule that when you open a new school you can only open one year/grade at a time.   So for 24 hours I had this horrible feeling that our school would only be able to open this year through the first grade and not to any of my students in older grades of which there are so many.  I went and sat with two of the ministers and explained our situation to them.  I feel like I have meetings with ministers and government officials down to an art these days.  You have to be sweet but firm at the same time.  They have to like you and listen to what you have to say.  Our meeting went well and they have decided to grant us full primary registration which means we can open this year K-5. By next year we will have our K-8 registration.  With the new laws set this month, they also decided to shift the pre-primary registration to a different municipality so we had to submit a whole additional set of documents and signatures and deposits to another office for approval as well yesterday.  It's been a roller coaster ride for sure. 

Anyway, that's all the news here.  I heard about the blizzard that hit the east coast from my friend Michael this morning, so I thought I'd send this sunny photo your way!  I love Nisha in that straw hat.

Love from all of us at Kopila.

Little Nisha in Bardia National Park

new sneaks!!!

Hi everybody!!

TGIF...  it's been a long week over here.

I haven't had a chance to talk with the teacher and principal yet because we haven't been able to find a time for all of us to meet.  It's good because it's given me some more time to think about how I want to approach the whole thing.  I think it's always best to go into these situations drama free when your emotions are cooled down so I'm glad I've had some time to think about it.  I really appreciated all of your advice.

Today Big Nisha, Shova, Bhukta Krishna Boy, Angeli, Karma, and Naveen were all chosen to compete in a drawing competition at school.  We got brand new fresh markers to celebrate and they've been practicing the entire week with Marissa.  They were all so nervous.  Actually this drawing competition is all they've been talking about.  Remember how serious things like that used to be when you were little?  

Our new volunteer, my friend Brandon arrived.  He just graduated from Mendham High, and is on his gap year. It's so nice to have someone from my hometown around!

We all got new sneakers this week.  Our first real sneakers ever actually!  Of course I chose the sneakers two weeks ago based on the fact that the shopkeeper said that she could arrange 40 pairs of the same model for me.  I sized all of the kids only to find out later that there were only 7 pairs available and that model was no where else to be found in the entire country.  So for the past few weeks I've been running around to every shoe store in town looking for kids sneakers.  Mission accomplished, they absolutely loooove their new sneaks.  The best part was watching them all try them on for the first time.  There was soooo much excitement in the air.  Shanti took three step backwards and then shot off like a rocket running around in circles around the front yard.  Madan couldn't figure out how to tie them so he just tied his laces in about twenty knots until I saw what he was doing and taught him the bunny rabbit ear trick.

My favorite was Krishna (boy) the first time he was putting them on.

Me:  "Krishna, you have to try them on with socks!"

Krishna:  "Maggie, can't I just practice in them a little first?"

Me:  "Okay, you can practice for 5 minutes and then go get some socks on."

We're excited for the weekend and our big chowmein dinner tonight.  The weather is getting warmer and sunnier by the day.

Blessings on your weekend everyone.

xo

Maggie

p.s. I ALMOST FORGOT!!!  I just had my first SOLAR HOT SHOWER ever in Kopila Valley!!  As Sarah said yesterday, soon we'll be ready to start calling this place the Kopila Hilton Children's Home.

That made me laugh.

ughh

I brought a few of the kids to the cobbler yesterday to get their school shoes repaired.  Our cobbler told me it was going to take him a day to fix all the shoes and to come back the next evening.  That meant a few of the kids had to go to school today with their crocs and flip flops on.  I figured, no big deal, right?

Well, one of the male teachers at school asked small Nisha why she wore her flip flops to school.  She calmly explained to him that she had just brought them to the cobbler to get stitched and do you know what that teacher did?  He gave her two slaps across the face.

Nisha told me about it when I came home from my big shopping extravaganza late this evening.  We needed some new pots and pans and an additional stove and with all the running around I was doing I forgot to pick up the shoes from the cobbler.  And then Anjeli told me that when she got a math problem wrong today her teacher hit her on the head.

Part of me wants to march into school tomorrow and confront the guy face to face, although I'm worried I'll lose it all together on him.  There's just something about some one else hitting one of the kids in my project that really irks me.  Especially after years of trying to teach them to solve their problems through conversation and expressing their feelings and not physical violence like so many of them were used to.  Part of me wants to go up to this teacher and scream "how dare you?!"  This is the angriest I've been in a really long time. 

deep breath.

But really, how are we supposed to build this country and make it a better place when all we do to teach and discipline our children is beat them?  Getting a math problem wrong warrants getting hit over the head?  An 11 year old girl who has never been to school before and is trying to make it in the second grade? An 8 year old, Nisha?  SERIOUSLY?  I know my kids have been hit before in school.  We've had many conversations about it. The teachers chose a few of our kids to be class monitors and then gave them sticks to beat the other kids in the class who misbehaved when the teacher was out of the room.  I've gone into this school and spoken with the teachers and the administration about it countless times.  They know how I feel.  Me losing my cool is NOT a pretty sight.  I'm counting down the months until we have our own school up and running and I can prove to them that there IS another way.  And in the meantime I hope I can keep it together so that I don't verbally rip into this guy tomorrow when I see him.  Just curious... what would you say to this teacher if you were me?

rooftop construction

and then the windows arrived!

Update on Monday, February 1, 2010 at 11:21AM by maggie doyne

As for school construction, we're just waiting for the farmers to cut and harvest the mustard in the field across the street.  It's all harvested into mustard oil and yes, the place where our new school is going to be is smack in the middle of a big mustard field!  It should be one more week until we can start.  Also, the septic tank is finished!!  The whole thing had to be filled in stone by stone with a brick wall in the middle.  It was a big big job that was so fascinating to watch.   I'd like to take some of the credit but all I really did was carry a few rocks and bring the construction team peanuts and tea on their breaks.   They did the whole thing with their hands, a sledge hammer, bamboo scaffolding, and some cement.  My masons are my heros.  I took this video a few days ago.  The septic is now covered with a big slab of cement that we can build over.  Cool ay?

We love Mountain Hardwear

Krishna Bogati last nightFor Christmas we got a really sweet surprise package in the mail from some very cool people at Mountain Hardwear.  It was filled with Mountain Hardwear gear and a very sweet note with well wishes for the children and me.   There were also two of the most awesome high tech down sleeping bags ever, one of which currently resides permanently on my bed.  The other night Naveen, Puncha, and Sagar, pulled their mattress into my room and slept with both sleeping bags and as they put it so well, "you could sleep with these in the snow and still be warm!"  They are so warm and so cozy and I love these sleeping bags so much that I wanted to thank Mountain Hardwear right here on this little blog of mine.  We have the Phantom and the Piute and they are both perfect for cold Himalayan nights in Nepal.  Thank you Mountain Hardwear!!!

Other things we're loving

Jack Johnson's Curious George Soundtrack

Chico bags! Thank you Everybody's in Iowa and Marcus for bringing them here to us. I bring them everywhere with me.  LOVE THEM! Perfect for shopping, I carry all my fruit and vegetables in them. They're made of 99% recycled materials, carry up to 250 pounds and fold up into nothing.  Tell everyone you know about them.

Very hungry hippos (remember that game? I loved it when I was little)  Thank you Momster, Irene Nam.

The Blue Man Soundtracks! AWESOME to dance to.  Thank you to the Goldmans and the Blue Man Group. We've got a few blue kids here who I swear could audition for your next show.

And lastly, oh my gosh I am loving this book!!  Another one I highly recommend if you haven't read it already.

***Krishna is doing much better!!  We're all taking it very easy this weekend.  Thank you all for your kind comments and messages.