Expanded class and artistic wonders

Thupten Jinpa, who teaches the beginning English class, was away last week (and in Maratika, where he met Jeremy!), so I had an expanded morning class of 25. Continuing with the transportation noun lesson of previous classes, and wanting to give them an opportunity for more drawing, I procured some big paper and wrote this mad lib-type sentence on the board: "I go to ___(place) in a ___(thing)". We played some of our noun games first to reiterate how we classify people, places, and things, and then I unleashed the artistic supplies (thanks again to Becky!). We ended up spending about 2 class periods working on these, and they asked to keep working on them over the holiday.

When I arrived this morning, Thupten Jinpa had returned but was unsure if we could have class today, as they are very busy preparing for Losar (Tibetan New Year). I was excited that we did end up having class, especially because I can now share these photos with you.

I have more photos of their beautiful artwork, but unfortunately they will have to wait until the power comes back on. But here is my favorite picture of this last month, taken just this morning:

Nouns!

And words cannot describe what an awesome, awesome experience it has been thus far... so hopefully some nouns will do!

The noun lesson is one we have been working on since I arrived, and one I continually return to in order to accommodate the varieties of English comprehension in the class. We began with filling an alphabet's worth of words, and then learned specifically about transportation nouns. My 7 am class of advanced beginners usually has about nine students, and they graciously allowed me to photograph their excellent work.

People/Place/Thing is one of their favorite games; I use cut-out pictures from magazines (thanks Becky!) or the daily newspaper and ask them to identify. We then talk about each picture for a bit, identify specific nouns and sometimes try to use them in sentences. I asked them to replicate this with their own artistic skills, drawing one "people", one "place" and one "thing".

I will have to echo this post later with more of their excellent noun pictures!

Teaching at Jonang Monastery

When I decided to come to Nepal for the spring, I knew I needed to find a volunteer position to occupy my time. I began my search on the ever-faithful interweb, and eventually found the inviting and very informative littlelama.org. Detailing the daily events and life stories of the "little lamas" of Jonang Monastery in Boudha, Kathmandu, I was immediately drawn to this opportunity. Luckily Cynthia, the wonderful volunteer coordinator, agreed that I would be a suitable English teacher for the monks.

Just a few days after my arrival in Kathmandu, I met one of the head monks, Thupten Jinpa, to walk for the first time to the Jonang Monastery. The Jonang tradition of Tibetan Buddhist (and here I will dive into the bit of what I know, more can be wikipedia-ed!) was thought to have been eradicated by the 5th Dalai Lama, who consolidated temporal and religious power in Tibet, but the recent re-emergence has been welcomed by the current Dalai Lama. I believe the monastery where I teach is the only Jonang monastery in Kathmnadu, and possibly Nepal.

We decided on a schedule of teaching, and I met the boys that first day at the end of their day-and-a-half weekly holiday, from noon Saturday through Sunday. Though I wound up missing the first week of class due to a mixture of confusion and illness, I would soon begin my English teaching adventure.

Welcome!

Tashi Delek! Though I have been negligent in my blog communication thus far, I hope to share my adventures in Kathmandu with you all very soon.