Tuesday, 17th of February 2009. Shining Star Boarding School. We got 'tika-ed'!
Tuesday, 17th February 2009. Shining Star Boarding School. We got ‘tika-ed’!
Around 14.00 we headed toward the Shining Star Boarding School with the world globe, the atlas and some wall charts (purchased in Kathmandu).
The headmaster spotted me right away (and later we found out that naughty Pashipathi, manager of H.E. had made a phone call to the school to warn them we were on our way!!!)
And there it happened again:
Tika from top to bottom, flowers and tea.
While we unpacked the gifts the headmaster had sent one of the teachers to go and get the students of the highest class, they are the Student committee.
Hand shaking, introduction about who we are, my story as volunteer in 2005, by the headmaster, pictures!!
The principal showed us around:
The nursery class and the huge difference with the Chitwan school knocked us of our feet a little bit:
the walls were painted green, every where butterflies hanging down from the ceiling, drawings on the wall, carpet on the floor AND a slide and wing, donated by a Dutch couple!!
Around 14.00 we headed toward the Shining Star Boarding School with the world globe, the atlas and some wall charts (purchased in Kathmandu).
The headmaster spotted me right away (and later we found out that naughty Pashipathi, manager of H.E. had made a phone call to the school to warn them we were on our way!!!)
And there it happened again:
Tika from top to bottom, flowers and tea.
While we unpacked the gifts the headmaster had sent one of the teachers to go and get the students of the highest class, they are the Student committee.
Hand shaking, introduction about who we are, my story as volunteer in 2005, by the headmaster, pictures!!
The principal showed us around:
The nursery class and the huge difference with the Chitwan school knocked us of our feet a little bit:
the walls were painted green, every where butterflies hanging down from the ceiling, drawings on the wall, carpet on the floor AND a slide and wing, donated by a Dutch couple!!
Next was the library: 
Our donation of the two cupboards last year made the principal decide it was now really time to set up a separate room as library. In the library a Nepali volunteer woman was working, motivating the children to come and visit her and take a book home to study and or to read.
Also in the library were two cupboards with science materials.
We went into a few class rooms, not packed with children as in Chitwan, I think he told us there were about 25 to 30 children in one class room.
Some wall charts on the wall, drawings of the children, things Rita had explained to Suk to try to accomplish in his village school.
I made a lot of pictures of the classrooms and will send a copy of them to Suk, so he can show the teachers of ‘his’ school, what we were talking about.
The headmaster talked and talked, what they had in mind to accomplish, but he explained they needed time (and funds, but that was not the most important) to make a successful progress to give the students the best possible method of learning.
By then it was time that school was finished, the children came out of the classrooms, which gave us the opportunity to move on.
Shining Star Boarding School 17/02/09
It’s Rita 2 once again. Unfortunately during the weekend I haven’t been too well, but fate has lent a helping hand and has kindly given me strength today to visit the Shining Star Boarding School here in Pokhara, which is funded and supported by the local community.
Whilst purchasing the wall-charts and educational provisions back in Kathmandu, we also bought a few books and wall-charts for the Shining Star Boarding School, along with a globe from a bookstore in Pokhara. Rita has told me that this school is much better equipped for teaching pupils both with its resources and positive learning environment, so I can’t wait to see the differences in comparison to the government run school in Chitwan.
Firstly we went to see our dear friends at the Himalayan Encounters to show them what lurked in our large, black bin-liner. I don’t know who was the most excited, us for finding and purchasing exactly what was required, or the staff at Himalayan Encounters at seeing the resources that were about to be delivered to the school.
We walked the 5-minute walk to the school, and were given various inquisitive looks along the way, before immediately being met by both a security guard who asked us to sign in, and the Principal, who had been alerted to our visit by one of our friends from Himalayan Encounters. Rita and myself looked at each other as neither of us could emotionally go through yet another elaborate welcoming ceremony as our emotions were already at the point of being tear-jerking, so we were both relieved at receiving the obligatory tika three times by the Principal and two senior teachers in an intimate, short ceremony, and receiving a handful of flower petals along with a glass of ginger tea. The Principal called across the 3 head children of the school, to receive ‘your’ donated items and a small, formal ceremony took place as hands were shook and the learning resources were presented, and greatly received. The children smiled proudly at the newly acquired gifts and posed eagerly for a photo opportunity.
On completion of the ceremony, the Principal guided us around some of the school and I was amazed, and happy, to see a learning environment that I could have almost compared to that of an English school. The interior walls of the nursery were brightly coloured and displayed some of the infants’ artwork; there was also a slide that we were told was a popular item used when the weather was wet. In the junior classroom, again there were various samples of pupils’ work dotted around the room along with various wall-charts. We were told that the average class size here was just 25 pupils, which felt like a realistic and manageable number. The school also had a room that had been turned into a library and a local volunteer worked there. The lady volunteer made sure that any book or resource that was borrowed, was done so in the correct manner and we knew that everything that we had taken that day would be both looked after, but more importantly, it would be used to its full potential. The whole ambience of this school was completely difference to that of the school in Chitwan, and even the Principal’s ethos that, ‘every resource should be made available for every child’, was a credit to his school’s philosophy of making learning fun. He also acknowledged the holes in his own childhood and educational opportunities, as he had desperately yearned for a basketball net so that he could, let off steam’and so one of the first things that was ever purchased for the school’s yard was exactly that, and as it was almost home-time, we witnessed several of the older children making use of this item, complete with its backboard.
As many of the children left for home, we left to see the children in the CWA Home, and I have to say that, in my humble opinion, the Shining Star Boarding School is a credit to Pokhara and that if we can All continue to support the school in Chitwan, that a new, exciting metamorphosis could emerge; a creative, stimulating environment where teachers want to teach and pupils want to learn.
Once again I wish to thank every one of you who has donated and supported the Nepal fund. I have felt privileged not only to be a part of this sponsorship, but more importantly to witness how Your donations have really made a difference.
First to the house and around 17.00 (after homework) with Kay, the teacher and the kids to the park again.
Just when we wanted to join the kids to the park, one of the teachers of the Shining Star walked in. He specially came to see us. He is doing a radio program and he asked us if we wanted to be his guests in his tourist talk show on Thursday. We had to sit down with him for a rehearsal interview.
Finally we could go on our way to join the children in the park for again some badminton and frisbee games.
For diner we tried a different restaurant, the food was okayish but not that good to go back to again.
Both tired of this day filled with enough emotions and happenings, to our room for a good night sleep.
Our donation of the two cupboards last year made the principal decide it was now really time to set up a separate room as library. In the library a Nepali volunteer woman was working, motivating the children to come and visit her and take a book home to study and or to read.
Also in the library were two cupboards with science materials.
We went into a few class rooms, not packed with children as in Chitwan, I think he told us there were about 25 to 30 children in one class room.
Some wall charts on the wall, drawings of the children, things Rita had explained to Suk to try to accomplish in his village school.
I made a lot of pictures of the classrooms and will send a copy of them to Suk, so he can show the teachers of ‘his’ school, what we were talking about.
The headmaster talked and talked, what they had in mind to accomplish, but he explained they needed time (and funds, but that was not the most important) to make a successful progress to give the students the best possible method of learning.
By then it was time that school was finished, the children came out of the classrooms, which gave us the opportunity to move on.
Shining Star Boarding School 17/02/09
It’s Rita 2 once again. Unfortunately during the weekend I haven’t been too well, but fate has lent a helping hand and has kindly given me strength today to visit the Shining Star Boarding School here in Pokhara, which is funded and supported by the local community.
Whilst purchasing the wall-charts and educational provisions back in Kathmandu, we also bought a few books and wall-charts for the Shining Star Boarding School, along with a globe from a bookstore in Pokhara. Rita has told me that this school is much better equipped for teaching pupils both with its resources and positive learning environment, so I can’t wait to see the differences in comparison to the government run school in Chitwan.
Firstly we went to see our dear friends at the Himalayan Encounters to show them what lurked in our large, black bin-liner. I don’t know who was the most excited, us for finding and purchasing exactly what was required, or the staff at Himalayan Encounters at seeing the resources that were about to be delivered to the school.
We walked the 5-minute walk to the school, and were given various inquisitive looks along the way, before immediately being met by both a security guard who asked us to sign in, and the Principal, who had been alerted to our visit by one of our friends from Himalayan Encounters. Rita and myself looked at each other as neither of us could emotionally go through yet another elaborate welcoming ceremony as our emotions were already at the point of being tear-jerking, so we were both relieved at receiving the obligatory tika three times by the Principal and two senior teachers in an intimate, short ceremony, and receiving a handful of flower petals along with a glass of ginger tea. The Principal called across the 3 head children of the school, to receive ‘your’ donated items and a small, formal ceremony took place as hands were shook and the learning resources were presented, and greatly received. The children smiled proudly at the newly acquired gifts and posed eagerly for a photo opportunity.
On completion of the ceremony, the Principal guided us around some of the school and I was amazed, and happy, to see a learning environment that I could have almost compared to that of an English school. The interior walls of the nursery were brightly coloured and displayed some of the infants’ artwork; there was also a slide that we were told was a popular item used when the weather was wet. In the junior classroom, again there were various samples of pupils’ work dotted around the room along with various wall-charts. We were told that the average class size here was just 25 pupils, which felt like a realistic and manageable number. The school also had a room that had been turned into a library and a local volunteer worked there. The lady volunteer made sure that any book or resource that was borrowed, was done so in the correct manner and we knew that everything that we had taken that day would be both looked after, but more importantly, it would be used to its full potential. The whole ambience of this school was completely difference to that of the school in Chitwan, and even the Principal’s ethos that, ‘every resource should be made available for every child’, was a credit to his school’s philosophy of making learning fun. He also acknowledged the holes in his own childhood and educational opportunities, as he had desperately yearned for a basketball net so that he could, let off steam’and so one of the first things that was ever purchased for the school’s yard was exactly that, and as it was almost home-time, we witnessed several of the older children making use of this item, complete with its backboard.
As many of the children left for home, we left to see the children in the CWA Home, and I have to say that, in my humble opinion, the Shining Star Boarding School is a credit to Pokhara and that if we can All continue to support the school in Chitwan, that a new, exciting metamorphosis could emerge; a creative, stimulating environment where teachers want to teach and pupils want to learn.
Once again I wish to thank every one of you who has donated and supported the Nepal fund. I have felt privileged not only to be a part of this sponsorship, but more importantly to witness how Your donations have really made a difference.
First to the house and around 17.00 (after homework) with Kay, the teacher and the kids to the park again.
Just when we wanted to join the kids to the park, one of the teachers of the Shining Star walked in. He specially came to see us. He is doing a radio program and he asked us if we wanted to be his guests in his tourist talk show on Thursday. We had to sit down with him for a rehearsal interview.
Finally we could go on our way to join the children in the park for again some badminton and frisbee games.
For diner we tried a different restaurant, the food was okayish but not that good to go back to again.
Both tired of this day filled with enough emotions and happenings, to our room for a good night sleep.
posted by Rita Sanghita at
9:01:00 AM
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