The pancake party yesterday was a nice ending of my week. The staff has done so much for me and the other volunteers in general so I really felt like it was my time to cook for them:)

 In the early morning I had to go around in the near villages to find the necessary eight eggs, flour and milk for the pancakes. But after I managed to collect all the ingredients the cooking started! As limited as our little kitchen is I had to cook outside again. By now I have become a master of fire making so it didn't take me longer than five minutes to start making the actual pancakes.

 I will never forget those skeptical looks that everybody was giving after I managed to burn the first pancake but only the ones who are good at making pancakes know that the first one is never perfect. The second one was beautiful and all skepticism was gone after they tried it with some orange jam that I bought in Damauli. First it was confusing but also funny to see how people from another culture are trying something for the first time. I asked if they have ever eaten pancakes and they said no.  It reminded me that how strange it is to try unknown food. We're all so used to eat all sorts of food from all around the globe but it is understandable that those simple pancakes seemed strange to people who mainly only eat what they produce and what their elders taught them to cook.

I took me more than an hour to finish the pancakes but at the end there was enough for everybody so we sat under the tent after the students had gone home and enjoyed our little pancake party. I was more than happy to see that the teachers liked it.

After being here for three and a half months, I have confused feelings about going home again. I know I will miss this place very much because it's so unique and so full of magic but I often wished that my friends could have been here with me to share this extraordinary adventure. Also I think I'm ready to have all the comforts of modern life again (hot water and power).

My last week in Nepal could not have been better. Last Thursday I mentioned to the teachers that I had been planning a pancake party for the next Friday before I leave. They also told me that they had been planning a secret dinner party at the school on that Saturday. So that was the first surprise. The second one came the next day.

I decided to do some rehearsing for next Friday so I spent the evening in the kitchen, making pancakes.  I was almost done when a handful of volunteers from the other main Maya school turned up at our school. It was such nice surprise because although I had met them before, I had not seen them for almost a month.  And what made me even happier was that two of them were UWC alumni graduated a few years ago so obviously we had a lot to talk about.  We made a nice bonfire, cooked some tea there, the boys prepared for barbeque.  By the time it got dark and the food was ready we all set around the fire. Some played the guitar, sang English and Nepali songs and suddenly I just felt so fortunate that I was there, sitting at the fire with great people under the stars.

The next day was even more memorable when the staff came over to cook. It was great fun to cook with those people who are my friends and I also happen to be their teacher. We made some roti (My favourtie Nepali dish. It's like a sort of donut made of rice flour), meat and rice were being cooked in the kitchen so again we had to cook outdoors. I was just so impressed how much effort everyone put into the dinner and at the end it was great to eat together.

After the weekend my last week has begun. It was fairly hard with the kids because they asked me every day how many more days I have and whenever I told them the truth they always seemed very sad, which did not make it easier to me either to complete my last week of teaching. They gave me drawings and flowers on my last day and some of them even cried:( I asked them not to do so but I could not say anything else. They asked me if I will come back and I had to tell them that I really would like to come back one day but I don't know if it will ever be possible again. Obviously my reply did not cheer them up but I don't want to make promises that I can not keep.

What made my week a bit easier was a quick visit to the main school. I thought it would have been a pity if I came to Nepal, spent more than three months at Maya but did not manage to see the main school, the very first school of the mission that was built six years ago so the senior students are in the sixth grade. It is fantastic how big the school has become since I know that it started with a tent. It also put my opinion about our school into perspective because we are only one and a half years old and don't have more than a few bamboo classrooms. Apart from all the buildings and infrastructure what truly amazed me was the student body. I had been told that their speaking skills are quite good but still I was surprised when I had a chance to talk with them. They were so nice to talk to and once again they made me wonder what our kids will become in a few years time.

Last week I really felt hopeless. One thing I can not handle very well is the violence that the teachers sometimes use to punish the students.  I, coming from a certain background, just can not imagine any case when it would be (provoked) acceptable for a teacher to hit the student. I hate any form of violence or aggression and I simply can't bear to see these kids beaten. I always give voice to my disagreement when I see any case of violence but last week I felt so helpless.

I had class with Snake class before lunch. I entered the classroom, said hi to everybody but even before I could start teaching one of the students drew my attention to another's wounded head. The boy seemed to be completely allright but I took a closer look and there was an actually nasty bleeding wound on the top of his head. We went to the office and tended the wound. When I asked what happened they said the previous teacher hit him with a stick. I got very upset and told the kids that it is not okay at all if a teacher hits them but I got the feeling that my words fell on deaf ears since I thought their parents also often hit them if they misbehave. I could see that they did not really understand why it is not okay for an adult to beat them. I understand that this whole thing roots deep in the culture and I honestly can not blame the teachers since probably their parents and teachers also beat them when they were young. When I asked the mentioned teacher she said that there was a wound already on the boy's head and she just "accidentally touched it with a stick". Now that was what really pissed me off. I tried to explain it to the teachers why it is completely unacceptable to use any forms of physical aggression in the classroom (and generally anywhere) but I had the same feeling again that they did not understand what I was talking about. They were just laughed at me and said they don't hit the children too hard... After this (no surprise) I was in a very bad mood all day. I know they are not bad people and they really care about the school but make the wrong decision sometimes when they have no other tool to regulate the students.

In the evening I told Siddarth about my concerns and he said that he'll talk with the teachers about this issue but he also expressed that he doesn't see much chance to change how adults treat children here. Yes, certainly this can't be changed over night but I think with regular discussions and maybe trainings the teachers can be taught other non-violent techniques to regulate the students. I also feel my responsibility in noticing this so late that now I don't have much time to make any changes but I'll try my best.

A few weeks ago the head of school decided to take the senior girls somewhere because last year the boys went to Kathmandu. So we went to Pokhara with the girls last week.

It was just two days long but I was exhausted when we came back. Before that I had only seen school trips from a student's perspective for understandable reasons but I never thought that going on a school trip as a teacher can be so different. Funnily enough my father mentioned to me the day after we came back that I only took a few pictures in Pokhara. "Of course, I had to look after four seven-year-olds all day long!:D I had no time to take pictures." I replied. And indeed I physically couldn't even get my phone out because I had to hold the girls' hands wherever we went. Pokhara is a very busy place unlike Damauli; traffic, tourists, shops and people everywhere. 

On the first day of the trip we managed to go to the National Mountain Museum which was a pretty interesting experience. Unfortunately the kids found it boring. Apart from reading fascinating facts about the Himalayas, to me (coming from Europe) it was also interesting to see a very different exhibition from what I was used to. I had seen so me very good efforts to make the museum more visitor-friendly but also there were some parts where I got the feeling that the curator just wanted to fill up space with hiking related stuff.

After the museum we also visited a religious cave and the David's waterfall. At both places (unlike in the museum) I was rather concerned looking after the kids not falling off some cliffs than enjoying the view but at the end of the day I think the students really enjoyed both.

I don't want to seem selfish but I think one of the absolute highlights of trip to me was the hot shower at the hotel where we stayed. Since October it's been getting colder and colder on the hill where we live and taking a shower at the fountain can be very challenging in 5 °C.  So I was delighted when I found out that we had hot water in the bathroom. 

Another fantastic thing was the dinner on Lakeside Road. It was much fun to walk along the main street of the touristy quarter with the kids in the evening. There were shops, lights, music and foreigners everywhere so they really enjoyed it. Also it was good to have a chat with the other teachers after dinner since we did not have much time to talk during the day.

On the second day of the trip we only had time to have breakfast and go to the lake for a quick boat ride but then we had to get on the bus and go back to Damauli. At the end of the day I really enjoyed the trip and had good fun with the kids and the teachers.

To me the perfect day of the festival was the one that I spent home and did nothing.

To understand why it was perfect to me first I better describe what a usual festival day looks like in a Nepali village. The most important part of the year is the first two weeks of October when Dashain begins. It's a two-week-long holiday when people celebrate God knows what. I managed to ask at least five locals about what they celebrate at this time of the year but the responses were quite various, ranging from "family" till "food and drinks". So once again I had to turn my face to Wikipedia and I found that actually Dashain is meant to symbolize the victory of good over evil and it is the most important national festival in Nepal. My favourite part of the celebration is that villagers build big swings from bamboo and the children play there all day long.

But the people who I asked were right in a sense that during the festival families gather together and indeed there's a lot of eating, drinking and gambling going on in the villages.

The locals here were very nice and almost all houses in the near villages invited us to celebrate with them, which meant that we go there, eat and drink as much as we can and then go to the next house and start it again. That went on all day long till we decided to go home. Of course by the time we got to the last house we couldn't eat or drink anymore and we still had to climb back to the school in the dark. So no wonder why an average day of ours was very exhausting. However after the third day of the festival I made up my mind and said "It's a holiday to me too!" so I took a day off and did not go anywhere. I probably missed a lot of rice, raksi (traditionally home made Nepali alcohol), spicy food and good conversations but still it was my best decision since I came here.

That day was just simply perfect. It was the very first day since September when I had literally nothing to do. There was no school, I did not have to do chores or go to Damauli. So I stayed in bed until 9 a.m. then just sat under the tent all day long, writing my diary, listening to music, watching some documentaries. It was simply perfect.  Although I have to admit even the easiest day challenged me in some ways.

After doing nothing the whole day, I got very hungry in the evening. Usually it's Mina who makes fire and cooks for us but there was nobody around except me.  I was excited that finally I had a chance to eat something other than rice so I decided to peal the last 5 potatoes and make french fries since I had no better idea. I often cook at home but cooking here is very different... First of all I had to go for firewood then cut them into small pieces. By the time I finished all the preparations, I was already sweaty and dirty. Making fire is not nearly as easy as I thought. I mean making fire outdoors is not rocket science but there in a fireplace where is not much oxygen left after I put the wood in, keeping the fire alive is pretty difficult. After half an hour somehow I managed to have proper fire, so then the cooking started!

 Frying the potatoes was fairly easy however cooking on fire is a bit different then cooking on a stove since you can't change the size of the fire. It is as it is.

With all the preparations it took me around one and a half ours to make french fries but at the and I was proud of myself and happy because that was my first "western" dish since I came to Nepal. I know it's bit of a shame that I celebrated Dashain with french fries at home but do not worry, the next day I started going to local houses again and eat with the villagers.