My day could not have started better. Usually I only come out of my room after 8 a.m. but today somehow I had the feeling that I would better spend the morning out there. Now I do not regret going out of my room so early.

Yesterday I woke up early in the morning and went out the tent to drink a coffee. It was very foggy like every morning and I could not see far. I was just staring into space and sipping my coffee when I heard a noise as if a dog shaked its head. I turned my face into the direction of the sound and suddenly I saw a dog-like creature standing in the middle of the field just 4 meters away from me. Yellowy grey thick fur, short legs, long body, strangely round head and a pair of bright yellow eyes that were looking straight at me. It was clearly not a dog. However before I could have said "fox" it had already ran away.

Since it was around 5:30 and I was still half asleep I did not really realise what I had seen and didn't think of it at all during the day. However in the evening at dinner somebody brought up the wildlife of the area and my morning encounter popped into my head again. I asked Siddarth if there were foxes living on the hill and he said "Of course! Foxes, leopards, porcupines. We've got all sorts of animals in the jungle." At that point got very interested in what I had seen in the morning and looked it up on Google. It seemed like I met a tibetan fox, which mostly lives in China and Nepal. Fortunately it is classified as least concern on the IUCN red list. Although (according to Wikipedia) it lives "well away from humans or from heavy vegetation cover" which is interesting since we're in a village near to the jungle. They probably find prey in the villages easier.

The more time I spend at the school the more I realise that we are here not only to teach the kids speak English but also to teach them think.

I know it sounds a bit weird and boastful but we're teaching at primary school so I often found that the kids do not really understand what we're doing just because they don't see the connection between certain things. And here I am not talking about any difficult contents but very fundamental things.

For instance I often found that when we talk about something and I ask them questions they are more or less capable to compete the task. However if we talk about the same matter and then I write my questions on the board they are always confused what to do. Sometimes I just get the feeling that they separate live speech from the written text totally. They can write and read but often it turns out that they are not "actually writing" but just putting words together letter by letter and then spell it out loud.

I have not yet figured out how to address this issue but I think I am going to make them read loudly, I'll write what they read on the board sentence by sentence, so then we can understand the text together. I don't know. Part of the problem is that I don't speak Nepali and also it's probably not only my class when they don't understand the link between spoken and written texts.

Another thing is the "yes culture", which I am also pretty familiar with (hahaha). Whenever there's a word that I suppose the students won't know I ask them if they know what it means and they often say yes without thinking. But when I ask them if they could explain it one another even in Nepali it turns out that they do not know the word just said yes to my question. Of course it is not the end of the world, they're just 8-10 years old but I would like to make sure that they ask when they don't understand something otherwise what is the point of me being here?

I talked about this issue with the principal because I am also concerned that once I leave (in two months) for other volunteers who come it'll take a good while as well to identify these problems. We'll see.

Surprise, surprise! I wasn't born to be a teacher.

 At least not in primary school. And I did not only realise it when I had to correct 34 exam papers but when I found out that I can't act like if I was full of energy and happy 24/7. However this has been my fourth week as a teacher and I think I'm really enjoying it! Of course I came here to help these children to develop their English skills but on the other hand I've always been a little concerned about me being a teacher. I really like the kids here but sometimes I feel like it is just hopeless to teach them anything.

I have four classes a day. The first is my "tuition class" with the best nine students at 10:30 after the morning circle where we all do some stretching, sing songs, meditate and hug one another. That class usually goes very well since that nine kids are really smart and dedicated to learn. On my very first day the school principle allowed me to ban Nepali in the classroom and thank God the kids take it very seriously. They try to speak English all the time when they're with me and I really appreciate their effort because I'm aware of how little English they know. It's great to work with them although sometimes I feel like my expectations might be too high... but they are getting better.

The next is Elephant class from 12:00 until 12:45. They are not cake. The group is divided between me and Rei (the other volunteer) and I happened to get the less skilled half of the class, so sometimes it can be very challenging to figure out how I could occupy their attention when they're interested in everything but not English. Those twelve kids can really annoy me but I can't be angry with them since they're just 6-7 years old. It is completely understandable why they can't sit still for 45 minutes and listen to this foreigner talking in a language that they don't understand. At least they teach me some patience.

After Elephant class we have lunchtime between 12:45 and 13:30, then I go to Snake class. They're 8-12 years old and much more capable of listening to me. Now our main goal is to learn how to create sentences because their vocabulary is not bad but they don't know how structure their sentences. Some of them are quite good but there are a few students who really need help. I'm always happy to go to Snake class, the kids are more or less nice and polite so it's easier to work with them.

After school I and Rei have an extra class for the teachers when we usually just talk about general things or what they're interested in. To be honest I often get the feeling that it's much easier to teach children even if with the teachers we would have more common ground. They are not much older than us but somehow it just feels weird or awkward to teach them grammar and sentence structure even when it is needed. But they are certainly getting better by talking to us in English everyday.

At the end of the day I really enjoy being here, teaching and staying at the school and I am sure that once I will leave this place I will miss it a lot.

I wish I brought a botanical or insect guide with me.

Just since I arrived to the school I have seen at least twenty different types of beautiful butterflies and even more spiders. Whenever I walk in the forest there are huge spiders clearly visible from ten meters distance. I always wonder what kind they are and whether they are dangerous. Also there's an amazing variety of flower species on the hill.

A good friend of mine from Singapore once told us that in Israel they have this saying that her friends always tell one another and it translates to English like “You are not living in a movie". Perhaps not in a movie but sometimes I really feel like if I was in one of David Attenborough's documentaries.

 The other day after school I decided to go to wash my clothes. The first time when Narage the youngest boy who lives with us took me to the nearest place where I can shower and wash clothes I thought we were rather tracking than going to the to laundry. It was a good thirty-minute walk in the forest till we got there. The way wasn't longer than a kilometer but we had to climb rocks and slippery bits. It took me quite an effort to keep up with Narage.

The day after I went on my own and got lost twice but at least I did not have to wash clothes on my own when eventually reached the fountain. I had the company of local girls and women as they joined me there. It didn't take them long to point out that I was washing my clothes "the wrong way" so showed me how to do it properly. We had a good time there; the younger ones introduced me to their aunties and kept asking me; where I'm from, what my name is, how many siblings I have and so on. (They were particularly disappointed when they found out I'm not married)

It was already sundown when I climbed back to the school. I went straight to my house, put my stuff down, opened my bag and realised that I left my keys at the fountain. I don't think I have to write down that I wasn't very happy to go all the way back but I was rather worried that I might had lost the only keys to my house. I was nervous while going back but fortunately I met one of the aunties on my way and managed to ask her if she had seen my keys at the fountain. She understood my gestures and explained me that the keys were still there on the stone where I left them. And indeed I foud them there.

I didn't even mind climbing back in the dark, I was just so happy that I found my bloody keys.