The Biggest Power is Peace

How amazing is sleep? I had the most solid sleep probably since arriving and felt completely recharged. I did wake up at 4am and stepped outside to see if yesterday’s rain had brought clear skies as Kedar, my taxi driver had told me to call him anytime if I wanted to go back up to Sarangkot, but it was still hazy, so I went back to bed and slept again until 7am, nearly 10hrs sleep.

Down in the kitchen, Ambika was making Dahl bread, so Jill and I helped create the flat discs to drop into the Dahl. Next, Ambika made pickle out of the white section of a watermelon. I recorded the steps she was doing so I could try making it at home as I’d had the pickle before, which tasted amazing and prevents waste of a section of watermelon that we have always discarded.

When it had finished cooking, Ambika took out a small cup and placed a teaspoon of each of the dishes into it, explaining food was always offered first to God to keep God happy.

School was starting at 10am and Krishna offered to drop us off on his way to school. It was a totally different experience to the after school program of last week.

This school closely resembled a school from home, with a morning assembly before going to their classes. This assembly though, provided guidance through a number of mantras such as ‘Respect your teacher and parents’, ‘Protect the environment’ and my favourite, ‘The biggest power is peace.’

I joined an English teacher and I honestly felt like one of the students, not a teacher’s aide, with today’s topic being question tags. I even felt the awkwardness of being called to the front when asked to teach the next class.

We went into four classes – two Yr 8 classes, one Yr 9 class and one Yr 7 class, each time teaching the same topic. The students were required to write 10 of their own question tags and then bring them to me to correct.

Finally I felt useful, being able to explain the grammar in their sentences, but the day passed by in a blur, with each class feeling like it was only 20 minutes and I was having work book after work book brought to me to check. One student especially, brought a smile to my face, after reading numerous similar sentences from all the students, she wrote “People from Australia are beautiful, aren’t they?”

What is so humbling is how much these children want to learn in quite basic conditions. They sit in tiny rooms, with no windows, rough, dusty concrete floors, no air conditioning or heating, yet they are full of life, enthusiastic and happy. They are the epitome of being grateful for what they have and highlight just how much we take things for granted.

Because it was only day two of the school year, school finished at 1pm. As I walked out of school, it was raining heavily and I didn’t have an umbrella. I was trying to stay undercover from shop to shop until I reached a point of no protection.

With no other options, I just started walking in the rain, getting wet. That was until some students ran up to me and shared their umbrella, asking me questions about Australia and how much I liked Nepal. They walked me all the way to the bus stop and they filled my heart with appreciation.

With such a short day at Bamboo School, I decided I would make my way to the after school program. The students were excited to see me, as I’d told them last week it would be my last day. Again, experiencing their genuine happiness, when they have so little compared to what we have, is truly humbling.

While the program had been running, heavy rain had been falling and I was concerned how wet and cold I would be trying to get home. You can imagine how grateful I was that it had stopped by the time we finished.

I even made the bold move to walk the 40 minute trip home, faithfully believing it wouldn’t rain heavily again. I prefer walking and seeing the different streets and what I might see. It is amazing how many temples or shrines I come across for the various Hindu Gods or Buddhist temples.

I did laugh out loud though when I looked up and saw this…

Just as I was coming in the gate, Pramilla and Babu, the youngest and first born son were coming down the stairs with sticks of incense to worship a shrine in the garden.

I got to enjoy watching Pramilla teaching Babu how to slowly wave the incense around in a circular motion, then watching Babu wave it around fast like helicopter blades, Pramilla telling him that’s not how you worship, before Babu finally got serious and circled the incense around in extreme slow motion.

Being immersed in this culture, observing rituals and absorbing the explanations behind it all, brings such a feeling of peace. I hope when I return home, I insert and maintain the things I have observed and learnt into my normal life and continue to feel this peace.  Bamboo School is right to include this in their daily mantras, it is a very powerful feeling.

Much love x