Life is very amazing, full of surprises............and this has been always true to me. As I have moved on up to 22 years I am blessed with many of the surprises that life has given to me and yes, the beginning of 2013 was also a great surprise for me. I had applied for Teach For Nepal's fellowship but hadn't expected that I would receive a call from there... So at the mid of January, I got a call for interview and after rounds and rounds of interview finally I got selected which was a very good news for me.And finally the day arrived when I was moving with my luggage to TFN Learning Institute for six weeks.
I
entered TFN learning institute with loads and loads of excitement and
enthusiasm on the very first day. And this continued till the end of the six
weeks. As I had never done teaching
before, this training was very important for me as I was not much confident
about teaching. And I gradually started raising confidence in me. Rojee, Seetu
and Rijuta were the first three friends I met as soon as I reached the house
and then gradually I started to become friends with all other people in the
house.
I call myself an introvert so being open and close to all the people in
the house with more than 40 people was what I thought difficult previously but it
was just my assumption. I was close to friends and sharing with all of them and
this began from the very first day with an interesting introduction game.
Our
head of the training, Swastika didi is really an amazing person. She shouted to
us, gave all her energy up, laughed with us, danced with us but whatever she
did with us, she was just motivating each time to be a confident teacher. The
first week of the training started learning about the core values of Teach For
Nepal which were really helpful in making us confident in our path of being a
transformative teacher. Visit to Osho Tapoban, those silent meditations all
were in our schedule to make us persistent in our goal achievement. I was never
on to meditation before but as there we had to do meditation every morning I
gradually started being in a peaceful state during those hours gradually and
even now when I am back to my room whenever I hear the Buddhist hymn, I feel
like I am meditating and Shishir dai is there, in front of me giving
suggestions for meditation. The everyday evening reflection was helpful in
making us analyzing our problems and mistakes we did during the day and even in
the past and make a new plan for the next day.
The
second week was really amazing. The most beautiful part of my life. I was on
practice teaching to Jyotidaya Co-operative School and this was my first
experience on teaching. I really enjoyed it. There were different mixed
feelings arising in me. Sometimes I was yelling, sometimes I was laughing, and
sometimes I was playing with my students.
Rushing to school, making lesson
plans till evening and even taking other lessons, the schedule was really
packed and in the early morning running for washroom was really a wow moment
which I reflect now. Then, the time was difficult but now when I just go in
those days I really smile. The days were awesome and when I use this word,
awesome I remember Narayan ji (first boy) who always used to describe the
training with this word awesome. The days were gradually passing on. I had
never thought that I would survive with a large number of people around me all
the time as most of the times in my life I had stayed all alone. Moments with
students were really the best moment of my life. There were not only lesson
plans on our schedule, there was an amazing women’s day celebration, the fire
camp on shivaratri, dances and a lot of enjoyments.
There
was a surprise plan for us on the occasion of Holi. We were taken to rafting at
Trishuli River. Most of us were having the experience of rafting for the first
time and I was one of them. I still remember how sacred I was when our rafting
guide threw me on the river telling me to feel the water thought I didn’t know
swimming but after staying in water for few minutes I felt that it was really
the wonderful feeling floating in water. Then we had a stay out on tent the
whole night where we expected a sleeping bag but when we didn’t find that we
first could not believe our eyes but that was the truth we faced but there was
a hope that again we would survive the next morning and yes, we did. That time
I was really frustrated but now again when I reflect this also brings beautiful
smile on my face.
Then
we went to a village in the southern part of Lalitpur, Lele for shramdan. We
stayed there for two days and there I knew what life really meant? Why
education is important in our life which I think I would not have known better
if I had not been there as most of the people in the village were facing hand
to mouth problem and they had a hope for better life after receiving education.
As all of us stayed with one family, I and Rojee stayed at Ganesh Nagarkoti’s
house. I found him a very hopeful person who was educated only up to grade nine
but had educated his three daughters and a son till graduation. Stone mining
was a means of livelihood for them though they knew that it was illegal and
risky. During our stay too, a boy lost his life while working there. I heard
from the villagers that, he was a very talented boy. This made us really
unhappy but from this we came to see the real side of Nepal where people are
bound to do that risky labor. We were in
the village for helping the villagers in making road and all of us did that and
some of us including me helped in arranging the books in the library. This was the
first time we were donating our labor for someone. We were happy for that.
The experiences of learning institute do not
end here. Many great persons, leaders were in front of us supporting us,
guiding us during the rest of the days sharing their experiences of life which
made me feel that we are learning each time, each moment and yes I am not going
to teach the students solely but also I am going to learn from them during
these two years. Then the day came when we were revealed where we had to go for
two years of teaching and again I was on Jyotidaya Co-operative School with two
other friends Suman and Seetu. On the last day we were happy to go back to home
after such a long time but at the same time we were sad to leave friends and
other beautiful moments there. And now when I reflect I just feel that I hadnot
left the moments there, I have taken the moments and experiences in my heart
and mind which just motivates me throught out my life with the core values I learnt at TFN learning institute
and I always see a sense of possibility in my life.
(y)
ReplyDeleteThank you Akrosh G.....for your comment but what does that mean ??? I couldnot understand..Is there any other suggestion ???
DeleteAwesome !!! so nice... it reflects the feelings during the six weeks training of all the TFN fellows.
ReplyDeleteLike it (y)...
Thank you Rabi G........
Delete