Reminding Myself What It's All About

Apparently when you get burned out, you're supposed to go on vacation. Feeling like I couldn't drag myself away from work completely, I decided to compromise and visit the school for the deaf in Pokhara since I loved Pokhara the last time I was here. As it turns out, I'm not very good at vacationing since I've worked everyday that I've been here, but it has been good for reminding me what I'm here for! The elusive vacation will come in time I'm sure :)

During the last few days, I’ve been visiting the Pokhara school for the deaf – Srijana Higher Secondary School for the Deaf. As always, Pokhara is a beautiful place to be, and the people have been warm and welcoming. As soon as I got off the bus on Tuesday, I was picked up by Rai ji, a man from the Gandaki Association of the Deaf that I met last time I was here. We proceeded to meet and go over the schedule, and then went to the grand opening of a beauty parlor that a deaf lady is opening with a friend of hers. The beauty parlor was really nice, and it was great getting to see some of the members of the deaf association that I had met on my previous visit.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent at the deaf school all day. My day began when I picked up the school bus (which holds about 65 students and 15 teachers though it should hold probably only hold around 50 total), in Pokhara and was taken to the school which is located in Leknath, a small municipality about 20 minutes away. The Pokhara deaf school is one of the three higher secondary deaf schools in Nepal (it goes to Class 12), and one of the largest as well, with 216 students from 33 districts. The majority of the students live in one of the two hostels (150 students), while the others are bussed in from Pokhara. Largely due to the perseverance of the school management committee and the financial support from several NGOs, the Srijana school has been gradually growing in grades, number of students and infrastructure over the last 20 years.

I was warmly welcomed by the students and staff at the school, and was asked to introduce myself during the morning announcements in the school yard. Nervously, I stood on a chair and used my –still shaky – Nepali Sign Language skills to give a brief introduction while a teacher stood near me and “interpreted” in case my sign skills weren’t sufficient to get the message across to the students. :) I spent the rest of my time at the school talking to the headmaster and getting survey information, going from class to class to observe instruction methods, and talking to the students and staff. The older students were getting ready to go on a tour (field trip) to several cities around Nepal on their way to see China, so while the staff prepared for the trip, I was given ample opportunity to get to know the students.


The students signing the national anthem of Nepal at the morning announcements.


The Kindergarten 1 and 2 classroom at the school. Apparently the teachers attended a professional development class and came back determined to change the ambiance of the classroom. The warmness of the class is a testament to their hard work and perseverance.


This is pretty typical of the rest of the classrooms in the school, with the wooden desks and unpainted cement walls with some student work displayed.


The main school building. The first floor was built and remained a one-story building until the students had outgrown the school. After that, the second floor was added to hold the expanding grades and number of students. Finally, another small building with two rooms was built near the main infrastructure, and most recently, the cover over the open part of the school was added.


One of the two hostels at the school. This one houses about 100 female students and students in the primary grades. There is another hostel about 15 minutes away from the school that houses the older boys.


The beautiful library at the school. It is extremely rare for a deaf school in Nepal to have a nice library (or any library at all!). This one was funded by the Room to Read organization. According to one of the men from the school management committee, the NGO requires the library to be a painted, welcoming room before they agree to provide the books. The result is a beautiful room just beckoning the students to read.


Older students hanging out on the balcony since classes were canceled to allow the teachers to prepare for the tour that began on Friday.


These three little girls appointed themselves my Nepali Sign Language instructors on the bus ride home on Thursday. They brought out their English notebooks and proceeded to school me on each word. I learned the signs for many fruits, animals, colors and other nouns!


This little guy was so intrigued by all of the writing I did that every time he saw me he signed "writing". I think by the time I left he was convinced that was my name sign also!