The end of our first week...

This week has been incredibly busy as we instantly started working at the Shree Mangal Dvip school in Katmandu after our arrival last Tuesday. We got a room in a suburb neighborhood called Boudha and its only about a ten minute walk from school. I think were paying about $4 a night and as of now it seems like we will be staying there for about a month. We lucked out with our room because it is on the top floor of a six story building and from our window you can see the Boudhanath Stupa. Katmandu has proven to be more of a chaotic city than I expected--we have just now gotten used to walking through narrow streets without stressing over being hit by motorcycles, cars, farming tractors, and bikes--everyone thinks they have the rite away even through tiny alleyways. Pollution is also worse than I expected--it's hard to breathe on the streets and many people wear face masks. Yesterday was our first day off school so we took a cab into Thamel, a more touristy district with a ton of trekking shops and whatnot--from there we walked to Durbar square--we quickly left downtown katmandu after a couple hours--it proved to be more chaotic and pollution filled than our neighboorhood--we couldnt walk five feet without someone trying to sell us something, be our treking guide, tour us around the square, or just beg for money--it was very overwhelming being a westerner. However, we very much enjoyed the ancient architecture in the square and the history associated with the buildings. Over the course of the week, we have come to really love our neighborhood of Boudha. It's a Tibetan settlement so monks are everywhere and there are many monasteries--our school is also for Tibetan refugees from the mountains so some of the students are monks as well. We would like to learn from the monks in the monasteries but we can't really just go into a monastery and pray with the monks or anything--we have been meditating on our own--I think once we get to the mountains we will have more of a chance to interact with monks in monasteries. Its also very hot here--like 85 degrees maybe--on top of the pollution sometimes conditions are not ideal. We have had headaches almost everyday (Emma more than I)--we think its from the pollution because we are getting lots of sleep and drinking a lot of filtered water. No sicknesses yet thanks to aquamira drops! We met Shirley, the directer of the school, the other day. She's this skinny little old Canadian woman and she is a ball of intense energy and knows how to get things done. She walks in the school and immediately everyone is on there best behavior and the school instantly becomes super organized. It's a big school by the way 700 kids I think. Shirley is ready to tackle anything in the world from caste discrimination, to gender discrimination, to poverty and lack of education. I'm very much inspired by her. She's never really at school--she works 16 hour days though constantly battling with the UN and Embassy's and whatnot. Emma and I are both super happy with our work here at the school--we were quickly given four classes each teach--I am teaching two 9th grade math classes, a 7th grade math class, and a 6th grade English class. I have definitely had to review some of my algebra rules as well as verb tenses. It sounds like our job here, in addition to teaching, is to work with the Nepali teachers and integrate more effective and creative western styles of teaching as well as decrease the amount of female teacher discrimination. Were supposed to work with some of the female teachers to give them more confidence and stand up to the men teachers and whatnot. I think our first approach will be setting an example of interaction between me and Emma. I have already emailed Mr. Cooper for some strategies. We have a day off tomorrow so I think we will take a cab or minibus (I hear mini buses are quite the experience) to this temple (I forgot the name at the moment) in the mountains close to Kathmandu--its about a four hour hike and we are looking forward to breathing some clean air!