~ Our Scholarship Girls Go Above and Beyond~

Our scholarship girls have been working hard learning new vocabulary, reading, and writing. I've been teaching them how to write cohesive structured paragraphs for school. It has been refreshing each day because they are so enthusiastic. Honestly, at times it's a little shocking, because their desire to learn and their ability to attend to the academic work and what I'm asking them to do is intense. Their learning is serious business to them~ as a teacher this inspires me to give them my best. As I mentioned earlier, I tend to like to "play" when I teach and the girls are not used to it as they are very reserve and literally express little to no emotion unless explicitly asked... but yesterday was different.

I told the girls they would be writing paragraphs about themselves and then we would post them on the blog! They have been very excited~ yesterday I brought down two laptops and an alphaboard for typing their paragraphs and my digital camera so they could "document" Bandipur and their lives in Bandipur. I taught them how to type their paragraphs first and amazingly, although they do not have computers, each girl typed her paragraph wonderfully... I think what shocks me is how these girls attend to what they are doing~ very focused, unending perseverance, and a determination to excel...quite frankly I have not seen this type of devotion in students before~ I like it! :)

There were two computers, one MAC, one PC (thank you Ivy!), and the alpha smart board (thank you Jeffrey!) As three girls typed their paragraphs I taught the other two how to take photos with my Casio digital camera (thank you Youko!) At first they were shy and hestitant to take pictures, but within 5 minutes they became more relaxed and began playing with the camera and phtographing many different things~ including ME! (Since I am here alone I do not have many photos of myself...Now I have a lot!)

After each girl finished her typing I asked the girls who knew how to use the camera to "train" the other girls~ in this way they are also helping teach their new skills and I get to "watch" them...I also told the girls that many people do not know that much about Nepal, so it would be nice if they could take photos and explain about their village, their lives, and their culture. They were really excited. I gave them an assignment to take the camera out into the village and to each take 5 pictures~ it could be of people, things, animals... they LOVED THIS and I was able to take pictures of them exploring and HAVING FUN LEARNING!!!!! It was so wonderful... the girls really enjoyed this process and I cannot wait to post their writing and photos so you can share in this great fun!

Throughout this experience I felt the girls becoming more comfortable with me as they were asking me for help..."Heather, could you come here please?" "Heather, photo?" (when they took my picture!) It was a blessing to see them gain confidence with the computers and camera and they really took ownership of this experience.....GREAT!!!!! Very Inspiring~

Today we are going on a "field trip" to each girls home so we can document whatever they would like to share with you. Two of the girls Biva and Mina live an 1 1/2 hour away...so they may have to borrow the camera for a night to document!!!! (Or I may visit them on a day when I am not teaching full schedule...)

You should be seeing posts by the girls shortly! I'm excited to see what they choose to share with us! I will also be videotaping as well...what great fun! :)