Remember

The only constant in life is change...

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Normal

Maiti Nepal not only has housing and a counseling center for trafficked girls, but also has a school... and this past week they needed volunteers to proctor and exam, so I went! It was stressful and also so much fun...I'm just gonna lay out a couple of things for you, and tell you how it went after.
The setting of the exam is like this:
·        In one room there were about 25 kids, and they are randomly selected from grades 1-10 and put next to each other, so it would be kinda hard for a 10th grader to cheat off of a 1st grader..
·        The school is really strict. Kids are expected to wear uniforms. Walk with their hands on the back, and back straight. Ask permission to enter the room, and call their elders Sir or Ma'am.
·        There is a limited amount of supply, so they must share their rulers, protractors, and sometimes pens. They are given the paper to write in, and the teachers sign every paper they give out and mark if its plus one or two extras...
·        There is to be no talking (duhh) and they can't ask to use the bathroom until an hour or so after the exams have started.

Now, I am young looking "teacher" going in to proctor the exam...what do you think happened? They started out by coughing and then looking in the air...slowly their heads turning to their classmate who sat behind them. I yelled at them in Nepali, and clearly I had some sort of accent because they took notice of this and started to act up more.... I'll admit, I have cheated a little here and there, I'm not gonna lie... but now I had power, and I could either let them cheat and pass (like i always wished teachers would let me do) or make sure they received the grade they deserved because that's the only way to learn... I decided to be strict (haha sorry) cuz I realized that if I let them cheat and pass, they'd go out into the world, not know anything and disappoint Ms. Koirala, and I would also be disappointing Ms. Koirala and the principal at the school if I let them cheat...So. I got up, and shouted. This time in English. AND MANNN DID THAT HAVE POWER! hahaha The second I started speaking English, they all looked at me wide eyed, scared and looked back at their paper. It felt good! But, I must say, the kids here are really bad cheaters! They would just straight up turn around and ask their classmate, who was behind them, what the answer was. I got so pissed and just put my hands on my hips and said "Really?!? you have GOT TO BE JOKING?!" Haha
This went on pretty much everyday at the beginning of the exam, and by the middle of it, they stopped messing with me...And I think some even got a little too comfortable with me! haha There was a 10th grade student sitting next to a 1st grade student...the first grader had not idea what the answer to a question was, and so she called me over, gave me a smile, followed by a cute puppy dog face and asked me what this meant...the question was "What is the baby of a goat called?" Now how am I to answer that without giving her the answer...so I did the best I could and translated the question to her in Nepali... her response, "But Missssss, I still don't know" and pouts her lips. The 10th grader next to her, who has had me proctor almost all of his exams, looks at me and says "Come onnn Miss, just tell her!" hahahahahahahahaha
I swear, it's absolutely amazing here. Not all the students live here at Maiti Nepal, some live outside, but most live here... It's hard to tell what their story is... Some have scars on their face with smiles on, some have scared looks on their face trying to put a smile on, and some are just there, trying to be as "normal" as they can be... While I worked at the school I never once thought, oh some of these kids might be trafficked. I just assumed they were under privileged kids who came to school here from the outside, but my last day there, after school I saw many of the same faces walking around and I just kinda froze. Here I was treating them like they were just normal kids trying to cheat but they weren't normal, they weren't just born to a good home, ate healthy all their life and played around. They had been through stuff most of us couldn't even imagine going through....I felt bad for a second, but then I realized, no, I shouldn't feel bad. All I did was treat them like they were normal children....and that's what they probably wish. Just to be normal and treated normally. And I think that's what I've learned from them... I didn't teach them or anything, but they taught me. Taught me not to treat anyone differently because you feel sorry for them. Treat them like you'd want someone to treat you. Just normal. It's so hard for these kids to have a normal life, and even harder if people keep sympathizing them and reminding them about their past... the best way you can help them is treat them like you'd normally treat a student or a child.