My Reflections 0n Nepal 

by  MaryJane Schmidt

"It is the children who bring me back.".

I have made many trips to Nepal, perhaps ten, over the past fifteen years. Each trip centered around working with the Nepali children in one capacity or another. Because I am a special education teacher my first  education  experience found me working in a small private grade school in Kathmandu named Neel Giri.  These children were eager to learn and well disciplined, jumping to their feet in their neat uniforms when I entered the classroom..It was a joy to work with them.  The teachers welcomed me to their classrooms and daily after- school staff meetings.... always wanting to learn "western methods" of instruction, when in reality I was impressed by their dedicated skill in training these young scholars.  While working together with the teachers we were able to incorporate art, music and stories as methods to  stimulate teacher-student interaction...This combination greatly enhanced the rote learning programs they were accustomed to using. 

Although I am not  medically trained I also worked several days a week  at a Children's Orthopedic Hospital in Banepa , a forty-five minute  drive east of Kathmandu.  The hospital served children  who were disabled in a variety of  ways ...chronic  osteomyelitis, polio, club feet, burns which occurred from the children falling into the open fires in their village homes, and also birth defects.  Most of the children were bedridden and  in traction or wheel chairs. ....It was given to me to assist the physical therapist by entertaining the children  with puzzles, stories and drawing material and often playing catch with a bedridden boy or two. Some days the children would blow up balloons and play catch  from  bed to bed...And I always carried my bag of treats!   In addition to the ward there was  a central Occupational  Exercise Room where  children could assemble daily and play together in their somewhat limited fashion. I often read to these groups in English which most couldn't understand... but they responded favorably to the pictures and my "human language" as they called it.   One of the little wheelchair  girls became my interpreter and fast friend over the three months that I was there.. She taught me some rudimentary Nepali in exchange for my helping her with her English....On a  later  trip to Nepal Som Raj, our director, surprised me by locating Sharmila and bringing her down to Kathmandu from her village. We  had a warm reunion and  she became my first ANSWER student.   

Over the years I have visited many schools in Nepal and made many fast Nepali  friends. There is   a warmth in the  culture that seems to create the ties that bind...... 

However, for me,  it is still the children who  bring me back ....