A small piece of heaven in Pokhara

It was a 5 hour flight from Singapore, followed by an 8 hour ride tumbling on a local bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara. I was full of anticipation, not knowing what to expect of my volunteer teaching assignment in Pema Ts'al Sakya Monastic Institute-- www.pematsal-sakya.org

If I had any reservations, it was immediately discarded the moment I arrived at the premises.  My run down taxi passed the colorful Tibetan gate and I saw for the first time, the splendour of the monastery perched against the back drop of the blue skies. My heart skipped a beat.

The Pema Ts'al Sakya Monastic Institute is situated on a quiet hill top near Nepal's famous Fewa Lake in Pokhara and right in front of the Fishtail mountains with a view of Seti River. It was a dream come true to spend the next 5 weeks living in the monastery and teaching English to the monks and students in this magical Tibetan monastery.

 

 

Although it is a monastic institute, it has some rooms designated as guest rooms for rental in the dormitory block to supplement its income that is dependent on donations and sponsorship of the monks.  Some tourists choose to make it a base, travelling to the Fewa Lakeside for the activities. Folks come here to enjoy the silence and one can choose to attend the morning puja at 6am and the philosophy classes at 8.30am.

The rates for a room ranges from 700-900 rupees a night and you can contact the monastery directly for bookings. The most beautiful rooms are the riverside rooms whereby you have 3 windows with a view of the mountain range, the Seti River and the plantation. The simple rooms come with attached bathroom with hot water and modern flushing toilet facilities. For more information on how to get to the monastery please read the link on "Practical Tips: Volunteering + Travel Information" on the same blog page.

 

When I was teaching there in mid-September, we were at the tail end of the monsoon season, but we still get the occasional thunderstorm. Alas, what a glorious sight to see a rainbow arching from the mountain ranges to the Seti River!

 

After my teaching assignment, I continued to stay in the monastery but proceeded to Fewa Lake for my paragliding/river rafting activities as I loved the serenity and tranquillity that the monastery  and was keen to avoid the Lakeside tourist trap. This aerial view picture of the monastery was taken when I was paragliding!

 

 

 

The "5 to 9" life of a volunteer

My day in the monastery starts at 5.30am and it is the most beautiful time of my whole day. There is a light mist that engulfs the mountain ranges and I sit contentedly outside my corridor waiting for the first light to cast its ray on Fishtail mountain.

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At around 6am, the monks from the college gather at the temple for morning puja. All the volunteer teachers and guests are invited to join in the morning puja session which lasts an hour (optional attendance). Even though I am not able to recite the chants, I enjoy going to morning puja as the rhythmic chants are very calming for the spirit and it is a wonderful way to start a new day. The picture below is an inside view of the temple when we were allowed to take pictures during one of the ceremonies ( pictures are not allowed during puja).

At times, I am woken up by loud banging of bottles or shrieks, but no one is unduly alarmed because it normally means one of the monkeys have invaded the rooms of the volunteers. There are no fans in the rooms, so we sometimes leave our windows open for ventilation. At times, we might just step out of the room briefly and this is when the sneaky monkeys make their moves! They are generally harmless snatch thieves, and I have had my bag of bananas stolen.

One monkey snatched a bottle of expensive vitamins from my neighbour's room, she was furious and jumped onto the ledge and chased after the monkey. The monkey was so shocked that it dropped the bottle!! Basically you just need to remember the shut your windows! Before I left, a new baby monkey was added to the brood!

At 7am, we have a simple breakfast at the reception hall that comprises milk tea and bread. This is followed by optional Buddhism classes at 8.30 that is conducted by Tenzin who is a senior monk studying for his Buddhism Philosophy degree. From 10am onwards, most of the volunteers will be busy with our English classes, which takes up 3-4 hours in the day! So most of us have a pretty packed schedule in the monastery.

Lunch is served at the staff reception and it is always a vegetarian meal. For those who really need to eat some meat, there are a few simple eateries if you care to walk downhill 5-10 minutes from the monastery. I have been trying to shed a few kg forever, and by the time I returned to Singapore, I realized that I have lost 3.5kg just by eating simply for 6 weeks. Having said that, at times I am still starved for protein and I walked down hill and ordered myself a nice portion of eggs with fried noodles.


When I have time in the afternoon, I would simply chill and read a book in this open air shelter. Incidentally, this was where I conducted my one-to-one English lessons as well with one of the college student monks. A tourist who was visiting remarked "you teach English in heaven".

The Wifi reception is best near the computer lab,  and we might be able to get some weak wifi signal near our rooms, so I would move my table out to get a better reception. On some days in the afternoons,  I will be surfing the internet  with the mountain ranges in front of me and the eagles will be soaring by!

The day quietens down and in the evening sometimes I just hang around the courtyard watching the college students practise the lively Tibetan debate

I find it almost unbelievable but for 5 weeks, I probably lived one of the healthiest lifestyle in my entire life, waking up at the break of dawn and hitting the sack around 9 pm. There are normally electricity outages at night in Pokhara so it is also a good idea to go to bed early!

On weekends, I normally travel to the Lakeside, and my two favourite haunts are Mike's Place and Jiva Cafe and spa. Mike's Place is an unassuming eatery by Lake Fewa and I just enjoy chilling out reading my book and having a leisurely breakfast. Jive spa is another great place to have a coffee surrounded by lush and leafy trees with birds chirping and indulging our senses in a wonderful massage. For the quality of the premise, the prices are fairly reasonable with prices starting from 22000 rupees for a 1.5 hour massage. Incidentally both Mike's Place and Jiva Spa are within walking distance of each other (5 minutes). If you are there for a few days, just get a local map as it will outline all the key establishments in Lakeside.

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"Miss" and the "mini-monks"

The term "mini-monks" was actually coined by my neighbour, Kitty, who is a Chinese American on a special assignment to review the operations in a chain of luxury lodges in Annapurna. She chose to stay in the monastery for 3 months to escape from the hustle and bustle of Lakeside. She remarked that the young monks reminded her of "mini-me" in Austin Powers, so the term "mini-monks" sort of stuck.

The monastery is dedicated to the education of young Buddhist monks and the preservation of the Sakya Buddhist traditions. It is home to many young students from inaccessible and improvised Himalayan region like Mustang, Tibetan refugees and Nepali Buddhist communities. There are about 50 students across all ages who are receiving their basic education covering subjects like Tibetan, English, Science, Nepali and Mathematics, on top of a Buddhist education.

As a volunteer, I do NOT have a fixed curriculum to follow as the lessons we offer supplement the main curriculum. As the monastery is tight on funds, they  only have a few teachers for core subjects, hence, volunteers with skillsets in different subject areas can pitch to help supplement the children's education. As part of my volunteer assignment, I had a class of 12 mini-monks from the Upper Kinder Garden group, and I taught them English everyday for 40 minutes from 1.00pm - 1.40pm. The classrooms are basic but functional with a blackboard, and to save money, the monastery has a carpenter who makes the wooden furniture.

The 12 boys are really mischievous and the youngest one is only 5 years old and sometimes he runs circles in my class!  At any one time, there were 12 little boys seeking your attention in a chorus of "Miss, Miss......" so I was also  running around in circles in the classroom. I was normally exhausted after the 40 minute lesson, flat out like a deflated balloon and I would take a few hours to recuperate before sitting down to plan for next day's lesson. Midway, I actually bought a whistle, just like a soccer coach, cos I was losing my voice from all the shouting :). Having said that, the mini-monks melted my heart.

 

As my brood of mini-monks are fairly young, they have a very short attention span which lasts about 10 minutes and they also have limited English skills. Hence, I tend not to be too overly verbal and I would probably spent the first 10 minutes on English and the rest of the lesson focused on arts and craft related to the topic. For example, I did some lesson plans on shapes, and we used post-it strips to make shapes etc.  Another lesson we learned the different parts of the plants and used paper clips/rubber bands to create a flower.

 

After the lesson using the rubber bands, I found all the little monks from different classes coming to me to ask for rubber bands, so I was pleased that my lesson was so well received!  I went to lakeside and bought many packs to be distributed to the 50 young monks. Not unexpectedly, the rubber bands evolved into "sling shots" and I guessed I will forever be immortalized as the Singaporean who brought weapons of mass destruction to the monastery!!

 I told them for heaven's sake, please don't shoot the abbot, Kunga Khenpo! There were also other creative use of it like weaving it into a ball that can be kicked around. I was amazed at the creativity of the kids and how much fun they had with seemingly simple objects.

Even watching the mini-monks brush their teeth was such a hilarious affair, and I truly enjoyed every moment that I spent with them.

I tend to stick to lessons within the classroom or the courtyard, but some of the more seasoned volunteers like Elizabeth, a Canadian nurse who has been back 3 times would bring the mini-monks for picnics. This was no easy feat as it involved chaperoning a bunch of hyper active 5-12 years old and we would have to cross the road, walk across the suspension bridge before arriving at the picnic ground. I usually tagged along to help out, though on my own, I do not have the guts to bring the mini-monks out in case one of them disappears (cos they can run really fast!!).

 

The kids have a fairly regimented day of lessons but they do have some downtime and it is wonderful to watch them enjoying sports and playing as kids would. In some ways, they have an enviable childhood where nature is their playmate and there is a comradeship that exists as the elder kids take care of the younger ones. On weekends, one of their favourite haunts is the riverside, and we would prepare a simple picnic of biscuits and juice and watch the kids run amok swimming in the river.

On my last day with the mini-monks, I told them  that there was no school today and we were going down the hill to the eatery for some treats.

I gave everyone a goody pack of stationery which is useful for their school work and they were beaming from ear to ear. One of the little ones grabbed my hand and he kept repeating "Miss, Miss very very good". I looked at his innocent face brimming with joy, at the corner of my eye, a small tear rolled down because it has taken such a small gesture to make their day.

For the rest of the monks who were not my pupils, I noticed that they did not have proper files to keep their stuff, so I prepared a small goody pack for everyone. I thought bouncing balls were a good idea too, so I guessed now there are 50 playful mini-monks with 100 bouncing balls in the monastery!

If I have to use a word to sum up my volunteer assignment, I would say "JOY". I came to the monastery thinking that perhaps I might make a small difference to the lives of the kids, but I went away with the humble realization that what I have given will only always be a fraction of the blessings and joy that I have received.  Thank you Pema Ts'al Sakya, thank you to all the monks and staff of the monastery for having me and treating me with kindness.

Thank you for reading my blog. Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

(for tips on how to volunteer, please read the link on my blog Practical Tips: Volunteering + Travel Information)

Practical Tips: Volunteering + Travel Information

How to volunteer
www.pematsal-sakya.org
I have done up this blog in the hope that there will be more volunteers who will spend time at the monastery. As I did not know about Pema Ts'al Sakya, I went through an intermediary organization--RCDP who placed me there. Now that I have completed my assignment, from my perspective, I think it would have been better to have gone direct to the monastery.

When you go through a intermediary like the RCDP, the bulk of the fees would go to admin/advertising/other development etc rather than the organization you are volunteering in. I estimated that I could have additional funds of US$400-500 that I can spent on the children/monastery if I had arranged the trip myself.

Learning from my volunteer experience, in future, my personal preference is to  have better control over the funds and use it directly for my volunteer work.  However, for first-time volunteers, it might appear daunting to make your own arrangements, so I guess this is where the intermediary organizations play a part especially in places where English skills are lacking. One volunteer I met was placed by VCD and had fairly positive things to say about them and VCD seemed to offer a better orientation program inclusive in the fees, so this is another option.

If you decide to make your own arrangements, do note that the monastery is not a commercial organization, hence, you should not expect the same kind of expediency as dealing with a hotel or commercial school, so allow time for your planning. If you want to enjoy Nepal, you need to have an open mind.

Preparation of classes
For those of who are volunteering, there is NO curriculum to follow, so you should do some preparation work and source required teaching materials prior to your arrival. The children will only have basic stationery like a pencil and eraser.

The monastery  has a library that has children books and materials that you can borrow.  Many volunteers bring their own teaching materials and books, and leave it behind for the next volunteer or to be donated to the library.

It is unlikely that you will know specifically what classes you will be teaching till you arrive, so you should be prepared to teach young children and also English at beginners/elementary level (as per TESOL definition). You can also supplement your materials as there are many bookshops in Lakeside (I was able to buy some coloring books and most stationery). However, you will not be able to find arts and craft scissors for young kids or blue tack (which is useful for putting up the art work on the wall).

Bringing a laptop is also a good idea as they loved the videos I showed related to the topics we were learning. I think that if you want to establish a relationship with the kids, you should aim to volunteer for at least 4 weeks for them to know you.

Although I have written mainly about my volunteer work with the min-monks, I also worked on one-to-one coaching with the older monks as well. In fact, I was coaching the carpenter's son who is a 18 year old young man who has come to the monastery for 3 months with the objective of improving his English. He is such a motivated young man so it was great being his teacher.

Similarly, the evenings spent working on the spelling of numbers with a staff monk was equally fruitful and he beamed as he announced "I can write cheques now!"

Certification of English skills
Although the monastery did not request for me to produce any certification of my English skills, I have completed my TESOL diploma that is accredited by the London Teacher Training College. If you are interested in the course, in Singapore, I studied with the British Education Centre and I would recommend the school -- www.britisheducationcentre.org 

I took the morning classes so the class size was small and there were opportunities for dialogue and interaction with other students. It will take 8 weeks to finish the 4 modules and another 2-3 weeks to prepare/finish your practicum.

Those who are short of time can take the "kamakaze" cramp course but it means you will have lessons in the morning and afternoon. However, I think it sort of takes the enjoyment out of learning as the schedule will be too packed. I am on a long break, and I took the course primarily for self-enrichment so I chose a more relaxed schedule for learning.

For me, I found modules 3 and 4  on lesson planning and phonetics useful for my teaching. Phonetics really gave me a headache, but I was so much more sensitised to pronunciation and this is important when you are teaching English as a second language. There are also opportunities to conduct short lessons for foreign students and together with the practicum mocks and test, provide  opportunities for us to practise our teaching skills. Having said that, no simulated lesson can prepare you for the real world of managing 12 energetic little boys :) I think you need parenthood for that!

Some tips on travel
Day 1)Arrive in Kathmandu, stay overnight.
Day 2)Take a local bus from Kathmandu to Pokhara. If you take the early bus at 7 am, you should arrive at Pokhara in the afternoon 3-5pm (depending if there are accidents on the road which is fairly frequent). If you are taking the cheap local bus, please don't take the one with the air-con. For 700 rupees, I am really not sure what the condition of the air-con will be? I took the local bus (without air-con) and I was the last to board and sat on the last row, so my butt hurt!

There is a Greenline tourist bus that is more expensive but more comfortable. Since it is a fairly long ride and the roads are bad, it might be worthwhile to pay for a better ride.

The other alternative is to fly to Pokhara from Kathmandu. I was told that you get a lovely view of the Annapurna ranges if you sit on the right hand side of the plane. I took Buddha air from Pokhara when I was going back to Kathmandu, and I managed to get a window seat on the left, so I was treated to a gorgeous view of the mountains during the first 20 minutes of flight.

Location of Monastery
The monastery is about a 15-20 minutes ride from the hustle and bustle of Fewa Lake, in which a local taxi will set you back between 300-500 rupees (one way) depending on your bargaining power!

Funnily enough, the monastery is located next to the one and only swimming pool in Pokhara "Penguin swimming pool" so you can almost never get lost! If you are coming from Lakeside, you will first pass a sign that says Penguin swimming pool on your left and then about 100 m, you will see the gate.





If you are coming from the bust station, when you alight at the final stop of the bus station, you can take a taxi to the monastery, it should probably less than 300 rupees. The ride from the airport should also be a similar price.

I guess the other point is to have a good sense of humour cos as tourist we frequently get overcharged. Normally, my stance is that if it is not exorbitant and the difference is 50-100 rupees, sometimes, I just let it be. However, you should always check what is the "base price" that locals pay and see if you can bargain around it.

Best Time to go
I started my volunteer assignment on 10th Sept and left mid-October. I was approaching the tail end of the monsoon so it still rained periodically, and you need a raincoat if not you will get drenched as some parts of the monastery are not covered.

It was only during the last week when I was able to see the Fishtail mountain as it was hidden behind the clouds during the first 3 weeks of September though there were still many days of blue skies. The monastery is beautiful as it is, though it is definitely a bonus to be able to see the Annapurna ranges in their full glory, but I won't get too hang up about it! To me, it was really the volunteer work itself and the interaction with the monks that made my trip unforgettable.

Some Tips on Food
If you are thinking of losing weight, wait no further. After 5 weeks of vegetarian meals and climbing stairs (there are no lifts in the monastery), I shed 3.5 kg and shrunk a size.  However, at times the vegetarian meal can get a tad boring, so there is always the option of walking down to the eateries downhill for a quick bite.

There is one just 5 minutes down slope, and I always go to "ejay" (I was told it means sister) for a fried rice and omelets. They also serve momos and seen here is "ejay" with the kids.

There are a few eateries scattered throughout if you walk 10-15 minutes along the road. The one that I like best is next to the water bottle factory (if you ask the monks, this is the place whereby you can buy mineral water in bulk). They actually have a English menu and sometimes I pamper myself with a chicken winglet when I feel very deprived after many days of vegetarian food. If you want to have dinner at the eateries at night, the road is pitch dark, so you will need a headlight. Please do not walk on the road at night, it is pitch dark so the cars cannot see you. Walk along the inner foot path which is longer and not paved, but it is much safer.

You can buy cup noodles from the supermarket easily, but I could not find any "3 in 1" of  drinks like Milo or Horlicks, so might be a good idea to bring some if you need a morning fix like me. If you are not too fussy, the monastery serves milk tea. I also bought packs of Campbell Soup, which I distributed to the little monks in my class when they fell sick, so that they can have some warm hot soup. I thought the instructions on the pack were clear enough, but one of the little monks started eating the powder but I caught it just in time!!


Some Tips on Groceries/Stationery
There are a few mom and pop shops which are 5-10 minutes around the vicinity of the monastery for us to top up basic groceries like bottled water, chips or toilet paper, but it is pretty limited.
I normally go to Lakeside to top up stationery supplies/groceries though there is another city, Mahendrapool where the locals go to and the prices are cheaper. It will cost about 200-250 rupees by taxi to Mahrendrapool from the monastery or you can take the local bus that is right infront of the monastery and get a feel of what it is like to travel like the locals. In fact, Mahendrapool has a large supermarket, SafeWays  whereby you will find almost everything you need.