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Winter Newsletter – 2007
Dear Friends,
As Christmastime comes to Kathmandu once more and Tashi Waldorf School prepares to conclude the third quarter of its eighth school year, there is a great deal to report. Numerous fall festivals have been celebrated, several teacher training events have been held and so many fascinating activities have been going on in the classes!
DASHAIN, Nepal’s biggest
holiday, was celebrated in
October.
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The students danced, played and sung songs in Nepali, English and Tibetan
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The children spent the afternoon flyingkites that they constructed.
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TIHAR, the beautiful festival of lights, was commemorated in November. A mandala was drawn in front of the children’s playhouse and in the hall.
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Students harvested and threshed rice, and made candles and paper lanterns. |
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Plenty of teacher training has taken place in the last several months. Hans and Ineke Mulder of the New Zealand Federation of Waldorf Schools gave a lecture series in September. Angela Nietzche and Martina Vogels, Waldorf teachers from Germany, started giving classes to the teachers then as well. Angela and Martina are training the faculty at Shanti Sewa Griha School, and we are grateful that they and Shanti Sewa Griha have so kindly shared their time.
In May 2006, ten girls from Humla, a remote district of West Nepal, enrolled in class 1. The girls live in the ISIS Foundation’s children’s home on the school property and are currently attending class 2. Their progress over one and a half school years has been remarkable. At first the girls could not speak any Nepali, as their native Humli is a language similar to Tibetan. Their classmates and teacher Lobsang Dolma initially tried to communicate with them mainly through gestures; the difficulties encountered trying to express themselves to non-Humli speakers was visible on their faces.
But after several weeks of Nepali lessons in and after school, the Humla Home girls began speaking to and understanding their classmates and teachers. Lobsang comments: “At the beginning they couldn’t speak Nepali, and in class while telling stories I had to use puppets and pictures, but now they can understand stories themselves and read books themselves, and they can make simple sentences from stories.” They are now a joyful and confident group, actively participating in each day’s lessons. A big thank you to ISIS for bringing these wonderful children into the TWS community.
From October 8th to 19th, class teacher Nima Sherpa participated in the 5th session of a 3 year part time Steiner Primary Teacher Training program at Tridhaksa School, Bangkok. Nima had a fabulous and productive experience, and remarked, “I have learned the truths of life, the human body, the soul and the spirit. I have gone through a deep experience. My notions and views on the different stages of human life – birth, childhood, adulthood and old age - have been changed.”
In September, class 3 took a People and Occupations themed field trip to the neighboring towns of Patan and Timi. The students visited a ceramics factory, a carpentry workshop, a textile factory, statue makers and Thanka painters. They sang songs for the artisans, learned about their their trades, made artwork and were given souvenirs
from the workshops |
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| A parent meeting was also held that month, where the faculty showed the parents various elements of their lessons firsthand, such as Morning Circle and Form Drawing. They did puppet shows and storytelling, explaining how each affects the child, and distributed and discussed a section of Fire in the Heart by Meyrav Mor. |
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Hans and Ineke Mulder gave a 3 day lecture series on Anthroposophy and Waldorf Education in September.
Teachers from TWS, Shanti Sewa Griha, Bal Mandir Kindergarten and other visitors attended. |
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| The Dalai Lama’s birthday was observed in July, with each class holding a small ceremony and listening to their teacher describe his life story. |
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Krishna Astami, the festival marking the birth of Krishna,
an important Hindu deity, was celebrated in September.
The kindergartens and classes gathered for a puja
(ceremony), song and storytelling session. |
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In Monsoon and Autumn, class 3
planted and harvested rice
and vegetables. |
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A performance of a puppet show and music and dancing
was held at the end of the first term in late July |
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Dental checkups were administered to the primary class students in October by Himalayan Dental Relief.
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Vision checkups were given to all students in September by the Seva Foundation. |
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In summer and fall, lectures and demonstrations on Health &
Hygiene and First Aid were held at TWS. Employees of the
Shechen Clinic talked to the class students about Health & Hygiene and showed the faculty and staff how to administer first aid. |
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September saw class 3 visiting
a nearby construction site in
Narayanthan and building
a doghouse for the school dogs Lucky and Tommy out of
wooden planks, ceramic tiles
and a plastic awning. Class 3 students also molded
scale model houses out of clay
as part of their main lesson uniton housebuilding. |
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As of December, 22 children need sponsors out of a student body of 120. We are extremely grateful to have found sponsors for many of our new students. We would like to thank all child sponsors, and welcome new sponsors to the community. We also express our gratitude to all sponsors who renewed their sponsorship after their sponsored child left or graduated from TWS. Thank you so much for your kindness, patience and generosity. The TWS community also thanks the many generous people who helped supply TWS with Waldorf educational materials. If you are traveling to Kathmandu and planning to visit the school, please contact us if you’re able to bring along any Waldorf classroom materials and we will let you know what is most needed. Keeping these supplies on hand for TWS is a challenge, since most of them are not locally available. Very special thanks to Dominic Wundke, Sue Collins and the Mt. Barker Waldorf School community in Australia for their fundraising efforts. Dominic organized a successful fundraising event this spring that included a raffle and a concert by folk musician Eric Bogle. We also extend our strong gratitude to our volunteer pashmina sellers, Angela Werner, Renate Wolfrum, Simone Hamblett, Jane Ayres and Barbara Maclaren for their time and generosity. Please let us know if you would like to become a volunteer pashmina seller.
www.childrenofnepal.org has been updated, specifically News and Events, School Community and Curriculum and Seminars. A DVD about TWS entitled A Look Inside Tashi Waldorf School has been produced this year and is now available. Please get in touch if you would like to order it. Baby Dancing, by Diana Suskind and William Gray, and illustrated by Susan Wadsworth, is also available. Published in Nepal, it contains drawings of young children and photos of Nepali infants. Copies have been generously donated by Diana Suskind.
We thank all of you for your continued support of Tashi Waldorf School. Without your help, TWS would not be able to remain in operation. In order to complete its growth into a full-fledged kindergarten and primary school, TWS plans to add class 4 in May 2008, and class 5 in 2009. We are currently in need of funds to construct these two classrooms, so if you know of any funding opportunities for this project, please pass them on. The class teachers, with lots of help from Meyrav Mor, are developing and learning the curriculum for class 4 and 5. We are also in need of funding to purchase the school’s land. The TWS community wishes its dear friends around the world a hearty, healthy and happy New Year.
With our deepest gratitude and kind wishes,
Rachel Amtzis
You can help:
1. Please send a donation to our funding associations as listed below and on our
website, www.childrenofnepal.org , and have a visit to the site.
2. Sponsor a child for $25 USD or $50 USD a month.
3. Sponsor the purchase of the school’s land for $18 USD a month.
4. Sponsor a TWS teacher for her Waldorf education training seminars in Bangkok, Thailand.
5. Tell your friends about TWS and encourage them to make a contribution.
6. Publish this newsletter in your school, organization, or community newsletter,
and link to www.childrenofnepal.org on your website.
7. Volunteer to sell pashmina products or jewelry to support the continued operation of TWS.
8. If you are traveling to Nepal let us know and we would be delighted to have you visit.
RSF Social Finance
Please write in the memo portion of the cheque:
"Children of Nepal"
1002A O'Reilly Ave.
San Francisco,
CA 94129-1101 USA
Tel: 415.561.3900, 1.888.RSF.3737
Email: mail@rsfsocialfinance.org
Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiner e.V.
Please write in the memo portion of the cheque:
“Children of Nepal – Project # 4405”
Weinmeisterstr. 16
Berlin , D-10178, Germany
Tel: 030 61 70 26 30
Email: feunde.waldorf@t-online.de
Internationaal Hulpfonds
Please write in the memo portion of the cheque:
“Children of Nepal”
Hoofdstraat 8
LA Driebergen, NL-3972, The Netherlands
Tel: 0343 51 43 92, Email: ihf@planet.nl
Waldorf School Association of Ontario
Please write in the memo portion of the cheque:
“Children of Nepal”
9100 Bathurst Street, No. 2
Thornhill , Ontario, L4J 8C7, Canada
Tel: 905 889 2066, Email: info@waldorf.ca
King’s School Worcester Nepal Trust
c/o John Walton
King’s School, Worcester
England , WR1 2LL, U.K.
Tel: 01905 350065
Email: j_walton2@hotmail.com
Prometheus Ethical Finance
Please write in the memo portion of the cheque:
“Children of Nepal - Account #4144”
P.O. Box 969 , Napier, New Zealand
Tel: 06 835 7138
Email: ethical@prometheus.co.nz
If you are receiving this newsletter by post and have email, please email us your address so you can start receiving the newsletters in color, and help us save paper and postage.
Email tashiwaldorf@gmail.com with the subject line: subscribe to newsletter, and your name in the message body.
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