Grade 4 students worked with children in Early Childhood Program (ECP) classes today to create Dal Bhat, a staple food and national dish of Nepal. The dish is made from steamed rice and a cooked lentil soup. Students are also creating create food flash cards to send with two of our teachers who will travel to Nepal this summer on a teaching trip.

Teachers Holly Wilson (Grade 4) and Erin McNamara (ECP) will go to Nepal in July to build relationships with students and their families as they volunteer in a Kindergarten – Grade 5 school at the top of a rural mountain in Dumrikharka, Ramechhap. This program is made possible by a relationship between Old Trail School and the Nepal Orphans Home in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nepal Orphans Home (NOH) attends to the welfare of children in Nepal who are orphaned, abandoned, or not supported by their parents. NOH provides for the children’s basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing, as well as schooling and health care, and administers to their emotional needs with love and compassion, allowing them to grow up in a nurturing environment. Their mission is not just to rescue children from abject poverty, but to enable the children to develop and realize their potentials.

Erin and Holly will be teaching basic English through the use of songs, picture books and vocabulary cards, some of which are being created by Old Trail School students this spring. The teachers will share elements of our lifestyle (family life, schools and daily activities) with the Nepalese families. They will use food as a tool to learn and intend to purchase a cow and chickens to help the community in a sustainable way after they go. They also plan to take kick balls to play with the children – a great way to engage and learn.

The teachers will document the trip to share with the School community via a blog, photographs and videos and will challenge our students with brainstorming about how to support these families who live so far away.