One of the main focuses of my work here has been teaching English to a group of thirty brilliant young women. As survivors, these women range in age from sixteen to twenty-two, and are all training to become paralegals. Eventually they will be placed in police stations, attend court proceedings, and provide legal and psychological counseling to other survivors, all in the name of combating the severe human rights violation that is human trafficking.
First, however, they must all be proficient in the English language, which is where I come in. In a wonderful alignment of universes, their two-month training program corresponded exactly with the eight weeks that I would be here as well. We have been working together since the first week I arrived, and will continue to do so until my departure.
Every day I conduct an hour and a half lesson at a hostel for the Sisterhood of Survivors, where many of the girls are staying. It is easily the best part of my day, and the most rewarding.
Our class has progressed a lot since our first few days. We have moved from basic nouns, question words, and sentence structure to complex subject-verb agreement and relative clauses. Most recently we have learned about conditionals and arguments in the context of the law. The women are very quick to learn.
And in between all this work we have formed a bond not just of teacher and students, but as friends. We talk about their families, their homes, their childhoods, their religions. We talk about what they are learning in their paralegal classes, what their goals and aspirations are, what they want to do for work, where they want to travel.
In return they ask me questions too. They are fascinated by my twin sister. Why don’t we look the same? What is she doing this summer? Are we more similar or different? They are also interested in my studies at college, about Anthropology and Journalism, and about what kind of career I want with those degrees.
We also find time to play lots of games. We play Charades, Simon Says, Two Truths and a Lie, and the Story Game. The Story Game involves one person starting a story, then going around in a circle and each person adding on to it. Every story inevitably involves a princess who falls in love with a prince. The couple always hits a few setbacks, but eventually they marry and have two kids, one boy and one girl. Sometimes the boy is optional.
Recently, after asking what game they wanted to play, I was confronted with a lot of whispers and nervous giggling. Truth or dare. Given this reaction, I braced myself for what kind of game this would turn out to be as we all sat in a tight circle. But Truth was what’s your favorite thing about yourself, and Dare was say hi to everyone in the circle and then sing a song. It was one of the most tender experiences we have shared together.
The girls have long since stopped calling me Miss, and instead use the same term they use for each other: Sister.
And they have shown me how they view our relationship not just with their words, but also with their actions. At the start of class one day one of my students came up to sit at my feet, and without a word proceeded to paint my toes in a deep bronze.
On the Fourth of July, anticipating the likelihood of my being homesick, they greeted me with Happy Independence Day! and gave me gifts of handmade red and blue beaded bracelets. We know you can’t be with your family today, but we’re your Nepali family.
Recently one of my students turned 20, and so we spent most of class celebrating her birthday. She brought bags of chocolate wafer cookies, then asked to take a picture with everyone. That same day another student had gifted me a pair of cat ears, which I wore through both the festivities and the photos. All the girls chipped in 50 rupees to buy a birthday cake and a sparkler candle, which we brought out at the very end.
About nine inches in diameter and four inches tall, I was just starting to wonder how it was going to feed all 32 people present when I got my answer. Carefully cutting out a chunk, the birthday girl carried it over to first the Legal Studies teacher, then to me, feeding us the cake out of her hands. Then she did the same with every single girl in the room, in the process playfully dotting frosting on faces and getting covered in return. And only once everyone had taken a bite did she finally have some herself.
The intimacy and sweetness of the whole experience made me very emotional, and just writing this is bringing tears to my eyes.
Today was Teacher Appreciation Day. When I arrived for class the girls excitedly ushered me into the classroom where I was greeted by colorful Happy Birthday balloons and Happy Teacher's Day posters. They were very pleased about the display.
We spent the whole class taking pictures and playing games like Four Corners. A group of six girls taught me a traditional Nepali dance, and later we performed it in front of the class much to everyone’s amusement.
There was a beautiful chocolate cake which was covered in frosting flowers, cherries, and apple slices. The Legal Studies teacher was there as well, and now it was our turn to perform the cake ritual, feeding the students out of our hands.
The day ended with a huge dance party. Everyone, students and teachers alike, got up to dance in a big circle. Someone even found a portable speaker to use. There was a lot of laughter, a lot of hugging.
I finally had to leave for lunch, and as I waved goodbye I received 30 air-blown kisses. We love you, Sister!
