“The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” – Nelson Henderson
I volunteer taught English to Elementary school-aged students at a small private school in rural Nepal. It was an amazing, exciting and rewarding experience and something I’ll never regret or soon forget.
About the Village and School 
BBAS Memorial School, as it’s named, is in Thakurdwara, Nepal; a village of 800 people which clings to the edge of Royal Bardia National Park. It’s about five hours by bus from Nepal-Ganj (the border town between India and Nepal), 15 hours away from Kathmandu, (the capital city) and a million miles away from anything that is remotely urban or modern.
The school was founded and is funded by an Australian actor and although it fares far better than the neighboring government school, (which resembles a military camp and crams 100 children into each cement barrack-like classroom), they are still extremely short staffed. Most students spend half of each day sitting quietly at their desks, re-writing sentences from their books, working entirely by themselves, because there aren’t enough teachers for each grade to have their own.
The school is an English-medium school which means that all of their lessons are taught in English. This would be advantageous, if the teachers teaching the classes could speak English themselves. But most of the teachers have an 8th grade education at best and speak only broken English. Thus, students routinely memorize misspelled words and incorrect grammar structures, and their pronunciation is so far from anything resembling English that no native speaker would be able to understand them.
The School Desperately Needs Native-English Speakers to Volunteer Teach…
Therefore, if you are a person looking to volunteer your time and give back to the world in some way or better yet, if you are a teacher looking to put your efforts and talents where they’re desperately needed, then please contact me! The principle of the schoool is a very nice man whose family owns a sort of bungalo Jungle safari “hotel” that caters to tourists wishing to go on jungle safaris. If you agree to come to Thakurdwara to teach, he’ll provide you with free lodging at his hotel.
