August 16, 2003 - Cornell University: Peace Corps Volunteer Zack Nelson taught 5th and 6th grades at a lower secondary school in the city Janakpur, Nepal
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August 16, 2003 - Cornell University: Peace Corps Volunteer Zack Nelson taught 5th and 6th grades at a lower secondary school in the city Janakpur, Nepal
Peace Corps Volunteer Zack Nelson taught 5th and 6th grades at a lower secondary school in the city Janakpur, Nepal
Peace Corps Volunteer Zack Nelson taught 5th and 6th grades at a lower secondary school in the city Janakpur, Nepal
The most common food in Nepal is dal-bhat, or rice and lentils, which is typically eaten twice a day. In addition to dal-bhat, a curried vegetable of whatever vegetable is in season and pickled mango are served on the side. Generally, all vegetables are grown by small farmers and sold locally in vegetable bazaars by weighting them out using a hand scale. This photo was taken in busy Ashon Chowk near downtown Kathmandu where fruit and vegetable vendors congregate.
Peace Corps Volunteer Zack Nelson taught 5th and 6th grades at a lower secondary school in the city Janakpur, Nepal. For his farewell, he was given garlands of flowers as well a Tika, red powered on his forehead that is traditional for departures and religious ceremonies, which gradually grew to cover his entire face.
Eighty to ninety percent of Nepali’s are engaged in self-sufficient agriculture. This woman is an ethnic Mithali, a very traditional Hindu group living in southern Nepal and northern India. She is laying unhusked rice (don) in the sun to dry on woven grass mats. The division of labor between the sexes is very rigid in Mithali society; some jobs like plowing can only be done by males, while females do all the domestic work (as well as much field work). Many women work 16-18 hours a day.
Copyright © 2002 Cornell University
The Peace Corps mission hasn't changed since the agency was formally authorized by Congress in 1961 to "promote world peace and friendship." The Peace Corps has three goals: to help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women; to help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served; to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
In Janauary, Nepali school children celebrate Saraswati Puja in honor of Saraswati, the Goddess of Education. These statues, straw skeletons covered with sculpted clay, are taken to every school and place of learning where they are painted and covered in bright clothing. For two or three days the statues are left at the schools in a makeshift shrine and daily prayers are performed. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the statues are paraded to scared ponds and rivers.
PCV Bill Sansone served in Nepal from 1998 to 2000. He was posted with Janakpur municipality as a Youth Development volunteer. Two of the programs that he was responsible for conducting were the UNICEF vitamin A and Polio Vaccine programs. Polio has been eliminated from most of the world; the only remaining reservoirs of virus transmission are in west, central, and the Horn of Africa, and south Asia. Twice a year, Bill help to mobilize Janakpur’s 16 ward offices to administer polio vaccine and vitamin A to all children under five.
For the first year PCV Zack Nelson taught at this school in Janakpur, the foundation of a room sat outside his classroom. Because of the lack of space, the fifth and sixth graders shared a classroom together making instruction difficult. When the school had been built there had been insufficient money to complete the final room and only a foundation was completed. After Zack had volunteered at the school for one year, the school Head Miss and several teachers approached him about the possibility of completing the room and providing each grade their own classroom. Zack wrote a Peace Corps Partnership Program; the Friends Meeting in Poplar Ridge, NY agreed to provide $1,700 and the school committed to $850 for construction. The room addition was completed in February 2000 with enough funds leftover to benches and desks for several rooms and paint the school.
Before Peace Corps service, volunteers receive three months of training, typically in the country of service. The three main components of the training are language, cultural, and technical skills. Most Peace Corps training take place in-country and usually involve home-stays with host country families. In the photo, Youth Development PCVs Doug, Ellen and Courtney learn Nepal script and basic conversational vocabulary. By the end of the three-month training they had adequate language to get around and interact in work situations. By the completion of three years of service they were all fluent or near fluent.
"I'm in my backyard working on planting a garden at Dowa Secondary School in Mponela, Malawi. I have a Malawian made khasu (hoe) that I used to form the bed. In my hand are the packet of tomato seeds that I received in the mail from my parents back stateside. There is a crop of my neighbor's maize behind me. Maize is the staple food of Malawi. People there turn maize flour into phala (porridge) for breakfast and nsima (corn meal mush) for lunch and dinner. Even full-time secondary school teachers, like my neighbors, will cultivate many fields of maize every year to feed their families. [This photo] was taken in 1997."
-Adam Michaelides
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Story Source: Cornell University
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