Peh Zi Qi
Trip Leader, Project Nalanda 2019
Coming back to Namdapha Nalanda Nature School (NNNS) in M’pen II Village, Arunachal Pradesh, India for the second time got me feeling excited yet nervous. I was excited to see the children I had made friends with last year, and to teach and play with them once again. However, I was nervous that they would not remember me. On top of these, I was unsure if I would be able to see the impact Project Nalanda 2018 had made on the children and the community.
However, upon reaching the school, the fears I had dissipated when the children I knew from last year came up to me for a hug, calling me ‘Teacher Peh’. After interacting with them a little more, I realised that we indeed had an impact on them. They had grown to become more confident individuals, though they didn’t remember everything we had taught!
One of the main takeaways I had from this trip was ‘teach less to learn more’. Across the team, most of us were always worrying about completing what we planned to teach the children in class. However, after observing the NNNS teachers’ lessons, we realised that while the pace of the lesson is much slower, the children were able to learn better as compared to a fast-paced lesson filled with many key ideas. With ‘teach less to learn more’ in mind, we modified our lesson plans to cater our lesson to the children’s needs, rather than to rush to complete the entire planned curriculum.
All in all, this trip was a fulfilling one. It has once again reaffirmed what I have learned last year: Friendship goes beyond language barrier, and friendship can be really, really simple.
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