World- Class Word Office User

by Petra Zaky (Egypt)

I didn't expect to find Nepal

I switch my gaze frantically to the left and right, still adjusting to the fact that the wide streets in Nepal, especially in the capital Kathmandu, are two- ways. My Nepali companion hurries to stop a taxi to take us to Trilochan Academy of Lalitpur, a grade school with a colourful uniform, almost every class wears a different colour! We ride and the road was bumpy, getting narrower and narrower as we go, the typical Nepali streets featuring shops, small modest houses and motorcycles mostly driven by young women, we finally reach a spot where the driver suddenly stopped so we can climb a hilly road on foot, which leads to the school after a 10- minute walk. I decided to volunteer as a computer teacher in Nepal, I knew that their poor schools need help from foreigners but little did I know that Nepali government schools are very similar to my country’s government schools in Egypt. Yes they accept donations and yes they do buy high-end equipment for the computer lab but they leave them covered with plastic or cloth and they still attract dust anyhow. We arrive welcomed by warm smiles and gestures of Namastes from teachers and students alike, then directly go to the computer lab to turn on all the computers and prepare for the children to come take their lessons in Microsoft Office Word. I press on the power on button on 12 computers and I cross my fingers in anticipation as six kids come in, then I discover: ten of the computers just don’t work! “Excuse me for a second” I say slowly so they can understand my language, and I hurry to the Indian-style- clad headmistress to tell her my problem, she reassures me to continue while she asks for technician support. So I fumble across my nervousness and manage to divide the group of kids to be seated around the two computers that painstakingly proved to be working, with their eager smiles ready to learn, they sat on wooden chairs and stared at the screen, some were curious enough to actually start touching the mouse and keyboard, I understand their amazement, the vast majority of the kids here belong to families who can’t afford having computers, not to mention how the school doesn’t afford to hire teachers with computer competencies. So I explain how to change fonts, how to draw a table and how to crop images, I notice one girl who has incredible difficulty in handling the mouse, she is moving it across the screen as if I asked a toddler to draw graph with a thin pencil. “Ma’am I have dis calar blu here” says Delep with his narrow eyes twinkling and with his finger motioning across the screen. “okay I will help you just give me a second while I finish Ujala’s table” I put my hand over hers as I move the mouse as if I am teaching her to dance, she responds and starts moving it and clicking. Triumph! “yes Delep I can help you now” “no ma’am Rashan help me” Delep said pointing to a little thin boy. I congratulate him and out of curiosity ask him if he can do the next exercise we’ll learn, he nodded and within seconds he showed me how to do it, I am puzzled and ask him a harder question to which he responds with all ease, I did this three or four times. Header. Footer. Increase indent. Format painter. All. Rashan could do all what I could do. While I got this education from an IGCSE class, he said innocently that his older brother taught him this. I just didn’t to find such exceptional knowledge and talent at such a poor school in an even poorer village. I couldn’t teach Rashan anything new, instead he became my assistant to teach his own colleagues for the next 40 minutes or so. Maybe I helped them discover something new that day, that talent is among them, no need for volunteers from a foreign land and that Nepali children can actually bring new hope to their societies and schools. "Thank you Rashan, you taught me something new today"