Kathmandu Class starts off Great!

Hi everyone!

The LG class is off to a great start. We have 56 participants, and are teaching two separate classes. All our our students are very excited to be there, even though some of them have been working as lifeguards (without certifications) for years. Drew and I both feel that they are learning a lot of new information that will surely be put to good use and save countless lives. The local newspapers have also taken a big interest in our work as well! Yesterday there were close to 10 articles published in different papers about the class we are teaching.

Our teaching days start very early (630 am), and we usually get back to our hotel at 7pm! Our partner Yubraj takes us to lunch everyday. Yesterday he took us to a traditional Nepali lunch of dal bhat. It was Drew's first experience with the local fare, and he ate with his hands and made a big mess of his plate. The food was tasty though!

Speaking of food....Yubraj and the Nepal Swimming Association are making sure we never go hungary. We have more tea breaks than we can count and we also have cute box breakfasts and afternoon snacks.

Check out these pictures from our class and the newspaper!! We hope you like them!

Kathmandu w/ Drew day 2..kinda

Dear readers,

Today started early. Drew could not sleep past 6am and Bree woke up shortly after due to the seriousness of the light protruding through our dear curtains. Anywho, we went with Yubraj to scope out the pool where he is conducting his swim lesson project here in town. The series of lessons are held at a local hotel/apartmtent/fitness center on the outskirts of town. They are split up into two classes, boys and girls, and are held before and after the children go to school. The lessons are much larger than what we are used to, but they consist of the same concepts to the T.

After lessons were finished we headed into Thamel to arrange our rafting trip for later this week, and found a peddle rickshaw which we took to the "Monkey Temple." On the way up Drew was almost assaulted by taking a photo of one of the monkeys but we managed to push ourselves through the endless stairs and found ourselves among the locals at the top. Here are some photos.

More to come later...hope you enjoyed the pictures, we did our best :)

Love,

Drew and Bree

Excited to begin LG training!!

Hi everyone!

I am currently in Kathmandu awaiting Drew's arrival! He will be here tomorrow and we will begin teaching our class on Sunday. Our partner here, Yubraj, is really wonderful. He has been working day and night to get people registered for the class, and currently we have close to 50 people signed up with more on the way. He is even making t-shirts for all of the participants! I think that this will be a great program, and I know that Drew and I are both excited to have the opportunity to teach in Nepal.

While I have been waiting for Drew to get to Kathmandu, I went on a 7 day trek through Langtang National Park. It was amazing! Here are a few pictures that I thought everyone would enjoy.

Well that is all for now! We will post more when Drew gets here!!

August Projects Begin Today

Beginning today, Project: Swim International will be teaching more drowning prevention programs across South Asia for the next three weeks.

Lifeguard Training in Nepal

Two lifeguard instructors, Gabrielle Johnston and Drew Droegemeier, will be training as many as 60 lifeguard candidates in Kathmandu in the next few weeks. Candidates will learn first aid, CPR, and basic lifeguarding skills. Upon completion of the course, each candidate will receive American Red Cross certifications that will qualify them to work as a lifeguard anywhere in the world!

As you can imagine, there aren't many lifeguard positions available in Nepal. But these candidates will be able to obtain lifeguarding jobs throughout resorts in the Middle East and Africa, giving them the opportunity to earn a living to support their families!

Swimming Lessons and Instructor Training in Kerala

In the southern Indian state of Kerala, we have a four-person team that will be teaching a variety of programs. Jessica Silvertooth, Rebekah Streeter, Ellie Johnson, and Ishita Malaviya will have the opportunity to teach water safety education to local children. But they'll also spend lots of time training a local nonprofit group called Trauma Care how to teach our programs so that even after our volunteers leave, their work can continue.

The volunteers will also spend several days in the pool, working with children and adults, improving their swimming skills so that they can survive any water emergency!

Check back with this blog often over the next few weeks as our volunteers post their stories and observations from the field.