Some projects

Here are some projects I have been working on since I've returned home. One of the things I brought back with me was a new hobby of sketching, and towards the end of my time there I was beginning to experiment with chalk pastels.

As you can see, Bhutan is never really far from my mind.

Side note: bear with me on this layout, I am still trying to find a template I like.

Coming soon: re-adaptation adventures. It's been mind-boggling, it's been eye-opening, and but most of all it's been hilarious.

Reflections...the first of many

I need to start off this post by begging off the title...this is not one of those deep, long thought out reflections in the true sense of the word about Bhutan, what it meant to me and its effects on my life. That blog post will probably never come, because I don't think I could ever compose all my thoughts into a few paragraphs, and choose a few pictures to accompany it. The whole experience was just too vast to do that with. I am also not good enough with words, or images to do it even of a fraction of the justice that my experience deserves. And lastly, I haven't fully gone through all the reflecting and pondering and true deep thinking about my experiences with Bhutan. 

My experience continues, through the friendships I sustain with my Bhutanese friends at BMSS, my contact with the new BCF teacher at the site, and the connections to the BCF teachers in my group as we simultaneously experience and work our way through our return to our western lives (or for those special few their second year teaching in Bhutan)

However something I have been reflecting on lately are the day-to-day things I did while in Gasa and what of those I brought back here to the USA, in one form or another. You may recall I was without road access to my site for 4 months and without electricity for 6. With these difficulties, how I spent my free time changed (no watching old HIMYM episodes on my computer, or BBS with my friends). Although I spent a significant time hanging out with my friends, here are some other ways I spent my time which I probably never mentioned in other postings. This is because they seemed insignificant at the time, but now are something like artifacts to the very unique life I led in Bhutan.

First would be writing. Throughout the year I wrote 5 journals. Although I began this before the landslides and loss of electricity, it became more prevalent after. The black spiral-bound book was  February through May (the first four months) and the last four were June through December (I averaged about 2 months a notebook after the lights went out). From after mid-term break until the weather  got cold I would spend every evening on my porch writing and watching the world go by, which was always entertaining considering my neighbors were 200 boarder girls.

My second hobby was drawing. This is something I picked up after the landslides, and I have to say it brought me the most joy of all my solo activities. I branched out from pencil to pastel, colored pencil, crayon, and pen & ink. It also became delightfully social as my kids and co-workers would watch me draw and talk to me about it. It also became a weekly or bi-weekly treat for my classes, if they were well-behaved, to "be looking at miss sarah's drawings"

Reading was the third in my tri-fecta of hobbies. Over the year I read close to 100 books. Lost Horizon was my favorite. It is the origin of the ever-popular phrase "Shangri-La". The book is very,very different then I expected, but its wonderful, and well worth a read for anyone who has ever heard Bhutan touted as "the last Shangri-la"

Hope you enjoyed these pictures and comments about stuff I did in Gasa with "no light" as everyone says. I plan to write more as time goes on, as the blog began long before Bhutan (if there ever was such a time in my life) I hope to continue it after. It is titled "TravelS and AdventureS" after all :)

Lazy Days in Bangkok

I am out of Bhutan and into what has been referred to throughout the year by all of my friends as "the real world" "the other side of sanity" (okay, that one was mine) "city life" "real life" "the cultural gauntlet" just to name a few.
Otherwise known as Bangkok, Thailand.

A city view of Bangkok from the top of the Golden Mount

My first observations:

1. This place is big!
2. This place is hot! (the second I stepped outside)
3. There are so many people here! Oh, good, there are some chilips I can go and talk to, maybe they have an idea of where to go.
4. Those chilips don't know me. No one here knows me. And talking to strangers is frowned upon.
5. The power hasn't gone out yet. Must be a good day.


Well, the power has yet to go out, the water runs hot, and there are still so many people here, but I am settling in. Luckily, a friend of mine from college who works in Myanmar was in Bangkok and spent the first few days with me. We divided our time between getting our western fixes (mexican food, starbucks coffee, coldstone creamery, just to name a few) and doing touristy things like visiting Wat Pho, and the Golden Mount.

The temple complex of Wat Pho, one of the most visited,  and truly beautiful temples in Bangkok

The giant Reclining Buddha, at the Wat Pho

People putting gold leaf on Buddhas at Wat Pho

It was a great way to ring in the New Year and slowly start the adjustment to life outside of Bhutan. I have a few more days here, then up to Chiang Mai and Laos with another BCF teacher, and then to Vietnam with more friends from college.

A Buddha outside of Golden Mount, we thought it was funny with the traditional statue, and then the modern, cartoon-like monk-dolls at the foot of it

                                            I am very happy with my beginning of 2013

Bhutan: The last semester in review

I have returned to the blog (after having electricity be returned to me) and so would like to summarize how the rest of my year in Gasa at Bjishong Middle Secondary School was spent. There will be more detailed posts written later, about different things that occurred, good, bad, constructive, educational, and growing. There will be plenty of time (I will have nothing but time after returning home to the USA in a month) for all of that.
But right now, I am in shock that this is all over...that the year has come to a close, and most of the BCF friends are either home, in India, or Thailand, and that I am on my much anticipated, awaited, vacation with my mother to Phobjika, Trongsa, and Bumthang. Eventually, I will be able to reflect, and write more, but at the moment, I am just trying to deal with the reality of the end.
Much of life in Bhutan is spent, at least for me, "in the moment"...there are so many cultural things to learn, neighbors to befriend and get to know, students to teach, papers to grade, and of course the never-ending chores to do that I spent most of my time focused on the "here and now". However, now the "here and now" has become the "there and then" and I find myself a bit blindsided by the whole thing.
So for now I will give a summary, and let the details follow later...

August: August was perhaps one of the most difficult "learning curve" months for me, as I was adjusting to life with no electricity, and knowing that the lights were not coming back anytime soon. I thought I had adjusted to the rustic Bhutan living in the spring- and I had- but that was the living with lights situation. Now I had to learn everything over again....and get readjusted. For example, as in the beginning when I got adjusted to heating water with an immersion heater for a bucket bath, I got used to heating the water by the sun (filling the bucket the night before, taking it outside once it had become room temperature, leaving it outside all day, hoping one of the kids didn't knock it over as a joke, and showering as soon as I returned from school so it was still warm enough in the day to warm up....yes, it all was as tedious as it sounds) And yet, there were positives. The "peaceful" lifestyle that people tout exists in Bhutan really did come alive. I would teach all day, then go home, send a girl to the kitchen for boiled water, and sit on my porch, drinking hot water or tea, reading books, and writing in my journal. It was truly unique, and in some ways, lovely.

One of the best things about August were the incredible rainbows which would show up just as I walked home from school every day.

September: September was a lot of things for me. I actually filled an entirely of my 5 journals written here in September alone. It was when I really began to pursue the idea of staying here for the next year...as time went on, I was unable to envision myself leaving, which caused me to believe that I was meant to stay. It was when I came to the very hard choice that although I wanted to stay in Bhutan, I did not want to stay at Bjishong. I loved, really still do love, my school very much. But the situation of landslides and not having a safe way out had really impacted me, and having spent a significant amount of time in fear (along with friends and family fearing for me), decided that psychologically, I could not handle another monsoon at that location. Even if the devastation of this year did not repeat itself, I would spend monsoon an absolute nervous wreck, spending the months leading up to it in dread, and that I was unable to do. I also planned to still be in Bhutan, able to visit my friends at Bjishong whenever I pleased. At the end of September, I was able to spend a week at a volunteer workshop at Ability Bhutan Society, a wonderful NGO working with children with special needs in Thimphu. As I saw my educational ambitions begin to turn to special education, I began to envision myself continuing my time in Bhutan with this organization, helping them with the important groundbreaking work they are doing.
During my week there, I was shocked to learn of a tragedy unfolding out east, as one of the BCF teachers in Trashigang, Martha, had fallen suddenly, severely ill, and subsequently died on September 20th. This rocked the BCF community to its very core, and she is often thought of, and will always be remembered by all of us. It is an event that is painful to think of, and one that I do not, nor do I think I will ever, fully understand. One of my few regrets here is that I was unable to attend her cremation in Trashigang. Fortunately, many BCF teachers were able to attend, as well as (and most importantly, in my opinion) her students.

Our batch of BCF teachers at Dochula. This was the last time we were all together, and I am thankful it was such a beautiful, special, unforgettable day. Martha, we will never forget you, and may you rest in peace.

October: October has always been one of my favorite months at home, due to my favorite holiday of halloween. Although here did not have the halloween anticipation fever like the states, I did try to start some in my own ways, by having a trivia contest for all my classes and Literary Club to find out Miss Sarah's favorite holiday in the month of October (prizes awarded, of course). This was no easy feat, as we had no electricity so no one could access the internet during their non-existent IT classes. Within a few weeks, however, students from every class came forward with the correct information- "Halloween madam!! Its a puja in your country, last day of the month la. There is junkfruit! But why is it madam?". I later learned that these intrepid students had pestered other teachers who had internet phones to look up the information, in return for cleaning quarters or doing laundry. Now thats dedication.
And on the actual day, I gave out candy and prizes to all my classes. Along with the halloween, spooky theme, my friend Zam and I spent the month watching "Vampire Diaries" on her laptop, which she would covertly charge whenever they turned on the generator to teach class 10 IT or use the printer. Watching TV, since I hadn't gotten to do anything like that since June, was more fun then it had ever been. We also had our school picnic, which was the first time I really sensed the year might be coming to a close, but I blocked this sensation with all my might, as I wasn't willing to face it yet.

Me and my friends (L to R- Tsethen, Ugyen, Norbu, Zam, Tshering and me) at the school picnic.
LADIES I MISS YOU!!!!! 

November: The start of November came as a shock to me, as it was unbelievable it was finally here. I managed to obtain my own internet phone, and so slowly started to reconnect to the world outside of BMSS and Damji village. It went quickly, as the whole school threw itself into exam mode, prepping and studying, giving tests, and of course, the seemingly never-ending grading. At the end of the month, I went to Thimphu to collect my mother, excited and hardly believing that she was about to arrive in Bhutan.

My mother's arrival at Paro. She's watching me post this, and says she has no recollection of this being taken. It was a long trip, I suppose.

December: My mother arrived, and after a few days in Thimphu I took her up to Damji village where we spent a wonderful two weeks of finishing up the year, and she got to meet and spend time with my friends. I had envisioned and imagined this time all year, and it really did live up to all of my daydreamings. One of the highlights was going to National Day and getting to see the Dzong. On the 19th, I made my tearful goodbyes, and left school. My mother and I spent two days in Phobjika, watching black-necked cranes, 2 days in Trongsa getting to experience the Trongsa tsechu, and are now in Bumthang. We are staying at the River Lodge, and in accordance with my inability to comprehend the end of the year, it feels to me just like its July again, except much colder. Eventually reality will set in, but for the moment I'm letting it take its own time. Why? For the same reason that I wanted to take the rest of the time my visa allotted to stay in the country to travel and show my mom this beautiful country; I am not willing to say goodbye. But unfortunately I will have to. Due to a variety of circumstances, including issues with visas, I will not be able to stay in Bhutan for the beginning of next year. Instead, I will be taking a vacation around SE Asia, and then returning to the USA late January. And after that, I haven't the slightest. Its a foreign concept to me not to have a plan of what to do next, but I have learned a lot about letting things unfold how they may in my year spent here, and so am willing to apply that philosophy to my return home. I am sure I will find something, and will enjoy the rest and relaxation in the meantime.

National Day in Gasa. Note the absolutely gorgeous mountains.

Murphy's Law

Now is the time for me to eat my words of "writing every week" and " consistently keeping this blog updated about my life in Bhutan for my friends and family"

I will tell you the end result at the start, and then go through the chronology of events.
There is no longer a road to my placement and there is no longer electricity. It has been about 2 months since the loss of both, and things don't look like they are going to be fixed very soon.

Late June: We were entering the nitty-gritty of monsoon season, where you can't see more than 2 feet in front of your face (which the kids love because then you cannot monitor their SUPW properly), the clouds come into the classrooms unless you close the windows, and there is perpetual rain. Sometimes a light misting, sometimes torrential downpours, but rain. Every day. All day. In some places in country monsoon is not that dramatic, but this june, in southern Gasa, it was.
The torrential downpours led to landslides, which destroyed many things...but the most important were the paddy fields of Damji village (the village by my school) and the road to Gasa. The slides made the road impassible, and with the added twist of the fact that 2 bridges were completely swept away as rivers that used to be describable as "cute babbling brooks" were transformed into "raging whitewater". Fortunately the only casualties of life were a few cows. But it was horrible. One of our students got attacked by a very upset bull as she was trying to untie it to let it run away to avoid the slide, and several angis (grandmothers) in the village, after watching their family's ancestral land that was their key to feeding their families and making a living literally fall off the side of the village edge, have fallen very sick.
Along with the village, and the bridges, all of the electric poles were washed away as well, leaving us with no electricity. Fortunately, someone was able to repair the "shortcut" and we were able to escape for vacation. Considering that I spent the 2 weeks before vacation listening to landslides continue to fall, and to people telling us how the school was going to be buried in one and/or we were going to starve to death as no food could now be brought up to the school. Being told how your life is in danger and the very realistic reasons why is incredibly stressful.

Beginning of July: I had an absolutely wonderful and restful vacation, full of siteseeing, exploring new parts of Bhutan, and catching up with the wonderful BCF teachers who I have not seen since February. I will write more about it sometime. It was a blast.

End of July: I returned to my site, fording rivers, and climbing up landslides. Fortunately we had electricity. For 2 wonderful days. And then, on a perfectly dry sunny day, another slide destroyed enough of the electricity poles and routes to put us back where we were the day of the first landslide...and with even a less realistic chance of getting it fixed. The power company has wisely decided to create a new power line, but, as the Bhutanese say, "it will take some time"

Beginning of August: Same as July, no electricity. But the weirdest thing happened- I stopped caring about it. I stopped being upset, and miserable, and panicky. I developed a really nice routine, and began drawing again. I read voraciously, and go on long walks and just listen to the scenery. Now that people aren't saying our deaths are coming for us, and we don't hear landslides every day, this is honestly the most peaceful I have ever lived.

And, thats where and what I am these days. This is the situation, and the fact that I have learned how to survive, and possibly even thrive in this, is a great personal feat. I am in the city for the weekend, and will have my fill of western foods, TV, internet, and then I will return to my peace- my soundtrack of birds and wind and rain, and students singing their prayers for the meals. I will return to the ultimate comfort of being curled up reading a good book by candle light. This is a very special situation and time in my life, and I will never forget it. And now, I embrace it.

"You Are Halfway!"

This was the title of an email my friend Noorin and I received from fellow BCF teacher Andrea at the beginning of this week. And, it shocked me, although it really shouldn’t have. It was strange to see it in writing, but its true. Exams started 2 days ago, and after 2 weeks of them, we are on the much anticipated and awaited summer vacation…with a BCF retreat in Bumthang (a central district of the country, and somewhere I have never been) and whatever else we end up thinking of. If you haven’t noticed from my other blog posts, making detailed plans ahead of time isn’t really the Bhutanese way. It doesn’t really fit the culture- things are well prepared for, but many things happen at the last minute, or are long thought out decisions that lead to spur of the moment action. And not only is it cultural…sometimes its physically hard to plan stuff out beforehand in Bhutan. Roads wash out, an official is out-of-station, “what to do la?” as they say.

Along with setting exams and then the eventual grading that will come, we have to compile all of the continuous assessment (results from the assignments they have done all term) so there is still quite a bit of work in the next two and a half weeks. But, like all of the other BCF teachers I am sure, I am starting to think more and more about summer vacation, and the weird fact that I have been here for almost half my contract.

Its strange to think about…we’ve been here almost 5 months. In some ways, it feels like I have been here forever. I have become skilled at tying my kira, I can make palatable naja, and I eat rice and chilis for every meal. I even nod my head like the Bhutanese do (nodding the head from side to side instead of up and down). The villagers have stopped staring (even covertly) at me as I walk by or do my shopping- I am now part of the regular scenery, as uninteresting to them as the 10,000 foot peaks that surround us. Sometimes, I forget I’m not Bhutanese, and that I haven’t been here forever, nor will I stay forever.

And in other ways, I am shocked it’s been this long. I feel like the time has gone by so quickly, and I am curious if the second half of the year will be as fast. Looking back though, I feel like I have done a lot this term, at least academically. I hope the kids have learned. I can tell they have made progress, their speaking has improved considerably. I just hope it will appear that way on the exams. In a way though I am excited to see their mistakes, their weak points- I am searching for a main point to focus on next term (this term I primarily focused on the elements of a story, having them identify them for everything we read). I am leaning toward the writing process, and delving into how to write different kinds of texts. But, I am open to a new idea if it appears to me through my student’s exams.

Something my class 7 and 8 are looking forward to next term is our American Pen Friends. BCF has connected us with a teacher in Oregon, and we are now pen pals with her high school English classes. I had my kids write to them, and sent the letters at the start of the month, and with any luck they will be received by the time the American students return from the summer vacation in mid-August.

I admit, one of the main reasons my kids are pumped about this is because they will get to use the computer lab to type letters to their pen friends (as with the average of 2 months for snail mail, email is a godsend in this situation). They are understandably computer crazy, as no one has a computer at home (even electricity isn’t a guarantee for most of these kids) and the Internet fascinates them. However, they are genuinely curious about their new American friends and excited to hear from them. I think it will be fun for both sides. Although I think the American students will be a bit shocked by the Bhutanese style of writing. They are naturally very dramatic in their prose, and one boy wrote “Henceforth, my dear pen friend, I will go on trusting you as my friend until my death comes to me in my narrow bed” and many others also talked about their devotion to their new friend until they leave this life.

My class VIIIA showing their serious side

My class VIIIA showing their funny, more realistic side

The girls of VIIB

The boys of VIIB

All in all, I think the letters will be an interesting read, and it will certainly be an interesting project for the term.

Teacher's Day

On May 2^nd, we had a great Bhutanese holiday called Teacher’s Day. Personally, I think all countries should celebrate this day. Its like mother’s day or father’s day, but its for teachers!

Instead of classes, the students put on a nice presentation for us. We were all given some flowers (I hung mine to dry and now they are on my wall) and it was a day full of cultural dances and speeches by the students.

There were even some games that were thought up by the students for the teachers to play. Unsurprisingly, I was a high-in-demand participant. These were little competitions to see how quickly you and a partner could work together to do something, so also unsurprisingly I always caused my team to lose (under pressure, people speak their native language…its takes too long to translate. So, it took my team the time for the task plus the translation time).

At the end, the students invited (really, I mean cajoled) the teachers up to the stage for a traditional dance. My protests of “I’m not Bhutanese! I don’t know the steps! Stop nodding and pointing up there, I know you understand I just said no!” fell on deaf ears. However, I was worrying for nothing, for unlike the games, its really hard to spoil the traditional dance we did, as it consists of linking pinkie fingers, and stepping back and forth until the song is over. So, it was actually really enjoyable, and I had learned the whole thing by the end of it (so, at the next big event, hopefully we dance the same dance and I will know what to do).

After the presentations and speeches, we were all served lunch. It was, as usual delicious. Students came around giving us cards and little gifts. I had been warned by the other BCF teachers that sometimes kids give presents that you really don’t feel comfortable accepting because of the price (i.e. kiras and ghos), but I was lucky as all I got was a cup, and about 15 pens; perfect because they were inexpensive so I felt okay accepting them, and because I really needed pens.

Then came my favorite part of the day. At the lunch, the students from Class VIIB (the class I am the homeroom teacher for) invited me to our classroom for tea, along with Zam, my friend and the IT teacher. Well, I was very honored and excited for this, and was practically skipping over there. Zam had some “stomach paining” so didn’t join us (much to my class’s chagrin, I think they were hoping she would translate stuff for them so they could talk in Dzongkha; they often ask her to teach me “much Dzongkha quickly and nicely for miss sarah please madam!” and I think they are disappointed in my progress). However, we had a lovely time- the classroom was beautifully decorated, and I hope the girls were pleased that I came. I sat and tried to drink my way through 2 carafes of naja and one of suja (sweet tea and butter tea respectively) and ate about 50 biscuits. (I could go into a long post about Bhutanese manners and etiquette but let me leave it at they wouldn’t have wanted to drink tea with me as I was their guest and teacher- I promise I wasn’t being rude and greedy eating it all for myself!)

They sat and we got to have a nice chat; they asked me questions about the USA, whether I miss home, what is different about home, whether I like Bhutanese food, whether I like their class (something I am not surprised came up as we were having behavior issues that week….but I explained the concept of always loving someone or something even if its irritating, and hopefully it was understood).

In turn I asked them about their homes, what they thought of Bhutan, if they had ever been outside (the call going abroad here “going outside”…one had been to India across the border in phuntshoeling, but that was all), if they ever want to go outside, how long it takes them to get to school, what do hey want to do when they grow up, and what language do they speak at their homes (one girl is from the east so speaks sharchop….a language which I only know the word for foreigner, which they thought was hilarious). It really made me happy to be able to spend this little bit of time with them where I didn’t have to be teaching them a lesson.

My class VII students are a great bunch, and we spend a lot of time together since I am their homeroom teacher. And, they put up with a lot from me because I don’t know how the system works a lot of the time and being a homeroom teacher includes a lot of extra responsibilities. For example, assigning captains…instead of being able to assign them the first week like I was supposed to, they had to make a list of all the captains that the class needed (its like, 6 by the way…not as simple as it seems!) and what the job responsibilities for each captain were (there is class captain, logbook captain, furniture captain, decoration captain, etc…see I told you, not simple!) and explain it all to me in english (which is their second or third language) so that I could assign them. Needless to say, they have never-ending patience with their “western miss” and I really do appreciate it and them.

 The entry gate for the teachers, and the school captains prepared to hand us flowers

 The really big picture is of the 4th King

I am in shock that it is June, and we have another big celebration (for Sherig Century) on the way…so I am looking forward to that, and hopefully will be better about writing and write about it soon!