Living in the Clouds!

Charly.....Bugs & Buds

Charly & his wrong thong

This post is dedicated to my beloved "jaro" (servant in Sharchhokpa), Charly.  Please note that this is what Charly calls himself.  I must admit that my time in Bhutan would have been much more difficult without Charly being here with me.  He does all the marketing (almost daily), lots of the cooking, cleaning, banking, and a never ending list of "home improvements."  The latest invention is a gate at the bottom of the outside steeps separating our upstairs & downstairs so the neighbor's little dogs don't poo on the steps or right outside our door. Currently, I'm experiencing the classic expression, "absence makes the heart grow fonder."  Charly is visiting other BCF teachers in the east to see a few smaller villages and do a little metal detecting.  All he has found in Mongar is bottle caps and a few Indian rupees.   He has found massive crowds of students surrounding him when he tries to metal detect.  They get more excited than he does about digging up some possible treasure.

My purpose here is to share what we have experienced as a teaching and non-teaching couple here in Mongar.   Charly is still teaching art at my school one day a week, but the carpentry and the READ Bhutan library in Mongar have not worked out for many reasons.  Charly is learning Sharchhokha, hiking when the weather permits, gardening, reading, and drawing.  Even with all his interests and volunteering there are still times of boredom.  Therefore I suggest that potential teaching & non-teaching couples coming to Bhutan  have a very good plan of what the non-teaching partner plans to do with their time.  I am much too busy to experience any boredom, but without Charly here I would be overwhelmed with the challenges of day to day living in Bhutan.  I wouldn't have come to Bhutan without Charly (couldn't have made a year without my love), and I'm awfully glad he agreed to experience this life-changing place with me.

Below you will find another fascination of Charly's.....Bugs & Buds.  Bhutan has such an incredible variety of flowers & insects that Charly is always on the lookout to photograph them.  Here are just a few:

 

Summer vacation & Thimphu conference

I'm feeling rather guilty about sharing my summer vacation story with the rest of my fellow Bhutan Canada Foundation teachers, but share I will.  Charly and I rented a small car in Mongar and drove east to Trashigang and visited Aum Deki's resort which is being built 9km south of Trashigang (it is being built in traditional Bhutanese style but with many modern amenities-it is beautiful!)  During our stay with her we traveled down to Kaling and had lunch with Nick and got to see his campus and also the huge stack of English mid-terms he was preparing to grade.  Next we stopped in Kanglung to see Lisa and Scott who had just returned from an intense three day trek to Saktang and Merak with Mauren & John, Shauna & Julian, Scott, and Jean- Daniel.  During our stay with Aum Deki we drove to her home village of Rangshikar so she could vote in the local elections.  Democracy is happening even in the smallest of villages.  Lisa joined us for the day and we then traveled up to a temple where we had lunch with the lama of the goemba who spoke no English.  Aum Deki interpreted for us.  Staying at Aum Deki's farm house was a wonderful experience because we got to see first hand how extended families live and work together in Bhutan.  We met three of her brothers, father, and many others during our visit.  


Our next stop was up to Trashiyangtse to see Kendra and meet the hikers Scott, Mauren, John, Shauna, and Julian, who went hiking in Bomdaling Wildlife Sanctuary.  Ian and Vicki showed up the same day we arrived and Natalie came the next.  It was a great reunion with lots of laughs, sharing of stories, and good food and drink.  Trashiyangtse is beautiful with the river flowing through it and the impressive Chorten Kora.  We all hiked up to the traditional art school in Trashiyangtse and even though the students were on break we did get to see and purchase many of the items for sale in the showroom.  We all enjoyed the mini-reunion and vowed to try to make it back to Trashiyangtse in Nov. when the black neck cranes return to Bomdaling.  


After a brief two day rest back in Mongar, I was off in the opposite direction to Thimphu for a special education conference.  I rode with my principal and his wife to the conference.  Most Bhutanese stop for the night in Bumthang, but my principal drove it in one very long 15 hour shot.  Unless you have experienced the national highway (that's what they call it), you can not image the roller coaster, curvy, narrow, and gut wrenching drop-offs if you get to close to the edge.  Needless to say it was fine and though I don't ever want to do it in one shot again, my principal was a great driver.  


In Thimphu I got to see Nancy for two nights before her annual Canada trip, and of course I got to the office crew at BCF, Meena, Karma, and Nima.  The part that will make my Eastern BCFer's jealous is that I also got to spend lots of time with Loretta and Sue who went to the conference too.  Then who should be staying at "Mark's palace" but Meagan and Carson.  I also had coffee and dinner with Matt.  So during my three week break I got to see every BCFer except, Jean Daniel, Keira, Andrea, and Lynda.  It was a wonderful break traveling from one end of Bhutan to another but seeing and sharing with everyone was the best part. 


My American followers may not appreciate this blog much but at least look at the pictures below to see more of beautiful Bhutan. 

Meagan & Carson at Ambience Cafe 

Sue, Loretta, and I with Special Ed. presenters at conference

  

Week Long Rimdro

Monks & Students sharing song & dance 

It has been a very interesting week at Mongar Lower Secondary School.  We have just finished a week long rimdro, (a Buddhist ceremony to cleanse and bless our school) with 100 monks and lamas in our multi-purpose hall chanting from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm.  Most schools do this ceremony for one to two days, but not at Mongar LSS.  The entire week has been largely devoted to this rimdro although the students did have class when their teachers weren't assigned a duty at the MPH.  I was able to go into classrooms that were missing their teachers and do some English review before the big mid-term exams that are starting tomorrow.  

During the breaks many of the younger monks crowded around my office windows to look at the strange woman with the wild hair.  I kept inviting them in if I wasn't working with students.  A few of the brave ones ventured in and tried to speak English with me and ask me questions.  They all seemed fascinated but very giggly at everything I showed them. Today a large crowd of PP-third level students and many monks joined me singing, "The Wheels on the Bus."   A crazy scene it was!

I must admit that when I went into the hall early this morning I had the best meditation / prayer session I've had since I've been here in Bhutan.  It is hard not to be carried into another realm of consciousness when the smell of burning cyprus and incense, with the sound of 100 chanting monks float through your body.  Peace was the overriding feeling as I left the hall. 

So I shall not turn on TV today, (yes,we have cable here), in hopes that this feeling may linger a little while longer instead of the distressful news on CNN or BBC.  

Outside sing-a-long

Health & Nursery Rhymes

A lot has transpired since my last blog five weeks ago.  I wrote of my heartburn and acid reflux in the last blog.  I thought I had it under control with my bland diet and eating early but it wasn't enough to prevent the nightly sessions of me going to the "dark side" thinking I had a serious problem with my heart.  Long story short, Charly and I went to Thimphu for a week after the recommendation of a visiting American doctor for further tests.  Luckily it turned out that once I had the proper medicine (good old Prilosec), I was once again sleeping all night and even sneaking some onions once in a while.  I felt silly for going all the way to Thimphu (which is a two day trip for only 500 km), but we got to stock up on food items we can't get in the east.  Thank goodness for peanut butter and oatmeal.  Nancy invited us to a dinner with VHO doctors from Canada & the U.S. who were heading back home.  We were entertained by a traditional Bhutanese dance troop who were not only wonderful but the fastest quick change dancers I've ever seen. This allowed us to see many different styles of traditional dress and masks. So all in all it was a good mini vacation with a good outcome.  I have been feeling great for over a month now. 


A week after we got back from Thimphu, we got a call to meet Kendra (a young BCFer from Nova Scotia who teaches in Trashiyangtse), at our referral hospital in Mongar.  Another long story....many tests with no conclusive results.  All I know is when she was with us, she was definitely sick.  No one can have the high fevers she had and not be sick.  Another trip to Thimphu with good results  and she will be heading back to her 5th and 7th grade students very soon.  Bottom line, young or old, we westerners need to be very aware and careful about our health here in Bhutan.  


So on to more fun topics.  As most of you may know I am currently teaching 4th through 8th level students in a pull-out program for students struggling with their English.  They are wonderful and seem to enjoy the small group and individual attention I can give them.  Nonetheless, I miss working with the little ones.  So to get my "cuteness fix," I started a story/song session each morning with PP through 2nd level students.  They pick up tunes and new English words very quickly.  Already they have conquered "BINGO," "The Opposite Song," and "Ten in the Bed."  The pictures below are my morning sing fest and pictures from the "Nursery Rhyme" program presented to the parents by PP through 3rd level students.  It was great fun and even though this year everything was in Dzongkha, I enjoyed it throughly.  

Sunday hike to the top!

Charly messing with the bull on our Sunday hike. 

The temple at the top of our hike.

After spending almost a month with off and on heartburn, I finally got it checked out at the local hospital.  The antacids and advice about avoiding spicy foods, (and I'm in the land of "super spicy"), onions, eating late, eating too much at once, chocolate, (can you hear me weep?), caffeine, and citrus, have me feeling much better but not very happy about the bland food I need to eat in order not to wake up at night.  Of course Charly with his iron stomach is not in the least bothered by the local fare. 


So last Sunday after three nights of good sleep, we decided to take a hike up to a temple about 2,000 ft. above Mongar.  It was a beautiful day, passing by many farms, and chortens on the way.  Here are a few pictures of the uphill hike. 

Just starting on the hike looking down on Mongar

One of the many chortens we passed along the hike.  These structures contain Buddhist relics and are used as places of worship.  We passed about eight chortens on this hike.

A simple farm way above Mongar / and yes that's Dish Network.

So after the four hour hike we returned to our house to find a puja (Buddhist ceremony) with five monks, horns, gongs, drums, chanting, and bonfire on our shared patio all around our house.  Only in Bhutan.

 

Out and About in Mongar

Charly and I are adjusting well to our new home in Mongar, Bhutan.  There are moments of frustration when  things at school or at home don't happen when they are scheduled.   Slowly we are getting into the Bhutanese mind-set of "if it happens, it happens.......if it doesn't, keep smiling anyway."  Here are a few pictures from school and from walks around town.

I gave a power point presentation of the water cycle for
International World Water Day / March 22

How's this for a great swing?

Mongar LSS / My favorite view of the school

Love the dragons they paint on the tents for special events. 

Students dancing at World Water Day Celebration!

I am not going to compete with my two BCF friends further east whom I have now dubbed "blogging queens," (Kendra & Vicki /amazing pictures).  I have been waiting for some big event to share, but the day to day happenings and pictures are actually a more accurate snap shot of life in Mongar.   I wanted to share a short video of Charly playing with our two year old neighbor Ishey, but it is just too much for our broadband connection to handle.  I will settle for photos.

                                          

                                                     This is an eight grade class I taught 6 trait writing skills to.
                                    They were wonderful and fun!

Miss Bhutan 2010 and I at the World Water Celebration!
She is wearing 4" heals, and I'm still taller.