Thursday April 4th
We are finally feeling that we are on top of things and it’s not a daily struggle to get through the schedule and try to make headway at night with the paperwork demands that can never be attended to at school.
Having lodged our year plans a load was lifted. Surviving the chaotic first two weeks and then having writing, speaking and listening assessments for each student in each class, gave me the knowledge base I need to move forward with each of them and shift the focus from classroom management and individual evaluations to learning needs. It also helped me realise that I can still motivate them and hopefully instil some better self-discipline and more focused learning.
My doubts about my own ability are disappearing and my confidence is finally returning. Writing up lesson plans that are comprehensive enough to teach from and having them approved and available before I started this week’s teaching, I finally felt I was on track and back to a routine I can live with.
A completely school free weekend after being overwhelmed for so long was also more than welcome. We have now been out hiking a couple of times. We have another hike up to Tango planned for this weekend and this time with both Lhendup and Thinley and both their wives.
I have finally started to feel the school routine can be balanced against some quiet private time and some social activities with people we have been deferring until we reached this point.
My birthday was lost among the pressure of getting classes up and running, although we had a quiet and lovely night out, we were so exhausted it was easier to just go small and simple. However, a couple of evenings spent with Dependra, Anjana and Liza in their home have been real highlights, most especially last week’s unexpected Tuesday night invitation which included a belated birthday cake for me and truly stimulating, insightfully revealing and honest conversations. We love these two and the way they embrace the present with vision and intellect.
Getting the snail mail project restarted and receiving our first salary also helped the work-life balance and the wellbeing factor.
Sunday April 7TH
What a very special day we had with Lhendup and Kinzang and Thinley and Kezang. They both drove up to Tango and we all climbed up to the Tango Monastery and Institute for Advanced Vajrayana Studies.
I had to look that up and am now informed that “Vajrayana Buddhism is a form of Buddhism probably originated from the Mahayana tradition. It is based on a complex philosophical and ritual system meant to provide a path towards enlightenment.” It is sometimes referred to as Tibetan Buddhism and that is what is practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal.
It was an easier hike than I thought it was going to be and we entered from a lower track so we were under the sheer walls and intricately painted wooden window frames of the newly restored sector of the monastery. The upper track we have always used in the past, we saw later is now crumbling away in places.
We also entered every room on all three levels and saw the 17th century statues and incredible ancient murals that had been cut in stone slabs from the walls and then reinserted. The process is not quite complete at the top level so we got a glimpse of how it was done. Only one room had a canvas mural which had also been removed and reapplied. I found the murals very enchanting and the work that had gone into reinstating them must have been painstakingly slow.
Our young companions all wore traditional dress and prostrated at every altar while we were happy to wander the rooms and see the completed restoration and valuable artefacts and treasures within.
The brisk hike down was punctuated by stops to watch the antics of a troop of Grey Langurs playing and sleeping in the tree tops. The young were swinging wildly from vines and branches hanging in the rhododendrons while the older ones lazily looked on or slept.
Soon enough we were back at the car park and driving on to the Jigme Dorji National Park heading for a picnic spot they knew near the river. We had never been inside the park before so that was wonderful too.
They were disappointed that there were so many cars when we arrived but quickly opted to walk on a little farther to find a secluded spot on our own on the rocky riverbank.
We all contributed to the picnic feast and enjoyed being surrounded by giant rhododendrons and even spotted more langurs cheekily jumping from stone to stone to cross the river onto the island in the middle, with their stolen picnic spoils. Not ours but a group nearby who seemed more amused than annoyed by their theft and actions.
We had brought prayer flags and Thinley and Lhendup were happy to hang them in the trees over hanging the crystal clear water of the river.
As the wind picked up and the sun disappeared behind the snow-covered peaks we packed up and made our way along the riverbank crossing to the island where our langur friends had feasted, on fallen logs and stones a few times and avoided getting wet feet. This alternative route avoided clambering back up the steep track we had come down and I was very grateful for that as I had been fearing how my knee would hold up.
Before getting back into cars we made plans for a weekend trip to Haa at the end of the month and then took a new to us route back to Thimphu via Kabesa. That was along a bumpy, dirt track in places but well worth it for the interesting homes and views along the way. It’s a vegetable growing area and we had purchased in the market on Saturday from a grower who had just brought in broccoli from there, when all the stalls were still closed.
We came back to main road at Pangrizampa and there were still long queues and crowds waiting to be blessed just as there had been last weekend when we abandoned going in and walked back. This blessing wipes away all your bad karma for the previous year we are told and it is incredibly popular and extends over a full week.
I have to hope we don’t have too much bad karma to atone for, as we didn’t stop and proceeded along the road we had walked down the previous week to Taba before crossing the river again and taking the newer highway back into Thimphu.
A red letter day for sure!
Monday April 8TH
And today was an unmitigated disaster so I guess we are still on that roundabout of struggling to get on top of things and stay on top of things after all.
