Tashi Delek!

I am once again struggling to believe that the end of the year is nigh and it is time to wish all our family and friends a wonderful holiday and break. 2014 has been a tough year for many of us and now that the worst does indeed seem to be over, even if everything is not yet resolved, we can only hope that 2015 will bring more laughter, more joy and more fulfillment. We value the times we have been able to share in the past and hope that you all continue to keep us up to date with your lives. Perhaps our paths will once again cross in the not too distant future. Wherever the upcoming year takes you may you be blessed with good food, good friends and adventure, achievement and success as well as the ability to recognize the blessings you have been bestowed. 

Our time in Samtengang is coming to an end. Exams have been and gone. Papers have been checked and graded by the communal marking system that seems to be officially sanctioned despite its huge drawbacks for both students and teachers. All the students I taught in the middle school have returned to their villages and families and Ian’s little friends make periodic appearances at school for National Day rehearsals and Socially Useful and Productive Work (SUPW) in addition to the younger ones, who live nearby popping in to visit Sir at home. They invariably go away with skipping ropes or paints or something that will keep them amused and no doubt inspire them to return again soon. Mine are more prone to Facebook and SMS messages just to chat once they have ascertained that they passed and will be promoted to the next level next year.

As usual we are wondering why it is that we must remain at school making only brief and often purposeless visits until after National Day on December 17^th, more especially as we are now receiving a constant stream of BCF colleagues and their family too in some cases as guests and day visitors. Others seem to have easily escaped their schools and are taking time out to travel and see some of Bhutan as they make their way back to the capital. On December 18^th those students, who live near enough, will attend result declaration and I personally will be very glad to see them one last time before we too make a beeline for Thimphu that very afternoon. I guess we could have argued for being allowed to leave but it seems unfair to expect this privilege when it is not possible for national teachers. Although there is little left to do at school, having time to just relax, take slow strolls through the local environs to savour the views and familiar landscapes, cook in a frantic attempt to empty the pantry and just unwind is certainly welcome. 

There is no doubt that this has been a difficult year in terms of the relative isolation and poor access of this location and the often-antagonistic management style in my school in particular. It was certainly complicated by Ian’s injury and subsequent frequent visits to Thimphu to receive treatment but I have already blogged about our final reflections on our schools and lives in Wangdue Phodrang District so I will not repeat myself and instead assume anyone who is genuinely interested will have already read the details or still can at http://intheshadowofthemountains.blogspot.com/.

We are ploughing ahead with plans to work in Thimphu in 2015 and though the paperwork has still not materialised, being old hands at the slow pace of Bhutanese bureaucracy, we are assuming it will eventually happen and we must simply remain positive and move forward with our own plans. Ian was approached by Deki School and met the husband and wife founders, builders and directors as well as the principal and staff just after the summer break. It proved to be less of a job interview and more a formal invitation to join the team as he was immediately offered a position and wheels set in motion for acquiring approval and visas. I hesitated to apply anywhere for a long time and toyed with the idea of having a year off on a spouse visa, before finally seeing an advertisement for the Early Learning Centre. The reputation of this establishment is legendary and I had been advised to apply to them by several friends and colleagues as they are expanding to include junior high school and high school grade students next year. It is a completely new, private, purpose-built school as is the one in which Ian will be employed. I was wary about whether they would accept me or not but my fears were quickly allayed after a brief phone conversation with the director, which ended in my paperwork being forward and the approval process launched the following day. Now yet again everything is in the hands of the powers that be and we are playing the waiting game.

Time is ticking on and we are eagerly awaiting the arrival on Saturday of a dear British friend, Katja, who we met in Monduli, Tanzania. She will spend a fortnight travelling with us in the kingdom and we are looking forward to having some time on our hands, the road ahead and the wind at our backs, after the long hours and hard work that has been required to complete this academic session.

Our brief spell in Thimphu is timed to allow us to attend the final wind up session with BCF colleagues and staff and the Ministry of Education, (Perhaps a personal plea to speed up that approval process for our applications and visas for 2015 is in order), make one more trip out to the orthotic manufacturer in Gidakhom, see the American physiotherapist in the capital before his imminent return to Boston, view a possible apartment in which to reside next year and hopefully sign a lease, as well as obtaining the necessary road permit for Katja and us to travel. A busy 3 days there and we will be off on our much anticipated road trip and adventure.

All that remains is to wish you all a safe, healthy and fun-filled silly season and every happiness in the year to come. Tashi Delek!

Peace and love always,

Vicky and Ian xxxxxx

Wangduephodrang District Tshechu.

“Tshechu” is the annual event of the year in every district and though it is billed as a religious festival it is very much more than that.

I, myself have advised people travelling to Bhutan to make sure that a tshechu is included in their itinerary so I shouldn’t have been surprised to see so many tourists in guided groups at the recent Wangduephodrang District Tshechu.

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In fact we had made a hotel booking a month in advance expecting an influx of tourists and not wanting to spend 2 hours each day travelling back and forth between Samtengang and Bajo. We had been anticipating this grand event for some time and so it was something of a disappointment to have the day finally arrive and know that Ian would miss out since he was still in Thimphu receiving physiotherapy treatment twice daily.

Somehow by the time I got there on Wednesday morning after a 5am start in the village and dressed in the best of my traditional clothes, which I was later to discover was on inside out, I was focused on the local audience and hoping to see many of my own students with their families and I had completely forgotten the tourist draw card that a tshechu this close to the capital would obviously be. Wangdue is only 3 to 4 hours from the capital, if you play the road conditions right.

I was more than a little curious to see how it would be staged in the army barracks. Given that I have only ever attended 2 before and both were inside the magnificent Trashigang Dzong, I was skeptical about the location and setting but intrigued about how an outdoor performance would compare to the shade and intimacy of the inner courtyard and sacred, ancient space of a dzong.

As I suspected the lack of shade was an issue, despite the covered areas that had been set up especially for the local audience and I felt very fortunate to be invited into the part of the “grandstand” set aside for tourists because it contained seats and was shaded for most of the mornings at least.

In the afternoon I returned to the covered zone, siting on the ground with the locals where I belong. It was there, via gestures that a kind, local woman alerted me to the fact that my kira needed to be reversed! She even intimated that her daughter would go with me to help. When I returned properly attired without the daughter’s assistance, she was as pleased as punch and invited me to sit with her family group.

Shops and stalls selling everything from fresh vegetables to plastic toys or cheap, imported, synthetic clothes and exquisite hand-woven traditional clothing and handicrafts were interspersed among a proliferation of small snack shops, makeshift bars and restaurants. Old-fashioned sideshow stalls were by far the most popular with the young people and there were the usual prizes of enormous stuffed toys and plastic junk in abundance.

I loved that the tradition sport of darts, known as khuru had been adapted into a test your skills funfair game with monks being the most interested and successful of the competitors. An absolute cacophony was created by spruikers shouting into megaphones to attract customers to play quoits tossed over prizes, or bingo or wheel of fortune or to knock down stainless steel beakers with tennis balls. Set up in tents and plying their trade at the perimeter of the actual performance area in their own enclosed zone, these businesses thrive on everyone having a little extra to spend and the novelty of being available only once a year.

Tshechu is the time to don your finery. Exquisite kira and gho, elaborate hairstyles, carefully applied makeup, brand name accessories and flashy jewelry and sunglasses are all de rigueur for the young singles strutting their stuff and feigning interest in only the religious lessons of the performance. People- watching is a major part of the spectacle. This is certainly the time for young people to meet potential partners and they are afforded more freedom than usual. Many a romance has begun at a tshechu, if class XI short stories are to be believed. Promiscuity is rampant and huge posters promoting contraception and educating about sexually transmitted diseases are prominently displayed on the tarpaulins separating the funfair from the amphitheater. Condoms were actually available from a help yourself for free box at the last tshechu we attended in Trashigang

Without doubt business opportunities, romance, fashion shows and sideshows aside, it is the masked dances, religious morality plays, comic relief of the apsaras and storytelling that are the main events. This is what draws the huge crowds and certainly what keeps them captivated throughout the 3 days of performance. I guess I too am more taken with that traditional aspects of tshechu as of the hundreds of photos I took, none depict anything except the performance, the ‘stage’ or the audience.

At certain points blessings are bestowed and just being in attendance and making a donation earn merit.

I decided to stay for only the first 2 days as I wanted to spend part of my 5-day break in Thimphu with Ian, but nonetheless I enjoyed every minute and never tired of the spectacle. It was an exhausting but event-filled couple of days and I was delighted to see so many people young and old, immersed in their culture, dressed to the nines and obviously enjoying themselves immensely.

I am looking forward to being able to attend Trongsa Tshechu in one of the most impressively located dzongs in the country, with Ian and a visiting friend at the end of December. I never seem to tire of watching and I understand more and more each time despite my complete lack of language skills.

Just for the record to do prefer the dzong as a venue and I am sure I am not alone.

Blowing in the wind

For the past week my 3 class VIII sections have been studying an essay called “Prayer flags blowing in the wind” which I thought combined perfectly with the song lyrics of “Blowin’ in the wind” by Bob Dylan which just happened to be included as a poem in the same unit.

From the moment I saw the titles I knew I would want to fly prayer flags with them once we had done the hard yards.

I had the flags on standby and bit the bullet and asked permission from my principal for this venture at the beginning of the week. I already knew that they would require blessing by a lama and an auspicious day would have to be selected. That was exactly what transpired and as we discussed the project a Dzongkha Lopen was summoned and given the task of getting the blessing and the date.

I knew it would be a hit with the students and was really looking forward to it. Their spirits were not in the slightest bit dampened by the drizzling rain and they were quick to point out that rain is in fact a lucky omen.

Having explained to them that the Prayer Wheel area on campus would be my choice of location, I allowed them to select exactly where they would fly their class set and it was easily resolved.

One string from the cypress trees along the nearby boundary fence and 2 from the Physics Lab balcony on the opposite side were our possible choices and each class seemed happy with their placement.

Knowing full well that it wouldn’t be acceptable to send off a delegation to accomplish the job, I assigned groups various essential roles: tying them together, stringing them up, adding the string to affix them, preparing and burning the ritual cypress leaves for purification smoke and lighting incense.

We had a matches-in-charge and string distributer as well as scissors dispenser and all others were asked to keep the prayer wheel turning!

All jobs were assigned in the classroom and greeted with choruses of “Madam, madam, madam” and eager volunteers’ hands in the air.

Then out into the rain we filed and set about our duties in a spirit of absolute delight.

I left them to it and took to taking photos, which inevitably resulted in “One photo Madam,” requests.

The campus was awash with mud and the rain continued to fall but there was nothing but joy and laughter during the entire process.

More than once I was struck by the thought that this would be impossible in Australia. (Occupational Health and Safety monitors would have a heart attack! There were moments when I thought I might too)

I was somewhat afraid of disaster and continually counseling caution much to the amusement of the students. Most notably when my own home class by sheer timetabling managed to get first pick of locations and boys took to shinnying up the slippery bark of the cypress trees to the very top.

I was imagining having to explain how they fell to devastated parents but all ended uneventfully and we lived to tell the tale.

With all 3 groups their co-operative endeavors and the surety and confidence with which they conducted themselves was impressive.

What a lovely way to spend a rainy Friday morning.

No-one was at all concerned about how wet they got and we will all have the pleasure of watching our prayer flags send their prayers to the heavens for the rest of the year.

Tashi Delek!