“Legs Paining”

We cringe every time we hear “paining” and I have lost count of how many times I have tried to explain that it is a noun and cannot be used like that. BUT at 5pm today when Ian told our neighbour “Legs paining, Sir,” it did seem exactly the right phrase.

Having made 2 trips to Trashigang recently we managed to purchase a few of the items we were not able to find there when Becky and Martha were with us, so a flurry of phone calls to them from the very shops that had been closed on our earlier visit together, resulted in a few purchases for them too. This inspired us to book a taxi to take us up to Phongmey today to meet up with the girls again. The plan to walk back seemed like the perfect way to go.

We planned the a long walk back when we actually bought the goods and even checked that today would suit the girls then, while we were deciding on what to buy in the shops. Since it was Ian’s school rimdro last night and as we were sitting on the basketball court eating dinner and drinking warm beer at 9pm, we were glad that we hadn’t booked for an early start. Spot on 9am we took off from Rangjung and we earned ourselves some merit along the way by collecting two nuns, who were standing on the roadside with their goods and chattels just outside of Rangjung and we dropped them off at the gates to the nunnery just passed Rahdi and about half way to our destination.

We planned to spend half the day there and knew that we would have to take off before 2pm to get back before dark.

As mentioned when we drove up once before, there is a tricky section of road where Becky and Martha and everyone else too for that matter, basically had to wade through water to get past, so we checked out that section of road very carefully as we drove through on the way up. Armed with the girls’ advice and a strategy from their trip down we carried plastic shoes for that.  We were also dying to photograph it this time. There is also a funny little flying fox box-car arrangement which they use when that section of the road washes out in the monsoon. I would NOT like to have to try that!!

Not for me that's for sure

Spring has definitely sprung here and the blossom decorating the sparse trees standing in the barren, dry fields is gorgeous. 

The flashes of colour added by the birds, attracted to the blossom and other creatures coming to life as well as the blossom itself certainly contributed to the stark beauty of the landscape and lifted my spirits. We are pretty certain we saw a juvenile White-rumped Vulture today while walking back (though it may have been Himalayan Griffin) It was gigantic. There were also some very colourful and active smaller finch type birds who just would not remain stationary long enough for me to capture them so we could identify them later. They were enjoying the sun and whistling their beaks off in the trees near Phongmey, while the Yellow-billed Blue Magpie, which was very well camouflaged in the dry grass at the roadside scratched around for a while before taking flight. Just getting away even for a few hours is a definite tonic for the spirit, I think but the sightings of these amazing birds, does your soul good.

juvenile White-rumped Vulture

Check out that long tail.

We are trying to do at least one decent walk month in preparation for a serious hike in the summer. We want to go to the remote region, which adjoins Tibet and has 2 major towns (Merak and Sakteng) and is only accessible on foot. We didn’t join the adventure with last year's BCFers thinking our fitness and skils weren’t up to it so we are now determined to make sure we are up for it this year.

Though today we did see the new Sakteng highway, as our driver called it, there is strenuous hiking involved even from that newer road junction when it is complete. Highway it is not. It is a dirt road like the one we were on, but on the opposite side of the river and it is still being carved and blasted out of the cliff-face! It will go only half way there but that will reduce the hiking time and give us a better chance of making it.

I teach several kids from that region and would love to see the pristine hamlets in which they live; most of which still don't have electricity I am told. They are great students and incredibly hard workers as well as looking so totally robust and healthy. They actually remind me of the Amish community we saw in a market in Philadelphia. They are known as highlanders here, and they are very unique and turning into a real tourist attraction as the trails open up and the road access improves.  

I couldn’t resist photographing those we saw in Phongmey today, though my favourite images are of them performing in the Dzong at Tchechu last year. I love to see them and we often do but never in the numbers we saw today. They walk into towns to trade or get supplies and I guess that Phongmey must be one of the closest points for them. Even if it is not the best supplied, it certainly has all the basics. They use oxen, cows, horses, mules and even yaks to cart the supplies back up to their homes and though we didn’t see any yaks today we saw all manner of other animals being put the good use as pack mules while wandering or I should say “roaming” around with Becky before lunch!

Today’s walk was supposed to be a nice easy one going down on the dirt farm road and not even attempting shortcuts. I was not looking forward to swallowing dust with every car that passed but as it turned out in 4 hours, only 13 vehicles passed us heading up and only 6 were going down or in our direction. The great majority of those were in the last 30 minutes when Rangjung was clearly in sight and we weren’t giving up on our mission for anything at that point. They included huge Tata trucks and a backhoe but were all travelling very slowly and some of the taxis even slowed to see if we wanted a ride. Downhill it might have been but 17kms is still a fair haul and a lot of pressure on the knees on those rough uneven surfaces with the dust flying. We were definitely “paining” in both the feet and leg departments by the time we stumbled back to Rangjung.

I have been too sick to do much walking for the past 2 weeks. Along with about half of RHSS, I have been coughing and spluttering with that oh so common ailment in these parts at this time of year, “cough and cold.” The unseasonably cold and dry weather has about half my classes suffering and most of the boarders just keep coming to class so eventually we all have it! I am just about 100% now and I was delighted to be out breathing the fresh air, getting in some training for the summer expedition we have our hearts set on doing and taking in the glorious springing to life of nature.

Highlanders at Tschechu

Butter lamps and blessings

In the past week school has been cancelled 3 times for very different reasons.

Last Saturday the whole teaching staff had to do the Teachers Need Assessment (TNA) questionnaire and general test. Well almost the whole staff anyway 9 lucky individuals, myself included were exempt and we were left to supervise nearly 500 students. That day was also my first Study Duty for the year, so the irony of having to head off to school in the dark at 5.40am when there would be no classes for the rest of the day was not lost on me. In fact on my arrival at school, I mistakenly thought that I had the time wrong as in the dim morning light and absolute silence, it seemed that no-one was awake and nothing was stirring. Before I could check my watch however, the study bells sounded and the twenty odd stray dogs that inhabit the campus and were decorating the car park frozen in comatose poses, leapt to life and sleepy-eyed students began to shuffle towards their respective study rooms.

An alternative programme was devised for the morning school hours and only those interested were actually asked to attend. Since it was the final day of the commemoration of the death of an eminent Rimpoche, who is closely associated with Rangjung, prayers were called and it was proposed that the student cohort and any other interested members of staff walk up to the monastery (founded by his son Garab Rimopche) and pay our respect and light butter lamps. This was the first opportunity I had to wear my new “rachu” (ceremonial scarf worn by females) and I was certainly not going to let it slip by so I eagerly volunteered to paticipate.  I had been looking for an excuse to don my new “rachu” since I had purchased it on our road trip out east and it was commented on by many of the girls and staff that morning.

After morning assembly the entire student body gathered in the MPH and many non-teaching staff and a few teachers including myself joined them. I absolutely love the chanting and mass effect of the voices but actually loathe sitting cross-legged on the floor, primarily because after a knee operation several years ago now, I simply cannot sit like that, at all, any more. It is always required for prayers and in addition to not knowing the prayers or being able to read them, I feel both awkward and embarrassed to be placed at the front on the raised stage when I am sitting incorrectly. My favourite thing is always lighting the butter lamps and I never tire of seeing them or photographing their magical displays of light, so it was with great delight that I accepted the invitation to join in this aspect of the ceremony not 10 minutes after prayers began. It gave me the excuse I needed to get up off the floor of the stage and allowed me to freely roam the hall and balcony photographing too.

I felt quite liberated being able to wander about among the seemingly disciplined and orderly behavior, and it struck me as odd that I had never before noticed that the students are exactly the same in prayers as they are in the classroom. Now that I know many of them by name and have taught at least a quarter of those present it was obvious to me how concealing those mass assemblies really are. In the past I have been mesmerised by quality of their voices and their harmonious appearance and the effortlessness with which they participate. This time I was able to spot the incessant talkers, those who fidget and wiggle, those who endlessly adjust their “kabney” (ceremonial scarf the males wear), those who engage in conversations in low whispers, those who hang their heads and pretend to chant while actually only turning the pages and mumbling and to my surprise those who hiss “One photo madam” as I pass nearby, even at such an inappropriate time- at least to my way of thinking. I was relieved to see that the character of the students’ remains constant.

The walk to monastery and the circumambulations at the top were punctuated with that same cry, “One photo Madam.” As usual I was happy to oblige and so the process of photographing, preparing, printing and purchasing begins again.

By evening study on Sunday, Ian’s school had already cancelled classes on Monday and I hadn’t yet seen the writing on the wall for that to happen at my school too. A much discussed, eminent Lama from Bumthang had arrived that afternoon in our local area. The student counsellors had apparently petitioned for the entire school to be given the opportunity to go to Changmey, where he would be officiating at the inauguration of a recently completed, statue of the Guru Rimpoche. This was a major disruption to study on Sunday evening, which I was again supervising, as was the arrival of the class XI students that very afternoon but everyone finally settled into their rooms and I was asked by each successive class as I did the rounds to check attendance,  did I think we would be going tomorrow. They were certainly asking the wrong person as I couldn’t even hazard a guess. But go we did.

Our neighbour with her grandchild spotted in the crowd

This was yet another perfect opportunity to don my beautiful new “rachu” and witness another formal Buddhist gathering, to say nothing of seeing a new place. Despite the 8-kilometer walk up a dusty farm track, all the students delighted in having the day out of class and suffered the steep climb up and being bathed in dust as the many vehicles heading for the same destination, passed them. I felt privileged indeed to be offered a ride from one of Ian’s colleagues and willingly joined him and his family. The higher the road climbed the more frequently RHSS students would emerge from the verges of the roadside having taken some near vertical shortcut. Justifiably they were all trying to shorten the walk and avoid the traffic on the narrow and treacherous farm road.  At the same time as we climbed, the profusion of flowering Rhododendron trees increased in density. I didn’t dare to try to photograph them as it was taking all my effort and will not to vomit in the car from the bumming, hairpin turns and speed.

A flowering Rhododendron taken from the top -thank goodness for telephoto lenses

As usual for me the crowd was more captivating than the address, of which I could understand not a single word but I did my best to follow the correct etiquette and once again cursed my inability to sit cross-legged. After avoiding the blazing sun for hours, once the official ceremony began, we all sat in meditative, silence while the monks chanted and dignitaries were individually blessed. Bags of grain and other offerings were brought forward for official blessing and consecration too and finally once they had been suitably blessed they were distributed through the crowd by an efficient team of RHSS senior boys who seem to instinctively know what is required of them in these situations. Finally the Lama himself accompanied by an entourage of monks walked through the crowd in dignified silence and touched us each on the head to ensure our long and fruitful lives.

Almost immediately the blessing was complete, the crowd rose and began circumambulating the statues and then making their way back down the steep and now extremely congested road towards Rangjung and the many smaller hamlets and villages, from which they had emerged earlier that morning.  

Again I was grateful for the lift and it was certainly dark when many of our weary walkers finally returned to their hostels and dinner.

Yesterday, the whole school underwent the blessing / school purification ritual know as Rimdro and which I wrote extensively about last year. Since this is now something of an epic I will say only that it too incorporated the beautiful and moving spectacle of a display of butter lamps, which I was once again invited to participate in lighting. I also once again got to wear my now not so new ‘Rachu” and I hope the pictures say it all.

 “One photo Madam.”

What a difference the weather can make.

Since returning to Rangjung we have had only one clear day and a smoky haze has clouded our views. Several times we have commented that we don’t remember it being like this last year, but memory does have a way of deleting the less favorable and retaining the best so we were not really sure!

I was convinced that the winter was over for us. In my mind the ingrained idea that winter brings the rain persists, despite the knowledge that here it is the monsoon that blesses the farmers and the crops, and that happens in summer. Even though the morning and evenings have still been cold, most of the days have been moderate and very comfortable. That was until yesterday.

We had decided that forest fires must have been causing the haze we were experiencing and maybe that is true, but suddenly late yesterday the haze turned to gloomy, grey skies, it was freezing cold and the expectation of rain hung heavily in the air before it actually happened. Fortunately I dodged the showers and managed to get home without getting wet. I had mistakenly taken to wearing lighter clothes as the afternoons have been so hot but yesterday I left school shaking and actually said to one of my students that it was so cold I thought it might snow. It has never snowed in Rangjung in all our time here but it really felt like it might.  Within an hour of getting home the rain settled in for the evening and it loudly continued all night long with spectacular results.

This morning we woke up to our incredible views reinstated. The haze had evaporated and the clouds were sailing along in the valley, hovering and concealing the lower reaches of the ranges. A fine green mist of new growth had appeared in the paddy fields overnight. The peaks of the saw-toothed mountains in the far distance, on 3 sides all had a thin film of fresh snow, enhancing the already fairytale-like scenery of the ranges that surround us. Weak patches of morning sunshine spotlit tiny hamlets on the ridges, adding a magical quality to the scene. Towards the eastern horizon, a fresh, light coating of snow on a single jagged peak was glistening, bathed in bright sunshine. Behind us equally rugged mountains all have white-topped summits. The dusty trails we had stromped along only last week, on these same ranges are clearly slippery and muddy again but best of all there was crystal clear quality to the air. We could see for miles in all directions and the views were breathtaking.

WOW! This view presents itself with stunning regularity but we hadn’t realized that we had been missing it until it reappeared this morning. We were so taken aback that I didn’t even get the camera to photograph the splendor.

This is a reminder to appreciate these views and I am vowing to take a moment every morning to savor their evolving beauty. Whether they are bathed in soft morning light, sharply defined in crystal clarity or only dimly visible through thick fog, they are magnificent. In these parts, there may not be many roses to smell but the views are enchanting and so very different from home. By this afternoon the haze had returned and our fleeting glimpse of paradise was gone.

LOSAR: TIBETAN NEW YEAR

When we discovered that we had a 2-day break for Losar and that it was attached to the birth anniversary celebrations for HRH and Education Day, we immediately hatched a party plan. Class of 2012 BCFers, Becky and Martha are a mere 16kms from us, in Phongmey, so the obvious thing to do was to invite them down for a night and a catch up. Radhi is conveniently placed at the exact midpoint between us, so we thought that we should walk up and they should walk down and we could all meet there. Everyone was delighted with the idea and after a couple of phone calls and emails confirming plans, we set an ETA of 11am in Radhi and we all took off from our respective homes at approximately the same time on Wednesday morning. Just the day before we had received the very welcome news that the break had been extended to include Friday and that meant we could all spend a couple of nights together.

Recently a new road heading up to Radhi from Rangjung has been carved into the mountain face and since our previous attempt at a shortcut didn’t really pan out that well, we tried that for the upward leg. We did deviate a few times and cut across the now dry and barren looking rice paddies to cut off a few hairpin bends but mostly we stayed on our dusty and almost completely vehicle-free farm road. We kept a sharp eye out for arrows and darts as there were Archery and Khuru tournaments going on everywhere. Children, men and even women were making the most of the holiday break to try out their hands at the national games. Seeing women playing khuru was a first and a very positive sign.

At almost the exact meeting time, we strolled into the remote but picturesque town of Radhi. We located a perfect picnic spot and even bumped into a former teacher from RHSS who informed us that he thought Phongmey was 13kms from Radhi. Sitting in the sun at the prayer wheel at Radhi Middle Secondary School we decided to give them a bit more time and then call and by the time we did they were actually sitting at the prayer wheel directly above us having just arrived. We soon realized that we could see each other and were united in no time. Luckily our original estimation of the distance was correct and they hadn’t had to walk 13 kms. They had however had to navigate their way across a particularly treacherous part of the road where the swiftly flowing river cuts directly over it. The pulley system with a precarious basket in which goods and maybe people too navigate this sector when the monsoon makes it impossible to ford the river, looked none too inviting when we saw it.

We all enjoyed our picnic lunch and the spectacular views before heading back down. Our own home and schools are both clearly visible from that vantage point and it always astounds me how close they look when it has taken us 2 hours to climb the 500 metres and 8 kms to get there. On the return leg we made good time as we chatted and caught up with the beginning of term activities and compared our 4 schools’ processes. We opted for the more travelled and older road and not the newer one we had taken up, once we reached the junction of the 2, as there is something so much more gratifying about doing a circuit rather than a vertical up and down. This also afforded us views of the monastery, both our schools and our own home for most of the homeward journey.

Food, laughter, drinks and nonstop conversation filled the next 2 days and nights and JD a returned BCFer from the class of 2011, like us, was a welcome inclusion by Thursday evening. He was more animated then I have ever seen him be and it now seems that we have formed our own group or as the Bhutanese like to say, “cluster. ”Although we didn’t do much in our hometown it was a great opportunity to get to know each other better and share our experiences.

Our favourite local driver was contracted to get us to Trashigang and then back to Phongmey and as usual he was resourceful and co-operative. Due to the public holidays, finding the essential items required to complete the set up of their new homes was a bit of a challenge, but we gave the shopping expedition our best shot even with the 2 best stocked stores in T/gang still closed when we arrived there on Friday morning.  After scurrying all over town locating various goods at different stores, the order of the day was getting some momos for lunch.

On the way to Phongmey the driver received a call requesting that he collect some primary school children who needed to return to their boarding school in Bikhar that afternoon, which meant that we really had no time to spend at either Martha or Becky’s new homes though we could assist with the delivery of the purchases and take a quick look around before jumping back in the vehicle.

We had wrongly assumed that the driver would collect them after dropping us back in Rangjung, but 4kms from home and about 4 anxious phone calls later we turned off the main road and up an even steeper, dustier, bumpier farm road toward Chaling. It is the highest point that the road reaches above us and we had certainly never been up there before. This is one of the points where you can begin the trek to Merak and Sakteng and as we approached the top we realised that the calls had been from highland women and it was their children who were about to join us.

 They were crammed in with 4 in each of the 2 back bench seats and 3 more “monkeys”, as our good natured driver called them, were positioned on the roof while Ian and I and the driver retained the front bench seat.  He too is a highlander and took it all in his stride even though the 8 he had been told he was to collect, had now expanded to 11. We were reluctant to get out in Rangjung. We simply didn’t want the adventure to end and were sorely tempted to continue on to Bikhar with the kids, who had been singing along with the music in the car and competing with the boys on the roof to out sing each other. 

No one ever wants the holidays to end and this break was certainly no exception.

Holidays already

HRH King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk turned 32 the day before yesterday. This auspicious day is also Education Day in Bhutan and that is so very fitting considering His Majesty’s support and sponsorship of educational initiatives in Bhutan. Along with every other school in the country we celebrated. This year’s event was described as “small” to me and I guess that compared to hosting the celebration for the region as we did last year it was smaller but is was also very much more moving and intimate. I loved it.

The students set up the hall the evening before and as we all sat around consuming a dinner to mark the marriage of 2 young, popular and very competent Bhutanese teachers, I could see young men from the class XII group standing on stacks of plastic chairs, in order to reach the ceiling of the balcony area to hang the colourful cloth fringes and thankas either side of the altar of butter lamps they had previously arranged. With just a friend standing by and reaching only up to their ankles, I was very concerned about their acrobatics but they were as nimble and confident of a troupe of monkeys and the balcony was soon prepared.

The next morning the sun was shining and the stage set for a celebration and a show of affection for their benevolent and revered king. After the students were assembled we teachers were all invited into the hall and requested to light the butter lamps along with the senior student counsellors. It was by far the most beautiful part of the celebration. The whole school faced the back of the hall and the balcony and chanted prayers while we filed past and lit the lamps. No matter how many times I hear this chanting of prayers and I do every morning, it still moves me. Once we had all returned to our places in the hall and the mature voices of the Bhutanese staff joined the chanting it was truly enchanting.

The rest of the morning was spent with class groups all performing cultural items and delivering speeches in both English and Dzongkha on the topic of education. Of course I was a member of the judging committee for the English extempore speeches and was also called upon to join the staff and teachers in several dances. The first of which was enough to have all the students in stiches. We had not practised at all and despite being assured that we would perform the same steps we had the previous night at the wedding celebration, we did a piece I have never seen before and I spent the entire time fixated in the feet of the person next to me trying to copy their moves. When I had almost mastered it without warning they would all turn and I would find myself face to face with the principal being the only “dancer” who didn’t know which way the turn. As they alternated sides so did I always finding myself going in the wrong direction!! I guess it was amusing for the students and just like last year when I wore my kira backward to this celebration, I can truly confirm that on that day I contributed the GNH of the entire school population!

After the beauty of the expertly performed final dance by the class XII dancers, our enthusiastic principal once again summoned us to the stage. This time we did perform the same piece as the previous evening and even I looked like I knew what I was doing.

There were huge smiles on the faces of my home class, in particular and the student cohort as a whole, when we broke for a special lunch provided in honour of His Royal Highness. I guess the icing on the cake for all of us was that not only was the rest of the day free, but the government had extended the 2-day holiday to mark Losar (Tibetan New Year), to 3 days. We had big plans for that but that is another story……….

School begins..... "Not with a bang but a whimper"

Sitting in the back row of benches nestled among several female staff with whom I am quite friendly and with the advantage of having a wall to lean against, was where I found myself in the principal's office for the first meeting of the school year. For most of the day my thoughts kept flashing back to the same time last year. At that time I was directed to one of the few western style armchairs in this same office and before very long I realized that I was in the exalted  company of the privileged few. The staff secretary, the vice principal and the senior most staff sat in these comfy chairs and I felt like something of an imposter. None the less the protocol of remaining in the same seats was upheld and there I sat for the 3 days of meetings, blissfully unaware that these meetings would decide so much of what would happen at school in the rest of the year.  This time around I was aware enough to avoid those seats of privilege and to head for the back row where the comfort of a wall to lean on would be a blessing when the meeting continued for over 3 hours. I also knew to volunteer for what I wanted to take responsibility for and to speak up if I wanted to escape from onerous (to me at least) duties.

This year we began by standing on the road in front of the school to honour the coffin bearing the body of the Garab Rimopche's beloved father, as it drove by.  The day began casually with all the staff standing around in the sun chatting despite the solemnity of the occasion. This time when the meeting commenced, our principal was in place behind his desk and not still making his way to Rangjung as a newly appointed leader and this gave a air of organized formality to the proceedings as well as providing us with an agenda for the next few days. I was also much more familiar with the consensus style decision-making and secret ballot voting that would determine who took what responsibilities in the school. Even those not particularly keen to take on burdensome roles were nominated and graciously accepted when they were voted in.

When we broke for lunch the entire staff seemed to disappear into the woodwork in seconds and I was yet again the only one with a packed lunch prepared and the expectation that I would consume it at school. Last year this made me feel lost and confused being left alone in very unfamiliar surroundings but this time I realized the extended lunch break gave me time to walk home and share the break and the breaking news of the morning with Ian who was already done for the day. I also fondly recalled the many lunchtimes during term time that I have spent at school marking, assisting students with "doubts" and catching up on the paperwork I needed to, in the solitude of the empty office. I look forward to adopting the same approach again this year as it affords me the opportunity to mix with students with whom I don't have classroom contact and to expand my knowledge of the student cohort and influence.

By the late afternoon I was happily reminiscing about the new level of understanding I had, despite thinking that I had learned very little about the system in my first year when I left in December. Sitting at the back I was unconcerned about the lapses into Dzongkha that inevitable occur when the discussion gets heated. Actually I was grateful for the opportunity to allow my thoughts to wander and to reflect on the way the school has evolved and my knowledge of procedure grown. Last year these lapses had me stressing about what vital information I was now missing and how I could possibly know what to do for the first few weeks of school. There were some important decisions made, but the priority for me was the allocation of teaching classes and by the end of the day that had still not been decided. I had however happily avoided being Literary-In-Charge opting instead to continue my responsibilities with photography club and table tennis club. Perhaps I will come to regret that decision since I am once again the only staff member with responsibility for 2 clubs and photography club consumed a great deal of my scant free time last year. This year at least I will have an assistant and I intend to become better at delegating to both him and the students.

By the time we were dismissed for day one it was clear that there is an expectation that we will document more of what we do both academically and in terms of extra curricular commitments this year. I cannot say that this surprises me as I was somewhat surprised at the lack of record keeping in 2011, after the very strict requirements of Australian schools. Without a teaching load allocated I felt free to enjoy the evening with the magazines which arrived from Australia that day, and not have to immediately launch into the teaching preparation which will come soon enough.

Day two, which was a saturday by the way, also began in a very businesslike manner and much to my relief allocating teaching duties was the first agenda item. Faculty groups were left to split their loads and report their decisions to the newly appointed Timetable-In-Charge and the English teachers easily came to a consensus about who would get what. I argued for spreading my influence and affording students who had not had a native English teacher (namely me) last year that chance, which allowed me to continue to teach class XI but ultimately meant meant that I would change my home class. On the up side class XI curriculum is familiar to me and I like it for the most part. On the down side I will have 4 new sections of names to learn and I was disappointed about the loss of my original home class with whom I have developed a very close relationship. Since the board exams are the real bugbear of the system and teachers' lives, I figured with one year of experience under my belt it was best to volunteer for at least one such class and face my demons over the coming year. I therefore requested one section of class X English and am relived that there will be 3 of us teaching that course, so we can hopefully share resources and support each other. Inevitably to balance the loads and responsibilities not everyone got exactly what they wanted but I believe that the compromises were fair and a balance was achieved. By far the most pressing business of the day was the meeting of the Admissions Committee and they were locked in discussion and hard at the decision making process long after we mere teachers had resolved our class allocation issues. While staff were milling about and chatting I was able to distribute the chocolates from Bangkok and hard cheese from Bumthang that I had purchased as souvenirs. That process had me marveling about how I could now address all of the staff with at least one name and felt confident about which titles applied to whom. At tea breaks last year I was battling with trying to put names to all the faces.

As a saying goes, "Well begun is half finished" so it now looks like we are well on the way to a successful 2012 academic session!

 Breaking news: At the end of the Monday morning session I had my original home class back. I will once again be their English teacher and home class teacher. Yay!! Yay!! I remind myself that things are still very fluid and more changes and more revisions and even revoking decisions already made are likely to occur. But for the moment at least I am very happy.