My New Home

I thought I would take a minute to write about my posting, at Bjishong Middle Secondary School. I am placed up in the Gasa District by a small village called Damji- two hours south of the Dzong and two hours north of the Punakha District. My school is primarily a boarding school, and has about 400 students total, from PP (aka kindergarten) to class 10- all of whom board!. It is one of only 4 schools in the district, and as far as I know is the only school that goes past grade 6 so at class 7 lots of students come down from towns higher in the district like Laya and Lunana.

I am staying in a large room attached to the matron’s quarters. It was formerly used as a sick room for students and is quite spacious, with a small toilet room and shower room as well (with an actual shower! Cold water, but still, its there) I have turned one corner into my bedroom and another into my kitchen, but by far my favorite place in the whole room is the bukari, which is my wood-burning stove. I have a nice fire every night (thanks to my wonderful Bhutanese friends and neighbors who have taught me how to make a fire) and spend much time sitting next to it doing everything in close proximity to the stove- eating, reading, and lesson planning. I also boil water and sometimes cook on it, which is great because this way I am saving on gas for my kerosene stove, and again it gives me another reason to sit by it. It smells all cozy and wonderful with the burning wood, and makes lovely crackling noises when the wood is burning. All in all, the bukari is my favorite thing about my living quarters- and as you can see, I am mildly obsessed with it :)

My living space. Note the bukari with kettle on it :)

That being said, I really don’t spend too much time at home. This whole week we have been preparing for school- doling out responsibilities, picking classes to teach and the like…then the students arrived and now we are all preparing for His Majesty’s Birthday on the 21^st of February. It is a very big event everywhere in Bhutan, and this year instead of going up to the Dzong, the rest of the district is going to come here! So, it seems to have an added layer of excitement and responsibility. I myself am quite looking forward to it.

Students preparing for the birthday celebrations of His Majesty the King

When not preparing for school and big celebrations, I have been lucky enough to be making some wonderful friends. Everyone here is so very kind and I have had such a nice settling-in process with the help of the fellow teachers and staff here. My first night a neighbor and fellow teacher, after making myself and the 4 people who came with to drop me off a delicious lunch, asked me to sleep over at her apartment because the matron hadn’t arrived yet and she didn’t want me to be lonely on the other side of campus all by myself- and on my first full day she took me to see the shops and to another friend’s place for tea. This is just one example of how welcoming the people have been. It all has just continued to keep my spirits up and allowed me to become even more excited about this upcoming school year- now there are less unknowns about where I am going, and what my life will be like here, which has just freed up space in my mind for more possibilities and excitements ahead.

My view :)