"You Are Halfway!"

This was the title of an email my friend Noorin and I received from fellow BCF teacher Andrea at the beginning of this week. And, it shocked me, although it really shouldn’t have. It was strange to see it in writing, but its true. Exams started 2 days ago, and after 2 weeks of them, we are on the much anticipated and awaited summer vacation…with a BCF retreat in Bumthang (a central district of the country, and somewhere I have never been) and whatever else we end up thinking of. If you haven’t noticed from my other blog posts, making detailed plans ahead of time isn’t really the Bhutanese way. It doesn’t really fit the culture- things are well prepared for, but many things happen at the last minute, or are long thought out decisions that lead to spur of the moment action. And not only is it cultural…sometimes its physically hard to plan stuff out beforehand in Bhutan. Roads wash out, an official is out-of-station, “what to do la?” as they say.

Along with setting exams and then the eventual grading that will come, we have to compile all of the continuous assessment (results from the assignments they have done all term) so there is still quite a bit of work in the next two and a half weeks. But, like all of the other BCF teachers I am sure, I am starting to think more and more about summer vacation, and the weird fact that I have been here for almost half my contract.

Its strange to think about…we’ve been here almost 5 months. In some ways, it feels like I have been here forever. I have become skilled at tying my kira, I can make palatable naja, and I eat rice and chilis for every meal. I even nod my head like the Bhutanese do (nodding the head from side to side instead of up and down). The villagers have stopped staring (even covertly) at me as I walk by or do my shopping- I am now part of the regular scenery, as uninteresting to them as the 10,000 foot peaks that surround us. Sometimes, I forget I’m not Bhutanese, and that I haven’t been here forever, nor will I stay forever.

And in other ways, I am shocked it’s been this long. I feel like the time has gone by so quickly, and I am curious if the second half of the year will be as fast. Looking back though, I feel like I have done a lot this term, at least academically. I hope the kids have learned. I can tell they have made progress, their speaking has improved considerably. I just hope it will appear that way on the exams. In a way though I am excited to see their mistakes, their weak points- I am searching for a main point to focus on next term (this term I primarily focused on the elements of a story, having them identify them for everything we read). I am leaning toward the writing process, and delving into how to write different kinds of texts. But, I am open to a new idea if it appears to me through my student’s exams.

Something my class 7 and 8 are looking forward to next term is our American Pen Friends. BCF has connected us with a teacher in Oregon, and we are now pen pals with her high school English classes. I had my kids write to them, and sent the letters at the start of the month, and with any luck they will be received by the time the American students return from the summer vacation in mid-August.

I admit, one of the main reasons my kids are pumped about this is because they will get to use the computer lab to type letters to their pen friends (as with the average of 2 months for snail mail, email is a godsend in this situation). They are understandably computer crazy, as no one has a computer at home (even electricity isn’t a guarantee for most of these kids) and the Internet fascinates them. However, they are genuinely curious about their new American friends and excited to hear from them. I think it will be fun for both sides. Although I think the American students will be a bit shocked by the Bhutanese style of writing. They are naturally very dramatic in their prose, and one boy wrote “Henceforth, my dear pen friend, I will go on trusting you as my friend until my death comes to me in my narrow bed” and many others also talked about their devotion to their new friend until they leave this life.

My class VIIIA showing their serious side

My class VIIIA showing their funny, more realistic side

The girls of VIIB

The boys of VIIB

All in all, I think the letters will be an interesting read, and it will certainly be an interesting project for the term.

Teacher's Day

On May 2^nd, we had a great Bhutanese holiday called Teacher’s Day. Personally, I think all countries should celebrate this day. Its like mother’s day or father’s day, but its for teachers!

Instead of classes, the students put on a nice presentation for us. We were all given some flowers (I hung mine to dry and now they are on my wall) and it was a day full of cultural dances and speeches by the students.

There were even some games that were thought up by the students for the teachers to play. Unsurprisingly, I was a high-in-demand participant. These were little competitions to see how quickly you and a partner could work together to do something, so also unsurprisingly I always caused my team to lose (under pressure, people speak their native language…its takes too long to translate. So, it took my team the time for the task plus the translation time).

At the end, the students invited (really, I mean cajoled) the teachers up to the stage for a traditional dance. My protests of “I’m not Bhutanese! I don’t know the steps! Stop nodding and pointing up there, I know you understand I just said no!” fell on deaf ears. However, I was worrying for nothing, for unlike the games, its really hard to spoil the traditional dance we did, as it consists of linking pinkie fingers, and stepping back and forth until the song is over. So, it was actually really enjoyable, and I had learned the whole thing by the end of it (so, at the next big event, hopefully we dance the same dance and I will know what to do).

After the presentations and speeches, we were all served lunch. It was, as usual delicious. Students came around giving us cards and little gifts. I had been warned by the other BCF teachers that sometimes kids give presents that you really don’t feel comfortable accepting because of the price (i.e. kiras and ghos), but I was lucky as all I got was a cup, and about 15 pens; perfect because they were inexpensive so I felt okay accepting them, and because I really needed pens.

Then came my favorite part of the day. At the lunch, the students from Class VIIB (the class I am the homeroom teacher for) invited me to our classroom for tea, along with Zam, my friend and the IT teacher. Well, I was very honored and excited for this, and was practically skipping over there. Zam had some “stomach paining” so didn’t join us (much to my class’s chagrin, I think they were hoping she would translate stuff for them so they could talk in Dzongkha; they often ask her to teach me “much Dzongkha quickly and nicely for miss sarah please madam!” and I think they are disappointed in my progress). However, we had a lovely time- the classroom was beautifully decorated, and I hope the girls were pleased that I came. I sat and tried to drink my way through 2 carafes of naja and one of suja (sweet tea and butter tea respectively) and ate about 50 biscuits. (I could go into a long post about Bhutanese manners and etiquette but let me leave it at they wouldn’t have wanted to drink tea with me as I was their guest and teacher- I promise I wasn’t being rude and greedy eating it all for myself!)

They sat and we got to have a nice chat; they asked me questions about the USA, whether I miss home, what is different about home, whether I like Bhutanese food, whether I like their class (something I am not surprised came up as we were having behavior issues that week….but I explained the concept of always loving someone or something even if its irritating, and hopefully it was understood).

In turn I asked them about their homes, what they thought of Bhutan, if they had ever been outside (the call going abroad here “going outside”…one had been to India across the border in phuntshoeling, but that was all), if they ever want to go outside, how long it takes them to get to school, what do hey want to do when they grow up, and what language do they speak at their homes (one girl is from the east so speaks sharchop….a language which I only know the word for foreigner, which they thought was hilarious). It really made me happy to be able to spend this little bit of time with them where I didn’t have to be teaching them a lesson.

My class VII students are a great bunch, and we spend a lot of time together since I am their homeroom teacher. And, they put up with a lot from me because I don’t know how the system works a lot of the time and being a homeroom teacher includes a lot of extra responsibilities. For example, assigning captains…instead of being able to assign them the first week like I was supposed to, they had to make a list of all the captains that the class needed (its like, 6 by the way…not as simple as it seems!) and what the job responsibilities for each captain were (there is class captain, logbook captain, furniture captain, decoration captain, etc…see I told you, not simple!) and explain it all to me in english (which is their second or third language) so that I could assign them. Needless to say, they have never-ending patience with their “western miss” and I really do appreciate it and them.

 The entry gate for the teachers, and the school captains prepared to hand us flowers

 The really big picture is of the 4th King

I am in shock that it is June, and we have another big celebration (for Sherig Century) on the way…so I am looking forward to that, and hopefully will be better about writing and write about it soon!