Pictures & Notes

Sometimes writing these blogs is easy and there are things I know I want to say. And then other times a lot of things have happened that I could talk about, but I can't write a blog explaining them. The past two weeks have been like that.

I've realized that I have taken so many pictures since being here but I've only uploaded a few. So, since I don't have the words, I'll let the pictures talk for me. I'll even go back in time to pictures I took when I first got here to shed a little more light on my life here.

(I was just looking at this post and discovered that if you click on the pictures they actually get bigger. Who knew?? ...  you probably did)

This is the vegetable market in Paro. The vegetable market that I go to in Bajo looks very similar. I've gone to the vegetable market in Bajo twice now and always stock up on produce. When that runs out, I buy vegetables from Thinleygang. The vegetables in Thinleygang are not very good though and I buy just enough to hold me over until I can get into town again. 

Truck drivers here put so much effort into decorating their trucks. Some even have colorful lights that decorate their trucks for night driving. 

The wood carving in the Dzongs and for many religious articles, such as alters in peoples houses, is incredibly intricate. This is a closeup of a beam in the Dzong below. 

This Dzong is being built in Bumthang. Because it's still in the early stages of being built, we were able to take pictures inside. It's almost all hand carved wood. 

The god of judgement - taken at Punakha Tshechu. On either side of him is a man dressed in all black and a man dressed in all white to signify the good and evil forces in our lives. 

This is one of my favorite pictures I took while in Gasa. The cows here in Bhutan always appear so forlorn - as if they don't know they are standing in arguably the most beautiful place in the world.  

It finally started to rain during the past two weeks. The dust is settling and everything is becoming greener, making this place somehow more beautiful - taken from my balcony. 

The girls and I had to stop one day on our morning walk to school to admire the monastery sitting amongst the trees and clouds.  

Dechentsemo had the Minister of Education pay a visit to our school last week. I asked Dawa (far left) to borrow a ratchu - a ceremonial scarf. She asked which kira I planned to wear for the Minister's visit and then decided that I not only needed a ratchu but an entire outfit, jewelry and all. 

Fellow teachers and I waiting to welcome the Minister of Education to our school. The minister talked to us about the initiatives being taken my the ministry and their 10-year plan to revamp education here in Bhutan.  - more on that to come in a later post. 

By the way, no one here actually smiles in pictures. So if the future pictures of me are lacking a smile, it's because I always feel like a grinning fool standing next these people.  

In order to welcome the Minister, all of the teachers lined up at the school gate. The Minister's car parked just outside the gate and he walked down the line, shaking hands with all of the teachers. 

Lhendup Dorji proud of his egg masterpiece on Easter Sunday. 

Actually painting Easter eggs, rather than dying them, was really neat because it allowed the kids to get creative and use details. This is a mountain landscape that Kinley Pem painted on her egg. 

A few finished eggs and our palette. 

The kids were very excited and quite amused at the idea of painting eggs.  They didn't realize until the end of the day that the eggs were hard-boiled and that they got to eat them after. 

The finished product - beautiful eggs and a group of proud budding artists. 

During tutoring, Tshring started playing with my hair - which I obviously encouraged. Unfortunately it turned into an entire makeover for me. 

Yesterday at school, my friend Lhamo organized a student - parent debate. It was a really cool event where parents who live in our community came by to express their opinions on hot youth-related topics and the students were able to replay with their own views. 

In honor of sibling day that was sometime this week, here is a picture of my family according to one of my students. Just me and my two brothers, enjoying life in our Gho's and Kira's as always. 

And the farthest throwback, to Feb 3. 

A few other notes that I don't have pictures of:

1. The family that owns my house had a Puja last week – or a religious gathering where family comes into town and they pray a lot, sit around and talk, and eat a lot of food. Not far off of what I would have done with my own family if I had been home for Easter, which makes their Puja perfectly timed. I was invited to join them for dinner and even joined them in some post-dinner traditional dancing. 

2. Sam Blyth and a group of BCF’ers and other Canadians also paid Thinleygang a visit. I actually heard the sentence, “Ah Kalamazoo, I know right where that is. It’s not far from my friends who live in Michigan.” WOAH BABY. Someone here in Bhutan who knows my hometown? I was able to show them around school in the morning and have an incredible dinner with them Saturday night.  - - - shout out to Sam, Andrea, and everyone at BCF for making this possible J.

3. I bought my first real kira – no hooks or Velcro for this girl. 

4. And, finally, life goes on. My next goal while here is to immerse myself in my community as much as possible and be more present.