catching up...

Well, I'm not sure what to write about-there are so many things: cooking; driving; market and teaching. school started last week. the new high school is still in the process of being constructed so the labs, swimming pool and other extras are not finished. the basketball court was finally completed on friday. henry took his ball on friday to play and at some point the ball accidentally went into the very fast himalayan river next to the school. emma and henry adjusted well during their first week. they both wore their bhutanese uniform of goh and kira. we go to our neighbors each morning to make sure the uniforms are put on properly. we have got the goh down pretty well but the kira is very difficult to get "perfect" as expected at morning assembly. the students are very respectful and i get many "good morning madam" throughout the day-even after lunch. the first day was funny since no one knew where my schedule was. eventually, i met each class and by tuesday i had my schedule set-until thursday when they decided to switch me to biology. so, today i start my class 11 and class 12 biology classes in addition to class 10 and class 11 english. in bhutan, the teachers go from class to class and the students stay in the same room for the entire day-except for tea break and lunch.

well, that's the catch up on school and i must run to get ready for today's classes. more later about life in general.

Takin Preserve

We drove up to the Takin preserve to see the National animal-the takin (pronounced t-/short o/-kin. The legend says that a great Master performed the miracle of combining the two animals-goat and deer to demonstrate his powers. We walked up a trail to see the takin late in the afternoon -during feeding time. The takin were originally in a "zoo" but then released because Bhutan did not want to keep the animals in captivity. But the takin still stick around and are able to be viewed at certain times of day. The road leading to the preserve goes up a large "hill" or mountain (since Thimphu is close to 8,000 ft) past a 15th century monastery and the valley where the Ministers of govrnment and Royal family reside. On the way up, we passed several Bhutanese mountain bikers. The road is just up at a steep grade-it's like Bhutan's version of a Tour de France climb. Luckily we were in a vehicle and able to drive to the top where the BBS (Bhutan broadcasting service) broadcasts from. The pinnacle is covered in prayer flags. We parked at the takin trail head and walked through a very green forest with a grassy floor and tall pines looming. Three extremely large deer were grazing (about the size of elk) and off in the distance we could see takin. From our perspective, the takin move like bears. One mama takin had a baby following closely behind, trying to nurse every chance he or she could get. There were about 10 to 12 in the group with only a couple of young takin close enough to see the "goat head" and deer body. We didn't hear any sounds from the animals. We also saw very small deer with antelope like antlers. On the way back to the car, we saw a group of children playing "world cup" soccer. Each child was rooting for a particular country wearing respective jerseys. They were all smiles and practicing a few english phrases with use-mainly "you're welcome." The view from the mountain was vast with the surrounding himalayan foothills and the city of Thimphu below. On a nearby hilltop is the giant Buddha in construction (engineered by the Japanese). Even though scaffolding surrounds the body, the statue glows in the sunlight.

Got our visa extensions today-yay!

Settled into our new home

Last Saturday, we moved into our new and final home in Thimphu. We live very close to town and within walking distance to most shops and the Memorial Chorten. Straight down the hill (across the Thimphu "expressway" and the through Harmony Square where the Thai temple is located) is the Swiss Bakery and Art Cafe. We went to the Swiss Bakery on our first day to Thimphu. Apparently, this cafe was THE place maybe ten or twenty years ago but not exactly the best place now. We had veggie sandwiches and Henry had a loaf of french bread. The bread actually was pretty good and I used it later to make garlic bread (as best as I could without an oven and a two burner propane stove). Next door to the Swiss Bakery is the Art Cafe-today's version of the old Swiss Bakery I 'm guessing. We were in good company with other ex-pats. The kids ordered panini and I had the Bhutanese fried rice-very good. The cakes and pastries looked authentic but we passed as the prices are pretty authentic too!

Our new home is a two-storied duplex (pronounced "Duplay" here ). We are in Bhutanese luxury-we even have someone to meet the trash. In fact, we can leave the can out at this place. The dump trucks have "donated by Japan" printed on the sides. Bhutan is trying to start a recycling or reduce campaign. We bought our "eco-Bhutan" bag at the farmer's market last Saturday. We have a sitting area, three bathrooms, dining table with chairs (we didn't have at the cottage) and wi-fi. Our neighbors are very lovely people who have helped in many ways, including giving a ride to the hospital for my "medical clearance" for the work permit to teach. The doctor smiled saying, "you look healthy" and signed the release.

Another happy characteristic of our new home is "Daisy", our neighbor's dog. She is six years old and very well cared for. She is a cross between a german shepherd and a Bhutanese mastiff. But she looks just like my childhood dog-Grendel. She has warmed up to us and we put a water bowl out the back door for her. She really liked licking the mackerel off the bowl after I made "crabby patties" (you know-from Sponge Bob) the other night.

Last week, we visited the school where I will be teaching and the kids will be attending. I just found out that I will be teaching English, Science and Commerce to Class 10 and 11. I will also be teaching some environmental education, specifically about insects. Monday, the kids and I went to walk the grounds to see what was there. We found huge holes made by long horned beetles in walnut trees. I mean huge-as in beetle holes that I have never seen the size of before. We found one dead skeleton of a beetle-big enough to bore the holes. There are many apple, pear, and walnut trees. The school is closed for break until July 19th so we still have time to get used to the time zone and daily life here in Thimphu.

Yesterday, we "hired" a car. Our neighbor's aunt has a car that she hires out. Of-course, I will have to learn to drive here-on the left side of the road with the shift on the left side as well. Everyone seems to be pretty confident in me driving here-except me. I haven't figured out the roads-most of them are one-way. I can already feel the urge to turn right and I'm not even driving yet. And apparently, my US license will work here? Can't imagine that.

My favorite thing about our new home is the outdoor garden. It is small but quaintly paved and is home to my favorite trees-deciduous magnolias. There are two magnolias outside our windows with huge deep lavender colored blossoms. These are the same trees that I special-ordered for our house in Seattle (one was destroyed by late-night college students). We also have an apple tree full of nearly ripe apples, a persimmon tree with very young fruit, pink rose bushes, red dahlias and wild-growing nasturtiums (we see them everywhere). This morning, a group of birds were eating aphids off the apple tree right outside our living room window.

Well, we must finalize our visas today-our entry ones expire tomorrow. Best to everyone:-)

Adventure to Taktsang

The day we arrived, Saturday June 26th, was a much-anticipated day. I had originally planned on staying in Paro two nights. The practical side of me thought that staying in a hotel with accommodations including a restaurant would help the kids and I transition into our new home abroad. Bhutan is the first country that Emma and Henry have been to outside of the US. So, I expected some "bumps" in the transition from microwaves, wi-fi, and fast food to who knows what kind of cooking situation we would have in our new cottage. Plus, I didn't want to have to shop and cook after three days of little sleep and multiple airplane rides. The buddhist and not-really-superstitious-but-why-push-my-luck side of me researched the auspicious days and inauspicious day lunar calendar. Saturday, June 26th, was the full moon day and a very auspicious day of the month. The following two days were very inauspicious days-specifically "not good days for making a new home." So, it seemed that Saturday was the "best" day to hike to Taktsang-plus I am eternally optimistic. We told our driver to pick us up at 10 am (we arrived at 7:30 am by plane from Bangkok). We changed clothes and climbed into the vehicle to drive to the trailhead-a twenty minute drive from the town of Paro. We stopped in town to get a box of bottled water. We parked in the small lot past the large farm houses on the road leading to the trail. As we got out of the land cruiser, Gobin, our driver said that he would take a piece of paper that he had used before for entry. I wasn't really sure what he meant and he didn't understand much English. We started up the trail. The trail is "UP" and up and up for two and half hours. The actual temple is about 9,000 or 10,000 ft-I don't recall the actual height. But we travelled from Seattle which is about sea level. No altitude acclimation, three days of traveling and all the preparations in Seattle that prevented much sleep or reflection combined lead to the point of me asking, "what was I thinking climbing to Taktsang today!" I felt like a foolish planner but was thrilled to be doing something outdoors and full of blessings immediately upon our arrival. Taktsang is one of the holiest sites for Tibetan Buddhism. Padmasambhava, who brought Buddhism to Tibet, rode on the back of the tigress (Yeshe Tsogyal) who flew up to the retreat cave on the cliff. We were probably one of the last groups to begin our hike up. I remembered that when I went to Taktsang last September the temple doors closed at 1pm. I had a sense of urgency but my legs did not want to move. I had to rest many times and was reminded of trekking in Tibet at 16,000 ft-no air and little energy. Emma and Henry seemed unaffected-they practically ran up the trail. Must be all those lacrosse practices and games. We made it to the half-way point where the restaurant is. Gobin went inside to arrange for our lunch on the way back down. We still had not eaten anything since our 1 am room service breakfast in Bangkok and the slightly appetizing food on the plane to Paro. Finally the trail leveled off and we began descending the granite steps that lead to the waterfall bridge and the extremely steep steps that go back up to the temple entrance. Hundreds of prayer flags hung across the cliffs and the waterfalls. Emma, Henry and Gobin were waiting for me as I climbed the last flights of stairs, passing Yeshe Tsogyal's hermitage and the signs warning about the vicious dog. We were the only western looking pilgrims and we received many smiles from passers by. At the check-in point, we had to hand over our electronics, cameras and phones-no pictures are allowed inside. The guard asked for our permit. I didn't even know that we needed one and realized what Gobin was talking about back at the car. Gobin talked to the guard in Dzongka without much success. It was clear that we had to have a permit. Then the guard asked me where I would be working. I mentioned the school where I will be teaching and then added a name of a person who I would also be working with on the non-profit project-a name that I knew would carry some weight (some of you will know who). The guard asked me for my hat, he wrote down my name and we entered. I was told later that no one is ever allowed to enter without a permit. We went into the first temple where the actual cave of Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal is. The entrance is covered in an ornately carved brass doorway. We received holy water, ribu, and blessing cords from the monk attendant at the cave. From there, we were able to go to all the temple, caves and springs within the complex. I brought prayer flags to hang and they were blessed by a lama at one of the caves and springs. In each temple, we did full prostrations and made offerings. In the last temple-the highest one in the complex, we were welcomed inside. There was the Jowo Buddha and a Lama doing pujas. After our prostrations he motioned for us to come over. He tied blessing cords around each of our necks, gave us the saffron water to drink and then blessed our heads with an original page from the Kangyur text-the sutras from during the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. I was amazed and grateful at our good fortune. We retreated out of the temple to find two westerners trying to talk their guide into letting them into the temple that we had just been in. Their argument was that they had come all this way. But the guide refused to let them enter. We saw them later in the restaurant. Clouds began covering the sky and we collected our things from the guide after drinking water from the Yeshe Tsogyal spring. Up, up the granite stairs that have no railing and no protection from the serious drop down the mountain. Luckily, Emma and Henry did not seem concerned in any way. We hung the prayer flags across the trail and thunder sounded. A storm was definitely close by. We made it back up to the main trail and began our descent to the restaurant. We took the short cut through the tress and fabulous views of the Taktsang temple. Thunder and lightning surrounded us and we made it safely to the restaurant where the cooks brought out a buffet of traditional Bhutanese foods for our first meal in Bhutan. We were hungry. As we ate, a small cat approached us and sat under the bench where we were. The rains came and began to pour outside the restaurant. Pouring as in "monsoon" pouring. The couple that we saw up at the temples came in with their guide. The guide looked at over at us with a smile. He was impressed with our prostrations in each temple and encouraged his charges to do the same. I went over to a woman who was eating with her guide. I asked if she was traveling alone. She had been traveling for twenty days from Southern California. It was her last day before heading home. She was very nice to meet. Our guide disappeared and we wondered if he left without us but that just didn't seem very likely. He showed back up at the restaurant and we were ready for our hike back down-in the monsoon rain. I couldn't believe that I had not brought rain jackets or umbrellas. I thought about it-but the sky was blue when we left our hotel (unprepared hiker). Luckily, my legs were happy to go down the red clay trails. Red clay just like Georgia. From experience I know how slippery red clay gets in the rain. We went as fast and as cautiously as possible. We watched the rain turn into a small stream into a full wet weather creek heading down the mountain. By the time we got back to the land cruiser, we were all four completely-I mean completely!-soaked. Thank god for waterproof Asolo hiking boots and water wicking shirts. But the kira skirt was heavy with rainwater and red clay splashes. I felt bad that we would soak Gobin's land cruiser but he seemed fine with a smile. We drove back to the hotel and happily changed into warm dry clothes. We slept and woke at 7 pm for dinner in the restaurant-we were the only guests. It rained all day the following day. So glad we didn't hike on Sunday. We did go to Kichu Lhakang on Sunday to make offerings and pay our respects. The National Museum was closed so we stayed at the hotel, slept, ate and watched Indi TV-episodes of Castle, Glee and Friends (which I despise). It continued to rain all day and all night. Monday morning the skies cleared to blue skies and the temperature was warm again. We loaded up the land cruiser for our one hour drive to Thimphu. On the road was land slide after land slide with boulders in the road from the rains on the previous day. Women were sweeping rocks and dirt off the winding road and cars took turns in the only lanes without mud and boulders. We arrived to Thimphu in 45 minutes. I guess the lunar calendar was pretty accurate after all and Saturday was in fact the best day to climb to Taktsang-what a great way to start our adventure in Bhutan.

We're not in Seattle anymore

I know I promised a blog about our hike up to Taktsang-that will follow shortly; but I just had to write about our first successful trash pick-up experience. When we moved into our new "cottage" I asked about where we put our garbage. Our very nice landlady said, "Oh, they will come by and you just take it out." Okay, I thought-when, what time, what if we aren't here? I asked what day and Ugyen said, "Oh, I don't know. They alternate days. They will honk when they arrive." So, after two days and quite a lot of garbage from our packing and Henry's x-box wrappings, I wondered about the garbage. The next morning (extremely early) I heard some honking. Later that morning, I figured that the honking must have been the garbage truck. That was three days ago-still lots of garbage. No trash can, no bags-just random boxes with refuse. So, this morning at 6:00 am I heard honking off in the distance. I looked out the window and saw a neighbor girl waiting at the road with a large bag of trash. I hurriedly gathered all of our boxes, emptied trash containers into our "compost" and piled about twenty empty plastic bottles into two cardboard boxes. Emma and I took our boxes out into a light mist and waited with our two neighbors. Eventually, we saw the truck back up into our little dead end spot. I watched as neighbors down the street handed their containers; the garbage collectors empty whatever was handed and then returned to the person on the street. Finally our turn arrived-we handed the person in the back of the truck our two boxes (we actually had three boxes but one was so collapsed that we combined it with another). The trash pick up person dumped out all three boxes and then cleaned them out and handed them back to us. I looked at the one box with the giant hole and the grease marks from our macaroni and cheese night and handed it back to him. He gave me that bobble of the head and took it after a long pause. I wonder what he thought I could do with the box. And we're not talking strong cardboard-we're talking about that really soft cardboard that practically melts when damp. All that compost and all those plastic bottles. A guilty conscience for a Seattleite. At least we have our cardboard to reuse.