Almost summer break 110 exams to go

A short movie by Rob. 

http://youtu.be/a9hpj4A-h-w

 He says that I have not exaggerated about anything really -the fog, -the roads, although he does not really see the mould as a problem.  It really is not that awful I guess.  However tonight I took out my luggage and it was green and yellow and mouldy.   It all brushed off and Rob made the comment that I should get one of the face masks the kids wear when they are sick for my housecleaning. 


My alternative to Safeway: 

Fresh veggies

Everything else 

Exams and summer break

Today my students write their second exam.   I will have 120 papers to mark - about 20 hours at least. . . 

Guess that will be an extra piece of luggage. 

Rob and I will be going to Bumthang (not a city) and staying at the River Lodge with the BCF teachers for 3 days.  AFter that . .  explore Bumthang, then back to Paro to put him on the plane on the 8th.  

Am already feeling lost without him.  :( 

A movie

Rob created a short movie of our day in Wangchu and the party at my place on Saturday evening.  It can be found at : 

http://youtu.be/dI0gBJrlBzU

NEW LINK  LAST 1 DID NOT WORK:)

http://youtu.be/dI0gBJrlBzU

TIME AND TIDE WAIT FOR NO MAN

Each morning teachers sign in in the principal's office.  I was flipping through to find my page and saw May, April, March, February slip by.  Where have the months gone?  Agonizingly slowly they passed by as I was struggling to adjust.  Now they seem to have evaporated. 

At home the months and seasons have markers for me.  The lilac tree, snow melting and familiar school holidays.  Here all is new.  My markers are election holidays, Lord Buddha's Parinirvana, and Guru Rinpoche's birthday.  

Of course a memorable marker of time will be Rob's visit.  He has already been here a week.  On Sunday we traveled to Wangchu with Namkha, fellow teacher and archer.  Archery is Bhutan's national sport and they play with expensive compound bows.  The targets are tiny and they are shooting 145 metres. We walked to a picnic site at the river which is raging brown with monsoon waters.  I had not noticed the "beware of snakes" sign on my previous visit with Dave.  Rob and Namkha saw a large cobra cross the road later in the day. 

Compound - target is between red flags tine

The river valley was hot and  muggy.  We walked up towards the Lakhang (temple) built on an old Dzong site they uncovered while excavating for the dam.  I had found drawings of the dzong in 1783, in a great old book I discovered in the library.  The book contains diary excerpts and sketches by Samuel Davis, a cartographer on an Indian/English trade exploration to Bhutan.  He was a talented artist and the drawings are fascinating.  Walking up we came across traditional archery being played with bamboo bows and arrows.  A significantly larger amount of local ara was being consumed at the match.  The shooting distance is about the same, less hits on the target, due to either a lack of accuracy or perhaps ara. 

Traditional - you can see the target behind the middle man

Wangchu is labeled Chukha on many maps and is in the valley bottom at 1650 metres above sea level.  Tsimilakha is on google earth at an elevation of 2350m.  The drive is about 14 to 16 kilometres, crisscrossing the mountainside.  Wangchu village sits almost directly below Tsimilakha and you can peer down at it from our school picnic grounds.  

Zangdopelri Lakhang

Wangchu views

EXAMS PART II

Day I    

Brand new horse in my "driveway"

Rob and I go for a morning walk at 6:30 am  where we meet many students walking, notebooks open, choral chanting their notes.  

"Morning Ma'am.  Doubt ma'am."  

I am asked to explain n a feature of language.  Most students are studying the questions from past exam papers. 

These exams are high stake as there are not enough seats in classes 11 and 12, so only the top students qualify.  Exams count for 80% of the mark. 

My students write their English 1 first day. I spend the 3 hours going from room to room (the students are spread out) answering doubts.  I'm very happy to be allowed to help them with their questions.  My students finish 1 hour early!!  It takes them two 55 minute classes to write an essay.  How have they managed the entire paper in 2 hours?  We discuss answers in detail and they tell me the exam was easy . .. or easy and hard.  I ask if I will enjoy reading their essays or if they have vomited their words onto the page. (vomit- a word I use teaching essay writing) 

Day II 

Students walking the streets at 5:15am, chanting their notes 

Observations: 

•During my supervision a teacher dropped off little bits of string??? I had to unravel the string and give pieces to the students.  They poke a hole in their paper and tie the pages together. 

•I get a large plastic bag and key to the room where I supervise.  The bag has the exams (exact numbers) and answer sheets with an official ministry stamp on them. 

•I return the completed exams, all in order, by roll number and sign them in. 

•I count and sign for every paper that I have to mark

•I sign every sheet of used paper in my exam room

•Principal drops in and scolds a student for having his hair too long

•Teachers on exam duty get phone calls. . . and answer them 

Me in the morning

 . .. . there is no relief for supervisors. 

EXAMS PART I

Here I sit on exam duty.  I am supervising 32 quiet students who are writing their 3 hour long Dzongkha I or English I paper.  In language classes students write two 3 hour papers.  In English 9 the first paper is 350 word expository essay, a business letter, 10 marks on the Nature of Language and 30 marks of grammar questions.  Next week they will write their literature paper.  Four sections of 20 marks each:  short story, novel, essay and poetry.  Both the short story and novel they have already studied, the other two are unseen. 

In class 9 the question papers are written by the teacher.  Grade 10 and 12 have ministry exams at the end of the school year.  I believe there are ministry exams in class 6 also.  I had past exams to use as models and found myself very much sticking to the model and teaching to the exam.  The one change I think I may have introduced was to ask students to understand what they have memorized.  For example the Nature of Language the students have memorized:  "Language is a systematic means of communication by using words, conventional signs and symbols."  They even have actions to go with it.  On the quiz I gave, students were shocked to lose marks when they substituted convectional of conventional. uh oh . . .  they need to understand and be able to explain it to me, relating the definition to the purposes of language (which they have also memorized).  

I will see see if they have succeeded when I mark their papers. 

Paro with Rob

Rob arrived safe and sound, we traveled to Thimphu to get his travel permits, and went back to Paro to stay at the now famous Gangtey Palace.  For me it is famous because I seem to go there so often.  

Today is the date that Guru Rinpoche's birthday is celebrated and we went to Takseng.  We weree advised to go early, so left the hotel by 5:10 am and were hiking by 5:40.  We really beat the crowds and had the altar rooms virtually to ourselves.  Many people were on the trail while we were going down. 

We then cam back to Chukha and I get the sense that both the roads and my living quarters are beyond what Rob could have imagined. 

Sunny Days

From the damp to 3 beautiful sunny days.  Feels like summer, students fainting in the sun during the assembly.  I have had many thoughts but no real time to record them so I will leave you with only one.  I woke up in the night and the Bhutanese National Anthem was stuck in my head.  I cannot even really sing it (friends and family know my absolute lack of singing ability) but I mumble along reading the words most days. 
ok a second thought.  Rob arrives on Sunday. 

The damp

It has been so damp humid that when I sit on my seemingly dry wooden chair, my butt gets wet.  Clothes I hang in my room after 2 days outside, turn on the heater and wait another 2 days.  When I put on clean clothes, they are damp.  Getting into bed to my clean crisp sheets is, well, damp.  
The funny thing is you just get used to it.  
Photos - last year reading other Bhutan teachers' blogs I saw a similar photo of clothes drying- here it is. 

Heater under line, bed to the right 

This mornigg dawned clear and bright.  A mountain wind has blown the fog away and it is beautiful.  I am off for my walk.  

Trees that I have never seen before

Culinary delights

I bought local baby potatoes and they are cooking in the pressure cooker right now.  Another head of local broccoli as I ate the last one in 3 days.  For the first time I am braving local cow's milk to cook with.  It came in a plastic 1.5 litre brandy bottle and is still warm.  I am making my version of kewa datse - potatoes, cheese sauce and very few peppers.

In Search of Dawa Koto

     In class 9 the students read Dawa, The Story of a Stray Dog in Bhutan.  Today I started taking photos of the stray dogs to find Dawa for my students.  I had no idea that some dogs do not like having their photo taken and object by running after you and barking.  One dog stopped and posed for me! 

     The weather is more changeable than in the Kootenays.  I truly live in a cloud close to heaven and the mist goes drifting by.  This evening it cleared and the clouds and mountains are indescribably beautiful.  Maybe because they are so much nicer than the fog??!! 

     I blushed today.  My students have to submit their portfolio to me in person They have signed up for a 10 minute block of time during lunch or after school in groups of three.  I get the sense that this is very strange for them- to sit with a teacher and talk about their work, although I know they must have done it in elementary school. They love to write poems and one student had written about me - because I am unforgettable!! Blush blush.  

     I was mobbed during gardening today as students are trying to get information from me about their exam.  They have studied 2 short stories and only one is on the exam.  I absolutely will not tell them which story it is, but they keep trying to trick me into telling them.  

     All in all a fun teaching day, my Head of Department observed one of my lessons. 

Posing . . . Dawa has mange too

Thanks to my loyal readers

I just want to say thanks to everyone who is following me.  The stats are incredible. 

Had a rough day today what with my gas cylinder leaking, having had to replace it and now the regulator.  The fumes gave me a brutal headache and it kept me up all night.  Funny how these things happen when you have big deadlines.  Exam papers are due tomorrow.  I was not trying to leave them until the last minute, but will be bumping along in the morning. I am wondering if Bhutan stretchable time applies in situations like these? 

I went to morning study to day to see a student and got soaked to the skin, with an umbrella and a raincoat.  My kira was soaked to my knees.  I keep thinking the rainy season has begun and then a new level of humidity hits :) 

Fun things:  A local woman arrived at my door yesterday morning with a traditional basket on her back full of fresh local broccoli.  I am doing a remedial English class and the top students have starting showing up. I got locked out of the staff room after school where I had left my keys, books, computer, phone, all important umbrella.  The guys (teachers) were playing volleyball in the mud and fog. I ate so much Thai vegetable curry tonight that I can actually use the Bhutanese phrase "I am fully packed". 

Nite all - I should really work on the exam paper. . . but will probably sleep and stretch time. 

Sunny morning walk

I thought I would post similar photos to those posted in the winter (March 7th My Morning Walk) as the scenery has changed as the rain and summer green up the countryside.

Logging below the village

Check out the raven on the cow's back.  Sleepy sunny morning for the noisy night time howlers

Foggy marking

Piles of marking

I have a table set up to look out.  Here is the foggy view as it changes:

The changing view through the fog out my balcony door.