I woke up at 5:30 and looked out the window to see a boy up a tree hanging a large START / FINISH banner. About 3 to 4 hundred of the 750 students ran. They get points for their house if they finish the race. Teachers spread out over the race course with "school seals" or what I would call stamps. As the students run past we stamp their body to prove they have not taken a short cut. We also had buckets of water and scoops to dump on the hot kids as they ran by and glucose powder for the students to eat.
 |
| Akari ran the 8K |
 |
| Class 9 girls at the ready |
 |
| THE SEAL |
All this with one week's practising!! The students run hard and most of them finish the race. The last two kilometres are uphill. Do not forget that the school is at 2400 metres elevation. It was a beautiful morning and perhaps too hot for the runners. I was in the shade and enjoyed it all. Refreshments afterward for one and all, and a fun social event.
 |
| Colurful shoes and laces - girls |
 |
| A woman doing her morning dishes |
 |
| Teachers Sangay Palden and RN Batterchargee at the ready |
In the afternoon Class 11 Arts had organized a basketball tournament. Each grade or class could field a team. The teachers (male staff) and Training Practice teachers each had a team. I sat in the sun watching until the clouds rolled in and it poured rain. The teachers are good basketball players and one is almost like a Harlem Globetrotter; funny moves and very entertaining.
This morning it was sunny again so Palden and I waked for over 2 hours to the old Dzong and back. A spot that is along the road, that I wanted to get to. I would have gone down the mountain to the river and the dam, but that would have been another few hours. We got back to cloudy weather so I marked student writing.
My next door neighbours were having a puja, five monks drumming and chanting all day beside me. Horns too. Lots of incense and juniper gets burnt to cleanse for the coming year.
The power went out in the night and has not come back on all day. The children have been in the streets playing all day, due to two factors: power out means no television, and it was a beautiful summer morning. It is unusual for the power to fail for this long here. It usually comes back on within 20 minutes after a lightening strike and sometimes goes out for a scheduled 2 hours of maintenance. Today they do not know why it went out so there is no telling how long it will take to repair. I know that my colleagues in the east can be without power for days and weeks on end. I have very little charge left on both my phone and computer. Of course no contact with Canada and I think both Jon and Andrea are at home in Nelson this weekend :- (
PS. Power back after a day and a half. Jon did not arrive in Nelson so I did not miss any great connections : - )
No comments:
Post a Comment