Since I did not want to sit around in bend this fall I searched for other volunteers options in interesting places where I thought my skills as a science teacher would be useful. I quickly found the small UK based foundation HELP (Himalayan Education Lifeline Program: http://www.help-education.org/) run by a retired teacher. The foundation sends teachers to needy schools in the Himalayas in Northern India (Ladakh), Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan. I applied was accepted and after a lot of back and forth by email finally decided the best fit would be at the Lamdon Model Secondary School in Leh (http://www.help-education.org/indiaschools.html#ladakh). Where I think I will be working with the science teachers and students in the new science wing that was dedicated by the Dalai Lama this month.
Description form the website:
This is a large, well-appointed school with 38 classrooms, a computer
room and well-stocked library, situated in Leh. There are 50 full-time
local teachers teaching 1200 students aged 4-18. The Lamdon Society
school network caters primarily for the poorest children, with children
from middle-class families subsidising scholarships for the poorer
children.
Bucket shower
Female volunteer accommodation
Girl's hostel
Accommodation will be in a hostel in the school grounds, and is
suitable for a female volunteer, or a couple. A single man would need to
be accommodated in a guest house (there would be an extra monthly
charge for this, over and above the standard HELP payment for board and accommodation.)
The school year begins at the beginning of March and ends
mid-December, There is a two-week summer holiday from the last week of
July to the first week of August. The last assignment of the year should
begin no later than early September
If you are interested in volunteering at the Lamdon Model Senior Secondary School, first read our volunteer webpage, and then please click on the button below and complete and send the application form.
I leave the US (by myself) on September 3and am excited to return to Leh, a small quiet Himalayan city (that was partially destroyed in the gigantic floods 2 summers ago) with many Tibetan refugees where we spent 10 days as tourists last summer. I am hoping to explore the region a lot more and become more familiar with the Himalayan culture. After 2 months in Ladakh I will head to Nepal to trek the Annapurna Circuit for a month and then will spend about a week in the Himalayan foothills in India around the hill station of Nanital (where my family spent vacations when we lived in Kanpur in 1966) and the Jim Corbett Tiger Sanctuary. I return to Bend on December 9 in time for ski season.
Two of the pictures at the top of this entry of the town were taken when we were in Leh last August. The other two pictures are of an assembly at the school and one of the buildings that were taken by my dentist and former neighbors Dave and Lyn Cauble. I had not realized they were going to Leh until last week when they returned from a Dental mission that is based in the school I will be working in! Small World.
