9/6/12-6:36PM
If anyone knows how to import a document into a google blog and can share it that would be great. Since I only have Internet connection when I go to a cafe I am writing these on the iPad and then this morning I copied and pasted it into the blog since I could not find a way to import it. Kind of a pain.
This week is the big Ladakh festival with events all around the region. This evening I watched my first polo match ever. It was the final match of the tournament of the festival. Not to mention that it is on a dirt polo ground on pack ponies at 11,000'!
It took me a little while to figure out that there was no real out of bounds- not even the stupa on the edge of the field, which I had to hide behind a few times. Pretty exciting and the players seemed quite good. After the polo match I returned to Yanchan house for tea (30 min walk up hill from town). Not long after arriving back the British/Kiwi I dental group arrived back at the house and whisked me off to the evening celebration of the festival-another 30 min walk in the dark (lead by a couple of the students who are assisting the dentists) to a village somewhere above the school. The festival was in a large amphitheater filled with local Ladakhis and Tibetans and consisted of about 2 hours of music and dance performances of traditional Ladakhi and Tibetan dances and songs performed by various groups in local costumes. Very nice performances. Some of the local instruments were very interesting (variations on guitars and numerous hammered dulcimers which I was surprised to see here in Asia). The walk home in the dark was fun, avoiding traffic and playing and racing with the kids.
I may have already written this, but.... This morning (Thursday) I went over to the school met some of the teachers and the vice principal ( who told me I would be teaching classes and will start tomorrow-OK), watched the morning assembly of martial exercises and announcements by students in their red and blue uniforms, accompanied by teachers walking around with switches (brought back memories of school in Kanpur). After thatI walked to town, found the Open Hand Cafe ( where we had been last year) and discovered that they have free wifi (for the cost of a good coffee), which is nice since the Internet cafe's don't have wifi and I can't use the iPad there.
Yanchan's house: The house is a very nice little compound directly across the street from the Lamdon School about 2 km walk above the town. It is quiet and especially nice to not hear the regular call to prayers we heard last year. The house is a traditional Ladakhi style, 3 stories with large log ceiling beams and plaster wall surrounded by a thick plaster wall around the compound. Inside there is a beautiful flower garden, with some vegetables and a few apple, nimbu and apricot trees (where I currently sit,enjoying the morning the tea,waiting for breakfast and enjoying the view of the surrounding snow-capped Himalayas). Interestingly, there are a couple of hop vines growing up the walls and along stringers. With the growth of home brewing in Bend and our neighbor growing hops along the fence at home, I was interested in whether they used them for anything- apparently just ornamental. The house has 3 floors with about 10 rooms total and,I believe 5 guest rooms (2 bathrooms, with Indian style showers (including hot water!) and one western and one squat toilet. There is power in each room, but the power to the town shuts down every night from about 12-8 (keep a headlamp available).
Yanchan lives here with her husband Dorjay( a local policeman). She has 2 older daughters who are in school in Delhi, although one, Yandil, is here helping take care of the dental group. Her young nephew, Sumil is also staying here, and we have become pals. There seem to be a number of other students from the school and various family members who show up occasionally. The house is not heated, except for the one large room with the TV, and that and the kitchen become the main living quarters once winter hits in December, temps drop to -20, snow arrives and all the tourists leave. Then, the rest of the house is sealed up until March. Although this is supposed to be a "homestay" the house runs more like a guesthouse and Yanchan, Dorjay and Yandil are very insistent on cooking and serving us as well as calling me Sir. Hopefully that is something I can change soon-kind of uncomfortable. There is often incense burning and Dorjay seems to be an observant Buddhist, walking around the house chanting every morning. Yanchan also places a brass bowl of dried cow shit and dried high alpine flowers to burn in the yard to bring good luck to us all.
Fellow guests: There are currently 8 other guests at the house. The dental team from UK and New Zealand running the dental screening of all the students at the school consists of 3 dentists and dental assistant, one dental student and 3 nineteen yr old freshmen volunteers from the University of Sheffield. They have been running the clinic for 4 days and leave on Sunday. They had previously done a trek before the clinic. yesterday a few of them did the man bike ride down from Khardung le (highest road pass in the world, 18000+'- I hope to do it next Sunday) and today they took a bunch of their student helpers and Yanchan on the Zanskar river raft trip. I decided not to go, since we did it last year and the weather is not so nice today- they will be cold! Last evening, I joined them at the Leh View Hotel ( their normal evening hangout on a roof top above the main market) for "special tea"- the hotel does not have a liquor license, so they serve the Godfather beer in a teapot-alcohol is strong at altitude!
The 3 young students do not leave until Monday(I think they have been here for a month) and 2 of them signed up to do the 10k version of the marathon. We also convinced 2 of the young girl students who help them to sign up. In addition to the marathon there is apparently a 72k race from the top of the Khardung Le pass to town!
Tonight, we will all be going out to dinner with Yanchan , Dorjay and a lot of the other helpers.
Bill Kite: Expat American who lives in Singapore, Leh and Katmandhu and runs trekking in Leh and Nepal, but also runs the dental, eye and women's health programs at the school and in the outer villages. I Have heard a lot about Bill from Bend friends who have been to the school twice for the dental clinic. I have met Bill for a short time the other day in the eye clinic at the school, and unfortunately he leaves for Singapore soon. I think he is coming to dinner tonight and hopefully I can get info from him and his Sherpas about trekking Annapurna circuit. I was also hoping to get into the northern remote Nubra Valley with him sometime but I guess I will have to find another way (just found out yesterday the the physics teacher comes from a village there and I may be able to arrange something with him). The women's health program in the remote villages is interesting, as it appears cervical cancer is one of the biggest killers of women. The basic problem is absolutely no gynecology care or even understanding of human reproduction, so the basic program is to convince people to allow screening and then bring doctors into village and do it. Apparently in 3 years they have gone from 20 women to several hundred. They are also working with smith Klein to bring HIV vaccines into the area.
9/9
First day at the school: Well, nothing like jumping in without much warning or planning. Yesterday (Friday) I showed up at school in the morning and met with Mr. Eshey (principal) for a little while and some tea. Two of the science teachers came in ( both young women who have been at the school for 3 months- one chem and one bio) and I went off with them. To the new science building-just opened and dedicated by the Dalai Lama 3 weeks ago. The chemistry teacher decided I should take/teach her two tenth grade classes while she worked on registering them for the big exam coming up. Figured out what they had been doing (periodicity) by asking the kids and then carried on two forty min class discussions. Sounds like I will be teaching more of her classes and she wants to observe some. I know my style of discussion is very different then their normal lecture presentation. School ended soon after. Interesting schedule:normally their is a half day of school on Saturday, except for the 2nd Saturday of the month, which is a holiday and then theFriday is a half day. After school I had lunch in the girl's hostel (about half the students come in from remote villages and are sponsored and live in the dorms). And then went to watch the house track and field competitions for awhile.
Very interesting school schedule. School is closed from Dec15 until March, because it is so cold. Many families leave and go to Kashmir or other areas and the kids attend schools there. Many of the one's that stay send their kids to special classes in town during the winters, but apparently many of the others (especially the sponsored students- return home and do nothing).
It turns out that this is the first year the school has taught any science beyond 8th grade and now it is just the 9-11 grades- no 12th grade science. I understand that they didn't have any lab facilities before now, but I don't understand why they didn't teach it before this- especially since they seem to largely just lecture anyway...... Now the 10-11 students choose " Medical" (bio and chem, no math after 10(?)) or "no medical" (physic, chem and maths, no bio) tracks.
I find the behavior of the Ladakhi girls surprising and very different than I expected based on previous experiences with Indian: Hindu/Muslim where they seem more timid and don't interact with the boys very much (maybe that is from stereotypes from my school in India 45 years ago and descriptions from literature and movies). Anyway, the girls seem very outgoing, smart and their interactions with boys seem very similar to the US.
Apparently the regional Internet server has been down for a few days, so I can't post this. Hopefully in a couple of days.... Also I have been told that within a week the school will have wifi and I should be able to connect there- will believe when that happens. Sad news is that the Open Hand is closing for the season next week.There goes the free wifi and I hope there will still be some places that stay open that serve good coffee.If not I may have to take the restaurant's advice and find a press coffee maker and buy a bag of their beans.
I also now have a cell phone: Yanchan leant me an extra SIM card: for emergencies while I am in Ladakh my number is: 979-745-4248 (not sure what the Indian code is)
This morning I "ran" high above the city to the Nezer Stupa in Gompa village.While there I tried the phone and called Shannon and Emily. Nice to hear them and amazing how clear it was. Seems that it costs about 8 rupees/min-not bad. I need to get the card recharged with minutes though and will try to call Josh tomorrow.
Did recharge the card (easier than I thought) but it is too late to call Josh- either this evening or tomorrow after the race. I also found a toy store and bought 3 shuttle cocks for 30R. Now "Smelly" and I can play with a real shuttlecock instead of a rolled up sock! Of course there is still no net.
9/9
Got to open the second card from Shannon-nice- this morning.
Just got home from finishing the first ever Ladakh marathon 10k in 1:02 at 12,000' after 5 days acclimation and stopping to take pictures at the top of the course. Not shabby for an old guy, and looking around I am pretty sure I would have won my age group if there is such a thing. I'll have to check out the results at ladakhmarathon.com once the Internet is back up (the main server to the region has been out for 3 days). This morning most of the dental team left (it was definitely nice having some nonIndians to talk with and I will miss them,minute I do get to move upstairs into a nicer room with a private bath and western toilet!) except for 2 of the 19 yr old Brits, Chris and Chris. We did the race together with 2 of the girl students from Lamdon School who were helping with the dental clinic this week ("T" and Lammo) also another boy student Rigsden, but he was much faster.
The scene was like no other race I've ever done. It started with the fact that we had been told the race started at 6 AM sharp! So, we got a ride in the cold and dark and arrive before 6. Turns out the marathon started at 7:15, the half a bit after and ours even later, so we spent a good hour and a half hanging around high above Leh at the Japanese stupa with 1500 other participants in a somewhat controlled chaos waiting for the mayor to arrive and get things going. The racers consisted of 95% Indians and Ladakhis and the few Europeans and Americans who heard about it. There were many kids from the local schools participating because it was free for them ( with a t-shirt) and a large number of soldier groups. Many people were wearing jeans and some even in regular street shoes. One euro "hippy" barefoot runner with long white hair and beard, a few euros in costumes even and bunch of young girls in white hajibs ( I assume from a Muslim school). There was an organizer yelling over the loudspeaker continuously saying something in Ladakhi about the 42 and 21 k races and telling people to sit in certain places. Eventually most of the participants were sitting on the ground around the stupa organized by race with occasional outbursts of yelling when what seemed like a Japanese newspaper photographer would take pictures. Eventually the 42k participants (looked like about 100) were brought to the start while everyone else was kept at the Stupa. They took off and then chaos as the half marathoners were release to head to the start about 100 feet below. It was almost another race as they surged down and then eventually took off. The 10k participants were left at the top and treated to a rainbow over the snow covered peaks to the south. After watching the chaos at the start of the half we knew what to expect and stayed at the rear watching the crazy rush to the start line again- even wilder than before! We stayed at the back for the first 1k (all downhill) and slowly worked through the crowd. Overall the race was downhill with one large switchbacky climb which most people (including me) walked. A long flat section and then a long downhill to the finish. Groups of young kids would surge ahead on the downhills and then fall back on the flats and climbs. People (including many of the soldiers) would take shortcuts across the switchbacks and I bet took 2k off the distance!
The 2 Chrises finished in the high 40s and I was happy with close to 1h. Then2 girls came in a ways back but it was the first race they had ever done.
At the finish there was a Bollywood band and many of the students dancing. Also many police and soldiers with automatic weapons and officials screaming at people. We hung around for awhile and then walked back to town for breakfast and eventually back to the house ( about another 4k uphill) hoping for a hot shower. Of course the power is out and their no hot water!
Electricity and hot water finally came on around 3 and then we headed down to Lehview Hotel to have "special tea" and so the Chrisses could say goodby to,t and Lamo.
9/10
Woke up with no I'll effects from the race and proceeded to experience one of the strangest teaching days ever! First, it is going to be difficult getting used to starting school at 10- I wake up at 6 and will have to start running or something after I do my exercises and before school.
So, today was the secondary school's celebration of National Teacher Day- an all day program planned and put on by the 12 class (seniors), and no classes. At the morning assembly with all kids sitting on the field in front of the temple, which starts with a buddhist prayer, singing national anthem and announcements, I met a number of other teachers including another chem teach (tsering) who is very qualified and almost completed a phd in inorganic chem and material science- much more qualified than the young woman I taught for on Friday. I also discovered that there are a number of teachers who have just started at the school within the last 3 weeks- kind of odd since it is near the end of the term..? Apparently the new teachers and I will be introduced formally tomorrow morning at the assembly and receive our Kathas (silk scarves used to honor guests)
Anyway, after the assembly all the students were told to go to the Hall by 1030. At 1030 the entire student body of the secondary school (6-12) were seated on the floor of the auditorium with all of the teachers sitting in chairs around the edge. On the way in we received khatas and cards and presents-actually all morning the students were giving cards and small gifts to all of the teachers.
Then the show began and the students sat on the floor from 1030-4 with a 45 min lunch break! The show started with a few speeches by seniors about teachers- some in English and some in Bodhi (Ladakhi)-, but mostly various groups of students doing choreographed Bollywood to dances to very loud Bollywood music. Some in costumes and some in just normal clothes. There were a few songs by a small rock band and a few students sang. At times the audience would get very excited and dance, but mostly,they sat and seemed to enjoy it for almost 6 hrs. Every so often they would stop the performances and call out teacher names to come on stage and participate in games. During the call up for musical chairs I heard "Sir David" and had to go of course. Of course all the teachers were dancing to the Bollywood music and it got pretty competitive. They seemed to think it was funny when I ended up sharing a seat with a woman teacher and neither of us would get up. They also seemed to like when I pulled the sit out from another woman teacher. It got a bit weary for me by the end, but was well,done and the students seemed to like it. The RHS student leadership could learn a lot about assemblies from these kids!
Went downtown after school to see if the Internet was up yet. Still only the satellite is working- the fiber optic cable to the whole region is cut. I was able to get some emails in and send a few that I had already composed before it shut down again. Hopefully things will get better soon. I did get an email from Shannon asking if I had felt the Chinese earthquake ( did not even know about it) and realized how cutoff I have been- I have not seen or heard any world news in a week. I then walked by the meditation center to find out about yoga classes but it was closed. Checked out KCs- a restaurant that has music , outdoor movies, afire and music every night- I think I will go Friday- they close down on the 25th.
At the Internet cafe I met 3 people ( 1 girl/2guys) from Telluride who were trying purchase tickets out to Delhi and had just completed a kayak expedition of the Zanskar and something that feeds it. It was interesting that they knew Dave Farney, who ran the climbing school I went to in 68 in Telluride. I have lost track of them and wasn't even sure if Dave was still alive- found out he is and even where he is now living. Another small world event.
On the way out of school today I ran into a young Italian woman looking lost. Turns out she is a lecturer in philosophy at a university in the Netherlands here for a week to volunteer at the school. She had been put into an elementary class this morning to teach and had been given about as much information as I got. She was totally confused about how things worked and I think I helped a little, although I am also feeling a bit uniformed still. I did tell Mr Eshey that I wanted a couple of days observing in the regular teacher classrooms before being expected to teach. He seemed OK with that, so hopefully I will do that tomorrow- I especially want to see Tsering teach.
Almost forgot the most illuminating event of the day in terms of differences in culture. When I asked Mr Eshey, principal, wear the bathroom was: his response, with a wave of his hand over the fields around the auditorium," if you need to urinate anyplace, or there is a bathroom in the main office"! I can piss almost anywhere, but it definitely felt strange doing it on a school grounds!
9/11
No observations today- the physics teacher is absent and I am the sub- no lesson plans or any idea what he is teaching. Not to mention that the 2 11th grade classes meet twice on Monday and Tuesdays. The first period class ended up being class pictures anyway and we spent the entire class outside waiting for the principal to show up for the picture.
So far LOTS of classroom disruptions.
Yanchan told me last night that the "lecturers" (highest ranking Teachers with masters) make a lot of money, 30,000R/ month (about $600)! I couldn't. Bring myself to tell her we make 10x that and that that is pretty low for a professional in US. She also told me many teachers
Eave the private schools for govt teaching jobs, because of the security and pay, but that many get sta
If anyone knows how to import a document into a google blog and can share it that would be great. Since I only have Internet connection when I go to a cafe I am writing these on the iPad and then this morning I copied and pasted it into the blog since I could not find a way to import it. Kind of a pain.
This week is the big Ladakh festival with events all around the region. This evening I watched my first polo match ever. It was the final match of the tournament of the festival. Not to mention that it is on a dirt polo ground on pack ponies at 11,000'!
It took me a little while to figure out that there was no real out of bounds- not even the stupa on the edge of the field, which I had to hide behind a few times. Pretty exciting and the players seemed quite good. After the polo match I returned to Yanchan house for tea (30 min walk up hill from town). Not long after arriving back the British/Kiwi I dental group arrived back at the house and whisked me off to the evening celebration of the festival-another 30 min walk in the dark (lead by a couple of the students who are assisting the dentists) to a village somewhere above the school. The festival was in a large amphitheater filled with local Ladakhis and Tibetans and consisted of about 2 hours of music and dance performances of traditional Ladakhi and Tibetan dances and songs performed by various groups in local costumes. Very nice performances. Some of the local instruments were very interesting (variations on guitars and numerous hammered dulcimers which I was surprised to see here in Asia). The walk home in the dark was fun, avoiding traffic and playing and racing with the kids.
I may have already written this, but.... This morning (Thursday) I went over to the school met some of the teachers and the vice principal ( who told me I would be teaching classes and will start tomorrow-OK), watched the morning assembly of martial exercises and announcements by students in their red and blue uniforms, accompanied by teachers walking around with switches (brought back memories of school in Kanpur). After thatI walked to town, found the Open Hand Cafe ( where we had been last year) and discovered that they have free wifi (for the cost of a good coffee), which is nice since the Internet cafe's don't have wifi and I can't use the iPad there.
Yanchan's house: The house is a very nice little compound directly across the street from the Lamdon School about 2 km walk above the town. It is quiet and especially nice to not hear the regular call to prayers we heard last year. The house is a traditional Ladakhi style, 3 stories with large log ceiling beams and plaster wall surrounded by a thick plaster wall around the compound. Inside there is a beautiful flower garden, with some vegetables and a few apple, nimbu and apricot trees (where I currently sit,enjoying the morning the tea,waiting for breakfast and enjoying the view of the surrounding snow-capped Himalayas). Interestingly, there are a couple of hop vines growing up the walls and along stringers. With the growth of home brewing in Bend and our neighbor growing hops along the fence at home, I was interested in whether they used them for anything- apparently just ornamental. The house has 3 floors with about 10 rooms total and,I believe 5 guest rooms (2 bathrooms, with Indian style showers (including hot water!) and one western and one squat toilet. There is power in each room, but the power to the town shuts down every night from about 12-8 (keep a headlamp available).
Yanchan lives here with her husband Dorjay( a local policeman). She has 2 older daughters who are in school in Delhi, although one, Yandil, is here helping take care of the dental group. Her young nephew, Sumil is also staying here, and we have become pals. There seem to be a number of other students from the school and various family members who show up occasionally. The house is not heated, except for the one large room with the TV, and that and the kitchen become the main living quarters once winter hits in December, temps drop to -20, snow arrives and all the tourists leave. Then, the rest of the house is sealed up until March. Although this is supposed to be a "homestay" the house runs more like a guesthouse and Yanchan, Dorjay and Yandil are very insistent on cooking and serving us as well as calling me Sir. Hopefully that is something I can change soon-kind of uncomfortable. There is often incense burning and Dorjay seems to be an observant Buddhist, walking around the house chanting every morning. Yanchan also places a brass bowl of dried cow shit and dried high alpine flowers to burn in the yard to bring good luck to us all.
Fellow guests: There are currently 8 other guests at the house. The dental team from UK and New Zealand running the dental screening of all the students at the school consists of 3 dentists and dental assistant, one dental student and 3 nineteen yr old freshmen volunteers from the University of Sheffield. They have been running the clinic for 4 days and leave on Sunday. They had previously done a trek before the clinic. yesterday a few of them did the man bike ride down from Khardung le (highest road pass in the world, 18000+'- I hope to do it next Sunday) and today they took a bunch of their student helpers and Yanchan on the Zanskar river raft trip. I decided not to go, since we did it last year and the weather is not so nice today- they will be cold! Last evening, I joined them at the Leh View Hotel ( their normal evening hangout on a roof top above the main market) for "special tea"- the hotel does not have a liquor license, so they serve the Godfather beer in a teapot-alcohol is strong at altitude!
The 3 young students do not leave until Monday(I think they have been here for a month) and 2 of them signed up to do the 10k version of the marathon. We also convinced 2 of the young girl students who help them to sign up. In addition to the marathon there is apparently a 72k race from the top of the Khardung Le pass to town!
Tonight, we will all be going out to dinner with Yanchan , Dorjay and a lot of the other helpers.
Bill Kite: Expat American who lives in Singapore, Leh and Katmandhu and runs trekking in Leh and Nepal, but also runs the dental, eye and women's health programs at the school and in the outer villages. I Have heard a lot about Bill from Bend friends who have been to the school twice for the dental clinic. I have met Bill for a short time the other day in the eye clinic at the school, and unfortunately he leaves for Singapore soon. I think he is coming to dinner tonight and hopefully I can get info from him and his Sherpas about trekking Annapurna circuit. I was also hoping to get into the northern remote Nubra Valley with him sometime but I guess I will have to find another way (just found out yesterday the the physics teacher comes from a village there and I may be able to arrange something with him). The women's health program in the remote villages is interesting, as it appears cervical cancer is one of the biggest killers of women. The basic problem is absolutely no gynecology care or even understanding of human reproduction, so the basic program is to convince people to allow screening and then bring doctors into village and do it. Apparently in 3 years they have gone from 20 women to several hundred. They are also working with smith Klein to bring HIV vaccines into the area.
9/9
First day at the school: Well, nothing like jumping in without much warning or planning. Yesterday (Friday) I showed up at school in the morning and met with Mr. Eshey (principal) for a little while and some tea. Two of the science teachers came in ( both young women who have been at the school for 3 months- one chem and one bio) and I went off with them. To the new science building-just opened and dedicated by the Dalai Lama 3 weeks ago. The chemistry teacher decided I should take/teach her two tenth grade classes while she worked on registering them for the big exam coming up. Figured out what they had been doing (periodicity) by asking the kids and then carried on two forty min class discussions. Sounds like I will be teaching more of her classes and she wants to observe some. I know my style of discussion is very different then their normal lecture presentation. School ended soon after. Interesting schedule:normally their is a half day of school on Saturday, except for the 2nd Saturday of the month, which is a holiday and then theFriday is a half day. After school I had lunch in the girl's hostel (about half the students come in from remote villages and are sponsored and live in the dorms). And then went to watch the house track and field competitions for awhile.
Very interesting school schedule. School is closed from Dec15 until March, because it is so cold. Many families leave and go to Kashmir or other areas and the kids attend schools there. Many of the one's that stay send their kids to special classes in town during the winters, but apparently many of the others (especially the sponsored students- return home and do nothing).
It turns out that this is the first year the school has taught any science beyond 8th grade and now it is just the 9-11 grades- no 12th grade science. I understand that they didn't have any lab facilities before now, but I don't understand why they didn't teach it before this- especially since they seem to largely just lecture anyway...... Now the 10-11 students choose " Medical" (bio and chem, no math after 10(?)) or "no medical" (physic, chem and maths, no bio) tracks.
I find the behavior of the Ladakhi girls surprising and very different than I expected based on previous experiences with Indian: Hindu/Muslim where they seem more timid and don't interact with the boys very much (maybe that is from stereotypes from my school in India 45 years ago and descriptions from literature and movies). Anyway, the girls seem very outgoing, smart and their interactions with boys seem very similar to the US.
Apparently the regional Internet server has been down for a few days, so I can't post this. Hopefully in a couple of days.... Also I have been told that within a week the school will have wifi and I should be able to connect there- will believe when that happens. Sad news is that the Open Hand is closing for the season next week.There goes the free wifi and I hope there will still be some places that stay open that serve good coffee.If not I may have to take the restaurant's advice and find a press coffee maker and buy a bag of their beans.
I also now have a cell phone: Yanchan leant me an extra SIM card: for emergencies while I am in Ladakh my number is: 979-745-4248 (not sure what the Indian code is)
This morning I "ran" high above the city to the Nezer Stupa in Gompa village.While there I tried the phone and called Shannon and Emily. Nice to hear them and amazing how clear it was. Seems that it costs about 8 rupees/min-not bad. I need to get the card recharged with minutes though and will try to call Josh tomorrow.
Did recharge the card (easier than I thought) but it is too late to call Josh- either this evening or tomorrow after the race. I also found a toy store and bought 3 shuttle cocks for 30R. Now "Smelly" and I can play with a real shuttlecock instead of a rolled up sock! Of course there is still no net.
9/9
Got to open the second card from Shannon-nice- this morning.
Just got home from finishing the first ever Ladakh marathon 10k in 1:02 at 12,000' after 5 days acclimation and stopping to take pictures at the top of the course. Not shabby for an old guy, and looking around I am pretty sure I would have won my age group if there is such a thing. I'll have to check out the results at ladakhmarathon.com once the Internet is back up (the main server to the region has been out for 3 days). This morning most of the dental team left (it was definitely nice having some nonIndians to talk with and I will miss them,minute I do get to move upstairs into a nicer room with a private bath and western toilet!) except for 2 of the 19 yr old Brits, Chris and Chris. We did the race together with 2 of the girl students from Lamdon School who were helping with the dental clinic this week ("T" and Lammo) also another boy student Rigsden, but he was much faster.
The scene was like no other race I've ever done. It started with the fact that we had been told the race started at 6 AM sharp! So, we got a ride in the cold and dark and arrive before 6. Turns out the marathon started at 7:15, the half a bit after and ours even later, so we spent a good hour and a half hanging around high above Leh at the Japanese stupa with 1500 other participants in a somewhat controlled chaos waiting for the mayor to arrive and get things going. The racers consisted of 95% Indians and Ladakhis and the few Europeans and Americans who heard about it. There were many kids from the local schools participating because it was free for them ( with a t-shirt) and a large number of soldier groups. Many people were wearing jeans and some even in regular street shoes. One euro "hippy" barefoot runner with long white hair and beard, a few euros in costumes even and bunch of young girls in white hajibs ( I assume from a Muslim school). There was an organizer yelling over the loudspeaker continuously saying something in Ladakhi about the 42 and 21 k races and telling people to sit in certain places. Eventually most of the participants were sitting on the ground around the stupa organized by race with occasional outbursts of yelling when what seemed like a Japanese newspaper photographer would take pictures. Eventually the 42k participants (looked like about 100) were brought to the start while everyone else was kept at the Stupa. They took off and then chaos as the half marathoners were release to head to the start about 100 feet below. It was almost another race as they surged down and then eventually took off. The 10k participants were left at the top and treated to a rainbow over the snow covered peaks to the south. After watching the chaos at the start of the half we knew what to expect and stayed at the rear watching the crazy rush to the start line again- even wilder than before! We stayed at the back for the first 1k (all downhill) and slowly worked through the crowd. Overall the race was downhill with one large switchbacky climb which most people (including me) walked. A long flat section and then a long downhill to the finish. Groups of young kids would surge ahead on the downhills and then fall back on the flats and climbs. People (including many of the soldiers) would take shortcuts across the switchbacks and I bet took 2k off the distance!
The 2 Chrises finished in the high 40s and I was happy with close to 1h. Then2 girls came in a ways back but it was the first race they had ever done.
At the finish there was a Bollywood band and many of the students dancing. Also many police and soldiers with automatic weapons and officials screaming at people. We hung around for awhile and then walked back to town for breakfast and eventually back to the house ( about another 4k uphill) hoping for a hot shower. Of course the power is out and their no hot water!
Electricity and hot water finally came on around 3 and then we headed down to Lehview Hotel to have "special tea" and so the Chrisses could say goodby to,t and Lamo.
9/10
Woke up with no I'll effects from the race and proceeded to experience one of the strangest teaching days ever! First, it is going to be difficult getting used to starting school at 10- I wake up at 6 and will have to start running or something after I do my exercises and before school.
So, today was the secondary school's celebration of National Teacher Day- an all day program planned and put on by the 12 class (seniors), and no classes. At the morning assembly with all kids sitting on the field in front of the temple, which starts with a buddhist prayer, singing national anthem and announcements, I met a number of other teachers including another chem teach (tsering) who is very qualified and almost completed a phd in inorganic chem and material science- much more qualified than the young woman I taught for on Friday. I also discovered that there are a number of teachers who have just started at the school within the last 3 weeks- kind of odd since it is near the end of the term..? Apparently the new teachers and I will be introduced formally tomorrow morning at the assembly and receive our Kathas (silk scarves used to honor guests)
Anyway, after the assembly all the students were told to go to the Hall by 1030. At 1030 the entire student body of the secondary school (6-12) were seated on the floor of the auditorium with all of the teachers sitting in chairs around the edge. On the way in we received khatas and cards and presents-actually all morning the students were giving cards and small gifts to all of the teachers.
Then the show began and the students sat on the floor from 1030-4 with a 45 min lunch break! The show started with a few speeches by seniors about teachers- some in English and some in Bodhi (Ladakhi)-, but mostly various groups of students doing choreographed Bollywood to dances to very loud Bollywood music. Some in costumes and some in just normal clothes. There were a few songs by a small rock band and a few students sang. At times the audience would get very excited and dance, but mostly,they sat and seemed to enjoy it for almost 6 hrs. Every so often they would stop the performances and call out teacher names to come on stage and participate in games. During the call up for musical chairs I heard "Sir David" and had to go of course. Of course all the teachers were dancing to the Bollywood music and it got pretty competitive. They seemed to think it was funny when I ended up sharing a seat with a woman teacher and neither of us would get up. They also seemed to like when I pulled the sit out from another woman teacher. It got a bit weary for me by the end, but was well,done and the students seemed to like it. The RHS student leadership could learn a lot about assemblies from these kids!
Went downtown after school to see if the Internet was up yet. Still only the satellite is working- the fiber optic cable to the whole region is cut. I was able to get some emails in and send a few that I had already composed before it shut down again. Hopefully things will get better soon. I did get an email from Shannon asking if I had felt the Chinese earthquake ( did not even know about it) and realized how cutoff I have been- I have not seen or heard any world news in a week. I then walked by the meditation center to find out about yoga classes but it was closed. Checked out KCs- a restaurant that has music , outdoor movies, afire and music every night- I think I will go Friday- they close down on the 25th.
At the Internet cafe I met 3 people ( 1 girl/2guys) from Telluride who were trying purchase tickets out to Delhi and had just completed a kayak expedition of the Zanskar and something that feeds it. It was interesting that they knew Dave Farney, who ran the climbing school I went to in 68 in Telluride. I have lost track of them and wasn't even sure if Dave was still alive- found out he is and even where he is now living. Another small world event.
On the way out of school today I ran into a young Italian woman looking lost. Turns out she is a lecturer in philosophy at a university in the Netherlands here for a week to volunteer at the school. She had been put into an elementary class this morning to teach and had been given about as much information as I got. She was totally confused about how things worked and I think I helped a little, although I am also feeling a bit uniformed still. I did tell Mr Eshey that I wanted a couple of days observing in the regular teacher classrooms before being expected to teach. He seemed OK with that, so hopefully I will do that tomorrow- I especially want to see Tsering teach.
Almost forgot the most illuminating event of the day in terms of differences in culture. When I asked Mr Eshey, principal, wear the bathroom was: his response, with a wave of his hand over the fields around the auditorium," if you need to urinate anyplace, or there is a bathroom in the main office"! I can piss almost anywhere, but it definitely felt strange doing it on a school grounds!
9/11
No observations today- the physics teacher is absent and I am the sub- no lesson plans or any idea what he is teaching. Not to mention that the 2 11th grade classes meet twice on Monday and Tuesdays. The first period class ended up being class pictures anyway and we spent the entire class outside waiting for the principal to show up for the picture.
So far LOTS of classroom disruptions.
Yanchan told me last night that the "lecturers" (highest ranking Teachers with masters) make a lot of money, 30,000R/ month (about $600)! I couldn't. Bring myself to tell her we make 10x that and that that is pretty low for a professional in US. She also told me many teachers
Eave the private schools for govt teaching jobs, because of the security and pay, but that many get sta
I finally have reasonable Internet connection and posted when I could. I will go back and finish and edit today tonight at home and try to post.
ReplyDeleteI am also going to try and post some pictures on FB in a minute.