School on Saturday

Outrageous to their Canadian counterparts, Bhutanese students have school until noon on Saturdays. Saturday begins, like Monday through Friday, with fifteen minutes of service before morning assembly. Here, three boys are cleaning my classroom, a dusty, dusty job:

Morning assembly looks very different on Saturdays because classes Pre-Primary and One are not present and school uniforms are not required. The foreground shows the School Captain and two beat boys whose turn it was to lead the prayer and anthem:

Ordinarily, students would have two regular classes on Saturday. Today was special. We held a ceremony to dedicate the new computer lab. A ribbon was untied by our most senior and distinguished lopen:

He performed the first official computer room act, typing the ultimate expression of Bhutanese well wishing, "Tashi Delek":

This is our I.T. teacher, my good friend Tshering Choki:

After the inaugeration, the students conducted a mass cleaning of the campus, the chorten grounds, and the bazaar area. I was in charge of a team of Class Three students collecting litter below the football (soccer) field:

 This is the garbage pit where the litter was to be thrown,  modelled by an absolute ham for the camera. "Just one more picture of me, Mam! Please. Just one more!"

My overwheming feeling throughout experience was wishing I taught Class Three. Adorable.

I leave you with a photo of some senior students with the unenviable task of cleaning the outhouse buildings:

On Monday we'll really really start teaching.