Blessed Rainy Day

In Bhutan, the official end of the monsoon is celebrated as Blessed Rainy Day. The only responsibility people have on that day is to take a bath to clease the year's sins. The rest of the time is spent picnicing, playing sports, or, if you're this guy, taking the whole family out on the motorcycle:

Whatever one's choice of activity this year, the weather was perfect! There was a little bit of rain but just enough to be auspicious:



My Blessed Rainy Day was made special by the return of many of the BCF visitors who had come over the summer holiday:

They brought with them other falingpa (Sharchop for "foreigners"; the Dzongkha is "chilip") including a powerfully precociously three-year-old:

We went on a hike to the Old Dzong where we watched the monks playing Khuru, Bhutan's favourite multi-hour lawn dart game with elaborate victory dances:

And we saw this awesome spider:

The Sad Tale of Pakora the Cat

This is Pakora the food:

It is made of chopped green onions lathered with a gooey batter and then fried:

This is Pakora the Cat:

I had a LOT of mice eating all of clothes and food so I dreamt of getting a killer kitty to eat them. Then one afternoon, lo and behold, a jili jarim (Dzongkha: handsome cat) just walked through my open door! So I trapped her.

For a day she was a fierce hunter and an adorable roommate. I loved her.

Then she meowed to go out and I decided that she might be someone else's cat so I had to let her go. :(

THE ROYAL WEDDING

His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk and Jetsun Pema are married!
The grand celebrations in Punakha and Thimphu were of course televised on BBS and reported around the world...



... but in my opinion the real excitement was happening here in Tashiyangtse. Just take a look at my three straight days of Royal Wedding celebrations!

Morning of the 13th - Prayers, butterlamps and offerings of khader (ceremonial cloths) at the school:





Followed by the the official unveiling of our magazine of students' wedding art and poetry that I spent hours and hours and hours and hours editing:

Evening of the 13th: Town dance organized by the Tashiyangtse Women's Association of which I am a member:

We tried to make the lighting and decor as funky as possible:

I even got a jazzy dress for the occasion:

Morning of the 14th: Hike with the Scouts from my friend Jigme's tiny Community Primary School in the forest:

Complete with a potluck of a dozen tiny little curry bowls:

Evening of the 14th: Chubardung Star! A flatbed truck was transformed into a sparkling singing competition stage.

My class captain has an incredible voice:

There was also a skit about littering that was hilarious even if you don't speak Dzongkha:

Evening of the 15th: The Annual School Variety Show

With everything from traditional Nepali dances...

...to Lady Gaga:

With adorable small children...

...and extremely talented bigger students. This was my favourite dance of the night. They twirled and flipped their backpacks to a Bhutanese pop song about student life:

I am so lucky to have been in Bhutan for the Royal Wedding.

Long Live the Queen!

Madam Kendra: Quiz Mistress

Anyone who knows me, knows I love trivia. To my great delight, I got to create the board and frame the questions for the 2011 Interhouse Quiz Bowl:






Our biggest goal in planning the game was variety. The hosting was split between me and Sonam Gyeltshen. There was an assigned questions round, a choose-your-own-category-and-point-value round, a multiple choice speed round, and a fastest hand final showdown.



And the winner was....



... Chung House!

Sports, Sports, Sports!

I think one of the biggest surprises for Canadian teachers coming to Bhutan is how important sports are in this country. Here, children's athletic progress is tracked and celebrated as much as their academic work.
Recently, my school hosted the Dzongkhag School Sports Meet. For an entire week dozens of student athletes from every corner of Tashiyangtse slept in our classrooms and played their hearts out on our basketball court, our football field, and our volleyball mud puddle:

All of the participants were served three meals a day from our school kitchen. They could also purchase snack foods like chili chops (battered green chili peppers) from our school's scouting program. I made the sign:

The Dzongkhag School Sports Meet was the grandest celebration of athletics I had ever been to but that record was broken the very next week by our School Sports Day. It completely amazed me. The Opening Ceremony included a march past, the lighting of the Olympic flame, and a fitness dance performed by all 750 TYLSS students in perfect sync:

Throughout the day every class participated in a creative relay race like this one, called The Chariot:

There were also Tae Kwon Do demonstrations in which small children shattered wood with their fists and an amazing gymnastic display by my class fives. Check out this ten-person pyramid!

In Bhutan, even the teachers are involved in sports. Just a couple of weeks ago, my school hosted a Volleyball Day for staff teams to meet, mingle, bump, and spike:

Athletic fun for everyone!