Sikkim Sojourn: April 2013

This last weekend I had the great pleasure of taking 5 Taktse girls (two of them were my own as well!) on a 3 day trip to West Sikkim. The terrain there is similarly mountainous, but the vegetation was a bit more like home. There was grass growing on the side of the road, many deciduous trees that were just starting to put out leaves -- it smelled like Spring there! Pelling is about 35 miles from Gangtok as the crow flies, over 70 miles along the road and a 5 hour trip in the car -- slow driving along the a highway where almost any misjudged turn could send you over a cliff.
The main purpose of the trip was to visit an old friend of mine, a Sikkimese man who had attending Waring School with me in the mid-eighties. He returned to Sikkim in 1984, finished schooling and is now the Head of an elementary school for village children, many of whom have parents who cannot read. It was incredible to see someone who I hadn't seen in 30 years, I don't think that has ever happened to me before. When we arrived at his house, he was waiting outside and we both looked at each other, scrutinizing each other's faces for some recognition of the young person we once knew. I don't think that either of us saw much of that original face!
Here are some photos of our trip, including a stop in Ravongla to visit a new monument the Sikkimese government just finished building -- Buddha Park. All of these photos are courtesy of Grace.

Tashi on the Waring Southern Trip,
1983

Why is it we are nervous about the unknown? When I made the plans to visit my old friend Tashi, who attended Waring for 2 years at the same time I was there, I was excited by the prospect of seeing him again – I had so many questions for him about what it was like to go to America at such an age, traveling from such a place as Sikkim. We spoke on the phone for a few minutes to make plans and our conversation was easy, some old familiarity/fondness communicated from both sides. Still, as we got closer to Pelling and his home, I started to get nervous about our visit; two days and nights to spend with someone you haven't spoken to in thirty years seemed long if it was going to be awkward and stilted between us. I wish I could say that my nervousness was unfounded and that all went smoothly as if we had seen each other yesterday. The fact is, although it was a lovely visit there was something missing in the connection, something that I couldn't lay my finger on, perhaps something colored by all that happened to him between the time he came back to Sikkim and now, perhaps some difficulty on my part in finding points of connection other than our past at Waring. I was able to better understand what it was like for Tashi to live in America for those two years, to see that he valued that experience greatly. I also got to see that his appreciation led to giving back to his old school in West Sikkim and now to young village children who are often the first members of their families to attend school. He hasn't lost his distinctive laugh, nor his wry sense of humor, nor his matter-of-fact way of describing the nature of himself, of people and of the world. Tashi has grown into exactly the kind of person Waring, and his sponsor family in America, would have wanted him to be: kind-hearted, thoughtful, and an educator who has dedicated himself to giving back what he received in his own education.
I have a feeling we will see each other again, in the same way I know that our family will be back in Sikkim soon enough. I find it remarkable that because of the action of a Sikkimese man and a hometown Gloucester woman, I could be sitting in a guest house in West Sikkim sharing photos of an old bus, tri-cornered hats and the historical landmarks of downtown Beverly.