Photos of Taktse School

This is the entrance to Taktse School. The top floor
is the hostel area. The rotunda holds the library.

This is the view from the library. You can see the fog rolling in!

The school is full of butterflies right now, thousands of them and at least 100 different types. They are stunning examples of biodiversity at work. Here are just 3 examples. We will post more!

 

Moments of Acquaintance

Thursday Night, August 9

  The past two days have been filled with moments of acquaintance.  Yesterday two students from Taktse school picked us up at the house and took us to the downtown area of Gangtok.  One was a girl in the 11th grade, the other a boy in the ninth grade.  It was raining steadily as we went to town, the kind of rain where it does't feel like it is coming down hard, but all of a sudden you realize you are soaking wet.  We walked down more steps than I could have ever imagined to get to the downtown area, and then shared the road with all of the cars heading up the mountain.

When we arrived downtown, everyone there took a long look at us as we walked by.  It is clear we are anomalies!  As we walked through the promenade our guides pointed out shops and restaurants owned by the families of Taktse students, and we ate at one such restaurant "Taste of Tibet"  We had momos (steamed dumplings), spring rolls that were different than the american style and delicious, as well as vegetable pakoras.

Then they took us to a small shop with souvenirs and to the tea shop, which Rhana (the boy) affectionately called the "junk food" shop.  We picked up a variety of cookies and a bar of soap for ourselves and then took a taxi back to the house.  I can't imagine how we would have ever made it back up the hill by walking!

When we got back to the house we had a lovely time talking with Rhana an Shahgun about Taktse and about sports.  We played a round of Hearts, taught them Rummy and laughed a bit until they had to go home.  

Earlier today we got acquainted with the school.  Around lunch time we took a taxi to the school --  a half hour drive and a 1,000 ft. climb to 6500 ft.  Everyone at the school was very friendly to us, very eager to meet the White Americans.  We met the school dog, the cows grazed through the driveway, and in the courtyard the middle school students were rehearsing for a production of Julius Caesar that they will be performing tomorrow afternoon.

There is a beautiful library at the school with many, many books, including a stack of old Marvel comic books.  Each grade has its own classroom and the halls connecting them are open-air halls overlooking the courtyard.  We have a lot to get used to, but I think we are going to like it there.

In general, the amount of difference we need to assimilate is overwhelming.  I don't see it as culture shock, but as foreign-ness overload.  There is so much to learn and react to (or not react to, like the sign encouraging families not to engage in feoticide….) that we can't possibly manage every moment with aplomb. Still, we seem to come out of the hards moment with a resolve to figure it out, a desire to make it work.  Corrina and Grace have been amazing at that.  There have been some really tough moments where they felt they couldn't move forward, but each time they have found a way to do just that.

Photos of the house

This is our "other bedroom." Originally the girls were
going to sleep here and I was to have a room of my
own. But we are cozy sleeping in one room together and
using the other bedroom as our changing room.

This is the view out of the window in our
bedroom.  It looks out onto the terrace
where the firepit is.

There is a door in our bedroom that opens to
the back of the house.  Here is Doja
(it means "lightening"due to the Harry Potter
like mark on her face) sitting in the
doorway on the first sunny day since
we arrived.

This is where we eat our meals and hang out with
the others who are staying at the house.
We play a lot of cards here too. It is on the floor above our
bedrooms.

Here is Grace on the bed, the bright light is
a new feature for us.

This is the view out the door of our room.
The vegetation is bamboo.

Getting out of our old familiar

     We have arrived in Sikkim safe and sound, a little frayed at the edges from a very long and challenging trip.  We spent both Saturday and Sunday night in the air, first flying from Boston to London and then from London to Delhi.  On the first flight we slept a decent amount, on the second trip not so much!  When we arrived in Delhi at 6AM to discover that our flight had been cancelled and we had been rebooked to another airline, our life in India truly began: within the same hour we were fleeced through an excess baggage fee and we didn't have to lift a single finger to carry a bag because every bag was carried for us.
     The portion of the trip we thought would be easiest and most straightforward was the car ride up to Gangtok in Sikkim.  It started out well enough in an air conditioned minivan with space for all of the luggage with a chance to see the way of life in the towns of West Bengal, but as we got into the mountains the going was difficult to the point where we were stuck in a traffic jam for 2 hours because there had been a landslide ahead of us and they had to remove the dirt before traffic could flow again.  There was no alternative route to take, my Inrix Traffic App would have been useless, there is only one way from there to here in northern India.  So we had to wait for the road to be cleared.
     Our hosts, Pintso, students from the school and the staff at his house had a lovely dinner waiting for us when we arrived and a fire going in the fire pit.  Pintso had brought some of the boarding students down from the hostel to join us for dinner so we got to meet some of the students who Corrina will be in class with.
     Today we spent the day reading, unpacking (actually I am the only one who truly began to unpack!), watching a movie on the computer, playing with the cat, sleeping, playing cards.  We had hoped to go visit the school, but the car that would take us was in the shop.  Tomorrow some girls from Grace's class are going to come meet us and show us around the town.
     Goodnight for now!
     Chris

First Photos

Where we ate our first dinner in Sikkim,
with Pintso and some students.

Grace with the not-so-stray kitten
at the house. 

Chris and Grace on the terrace.

They Made It!

Hey everyone.  I just got off the phone with Christine, Grace and Corrina.  They have arrived safely in Gangtok!  They had a few adventures along the way -- Christine will give you an update on that later.  From Grace I hear that it is cloudy and rainy, so not much of a view at this time.  Corrina informs me that there is a kitten at the house!

Netherworld

We are currently at Heathrow, awaiting our connecting flight. The week leading up to the trip was full of time with Glenn, preparations for the new tenants in the house, too many goodbyes and deep, intense emotions.  As we made our way to Logan Airport there were moments where I seriously doubted my ability to get myself and the girls on the plane to London.  Tears all around when we said goodbye to Glenn, the final acknowledgement of the enormity of what we are about to undertake.  And now we are in that strange netherworld of airport travel, neither here nor there, time suspended, emotions tucked away to allow us to face the intricacies of getting around. I hope we can all sleep some on the plane tonight....