First Day of School

A couple of weeks ago, we told you that we had chosen the Early Learning Center for Hope and Trey.  Eden is also working at ELC as an intern with three other college-aged alumni of the Early Learning Center.  They help around the school and even assist or teach some classes (like Trey's class in the afternoon for Reading).

Hope & Trey's First Day of School Picture: 

 

Eden with one of her fellow interns, Anu:

 

 

On a Bhutan map, you will find ELC along Thongsei Lam and, of course, next to 3 Water Tanks. 

The first day brought it's share of nervousness, new lunch pails and traditional uniforms. 

Girls wear a 'kira', pronounced "keer' a"

Boys wear a 'gho', pronounced "go"

There was also a French movie crew there for the first day taking footage for a documentary about four unique teaching environments in the world (ELC is to be the Asian example).  You will see the crew photo bombing my pictures in several spots. 

Several pictures from the day. 
This is Trey's room:

There are two westerners at the school.  Both of them are characters.  Ivor played drums in a punk rock band in his younger days.  He now is married to a UN diplomat, has two children and is in charge of developing the ELC advocated learning process called DFC (Design For Change). This is a big deal in school for the students. 

'Lizzy' is from Canada (note the Canadian hand motion for 'its cold').  Lizzie is here for the entire school year teaching English to grades 3-5.  In her first day, she asked the third grade class what the national animal is for Canada.  She heard lion, gorilla and zebra before Trey answered 'moose'.  Even though the correct answer is beaver, I believe the Canadian Parliament is now considering changing it to gorilla. 

Pictures of the welcoming ceremonies are below: 

 

Trey lines up with the other third graders. 

Eden, along with all of the other staff, introduces herself to the students. 

Madame Deki is the founder and principal of ELC.  We believe that she is a graduate of Columbia University and was a varsity member of the archery team in her college days. 

Ted here:  Many of you know I was born in Cleveland, Ohio.  I asked this older brother of a current student at ELC if I could take his picture.  He was somewhat surprised I wanted the back side of his head.  The front of his t-shirt read, "Cleveland Indians - 2003, 2005, 2009, and 2013 National League Champions!!!".  The Indians are known as an American baseball dynasty here. 

 

Snack time has rules.  Monday is fruits, Tuesday is salad , Wednesday is celebrated because package foods like Oreo, chips and juice boxes, Gatorade is allowed, Thursday is homemade food day, and  Friday is traditional Bhutanese food day. With snack time being this complicated, we opted for the hot lunch program to allow us to focus on following the snack rules as we get ready in the morning.

This picture is significant because Eden did the artwork on the pail as part of her interning. 

 



With the opening ceremonies over, it was off to class. 

Trey's room is an outbuilding of the main building.  The inside is shown below.

Bhutan advocates Gross National Happiness.  As a result, the acronym is worked into many aspects of ELC. 

Note the bottom left hand corner.  Mean words are especially hurtful to parents.  



ELC has an excellent rural-urban school exchange program. 

Hope on her way to class.  The 6th grade classrooms are in the upstairs of the main building.  

Hope here:  To my 5th grade class (and my teacher back home, Mrs. Ley).  To answer your first question, the marathon had a 16 year-old age limit for the runners, but I really wanted to run also.  We don't know how the 11 year old from Bhutan got to run (in the newscast) but I would have liked to run, too. 

School is different in a good way at ELC. Even though  St. Jude is ahead in most academics than my school here, ELC is stronger in environmental areas and I am learning a lot about Bhutan and their culture. Besides from math, science, etc., we do lots of reusing, reducing and recycling at ELC.   Every day is 5 different periods like 6-8th graders at St. Jude.  Every day has Science, Math, English, Dzongkha(the native language of this part of Bhutan. look below) and Social Studies but mixed up in different order every day.  Wednesday is 'specials' day with art, library, gym and music classes.  We get to wear gym clothes (they call it a 'track suit') all day on Wednesdays.  We also go to school on Saturdays for a short time to learn more about nature, crafts and work on earning money for the Bhutan Kidney Foundation (our ELC adopted charity). This past Saturday we had school elections and I ran for the Sports Coordinator.  We will find out the results next week.

During the week I learned how to count to 10 in Dzongkha. Here is how it goes(I am writing how to pronounce it not spell it):

one = chee

two = nee

three = soon

four = jee

five = gnah

six = doo

seven = din

eight = gee

nine = gho

ten = jickam 

For candy, I really like 'Kinder Joys'.  It is kind of like an Easter egg full of chocolate with a prize inside.  The egg has a little spoon and the prizes are always fun.  The pop comes in tiny plastic bottles and chips come in bags pressurized with air to keep the chips from crumbling. 

It took a long time, but we found the Catholic Church here in Thimphu.  It is a small 20' x 20' one-room building that used to be a garden shed for the nearby office building.  Inside, it has a simple cross with Jesus and two statues of Mary and the stations of the cross on he walls.  There were about 25 people there for services, but no priest.  They prayed, sang songs and read the readings and gospel and a homily.  They translated parts for us (they said parts of the mass in Nepali and parts in English) and they were very friendly.  A priest will be traveling from India to be with this small church during Holy Week. 

Thank you and see you soon!

The 5th grade classrooms are shown below. 

The fourth grade classroom. 

As most everywhere in Thimphu, there is a dog.  This one has puppies under the wood pile in the back. 

I

Ted again:  I recall making a homemade basketball goal in college on Spring Break when stuck in Georgia with car trouble.  ELC also has a similar one that gets plenty of use during recess and after school.  Along with archery and soccer, basketball seems to be the next most popular sport in Bhutan. 

Trey's room again with the mountains (we continue to be surrounded). 

This last series of Trey shows lunch time preparations.  Everyone must wash their hands.  Trey patiently waits his turn, learning what to do along the way. 

Trey, Hope and Eden are doing well at ELC.