5-11 May

The week began with a state of “no government”. The proprietor, Mdm Sangay and her husband were off to Hong Kong for business engagement. Mr Tshering will be going on a month long leadership course in Brisbane, Australia.

Mr Tshering plays a pivotal role in getting things moving in the school, so inevitably, I felt a sense of loss. But I knew Mr Tshering should go for the course so that RHSS will benefit from his leadership after he comes back. No one should be indispensable in any organization. A great leader must always ensure that the organization run smoothly even in the absence of his presence.

I was pleasantly surprised when I learnt that Dr Wang will be the acting principal. I suddenly found myself a substitute for Dr Wang’s lunch partner in the absence of Mr Tshering. It’s a blessing to have Dr Wang around.

Dr Wang started the week by calling an impromptu staff meeting and get the month’s events in order. It was the first staff meeting I attended since I came to the school. It was useful because it clarified the events that will be happening in May.

The staff welcomed Dr Wang’s initiative of renovating the toilets of the staffroom and the proprietor office. He explained the importance of having a “presentable” toilet for the staff. The condition of toilet usually reflects an organization’s image and how it values the staff welfare. It doesn’t speak well of the leaders or the organization if the basic needs was not even adequately looked into. Well-said and an element of truth in it. Right at the bottom of my heart, I also knew that Dr Wang is going to bear the cost of the renovation again. He has a generous heart and he is always giving.  

I brought up the coming events of the scout camp and the last PD session on 31 May. It was a selfish thought of mine when I secretly hoped that the PD session will be cancelled so that I can go on my weekend trek.

“The school was always busy with many school events that I could never have the full attendance of the staff”. As I made this comment to the staff, I suddenly realized that the negativity began to seep in without me realizing it.

The staff did have a legitimate reason for not being present in the PD session because many of them have official duties elsewhere. Dr Wang supported the last PD session because it was Mr Tshering’s initiative and I will be doing the 7 effective habits of Steven Covey.

The kids had unit test on 5-7 May. I availed myself to help in the invigilation. The system was quite different compared to Singapore.  Students were not allowed to go to the toilet during the unit test and the teachers were only relieved 5 minutes per session during their invigilation duty. Singapore teachers are so fortunate.

I set my mind on the planning of the scout camp on 9-11 May. As the students have unit test till 7 May, I could only call the scouts to a meeting on 7 May. Calling the scouts to a meeting was another challenge because we do not have morning assembly during Tuesdays and Thursdays. I finally managed to get the message across to all the scouts with the help of the Dzongkha HOD, Lop Ugyen.

Tandin and Ugyen assisted in the buying of the camp food, together with the 2 students. It was an arduous task because we were catering food for about 60 students and staff. It was little wonder that the 2 teachers said it will be the first and the last time they will be buying the food for the camp again.

A little hiccup emerged when I realized that there was no gas cylinder for the camp. Mr Bishnu presumed Lop Passang has spare gas cylinder and Lop Passang has none. The issue was resolved when the office staff, Pasang, went to the gas company to top up the gas cylinder and delivered to me in school at about 7 pm in the evening. I was very touched by many helpful people like Lop Passang and Pasang (the office staff). All logistics and rooms were settled at about 8 pm, just before the school closed.

The camp started with a setting of the tone for the camp. I had to wear different hat during the camp. Scouts must understand the importance of punctuality in the camp and I sought the common consensus with the teachers. If we want the scouts to be disciplined, we need to model our talk.

Handing up consent form is another issue. It reflects the accountability towards self and school. One student had to go home to take his consent form as he forgot to bring it to the camp.

We were blessed to have 2 YHSS scout leaders, Sonam Dorjie and Dorji Gyeltshen to help us in the camp. They were a great help. I had always felt handicapped with my inability to speak Dzongkha and not being able to inject Bhutanese flavor of scouting into RHSS scouts. Together with the 4 teachers, Sonam and Gyeltshen boosted the unit with their zest and enthusiasm.

Dr Wang came to visit us during the camp when he dropped by the school to “supervise” the toilet renovation.

Karma and Kelzang were in charge of the meals. I realized to my dismay that they took upon the responsibility to cook instead of getting the students to cook. It was never my intention to ask them to “slog” for the scouts and I told them that it was important to get the students to learn how to cook. In the end, the 2 male teachers took over the cooking. This time they were “smarter”, the students cooked and they supervised. I had to tell the teachers not to focus too much on the cooking as the teachers need to observe the running of the activities and support the camp program as well.

The camp was packed with activities. The teachers were thankful that they did not go to Pha Sho Ding instead. They could not imagine how they were going to bring their blankets and the food up the 2 hours trek to the camp venue. It will be a horrendous task!!

I have to make a lot of adjustment to the program because the activity did not go on as scheduled. We managed to complete most of the activities though.

Most of the scouts and staff did not have a good night sleep for the first night and it was expected. The camp activities included an urban hike, a campfire as well as a night adventure race. From their faces, I could see that the scouts had fun.

One event happened during the camp that made me realized that I had not handled the incident well. As it was important for me to see that there was proper food disposal area and cleaning area, the ”dominant” trait in me suddenly prompted me to tell the teachers and the troop leader what to do.

There was miscommunication as I could not understand some of their pronunciation and explanation and before I realized, I found myself raising my tone towards Kelzang and Tandin raising his voice towards me as well.  

I took time off to cool down and did not take my dinner. The scouts thought that they made me angry and all of them came to me to appeal to me to take the dinner. They will not eat if I do not eat. I suddenly felt very bad for “showing my temper”. I met with the 4 teachers and explained my stand. It was never my intention to raise my voice and I did not realize I raised my tone at that time in front of the teachers or students during dinner time. It was a sheer misunderstanding, be it in terms of culture / pronunciation. I do face problem understanding the pronunciation of the words at times and I need them to spell out the words if I cannot get the message right.

Due to the difference in culture, I have to keep the students focus whenever they have free time. Their usual free time activity is “basketball”.

I told them that they have to make full use of the time to get their advancement test completed in between activities.

It was quite ambitious to complete most of the tests within such a short span of time, but it was comforting to see that most of the students were self-motivated. They had been warned to take good care of their “scout book” as well as the advancement test sheet. They will have to redo everything if they lost either one of them.

During the campfire, we encouraged the scouts to share their takeaways in the camp. One new scout shared his excitement of attending the campfire as it was his first and should not be his last.

I used the opportunity to share with the scouts the true value of the scout laws. It is important that we internalize the value of every component of the scout law instead of just memorizing it. The values of “self-discipline”, “loyalty”, “kind and considerate”, “cheerful under all difficulties” etc will bring them far in life. As they enjoyed the activity and have fun, they should internalize the values they learnt in the activities. The 2 extra laws which were implemented in Bhutan scouting and not in Singapore are : “thrifty”, “love nature and kind to animals”. These 2 values were very good and I saw the traits exhibited in some of the scouts during the camp. It was good to see that the scouts and staff exhibited thriftiness during the meals, and love of nature during the hike.

The 3 days 2 nights camp ended with a positive note. The spirit of the scouts was high and we danced and sang before the closing ceremony. As it may be the last time we meet as a scout group, I exhorted them to continue to keep the scouting spirit burning in their heart. “Once a scout, always a scout”.

Just like the reef knot in the world scout logo, it will continue to bind the scouts from all over the world together in 1 spirit.