Do enjoy my last movie on the Bhutan Journey. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqHEtf-Z1EU&feature=youtu.be

My last blog on my Bhutan Journey

Report on my work in Bhutan

My Bhutan journey marked an important chapter of my life. It was a journey that rejuvenates my spirit and therapeutic to my soul. What I thought was a service to the Bhutan community, it became a blessing I had never expected. I received so much more from the people in return. The experience gave me confidence in what I want to do for the next phase of my life and I am thankful that I took this step of faith. It took me a lot of courage to forego what I have been comfortable doing but when I did, there are surprises awaiting.  

I did not regret my decision of doing a 3 months service in Bhutan community, in fact, it is an experience that many Singaporeans envy, and would love to have.

The experience did not turn out to be what it originally intended. It took me quite a while to embrace everything in my stride. I learnt to look at things with an open heart. I adapted and tweaked my plan as the days passed. And the outcome of each event continues to amaze me.

One thing the Bhutanese never fail to impress me is their adaptability to situations. They are capable of doing things even at the very last minute notice. Interestingly, they did it well despite of the short period of preparation.

In retrospection, I felt very enriched through the interactions of people and things.  Most, if not all the Bhutanese people I interacted with are simple, genuine and loving towards one another. This may also explain their generally happy state of mind. Their spiritual faith are deeply rooted in their heart and it is evident in their way of living.  

I spent my first 2 weeks adapting to the school environment and did many classroom observations. Most of the teachers in Rinchen Higher Secondary School (RHSS) are untrained and they are expected to learn on the job. The school places a lot of importance on teachers’ development and there are dates specially set aside for teacher’s training as well.

Proprietors play an important role in the running of Bhutan private schools. They are the ones who set up the school and provide the resources for the school. Our school proprietor, Aum Sangay and her husband, Dasho are very approachable and receptive to suggestions to improve the running of the school. RHSS are also blessed to have Dr Wang as the management advisor. He is a great believer in educating the future generation. He contributes a lot in terms of money and time to the school. He took over the role as an officiating principal during Mr Tshering’s (Principal) one month absence from school. I am blessed to learn from him.

During my stay in RHSS, I did numerous tasks besides teaching and sharing in school. I felt exceedingly proud of my scouts when they did well in the cluster fund raising event, together with the 6 scout masters. A 3 days 2 nights training camp did wonders in cementing the bond among the fellow scouts.  

I worked with the HODs on 2 main areas : Training and Resources. It is essential to get the resources (both hard and soft copies) according to department so that old and new teachers can tap on each other’s resources.

Due to the schedule of various school events, I only managed to conduct 4 Professional Development sessions with the teachers, namely : Gap Analysis of present and future, Teaching and Motivational Strategies, Brain-based Learning, GROW model, 7 habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey. The sessions were well-received by the teachers.

To add value to the school system, I volunteered to co-teach with the teachers during the weekdays. I challenged teachers to think out of the box. It is important to teach using the available resources and explore new ways of teaching to enhance learning from both students and teachers. It was very encouraging to see a new wave of enthusiasm among young teachers, always eager to take risk to try new things.  

I supported the teachers in making resources easily available for them. Even the proprietor, Aum Sangay, started to note a difference in the teachers’ work ethic : A change for the better.

In giving, we received much more. That was the valuable lesson I learnt from Dr Wang and his wife, Lori. Dr Wang has a big heart and he never hesitates to help anyone who is in need. I was blessed by his generosity when I vacated my house in early June. I stayed at his place for 9 days before I leave for Singapore.

The English standard of the students presents a worrying trend. Many of the students repeated their grade 12 because of their poor command in English. I worked closely with the English HOD and tried to understand the problems. The department needs to streamline the year workplan and rethink a better monitoring system for both teachers’ development and students’ progress.

I was also invited to help run the career forum for the girls in the school. Together with the Assistant Principal for Student Support, Mdm Budhawanti, Lori,  Mdm Sita and myself ran the 5 separate sessions for the girls. The talk turned out to be a success. The sessions surfaced different needs of adolescents and we realized that such forums were useful to help to address the problems. Students were keen to share as long as we provide a safe platform for them to share. The school will look into organizing similar forums for the boys as well.

Bhutan, also known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon, is blessed with rich biodiversity and mountains. It has close relations with India especially in terms of its economic progress. Many of the products are imported from India and sectors which requires manual labour come mainly from the Indian workers.

Each province/ town is governed by the Dzongkhag system. The civil servants work in Dzongs made of Bhutan traditional buildings.  The Bhutanese are generally very religious people and there are lhakhang and monasteries everywhere you go.

I also noticed the frequent call for kidney donors in TV news. A large number of Bhutanese have renal problem and the young ones are not spared. This may be attributed largely to their high oil, salt and chili content diet. Chilli and cheese makes up most of the Bhutanese dish.  The most famous Bhutanese dish is Emma Dachi.

Bhutan is not spared from the influence of media since the nation opens to the outside world in 1990s. The social fabric of Bhutanese family is also in danger of disintegrating following more and more young people migrating to the city in pursuit of better living standard. Many young people has no family support in the city and many indulge in bad habits. Drug addiction and alcoholism among young people is fast becoming a problem in Bhutan.

Saying all these, Bhutan students are generally very respectful towards their  teachers and they are willing to work hard. They are the “dream students” of Singaporean teachers.  My heart goes out to them and I simply want to do more for them.

I started my travel in the month of May. It is a good time to travel because flowers start to bloom in Spring. I travelled to 4 places in consecutive weeks of May :

1.    “Tiger Nest” in Paro ;

2.    A very well-known monastery in Pha Jo Ding, Thimphu ;

3.    A farm house on top of the Talo Mountain in Punakha ;

4.     “Bhutan Switzerland” in Bumthang ;

Though my stay in Bhutan was short, I made many good friendships and have many sweet memories. I thanked God for His blessings and protection upon me during these 3 months and will continue to reminisce on my takeaways as I embarked on my next phase of life. To  God be the glory!

19 May - 4 Jun

As I wrapped up the things I was supposed to complete, my heart was filled with joy and thanksgiving for the people and things here. There was not a single day I did not feel blessed.

I started my travelling on the first week of May. After the Taktsang adventure, I went to Pha Jo Ding with my usual group of friends. The journey up Pha Jo Ding was pleasant. Along the journey, we met 1 little Rinpoche and a young Dharma. This little Rinpoche was only about 6 years old and he was identified  to be the reincarnate of a late renounced Dharma. Though young, he demonstrated  profound intelligence and maturity. According to Ugyen and Tandin, any boy identified to be a reincarnate will be able to identify the belongings of late Dharma at very young age and could even understand the sutra faster than any ordinary monks.

As we journeyed together, Ugyen shared a lot of the Bhutanese beliefs that stayed till today. He told me to visit the “burning lake”, a “must go” destination when I go to Bumthang in June. According to the legend, it was believed that Guru Rinpoche went into the lake with a butter lamp and emerged from the lake with the butter lamp remained lit. The lake instantly became a famous site and many tourist visited the place after that.

Along the way, we also visited a 400 years old house. Pasang was so delighted to see the house that she told me it was a dream came true for her. Under the guidance of the young Dharma, we trekked to 3 different sites to see 3 Buddha paintings which appeared naturally on the rocks. It was known to be the past, present and future Buddha. A rare sight indeed!!

During the journey, i discovered that Duptho was a great cook. From the way she prepared her food and making sure that the food was warm in her nice little container, I knew that she was a meticulous person. Both Pasang and Duptho are very hardworking people. Duptho repeated her class XII 4^th times because of her poor English standard. She is very determined to clear her class XII this year. Many a times, I will see her in the staff room, consulting teachers regarding her work.

The scouts have 2 cluster activities in May- June as well. The commitment ceremony on 28 May and the Fund Raising event on 7 June. I start to scale down my involvement in Scouts as I conclude my stay in Bhutan.

I attended a 6 hours cluster meeting at Druk School on 24 May.  The cluster chairman was the assistant principal of Druk School. She was very different from typical Bhutanese. A very driven and task-oriented person. Having said that, I am still very puzzled why they chose the fund raising event to be scheduled 1 week before the June exam. And amazingly, no schools objected to the proposal. If it is in Singapore, most school activities will have toned down their activities during the examination period.

I weighed my options and decided that I will not be too involved in the scout fund raising event (FETE), much as I wanted to. I will go ahead with the Bumthang trip on 5 June.

The week continued with my involvement in the 5 days Career Guidance talk for girls and my shifting to Dr Wang’s place. I initiated the thought of vacating my apartment because I could not convince myself of spending 17 000 Nu monthly rent for only an 8-days stay in the month of June. I want to vacate the place by the end of the month so that I can save the 17 000 Nu for the school. I am grateful that Dr Wang invited me to his house to stay for the 8 days.  It was a pleasant change for me : A shift from an “apartment” to a “hotel suite”. His place is huge and comfortable!!

The Career Guidance sessions were good and it surfaced a lot of problems faced by  Bhutanese youths. The session created a safe environment for the girls to share their thoughts. I felt that similar sessions should be conducted for the boys because boys have similar needs too.

As I delved deep into the English department work, I realized that many things can done to help boost up the English standards in RHSS. There should be a better streamlining of work because some teachers are overworked, while some teachers are “underworked”.

I felt so refreshed after reading the book on Steven Covey, 7 habits of effective people.  The book reminded me of practising these 7 habits to make myself more effective in whatever things that I do. Be proactive in spreading our circle of influence instead of focusing on our circle of concerns.

Aum Sangay and Dr Wang attended my last PD session on 31 May. I was greatly encouraged by their presence.  Dr Wang spread his time so thinly that I can see he is visibly tired. He makes every effort to support every school event. Despite of his tiredness, he made a point to come back to school to attend the PD session after the Marathon event. I could see that he "couldn’t wait" for Mr Tshering to come back so that he could relinquish his job as official principal and stay as an advisor instead.

He is an inspiration to many, and I drew a lot of learning from him.  He gave me invaluable feedback on how to improve on my session, which I was deeply grateful.

We also worked together to help the canteen owner, Mr Tshering, to draw back the crowd, both the teachers and the students. At the end of the day, it is up to Mr Tshering to make changes on his part to attract the people. He is at the losing edge in terms of competing with the restaurant owner at the “bottom” of the school. He is not willing to give more so that he can gain more.

We thought of coupon system to help draw the crowd, “treating the teachers to a set lunch” so that the teachers can enjoy some of the good food prepared by the canteen, but in the end, the food was not palatable and expensive. It was a real put off for the teachers.

I personally felt indebted to Dr Wang and Lori. They had taught me many things, especially in the area of giving. They hope to be the light of the world, and this is also what I see in them. Their words and action are aligned with their belief and  I am sure I am not the only one who benefited from their goodness.

Another person whom I am very grateful towards is Namgay. Namgay is a lively girl at all times. She is always so carefree, very willing to go the extra miles for her friends. She is in good terms with everybody. She seems to have so many connections that she helps me to “save” a lot of money. We spent one weekend at her Punakha farm house and I got to enjoy a hot-stone bath, in an open area. It was an exhilarating experience that no amount of money can buy!! And it was because of her, I got to see the Queen Mother’s place and the monastery too. My experience at the farm house was truly authentic and not for many foreigners like me.

Pasang is another great help to me. We travelled on the bus to Bumthang together. The 11 hours journey was torturous, with a lot of ups and downs and little leg space for us to stretch our legs. But we survived and were rewarded with the scenic view of “Bhutan Switzerland”. By a twist of fate, we have free accommodation at Lop Tashi’s brother’s place in Bumthang. Our stay coincided with an international conference and most of the hotels were fully booked. And we have the house all by ourselves because Lop Tashi Chewang will be going to Thimphu for a week.

As I reflect upon my numerous experiences. I could not help but thank God for the  many blessings I received and I wouldn’t even think of.  The love and the warmth I received in Bhutan is going to make me reminisce on my wonderful experience long time after I go back to Singapore. Thank you, Land of the Thunder Dragon!!