Update: Photos from Thimphu/REC

Photo: Royal Education Council Building

Photo: The Four Harmonious Friends

(Above) The Harmonious Friends: a famous Bhutanese myth about friendship
Read the story of the myth at: http://bhutanjournals.com/history-culture-tradition/buddhism/the-four-harmonious-friends/

Update: Day 4

Today, we devoted most of our time toward preparing for our trip to Tashindingkha Middle Secondary School in the rural village of Phunaka. Each of us have been working to develop a curriculum based off of a specific topic and we hope that we will be able to effectively cover a wide range of topics within our ten days at the school. Prior to our trip to Bhutan, we organized fundraising events to help purchase books for donation. Today, we divided about 65 books into separate boxes that will each be given to one of the various schools that we will be visiting. Still, the whole concept of teaching in rural Bhutan is a big point of uncertainty for us. Our goal is to strike the elusive balance between simplifying our concepts in order to compensate for the language barrier and actually getting across the idea that we have set out to promote. As we reach Phunaka and as we begin to work in classes, this blog will help to catalogue each topic that we discuss as well as what the student reaction was. Despite the workload, we found the time to leave the Royal Education Council building and travel around Thimphu. We had lunch at a restaurant called The Zone, an interesting and relatively expensive take on Western food with a unique version of everything from hamburgers (or yak burgers) to pizza. We ate with two Bhutanese college students who were both currently studying in the US and as a result offered a unique perspective to their home country. Although they began by describing the "beauty" of Bhutan and how the country has a certain charm to it, the conversation soon shifted to the gangs and alcoholic issues that have begun to spike as a direct result of recent economic turmoil. They described to us how certain areas within Thimphu have been marred by violence and how the religious monument "Buddha Point" (a giant has paradoxically become a haven for this type of behavior. In our minds, this stabs a hole in the legitimacy of the concept of Gross National Happiness within Bhutan and, more specifically, Thimphu. Last summer, I spent a significant amount of time in both the rural and urban (Thimphu) parts of Bhutan and, during that time, I could not help but notice the fundamental distinctions between these two styles of life in terms of patriotism and commitment to GNH and Buddhist principles. I think that our trip to the rural Phunaka comes at an interesting time as it may help us to more accurately understand what raw Bhutanese culture looks like, something that is still not entirely clear to us.

Update: Day 3

July 25th, 2013

Today is the first full day that we spent with our host families. Although we were separated,  we completed our scheduled activities together as usual. We started the day by eating our first breakfast with our host families in preparation for a meeting at the REC. During the meeting with discussed the division of work among our group. These tasks included creating flyers, updating the blog, managing pictures and videos, etc. After sorting out tasks, we went to a restaurant called The Zone. The Zone was a Bhutanese take on American food. After eating lunch, we watched the national sport of Bhutan, archery. With their composite bows, the archers were able to hit targets 150m from their position with remarkable accuracy. After the archery match,  we played basketball against a group of local Bhutanese students. Basketball is one of the most popular sports in Bhutan. Many of the students play basketball regularly and are very good at it. We, unfortunately, ended our night with a loss but enjoyed the game nonetheless.

Photo: Archery

A Bhutanese archery (national sport) match in Thimphu.

Update: Day 2

With our first full day in Bhutan we were presented with the opportunity to mentally step foot into Bhutanese society. We woke up at 7:00 a.m. to a delicious breakfast and the surreal realization that we were, in fact, in Bhutan.  The country’s dreamlike environment  made us feel as though we had not yet landed and were merely imagining the stunning scenery we saw around us. The surrounding mountains were unlike anything we've ever encountered before. At about 8:30, the Royal Education Council (REC) drivers picked us up for a meeting with the REC staff and building. During this time, we were briefed, in more depth, on what schools we would be visiting, how we should conduct our classes in the schools, where we would be staying, and what we would be doing in the free time that we had. It was a quick meeting that was followed by dinner in the center of Thimphu, where we ate traditional Bhutanese food. Like most of the meals that we have had in Bhutan so far, the food at this restaurant was spicy and based off rice with some sort of meat on the side. After our lunch, we drove to the local banks to withdraw Bhutanese ngultrum from the ATM. As our first real opportunity to walk around Thimphu, we were amazed by the cities modern interpretation of class Bhutanese architecture.

The city was small yet alive and emitted a pleasant yet raw vibe. After leaving the bank, we went to a local store to purchase our Gho’s, Bhutan’s national dress. Essentially, the Gho is the suit and tie of Bhutan, as it is used as a uniform in both school and and formal political offices. With such massive cultural importance, there were many different shops that offered many different materials, patterns, and colors of Gho to choose from. We returned for a brief rest in our hotel before we set out for a karaoke dinner with the Bhutanese host families as well as a select few members of the REC. Once again we were offered Bhutanese delicacies along with a wonderful performance from popular Bhutanese singers. It was a nice chance to listen to the countrys traditional music, which was very calm and soothing, evoking a feeling of ease. The evening was fun filled, especially with our groups pitiful attempt at a cover of Piano Man. Overall our first day in Bhutan pleased us as we began to learn about the country’s culture and easy-going way of life. Tomorrow we will be meeting at the Royal Education Council building to discuss the visit of Bhutanese students to the U.S., visiting a National Archery Ground, and playing in a basketball game against REC staff. 

Photo: Gho Shopping in Thimphu

Us shopping in a local Gho store. The Gho is Bhutan's national dress and is a required article of clothing for official events, school, and even passport photos.

Photo: Basketball against students from Druk School

A group photo after a rather pathetic defeat to the basketball team of Druk School

Update: Day 1

After a long and strenuous journey that lasted 28 hours,we have finally arrived in Bhutan: the Land of the Thunder Dragon and the home of GNH. Still, our physical distance from home has not yet been fully calibrated. Coming from the US, we are both physically and mentally separated from the rest of the world. We have only read about the historical events that have taken place in South East Asia so staring from the airplane into Vietnam brought us a new level of tangibility. Our trip took us to Tokyo, Bangkok, and Bangladesh before we finally reached Bhutan. Excitement shook us as we realized that we were finally traveling to the country that we had spent half a year preparing for. From the descent into Paro Airport, our first day has been a unique and spectacular experience. The airport is located in a valley and is surrounded by massive yet strikingly beautiful mountains. The airport itself was very small with only three rooms for immigration, luggage pickup , and the departure gates. We were met by two members of the Royal Education Council, who drove us from Paro to Bhutan's capital of Thimphu. This one hour long drive was incredibly scenic as we swerved through mountains and passed colored prayer flags and shrines. After finally reaching Thimphu and passing through hundreds of rice fields, we finally reached our hotel for the night: The Peaceful Resort. A small, quiet, and peaceful (as the name implies) inn on the outskirts of Thimphu. Tomorrow we will be meeting the Royal Education Council staff as well as the host families that we will be staying with for the majority of the trip.