While activities abounded at Gatsal, we also decided to share our knowledge and learning with a larger audience in Tawang. Jhamtse Gatsal Children’s Community with the support of Environmental Protection Society, a volunteer non-profit organization, organized a one-day workshop for teachers and administrators in the Tawang on October 29, 2011, where Venerable Lobsang presented how Eastern Principles share a common thread with modern leadership practices. The idea behind the presentation was to help people understand that leadership is not just a task of a handful of people, but a collective approach where each one of us has a responsibility. It endeavored to encourage people to not settle for good but strive for greatness and in that think of themselves as leaders of their own communities and smaller groups. Active leadership examples were shared with the people, like protecting our environment, not throwing trash everywhere but carrying bags with them to bring trash home if not trash cans are found, holding our political and administrative heads accountable for their work, and not settling with things as they are.

Second part of the workshop focused on teacher training, which was led by Michelle B. Du Bois, a visitor to Jhamtse Gatsal from the US. Michelle started a Montessori School, Oak Meadows, in MA and came to Jhamtse to help us with curriculum development and teacher training. She kindly accepted Lobsang’s request to share her experience and knowledge with the teachers of the Tawang region since having access to such wealth of information is a rare occurrence in this remote area. Michelle’s presentation discussed what makes a good teacher, what are the building blocks of learning, how learning actually happens and the role of multiple intelligences in enhancing the learning experience. Her presentation was based on Architecture of Learning, a concept developed by Kevin Washburn of ClerestoryLearning.com

Overall, the workshop was a huge success. The District Commissioner of Tawang came as the Chief Guest and was highly impressed by the views presented at the workshop. He has been a great advocate for the administrative departments of the Tawang district and the grassroot non-profit organizations to work collaboratively to bring about positive and long lasting change in the region. He saw the workshop as a positive step in that direction.

At the end of the sessions, many attendees met up with Lobsang and Michelle to seek answers to their questions and one of them, a principal of a local private school, Tawang Public School, invited us to visit his school and another person, Samarth Chitnis, a student of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, a reputed school known to produce quality social thinkers in India, requested to come and visit the community. He was traveling with his friends to Arunachal Pradesh, but was so intrigued by the work we are doing that he came and spent a day with us which left such a lasting impression on him that he decided to volunteer as a public relations resource for us in Mumbai.

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Last month was action packed at Jhamtse Gatsal! We had many learning experiences and many opportunities to put our minds, hearts and muscles together to carry this wonderful community forward. I know you were robbed of the opportunity to participate in all this activity. Sorry about that! So, to make amends, here I am to share with you the tale of our adventures…this might be a long post or two or three…so please bear with me. I’ll try my best not to bore you too much!

The folks from US—Michelle Du Bois, Terra Howard, Andy Addessi and Jerry Zadow—arrived safe and sound on October 11 after a two-day journey from Tezpur that most definitely exhausted them, but I am quite sure the views inspired them too. The welcome at Gatsal was their reward!

Very soon afterwards, everyone delved into their tasks and roles. Jerry went measuring the kitchen garden area to assess how many poles and how much wire he would need to solar fence this area. Michelle went to observe the teachers in the classrooms to learn about their teaching styles. Terra and Andy went in search of the books for the subjects they would be teaching—English and Math. Yours truly donned her Girl Friday hat and went about helping whoever needed a helping hand. I was back at Gatsal, surrounded by my majestic mountains and basking in the warm sunshine and loving embraces of the children and staff at Gatsal …life was perfect!!

Our arrival also coincided with Suzanne’s last month here. What a lady, folks! She led older kids and a good many of us on morning walks every other day and taught PE at school during the day. We are continuing the morning walks in her honor! Besides all this brain-nourishing exercising, she had also been working hard on a Jhamtse Gatsal adaptation of Pinocchio. We were treated to a special showing of the play a few days after our arrival and what a performance it was!!! She was amazing in choosing each child for his or her role. Everyone fit their roles like they were created just for them!

I have uploaded a video of the whole show on YouTube in case any of you is interested in watching it. I promise you it will be the best 30 minutes you ever spent! Word of caution: You might be doubled over or rolling on the floor from uncontrollable laughter…[Your response: OK]! (See the play and you’ll get the reference.) These children are born performers and the staff talented makeup artists…don’t forget to notice the elaborate make up of the fox and the cat and the fairy godmother and the puppets…oh the list is endless! And let me not forget the stage design…all the art that you see was created by the children, right down to the huge Pinocchio puppet!

However, life isn’t all fun and play at Gatsal! We are serious folks and we do serious work…oh, whom am I kidding! We have fun even while we are doing that. With her observations completed, Michelle was ready to put all of us to work. Every day we met with her for one class period and it was learning time for the teachers, visitors and administrators. She started with the 12 brain rules and led engaging discussions about them. We learned about the effects of exercise, sleep and stress on brain development, how the brain processes information and stores it, its unique and individual wiring, the role of repetition in memory building and other interesting brain building skills that teachers now regularly apply to their in and out of classroom teaching. But the learning wasn’t one-sided; we even created a 13^th and very important brain rule—chai time! By unanimous vote, this is by far the most important and best practiced brain rule at Gatsal!

After an overview of the brain and its special characteristics, the discussion shifted to 21^st century skills. The discussions were centered around three key questions—what would the world be like in 20 years, what kind of skills would our children need to thrive in that world and what skills or qualities of our present world or experiences do we want to see preserved in the years to come? Our week of discussion is the first of many discussions that will continue to happen at Gatsal because our understanding and perception of the next 20 years may change as we learn more and as the world changes.

Amidst all this discussion and thought-provoking activity, we had some friends of Suzanne and child sponsors, Kevin, Alessandra and Russell, visit us for a few days from Geneva. Their son Russell was the first kid to ever visited Gatsal and boy, was he the joy of all the kids! For the first time they had someone their age visit and not older folks who try to meet them at their level, but can’t quite do it as someone their age would. Russell fit in perfectly and it was hard make him out in a crowd. One of the new kids, Raju, became his instant buddy and the two were inseparable. When Raju was not available, other kids stepped in to make Russell feel safe and protected. It was just precious to see all the kids take Russell in like he were one of them. This is the true magic of Gatsal!

And in the middle of all this we also found time to celebrate the festival of lights, Diwali, in all its glory…with earthen lamps adorning every corner of the community, an altar set up in the prayer hall for the pooja (prayer service), a delicious dinner and a surprise to round off the evening. It’s the best Diwali I have ever celebrated! We had bells chiming and over 100 people (of different faith and beliefs) singing the hymns at the same time, at their own pace and choice and doing the offering. I am quite sure this unique service even caught the attention of Laxmi (the Goddess of Wealth) and Ganesha (the God of Good Fortune) in their heavenly abode…I mean how could it not! After the prayer service, we all enjoyed the special dinner prepared so lovingly by the kitchen staff and their helpers and then came the surprise—firecrackers! What is Diwali if there are no firecrackers? The kids were delighted and it was fun to watch them as they excitedly chose their cracker of choice and burst it. Although excitement reigned, no one got hurt!

But this is not all! There’s lots more to tell. I’ll take a short pause here and comeback to continue the tale. Stay tuned…the best is yet to come…

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Some of the students have been making paintings of the Tawang Monastery, after their recent trip. Each of these is done by a small group of students, one by the girls, and one by the boys. Now, can you guess who did which one? Girls or boys?  Chime in!

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Some thoughts from the students, from a fieldtrip to clean the Tawang Monestary on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.:

We started to clean at nine o’clock it was very hot. We met some students from other schools. It was very dirty at the monastery and we cleaned the environment of the Tawang Monastery. –unknown

I went with Sang on the truck. I don’t like that the bigger children of other school were not cleaning well. –Tenzin Drolma

I am happy that I visit small children and we work together. I saw small children working when we went to the monastery. –unknown

When we went to Tawang to clean the monastery I felt very shy. I thought I would talk to other school’s students and I will make friends, but I am very shy and I don’t talk. –Namgey Chodron

Many students are not working and La Lobsang said “if you do not work I will tell your head teacher.” I like to clean monastery. I eat roti and eggs for lunch. We drink juice and tea and go back to our school. –Namgey

I am so happy because other students make new friends with me and we enjoy lunch together. –Sangey Tsering

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Last week, class 7 got to go again to the Tawang Monastery…but this time to clean it!! They did it together with two other government schools from Tawang. It was a special occasion, in honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. What a great opportunity for our kids to interact with other children….so important when you are so isolated like we are!

A look at the monastery paintings (in the upcoming pop quiz) done by the students may help people understand how big the monastery area is that had to be cleaned by 150 kids of different schools in the Tawang area. All the students who came were from classes 7 to 10. And our J.G. provided the food and  refreshments for all the students volunteering. Again, this was an incredible amount of extra work for all our staff to bake 400 breads and make tons of spicy sauces!

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This painting on a white bed sheet is a view perspective of Jhamtse Gatsal – from the children of class 7. Yes, it could be a map, but in fact it’s for the backdrop of the “Pinocchio” play. Is it not wonderful? The show will take place next week…when a few more guests are here!

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Here is a great group shot of everyone at the Tawang Monastery.  Look close, you’ll find some funny faces!

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Here are some new pictures from our community!

First, Jhamtse has a new, young, Tibetan traditional music teacher. Her name is Tenzin Yangkey. She teaches sometimes in the classroom, and sometimes out in the beautiful Gatsal nature. The children are enjoying learning from her so much, that the lessons go on and on. Also, they made their drums and instruments by themselves. Our children are very inventive, of course. Everything is home-made.

Second, here are pictures of the new carpet in the KG class. In fact, a new carpet was ordered for my room in the guest house; but when it came we found it to be too big, and I didn’t want to cut it. So now it’s in the Kindergarten, which makes it so much nicer…..and the kids sit on a beautiful ground!!!

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The “wooden cathedrals” are nearly disappearing. Why? Not because of the earthquake we had last week. It was fortunately very little for us at Jhamtse Gatsal. When it happened, I was in my room and meditating…and than I felt suddenly so strange…like I would fly away with the house. “Whoa,” I thought. “If this is my trip to heaven…” But no. Not yet, and the shaking was too short to really scare me. This was the first time I’ve experienced an earthquake, and it was an absolutely incredible sensation. Here everybody is more or less used to it, so all the kids were kind of cool…

No, the cathedrals are becoming smaller because we have a carpenter here at Jhamtse Gatsal. He will work for the school for 3 months. He already made bookshelves in all the classrooms. They look so good. The carpenter also looks good..and he is so well-dressed when he comes for lunch or dinner. The first time I saw him, I thought “John Travolta” had arrived at the school. In Monpa version, of course! Some of our boys are watching his work and helping a bit; and who knows, maybe they will become carpenters one day, and will become just as good and famous as he is in the Tawang area. He is in such demand that Jhamtse was waiting for him for a year to come.

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Just look at her face!

And in fact this could be part of the Tawang trip story, because Sangpo had taken the motorbike for the trip, though not with Beezy (it was Rinchen Tsering with him). We had so many people to fit into the two cars and on the school truck: a real “convoy.” I was squeezed with 2 children on my lap and Ama-La Tenzin and the driver in the front seat of the old Sumo. Our driver had to do incredible maneuvers with the gear shift, between people’s legs, in order to drive. This was quite an art! In fact, I discovered that I felt less bumpiness from the stones and the curves in the road, and less shaky because I was squeezed. In the future I want to always take 2 kids on my lap!

Once in Tawang our car got a flat tire, while we were just rounding a corner, so that our “convoy” in front of us could not see us……..so nobody knew that we had to stop and change the wheel! Of course the strong driver did it….. in a half hour! Then, Sangpo and Ngawang came on the motorbike to see what happened to us! Haha!! Our student, Leki, was very helpful and also Sumchoo. These children are so incredible, and very practical. I must say, I am always so impressed!

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About Our Community
Jhamtse Gatsal, Tibetan for “Garden of Love and Compassion”, is a children’s community located in the Indian foothills of the Himalayas. Opened in 2006, it is currently school and home for 75 children from disadvantaged family situations in the nearby villages. Read More...



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