On 29 July we celebrated a great day. In that time we invited our parents, other teachers, and the guests. We ate many kinds of food: e.g. rice, curry, bananas, tea, and sweets, etc. We danced in the rain and Gen Lobsang gave gifts for volunteer teachers. The gifts were water bottles and torches. We sang “Vande Matram” song and we danced many types of cultural dances like Monpa, Tibetan, Nepali, English, Assamese, and Hindi. The staff and some sponsors danced a Hindi song. The song’s name is “Zoobi Doobi Nache,” hit from Hindi movie 3 Idiots, and some guests gave a sweet. We had some problems with dressup and music, but we had much fun in celebrating the fourth anniversary of Jhamtse Gatsal School. This is a 29 July news of Jhamtse Gatsal School.

Written by Sumchoo Drolma, Rinchen Lhamu, Tsering Wangmu (A), and Kalsang Yudron (class VI students).

4 Comments | Permalink

Tags: 4th anniversary, celebration, class VI, cultural program, dance, dancing, English practice, festival, fourth anniversary, student writing

Hi everyone! Sarah, Hannah and I have been working with the students of class six during their English period this week, practicing their non-fiction writing skills by having them become international news reporters on recent events here at Gatsal. Be on the lookout for their articles, to be posted over the next week or two!

4 Comments | Permalink

Tags: class VI, English practice, student writing, students

Sarah and I arrived on the evening of July 28th after a long car journey from Guwahati. Lama Sherap and Dorjee were kind enough to pick us up and take us on the two day trip to Jhamtse Gatsal school. When we arrived we were greeted by a line of smiling kids, fellow visitors, the amalas, staff, and Lobsang. I was told that this place was beautiful, but nothing could have prepared me for how spectacular it actually is. I have never in my travels encountered a place so breathtaking. The pristine views of the tranquil Bhutanese mountains out the window of every classroom seem to be the perfect backdrop for a school whose teachers and staff base their lessons on compassion and love. Sarah and I have only been here for five days, and we still feel overwhelmed by the beauty and peacefulness of this place.
The children of Jhamste have helped us to feel at home from the time we first arrived. They greet us every morning and say goodnight to us every evening. I am so impressed by how kind and open they are. I have already acquired a small stack of drawings from the class 1 and 2 students, which I will hang on my wall at home in a place of high honor. It’s nice to see kids getting a great education and learning good life lessons by such dedicated, warm teachers, staff and volunteers. I can only hope that Jhamste continues to grow in scope and take on more students as the years progress.
It’s also great to meet some of the foreign volunteers. Unfortunately Ross left right after we arrived, but I could tell he left a big impression and had a lot of fun with the kids. Sandy is fantastic with the kids, and her dancing abilities are very impressive. Suzanne is working on two plays with the kids: the Ugly Duckling and Cinderella. She has incredible energy. I had the pleasure of watching them practicing their lines tonight, and she had them all on the floor laughing with her dance moves.
We are still adjusting to life here at Jhamtse, and so I will write more later, but for now I will say that I’m happy to be here in the presence of such great people.

2 Comments | Permalink

A small glimpse at normal happenings around the community.  Hopefully to become a regular feature!

4 Comments | Permalink

Tonight, after the Annual Day celebration, we had a nice bonfire with ROSS! It was kept secret to ROSS as he was supposed to leave the next day (on the 30th July).

It was such a wonderful bonfire. ROSS was surprised to see this bonfire especially for him!  We enjoyed a lot.  Our director sir, Mr. Lobsang, had a fantastic dance with everyone.
Every staff of our Jhamtse Gatsal community participated in this BONFIRE!
Everybody did some performance.  Sandy sang a nice song too!

We will miss you ROSS. Hope to see you next time very soon..

1 Comment | Permalink

At last the day came!
We have been waiting for this particular day…& we made it the best.  The only bad thing was the weather:  it was not so good!  But that did not become the obstacle for us.

At around 10:30 in the morning, we started our program.  We were supposed to start the program at 10am sharp, but we were waiting for the Honorable Guests..
Around 10:30 they all arrived at Jhamtse Gatsal & we immediately started our program.  Many parents and guardians of our children were waiting eagerly to see the celebration.  They all were very happy seeing their kids in such a wonderful place.
The program was anchored by our Accountant Mr. Teke & also the bubbly beauty, SANDY!  Sandy was sooo excited to do this open air anchoring!  She did it with TEKE so nicely..
Apart from SANDY, ROSS, SUZZANE, SARAH, and HANNAH were also with us, enjoying the celebration.
Our little school children performed very nicely. Everyone enjoyed their performance.
Our Director Sir gave the opening speech in the Monpa language, which was so nice & inspiring.  The attending villagers were so happy to hear from Mr. Lobsang!
Later, Lobsang sir presented some volunteers with some nice gifts, for their unforgettable effort to our community!
Last but not least, our school staff performed a Hindi dance song, which was really nice.
After we finish the program, all staff & honorable guests had a very delicious lunch with a number of mouth-watering items!
After we completed our lunch, we had a nice conversation with the guests.  They are also interested in coming to our next year’s celebration.

All staffs from Jhamtse Gatsal are looking forward to next year’s celebration, (i.e. 5th Annual Day Celebration) which is going to be even more rocking!!

There’s more where these came from…please have a look at the gallery of our fantastic day!

1 Comment | Permalink

A few weeks ago, we went with Lobsang for an overnight homestay at his mother’s house in Tawang (the central city of this district in Arunachal Pradesh). While there is much modern influence in even the simplest of homes in this region, his mother still lives a very traditional lifestyle, preferring to preserve the customs and culture in which she grew up. Her home is almost like a little bubble of previous generations within our modern day, and a glimpse at the still predominant lifestyle in more remote villages.

Surrounding her house is a small field of corn which she tends to in the morning and evening, before and after she goes to work building roads during the day.

Inside, her two-room house is small but well cared for. The walls are built of smooth planks of wood, weathered by years of the annual monsoon rain and winter winds. It’s dimly lit, and the walls slightly blackened with soot from her indoor wood-burning stove.

The kitchen—also her bedroom, living room, and dining room—is modestly furnished, but her few possessions are ornate, carefully crafted to last for years. She showed us her two sets of remarkably smooth hand-carved wooden bowls, in which she has eaten three meals a day since they were gifted to her as a teenager. She stores her water in a traditional brass basin, adorned with a katak—a white scarf signifying respect, usually used to greet honored guests and often hung among prayer flags in places of spiritual significance. Lobsang explained this ancient method of keeping water, honoring its indispensability.

For dinner, she prepared for us a traditional meal of sen—a playdough-like block of millet dough—which is pinched into mini-spoons and used as a vehicle for churba—a soup made of local aged cheese and chilies. (Lobsang has used this technique for years to repel the ladies). This combination is served with hot chang, a local brew of fermented barley and millet, mixed with melted butter.

Before bed, Lobsang modeled for us a pair of traditional Monpa pants he is having specially made. While many girls—particularly older women—still wear traditional Monpa dress (a long, pink striped dress, tied at the waist, with an embroidered overcoat), traditional men’s dress has fallen out of fashion as Western clothes have entered the remote region in the last generation. His mother has ordered pieces of the outfit from friends of hers in various villages who still specialize in the craft, but fewer and fewer people are learning to make the clothing, and Lobsang predicts that in ten years it may be impossible to find.

Hey!  There’s a new gallery with more photos of Lobsang’s mom, and her beautiful place!

1 Comment | Permalink

Tags: dinner, Lobsang's mother, modernization, Monpa, tradition

One more day to go!  All the children as well as staff members are really practicing hard!
In the mean time, we have more visitor arrivals: SARAH & HANNAH!  This very evening they reached our community.  They had a nice journey from Tezpur!  Today the weather was quite sunny as well as superb!
We are expecting to have the same on our Annual Day.

Leave a Comment | Permalink

It was really wonderful when I woke up in the morning and I found the sky was clear & it was not raining any more. Wow! At last the rain god was happy.  I just pray that the weather will go like this for a few days more & we will all have a wonderful time in the celebration of the fourth anniversary of Jhamtse Gatsal.  Both staff & children have really geared up their rehearsals.  The exciting thing about this year’s Community Anniversary is that we are doing a staff group dance along with Sandy & Ross.  We are really practicing hard to make it a rocking performance!!!

Leave a Comment | Permalink

Now a days we all are quite busy with our rehearsal, that’s only because we have planned to celebrate the annual day of our community on 29th July. Needless to say how much excited we are! We have got some special guests all around the world.

Recently one Lady teacher from Switzerland, named Suzzane has joined us as a dance & drama teacher. She is more excited than us! The main thing she has  noticed here nothing but love & compassion. Apart from Suzzane, we have two more friends from Boston,US. They are Sandy & Ross, they had reached before Suzzane here. They too are preparing well for the celebration.

That’s not the end. We are going to have to more special guests from US before the celebration,Sarah & Hannah. So needless to say we are going to have a colorful day!

On the annual community day, we would have some special guests who would be representing Guest of Honor & Chief Guest.

Our community has planned to do some cultural programmes on that particular day like:

(1)-  Opening Speech.

(2)- Drama.

(3)- Traditional dances from different states.

& so on.

That’s all for now. Because every staff is quite busy with their rehearsals to make it best of the bests.

See even more pictures of our summer visitors in the gallery!

Leave a Comment | Permalink

← Previous Page — Next Page →

• Search


About
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 74 children from disadvantaged family situations in the nearby villages.

• Categories

  • Daily Life
  • Events
  • Improvements
  • Uncategorized

• Archives

  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • March 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009

• Admin

  • Log in
  • Contact Us