Conversations, cultural perceptions and other snippets

9th July

As my time here draws to a close, I present a compiled a cut and paste of assorted conversations, observations and other odds and ends from the past weeks:

Washing the dishes in the "stream"

Selective general knowledge

I am blown away by Dorjee’s knowledge; one morning over breakfast he’s flicking through the photos on my phone and asks about one which I identify as Meteora in Greece and tell him about it – but he knows already about Meteora!  I guess, in many ways the histories are parallel.  Persecution, escape and rebuilding a culture.

Doing the laundry

As I do some of my laundry after breakfast (using a bucket of soapy water by the “stream”) one of girls asks me if this is how we do washing in my country!

(note, this is the same stream in which we have just washed our breakfast dishes and by which there is often a vehicle driver washing his motorbike, car, jeep, van, bus or truck)  The water supply for the school comes in 3 grades:  the “stream” running down the concrete culvert between the school gate and the road, which T Deki tells me is “dirty” (and sometimes it is visibly so); there is the supply to the kitchen and wash room which comes from a spring by the school and there is the filtered water for drinking – supplied from the spring water which is stored in large plastic rubbish bins.

The washing is hung to dry on the roof,
among the fluttering  prayer flags

I sometimes get offers of assistance with doing my laundry and tend to accept if the offer comes as I am trying to wring out sheets or towel.  One day Kelnam offers assistance as I am rinsing my sheets and learns new vocabulary in the process.  His bigger hands also make easy work of wringing the bigger items.

Family background

Several times I have been asked if I am a farmer or a nomad.  While it is a largely a reflection of their backgrounds, I am a little surprised that their experience, at least here in India, does not allow for the perception of other family backgrounds.

The human zoo

I did particularly enjoy Choden’s description, in one of her pieces of writing, of the Dalai Lama Temple as a tourist zoo.  She was trying to reflect that people watching in McLeod Ganj is truly and international experience, but the unfortunate behaviour of some tourists in the Dalai Lama Temple is reflective of her description and I am most amused.

Teacher!

The students call me teacher, if they need to differentiate from others, they might call me “Teacher Lynne”.  Early on Dorjee tells me that he thinks I should stay for a year and Kelnam tells Sarah that he likes my teaching methods (I don’t think they are anything amazing) but I know that generally they could understand my accent straight away – Deki tells me that.  After Kelnam’s disclosure to Sarah, she asked if she could sit in on one of my classes – she has little experience and no teaching qualifications. It didn’t happen, but we do subsequently discuss teaching a little.

My early setting of homework, or work for “self study” periods generally got good response – at least until it became evident that they would not be sitting external exams in the middle of the year and homework would come to me on and off through the evening, sometimes with the last one at 10pm as I am cleaning my teeth on the balcony.  Why wouldn’t you bring your homework to the teacher at 10pm?  Later I retire to my room earlier – especially after both Nate and Sarah have left and I am teaching 4 lessons, 2 of which are a combined class, which, along with the heat making sleep difficult, does leave me quite tired.

Thupten, quite early in my time here, brings me a self-set essay for correction and asked if he may bring me 4 essays per week?  Fine by me, I am not going to discourage such enthusiasm, but his enthusiasm drops away as he realizes there is no mid year external exam.  He does talk with me, towards the end of my time there, about the opportunity to sit the exam on his own later in the year, and I encourage him in this action, it will be expensive for him though, the fee is somewhere in the region of 11,000 rupees!

Quite early on Tsultrim asked me if I will teach him computers, and I try with his rather temperamental laptop, to do some simple work with Word on a couple of consecutive afternoons.  I am not sure what they have previously learned but he does not know much.  We do a bit of very simple formatting and insertion of pictures and he puts it into practice by writing a little about his trip last year to Bhutan.

Similarly, Sangpo requests my help, assuming (reasonably correctly) I have nothing better to do on a Friday evening that help sort out his problems with Google Chrome.

Not infrequently some of the students come to me with text messages to or from friends, which they want to ensure are correctly phrased.  I think there are some friends who know the students have access to a teacher who can help with this.

One day Tashi comes to me in the evening with a text message that he wants to perfect; it is telling a popular Tibetan musical group, in his inimiatable fashion, to get their act together and put out some more songs to raise further awareness of the situation in Tibet!

Bear attack

Tsetem & Deki tell me one day about bear attacks.  Tsetem’s cousin received a mauling to the face but fatally stabbed the bear with a  knife and survived.  He was lucky enough to be close enough to the hospital to receive a successful skin graft – the graft taken from his buttock.  Deki relates camping at the age of 13 with her 8 year old sister high in the mountains, in a tiny tent while they were searching for cordicepts and being very afraid of a nearby bear at night.  She had  needed to go out to pee and there was an awful smell, and growling, followed sounds of close digging (perhaps searching for animals in burrows) once she was back in the tent and as she held her little sister close, trying to sleep.  The next day she moved the tent and later told her parents who were very worried.  She also told about bears trying to dig in through the roofs of the nomad houses – which are made of mud over wooden rods.  And of her uncle being woken at night by barking, going out to investigate, and approaching what he though was his sleeping dog, to discover that it was a bear!

Shouting to God

Some of the students have amazing voices, and while Thupten is far and away the best, T Deki cheerfully sings very often.  For both of them, I can imagine their singing somewhere in a high plateau, echoing off the surrounding mountains.  I comment one day to T Deki about her singing and she tells me that she is not singing, she is shouting to God.

Psychological scars

Tsultrim, in conversation over lunch one day, tells me about his nightmares; although my perception of them includes one of their amazing resilience, their experiences in separating from their families and coming, many of them alone, on an extended hazardous journey, have not left them completely unscathed.

Herbal medicines

Many of the students have told me about time spent collecting herbal medicines in the mountains.  To my surprise, the altitudes are not always extremely high.  For some, the collection of these changed the financial circumstances of the family appreciably.  There are often quite complex explanations about the herbal medicines, and while we are talking about more than one source, most include cordiceps, the “caterpillar fungus”.  The students are generally rather surprised that I know about the “caterpillar fungus” and interpret their descriptions thus.

Over breakfast one day, I learn that ant soup is good for respiratory problems…

Understanding the language

One day in a lesson with the top class, Dawa, on reading and comprehension, I was going through the vocabularly first as I usually do.  It does concern me that there is so much use of colloquial terms and idiom in past exam papers.  I come to “strip the bed” as we are reading and I ask if they understand.  They do not.  Their guesses include: tidy the bed, make the bed, and various other permutations.  I have to be ruthless and explain that it is take off the sheets and put on clean sheets.  They probably wonder why, after the guests had only stayed for one week – but they probably wonder why I wash my sheets every week!  (And given the lack of ease in washing them, so may you – I work on the principal that anything that reduces the opportunity of small wildlife taking up residence in my space is worth the effort!)

I had a conversation with Thupten one day while I was hanging out my washing (among the fluttering prayer flags on the roof) after breakfast about “taking for granted” and the need to be appreciative of all we have.  He has just learned this phrase.

Then I laugh and tell him he is showing off when he comes down the ladder forwards, with no hands – and we have to clarify that showing off is similar to the concept of “boasting”.

On another occasion, I hand Lungrig back corrected work on use of prepositions.  He wrote that the sheep are above the mountain, which made me giggle.  I asked if I could tease him a little and with my hands made a mountain and indicated the position of the sheep, to much laughter from him and the others as Tsultrum advised him that the sheep are on the mountain.  They all have a wonderful sense of humour and are always teasing each other. 

Theological lesson

One day with Karma class, the lowest level of my classes, the bell is sounded for long break. One of the students walks out, reciting the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum, which I repeated.  They asked if I knew it and I confirmed that I know the words; they ask if I know what it means.  I say, “no”, so Tsultrum finds a UTube clip of the Dalai Lama explaining the meaning for me.

Doctor Lynne

For many of them, their first port of call in event of feeling unwell is traditional Tibetan medicine but if their Tibetan medicine is not working I get to share some of my supply of analgesics – do I have anything for a cold?  Or for menstrual cramps? 

I have also lent my rubber gloves so that someone with a bandaged finger (watch what you are doing with that meat cleaver next time) can have a “shower”

Decki had a stint of being repeatedly unwell with gastro; I suggested she did not do kitchen duty until she recovered – we don’t need to share such things. 

The students subsequently tell me that during the monsoon season many of them get gastro and I suggest a few practices which might reduce this – including closer attention to cleanliness in the kitchen, washing hands and not cleaning teeth with water from the stream.

Family background

I have had a couple of conversations with Deki about her family, she has mentioned a couple of times she is worried about them.  She really misses them and unlike some of the students, she is not in contact with them through social media. 

Her family are nomads and when she was little they were very poor (her father was drinking and had left them without any support) and her mother would spend much time collecting firewood to sell for a pittance so she could buy some barley or rice to feed the children.  This was mixed with rancid butter – which Deki found very hard to stomach.  She was always hungry and often cold, as she did not have enough clothing.  Her mother made their clothing from yak skins. 

Her younger brother also came to India, but had tuberculosis and tried to get back to Tibet; he was caught by Chinese soldiers and thrown into prison for a couple of years.  During this time he was undernourished and exposed to electric shock treatments – which has resulted in mental problems as well as deteriorating physical health.

The last time she heard from her mother was through a short, recorded message via her sister who is in China and that was 3 years ago.  The family live in an area of Tibet where the Chinese administration restricts communications.

The matter of the alcoholic father is interesting, one day Choden’s brought another piece of writing to me, this time an article about someone she admires – her alcoholic abusive father  It led me to reflect on how many might also share this experience and whether they will be able to break the cycle in choosing partners.   I have already observed that Kunsang behaves quite differently when Tashi, who is her boyfriend, is not around.  She is much more lively.  I remarked on this to one of the girls one day and she told me that Tashi tells Kunsang she should be quieter. 

Nicknames

One day Deki gave animal nick names to the boys – with reasons that are brilliant:  Tashi is “cow” – because the cows lie down on the road, the cars beep at them, the cows just look round, then go back to doing what they are doing.  Tsultrim is “sloth” because he spends a lot of his time sleeping.  No offence is taken to these nicknames, or others, that describe a person’s physical or personality characteristics – they are merely taken in fun and as statements of fact. 

One day Nyima class assign new nicknames for themselves and for Nate; for the males, the adjectives “horny” is part of all names.  Slim Kunzang has scored “airport”, which buxom Rinchen explains is because she is so flat; little breasts and a small bottom.

The nunnery

There is a conversation with Deki over dinner one day about the local nunnery, Dolma Ling.  I have just finished reading a book with that title about the story of one girl, who became a nun and ended up at that nunnery.  As all the individual stories, it is somewhat heart rending and chilling.  Anyway Deki tells me about an upcoming annual flower show planned for 6^th July, the Dalai Lama’s birthday.  She will find out more and we can go together, which will be lovely!  Unfortunately, on the day, the actual show and judging is moved from the afternoon to the morning and I have scheduled classes, so feel I cannot take time out and go.  Shame.  Deki later shows me photos shared on social media – the nuns in their classes plant flowers in pots and each each class is judged with a small prize for the best class display. 

Kidnapped!

One day, Lungrig comes to the teachers’ office with his “homework”,  he cannot find the words for his story.  The set exercise (taken from a past exam paper) was:

Your story must begin with this sentence:

“I had a real surprise when I turned on the television”

He had said that his story was to be about a kidnapping in China, which I thought was not real grounds for surprise, but maybe it would be.  So I read what he had written and asked for some more detail, who did the story involve, where did it take place, what happened, were the criminals caught?

The story was about human organ trafficking; about a kidnapping gang who were murdering children and removing heart, kidneys and eyes for the illegal organ trade.  He went on to tell about a friend in Lhasa who has 2 children, and he makes them wear electronic alarms on their wrist in case of problems, and another friend who lives in a village where a couple of children “disappeared” not that long ago.  Very gruesome and disturbing but definitely enough material for his story!  I subsequently googled and found that this is a well-documented practice.

He went on to say that he could not provide his story to me today, but would do tomorrow – he was off to volunteer to be a rostered carer that night for an elderly man in hospital who has no friends or family.  I assume that India, like Bhutan, requires someone to be with a hositalised person.  Later, as a speaking exercise in class, I ask about their previous day/evening and he tells me that part of his caring involved turning the patient – who was obviously very weak. 

On another occasion there was a fruther really weird conversation with Lungrig in class – this time about cannibalism of infants.  He claimed that babies and young children are being killed and sold for the restaurant trade.  There is some internet information about this – with a tendancy to classify it as hoax, for which I am very thankful.  I subsequently did talk with him about hoaxes and identified this story as such. 

However, these conversation, and one in Dawa class in which Tashi said that 40+ people in Tibet had died from eating watermelon, prompted a lesson or two with that class about conspiracy theories and fake news.  My attempt to get across that they should not believe everything they read or see!

Malaria and more

As the monsoons approach and the mosquito population increases, there is discussion of malaria – there is much misinformation among the students!  I try to explain that it’s a disease caused by an organism (animal) carried by some types of mosquito.  I toy with the idea of making this the subject of a lesson, but then it is resolved that we will have a school based exam so the focus is on exam preparation.

Another time, over a late Saturday lunch with only a few of the girls, the conversation turns to lice and bedbugs and similar – problems with which they have been very familiar in the past -  and they ask me the English name for something they describe that I have never seen.  I ask them to google a photo, and there are efforts in just about every language they speak before they come up with photos of ticks or mites, including those that are engorged after feeding. 

I explain to them that this is the reason I wash my sheets every week – to deter such members of the animal kingdom from taking up residence with me.

Every time I have visited McLeod Ganj, I have seen stall holder, in the quiet time between customer, grooming each other’s hair for nits or other delights.  While I don’t think the students here harbour nits, Tseten will remove Deki’s blackheads from her upper back, and will joke to me that they are being monkeys.

Occassionally when the girls come to either the teachers’ office or on the rare occasion into my room the observation that “it’s very clean and tidy” amuses me!  As for clean – barely, by my standards – I do sweep and wash the floor every week and wipe surfaces with a soapy sponge, and I have moved my bed so no part of it touches the wall!  One of my colleagues, before he left, did remark upon my domestic efforts one weekend as being very serious.  I do try to explain that, once again, I am trying to discourage cohabitation by various members of the invertabrate kingdom, with their loads of pathogens, and thus stay healthy.

Homesick?

One day there is a dinner conversation with Sangpo about whether I am missing my home.  I do confess, “Yes”, but but do not elaborate about the home comforts (hot and cold running water in reliable quantities, sinks, a washing machine, a kitchen that is easily cleaned) and food I am missing!

The conversation continutes with questios about when I go back and what arrangements I have made for flights and accommodation, and how much I am paying for my hotel room in Delhi.  I answer the latter question honestly – I am paying only a little more than I would pay at the White House Hotel in Majnu-ka-Tilla, the Tibetan Quarter for a room with air conditioning, and I am much closer to the airport. 

Sangpo went on with further questions about payment arrangements and I needed to clarify that while I have booked my hotel room, I do not have to pay for it for every night from when I booked it until my stay is over.  Clearly this idea comes from renting a room.  Even though it is a cheap room, I am thankful for not having to pay for 4 weeks of unused nights!!

Kelnam comes to chat one day after both Nate and Sarah have left – leaving me as the only teacher at the school, to check in on me to make sure I am ok on my own as a teacher here.  It really was very sweet of him.

Celebrating birthdays

I had decided to celebrate Jonathon’s birthday here by buying and sharing what turned out to be a rather superb chocolate ganash cake.  I ran the idea past Sangpo and Kelnam, the latter being very excited about the idea.  In due course I walk to Fatiphur and order the cake, and on the day, after lunch, I announce plans to share the cake at afternoon tea, and ask if they would sing “Happy Birthday”.  Tashi shouts something in Tibetan and I ask what he is shouting about; he wants everyone to practice “happy birthday” he really is a bit odd.  Possibley Aspbergers.  There is great appreciation and support from the students who enthusiastiacally practiced and sang “Happy Birthday” for me to record.

One day during conversation practice in class T Deki revealed that she does not know her birthday; all her mother could tell her was it was in summer!  Why would a nomad family have a method for keeping track of dates?  I seem to remember that dates of birth were something that may be unknown by Bhutanese, also.

In conversation practice with another class, Wangchuk answers a question about how he celebrates his birthday and he tells me about going to Norbulinkha to have dinner in a restaurant with some friends.  During the break between periods he tells me that actually it’s a complete fabrication – birthdays are not celebrated.  We go on to discuss and clarify that if he gets a question like that in an exam, its ok to answer it with the truth and go on to talk about the sorts of things that are celebrated:  the birthdays of the high lamas.  This is then followed by Tsetem asking if it is OK to say he does not like watching movies, but prefers watching you-tube clips that show him how to do things.  Of course, the purpose of the speaking exercise in exams is not to “give the right answer” but to engage in conversation and demonstrate speaking skills.  I sincerely hope that I have got this across to them.  It’s ok to give a negative answer, but just keep talking – extend the conversation!

On Tseten’s birthday, however, he did have a cake which was shared.

Bad habits

I have, gently and reasonably successfully, banned chewing gum from the classroom on the grounds that if they are working with some foreigners, the open mouthed chewing and snapping of gum will be considered objectionable, and potentially lose them business, so let the classroom reflect the workplace.  I have told them how I have walked out from potentially spending money because of it.

I have seen both Dorji and Sangpo occasionally smoking, but Tsultim is a regular.  I give them a hard time whenever I see them, telling them how unhealthy it is and also how the tobacco companies are targeting countries like India for sales because some western countries have really clamped down on advertising and where people can smoke.  Tsultrim tells me that he is addicted (although I had to supply that word) but will give up smoking before he goes back to Tibet because his mother will not like it.  Many of them talk about when they go back to Tibet, it is difficult to get a visa to do so and to do so without a visa is, of course, risking imprisonment and worse by the authorities.   

Can I cook?

Cooking of meals at the weekend is erratic, and I often walk to Fatiphur to buy vegetables to cook for lunch or dinner.  A couple ask whether I can cook, and offer to help me if I cannot.  One day Sangpo watches me for a while and decides I know what I am doing – and am, perhaps, a bit of an expert!  They are intrigued by my use of curry leaf, which grows in great profusion around the school, to flavour the food.

One day when most students had left the school for dinner, Thupten asked me twice, was I not eating dinner;  I guess a bowl of vegetables with no rice or noodles or thingmo does not make dinner!  He also asks me twice if he can bring me back food from Fatiphur.  Zokkar remains at school and she says she has taken some of the vegetable, which I had offered to share.

My first cooking here produced results, which I enjoyed enormously:  garlic and ginger, chilli (offered by the veg seller in the village), curry leaf, coriander (a bit of a sad bunch, but thrown in free), beans, okra, eggplant, and tomato.  Not a carbohydrate in sight!  Carbohydrates form a very large portion of the daily diet.

One Sunday I had cooked paneer with mushroom and peas, which was rather good.  I ate half for lunch and left the rest for dinner.  About mid afternoon I went into the kitchen to find that dinner seemed to have mostly evaporated.  I was a bit grumpy, but then Zokkar apolgised for having eaten my vegetables, and yes, she had enjoyed the cheese.  I just can’t be grumpy with Zokkar, she is a most delightful young lady – the youngest of the group at 21, but I eat the rest of my food then, just to be sure that noone else thinks its been left for all comers – which is usually the case with food left in pots in the kitchen.

All stand for..

Over a meal one day the topic of the Tibetan National Anthem arises; Dorji says that of course it cannot be sung in Tibet; to do so would be a major crime. I heard it sung at the Dalai Lama’s temple one day and found it quite emotive – the fact that in the one place it ought to be sung, to do so would attract retribution from the authorities.

Recalling the past

One day, out of the blue, my colleague Nate asks what was I doing when I was 23; he is 23 and considering his future.  I had to think for a bit.  At 23 I had finished 4 years of university, had taught at Campbell Town District High for 2 years and one term and was about to head to UK – uncertain whether I would return as I had never really wanted to come to Tasmania (actually, I had not known when school finished for the year in England, sometime in June, that I would not be returning.

Washing the dishes

One day, preparing for lessons which are largely practicing for exams, I am searching online for a photo of people washing dishes and come across a blog post on “how to wash dishes by hand” – yes, really!  I look at it with amusement and am tempted to add a posted comment requesting instructions about what to do when lacking a sink, lacking hot running water and lacking the normal accoutrement of tea towels, dish brushes and draining racks.  Washing dishes here is done in the “stream”.