Another week in Ladakh! This week teaching went really well with the boys! 
Thats the good news, unfortunately we had a few problem with the girls hostel students. We also FINALLY made it up to the victory tower that affords a great view over all of Leh and we are still planning for our trips out of Leh in the coming months.
Its strange that things have been going so well with the boys and that things have been a bit harder with the girls. Partly because the boys are a little younger and partly because everybody (Mr. Tundup and ourselves incl
uded) assumes it will be easier teaching girls. That is not the case in Ladakh. The boys show up bang on time for every session we have had so far and are extremely enthusiastic about any task we set for them. Unfortunately the girls frequently keep us waiting for as much as half and hour and are less than enthusiastic about certain tasks we ask them to perform. For example, although the boys really enjoy the informal debates we have been having they had no problem when we asked them to prepare and perform a story about Ladakh in English. In fact they got extremely involved and produced some really great short dramas. When we tried to have the girls do the same thing half of them complained that they would rather have a debate. We think this is because in a debate often, despite our efforts, the confident students get to talk a lot while the shy students get to hide behind them. In a drama this isn't possible as the groups are small and w
e stipulated that everybody must speak. So far our sessions with the girls hostel students just have not been as satisfactory compared with the boys. This week we got a bit fed up when the kept us waiting for almost 45 minutes and then told us they needed to get washing done, (this also happens with the boys, but they give us some notice) after this we had a rather frank conversation with the girls trying to make it clear that if they wanted us to work with them they needed to be entirely in or out rather than showing up occasionally and not involving themselves much. To be fair, the girls seemed to take this onboard muc
h more readily than when we tried to subtly hint at it and there has already been a marked improvement.
We also finally climbed up to the victory tower that over looks Leh this week, and we were not dissapointed by the view! This victory tower is situated a couple of hundred feet above the royal palace of Leh. This royal palace was deserted when Kashmir invaded and the royal
family moved to a palace in nearby Stok where they still reside. The victory tower was built when the Ladakhis kicked the army of Kashmir out. The view is great as one side looks down right over the school and the other looks over the old and new towns of Leh. The short walk up is a little steep but it is well worth it!
On Sunday we also went up the 560ish steps to Shanti Stupa to watch a large ceremony to celebrate something to do with the birth of Buddha. It was a little unclear if it was his birthday or not. It seemed like all of Chang spa was
making its way up to the top, many carrying short and wide wooden tables (which coupled with the steep steps is quite impressive). When we got to a good vantage point to watch the proceedings we saw a banner welcoming visitors from Singapore. We found this a little confusing until one of the leaders of the ceremony lapsed into English to welcome some Buddhists from a temple in Singapore who had come to celebrate here. We watched the ceremony for some time but since we had no translator and all the reading was in Bodhik we headed back down for lunch after a few hours.
Not much else happend this week other than a little informal basketball coaching and continued planning for trips in the future. We are going to go with Mr. Tundup next week to visit some of the Lamdon satelite branches where we might spend a few weeks teaching soon.
Lots going on next week so hopefully the blog with have a bit more substance!
Tom Kemeny
Thats the good news, unfortunately we had a few problem with the girls hostel students. We also FINALLY made it up to the victory tower that affords a great view over all of Leh and we are still planning for our trips out of Leh in the coming months.Its strange that things have been going so well with the boys and that things have been a bit harder with the girls. Partly because the boys are a little younger and partly because everybody (Mr. Tundup and ourselves incl
uded) assumes it will be easier teaching girls. That is not the case in Ladakh. The boys show up bang on time for every session we have had so far and are extremely enthusiastic about any task we set for them. Unfortunately the girls frequently keep us waiting for as much as half and hour and are less than enthusiastic about certain tasks we ask them to perform. For example, although the boys really enjoy the informal debates we have been having they had no problem when we asked them to prepare and perform a story about Ladakh in English. In fact they got extremely involved and produced some really great short dramas. When we tried to have the girls do the same thing half of them complained that they would rather have a debate. We think this is because in a debate often, despite our efforts, the confident students get to talk a lot while the shy students get to hide behind them. In a drama this isn't possible as the groups are small and w
e stipulated that everybody must speak. So far our sessions with the girls hostel students just have not been as satisfactory compared with the boys. This week we got a bit fed up when the kept us waiting for almost 45 minutes and then told us they needed to get washing done, (this also happens with the boys, but they give us some notice) after this we had a rather frank conversation with the girls trying to make it clear that if they wanted us to work with them they needed to be entirely in or out rather than showing up occasionally and not involving themselves much. To be fair, the girls seemed to take this onboard muc
h more readily than when we tried to subtly hint at it and there has already been a marked improvement.We also finally climbed up to the victory tower that over looks Leh this week, and we were not dissapointed by the view! This victory tower is situated a couple of hundred feet above the royal palace of Leh. This royal palace was deserted when Kashmir invaded and the royal
family moved to a palace in nearby Stok where they still reside. The victory tower was built when the Ladakhis kicked the army of Kashmir out. The view is great as one side looks down right over the school and the other looks over the old and new towns of Leh. The short walk up is a little steep but it is well worth it!On Sunday we also went up the 560ish steps to Shanti Stupa to watch a large ceremony to celebrate something to do with the birth of Buddha. It was a little unclear if it was his birthday or not. It seemed like all of Chang spa was
making its way up to the top, many carrying short and wide wooden tables (which coupled with the steep steps is quite impressive). When we got to a good vantage point to watch the proceedings we saw a banner welcoming visitors from Singapore. We found this a little confusing until one of the leaders of the ceremony lapsed into English to welcome some Buddhists from a temple in Singapore who had come to celebrate here. We watched the ceremony for some time but since we had no translator and all the reading was in Bodhik we headed back down for lunch after a few hours.
Not much else happend this week other than a little informal basketball coaching and continued planning for trips in the future. We are going to go with Mr. Tundup next week to visit some of the Lamdon satelite branches where we might spend a few weeks teaching soon.
Lots going on next week so hopefully the blog with have a bit more substance!
Tom Kemeny
No comments:
Post a Comment