I have stayed in touch with the folks we connected with in Bhutan.  The Trongsa Middle Secondary School is on their extended break (between January and February).  During their break, our group will organize a series of fundraisers and mailings to the school.  Our plan is to provide some supplies and support for students who live at the school and travel from home to school.

Specifically, the school needs help for students who have no real source of income or support from their families.  The plan is to provide some funds for the school to disperse for students in need.  Those needs include medical help in case of illness, the ability to purchase food when necessary at school, and the ability to purchase clothing, including shoes.

In addition, I have received donations of new elementary and middle school readers and science books for the students.  We will mail those boxes to the school by February 15th to arrive by the start of the new school year after Losar at the beginning of March on our calendar.

If you have additional thoughts about providing support for the school, please do post that information right here.

Thanks for reading,

Tom

 

 

These are the edited reflections of Jordan.  All reflections are in quotations and are directly taken from the journals of the students.

First Impressions: Travel from the United States to Bangkok

“Of all of the people I have met so far, the Japanese were most sincere.  A boy about my age smiled and giggled “you’re welcome” each time he gave me a part of my dinner at a Tokyo restaurant.  A woman taking trash away on our Tokyo flight returned a box of chocolates to me after she realized there were still some left.”

“The feeling of Bangkok was sheerly human; the people filled paces like jungle fills hills.  The self-consciousness Americans have while inhabiting a place was completely non-existent here.  [It’s interesting] how American homes are built with strict boundaries of what’s yours and what’s mine; what’s safe and what’s clean, but in the streets of Bangkok all of these predilictions were non-existant.  For example, there was a building built of wood, coming off a wall of another building made of concrete……the whole commotion of Bangkok was undirected and beautiful.  Everything was moving…”

 

“The sun rises on Bangkok /  warm lit buildings / with people hanging cloths and smoking”

“An orange robed monk walks / past the sounds of traffic / white flowers on the trees.”

In Bhutan

As we walked to a monastery for Buddhist studies….I looked at the flowers next to the steep switch-backing path…on a sign it was written, “By plucking its pedals, you do not gather the flower’s beauty.” For a long time it bothered me – that lack of satisfaction I had after trying to pick flowers and preserve them or taking pictures of beautiful things so that I could look back on them and enjoy things all over again. But the little signs I saw reminded me of the joy I felt when I first heard the words, “You cannot take this world with you, so why not let go from the start?”

“I’ve lost count of the days.  As we go through all of the Dzongs and stupas it’s becoming clearer to me how beautiful the Himalayan foothills are.  Surely the richness of the Bhutanese and Tibetan’s spirituality comes from the power and energy of the mountains.”

“The Bhutanese people are all incredibly happy.  By no means are they happy in the way I was taught to be in America – unlimited enthusiasm, smile all the time, flatter everyone, and act like it’s the best day of your life.  The Bhutanese are happier on a deeper level and their happiness is quiet and sincere….it seems like they are closer to the timelessness of the world around them.”

“As we drove down the road, the bus pulled over and Namgay opened his window and asked a girl sitting by the side of the road what she was selling.  The young woman, probably in her twenties, was kneeling in her kira umbrella placed on the grass next to her, was selling a small amount of cheese sitting in a basket — literally about a plateful….to see a woman a mile away from any human structure other than an eroded road…this Bhutanese woman was at home in the misty foothills which sloped up into the clouds, no need for REI boots tromping about in “nature”.

It’s hard to characterize exactly how one feels when confronted with the idea of leaving Bhutan.  Of course we all want to see our families and our focus is on home and getting back to our lives.  At the same time, at one time or another during that last day, I heard just about everyone say they were not ready for the trip to end.  The end of this trip really crept up on us, and some of us just weren’t ready to go…..Sebi said it best when he mentioned, “This trip went so quickly that just as we got into it, it was over.”

Our final morning was easy and included a short drive to the airport.  Namgay sat with us at breakfast and we talked about this trip, future trips, and thoughts about Bhutan and the U.S.  Cole and Layla both said, “I’m definitely coming back” and Miles said, “This place gets into your bones.”  Miles is so right.  One visit to Bhutan really captures your imagination and you take with you a sense of the people and place unlike other trips we have been on.

As we boarded the flight, many of us looked back on the Paro valley.  The green rice paddies, the light shining through the clouds, all made the departure idyllic.

The flight stopped in Dakar, Bangladesh and then onto Bangkok.  When we got off the plane and waited for the van to our hotel, the heat was oppressive at 40 degrees Celsius.  We waited for a while and finally the van showed up and we got to the Great Residence Hotel (http://greatresidencehotel.com) by about 5:00 PM.  An outdoor pool made this day a bit more relaxed.

That last evening in Bangkok, we wandered the streets looking for some food….we found a place that had outdoor, covered seating and we ordered food en mass to share.  The food was great and very reasonable….we enjoyed sharing a final meal together in good old family style dining….it was a wonderful end to the trip to Asia.

We had to be at the airport the next morning by 3:30 AM….this departure required waking before 3:00 to make the shuttle to the airport.  I am glad we got to the airport that early because the place was crowded and any later arrival would have been disastrous!

The six-hour flight to Tokyo-Narita was uneventful and we landed in Tokyo tired.  Matt immediately found a place to buy a hot dog and some of us found a great noodle shop to have a local meal of udon noodles with tofu or chicken.  Many of us found last minute gifts for family and friends, and we prepared for the nine-hour flight to San Francisco.

The flight back home was necessarily rough in the sense that we were tired, lacked any real sleep for a couple of days, and Struggled with simple tasks in our sleep-addled brains.