The first Sun School picnic

After so many visits (from volunteers, “Sun flower foundation” representatives and Surya team), the routine came back to school days. But not for long. The last 5th and 6th August we organized the first Sun School picnic. An opportunity to take all children to camp and enjoy two days of games, music and pure fun. After the hard work and good results of the last evaluations this was something they were definitely deserving. Early morning, after the praying and brush of the teeth we went to the meadow below Shyn village, and set up camp. Penpa, our headmaster, made the honors of being the kitchen “chief” preparing delicious soups, vegetables and lentils for all children. While he was busy in the kitchen, all children were playing outside and even dancing at the rhythm of Ladaki music (yes, we took with us a battery, amplifier and music player, a must in a Zanskari picnic). On the second day we even had a cricket match against Tangzo School. To be honest I do not know who own. But that was not really important anyway. This was also an opportunity for the students to interact with other children. Their faces of joy during these two days was just something that made us immediately think that one picnic per year is not enough. They really felt free and happy. A real joy! And now for the first time, the school will be on holidays for 2 weeks. We decided to give holidays to all children and teachers to allow them to see Dalai Lama in his visit to Padum from 15th to 20th August. This is a very important event for Buddhists as they will have the opportunity to pray with his Holiness for 5 days. Also it will be the first time for many of the students to go to a village and experience in first hand the chaos of civilization with its houses, hundreds (in these weeks thousands) people, buses, cars and so on. So many stories they will have on their return. And I cannot wait to hear them. This also means holidays for me. I will also take the opportunity to go to Padum, help the fathers taken care of the children and eventually have some more stories to tell on the next time I write something in this webpage. Pepa decided to stay in Kargyak. The confusion in Padum would be too great chock compared with the peaceful life of Kargyak. And of course, the works at school never finish, and now we are busy improving the access trails to the school, so I am sure he will be busy during this time.

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