spring has finally come

It seems that spring has finally come even to our out-of-the-way place! Whooopeee! From the beginning of March we have noticed gentle warming and melting of the snow all around us. We took notice of this temperature change for the first time during last nights : we started to unzip our sleeping bags that should protect us down to -30 °C. We even started to take off our shoes a some other clothes! Unprecedented! Naturally me and Radim aren´t the only ones to take notice of the coming spring. Children also made their own arrangements : they took off their traditional coats called goncze and put on sometimes very trendy jackets (for example Rinchen from first class wears a black leather biker´s jacket) and in particular clean school uniforms (dark-green sweater, dark-blue trousers or skirt and pale-blue shirt). As for villagers, they still wear traditional coats, but they celebrate coming spring by their own way : they changed winter rubber boots for summer sandals (I should mention that it is still freezing here...). So there is now a nicely fresh atmosphere looking forward to salutary summer.

Melted snow allowed children to reveal a secret that is hidden in a special Zanskari dry grass. It was children from kindergarten who came for the first time to show me what was going on. We went outside and I was expecting them playing football or throwing ball or something in that way, but suddenly all the KG children picked up and went up to hill to pull out some pieces of terribly looking grass. So I tried to explained that it was weed and that it was good from their side to pull it out. However they didn´t seem to pay much attention to me and they put the whole clump dirty from soil into the mouth. And then they started to shout yammy, yammyyy! During lunch break, I was offered a piece of this gold as well by Namgyel from second class. The grass smells good after pineapple, but its taste is rather bland. Nevertheless it´s surely worth digging up at least for the nice fruity smell, so rare here. All round the school, there are now tens of hollows that give silent evidence of uncovered grass treasure.
If Radim wrote in our last report that horizontal bar was one of the present-day hits, I have to complete this information by another mania : bracelets of friendship. Recently, we discovered a bag full of balls of wool in one of the classes. I tried to explain to classes 4 and 5 how they could knit such a bracelet and within several weeks everyone has acquired bracelet knittning skill. To my big surprise, even boys have become addicted to it. Who is too small to knit a bracelet for himself or herself, can demand his or her older sibling or can smile on me and tell "magic word please" and that´s it...There is a game day evere Thursday and Tuesday after school. Initially it was a table games player´s afternoon, but recently school has changed from 3 to 5 in a highly well running bracelet factory.
Besides that children discovered taste of computer painting. The most favourite picture is a house, it seems that all may once become civil engineers like Honza.
The freshest hit is now, with arrival of milder and less windy weather, badminton. We started to train it in kindergarten and the KG seems to be a perfect disseminator of all the manias. After few days it looks here like in a training camp for professional badminton players :).
On Tuesday, there was a tournament in pulling against each other on a rope. Girls against boys, including teachers. There are much less older (and so stronger) boys than girls which forced boys to a mean act : they took a pickaxe, they fastened it to a boys part of rope, then they pushed the pickaxe into the ground a we girls could try no matter how much, but we couldn´t win any more.
Coming spring brought another activity here. School starts at 10 o´clock. Nevertheless children arrive every day sooner. From yesterday, the arrival time have become stable at 8:30. By this time we usually finish cooking breakfast and we are about to eat it. Children then amuse themselves by observing what are we having today and literally hypnotize us. I think we have become quite used to it and we quite enjoy it because it´s a really funny situation. We must eat our breakfast very fast, because everyone is waiting for playing on horizontal bar...
Classes 4 and 5 now work every month on a special project. First one, in February, concerned "Animals". We have Planet Earth series here so we showed it to children which helped them a lot to concretize many animals they had known only by name until that time. Second project, in March, concerned "Me and my family". Some projects are very successful, at the end of this report, you can find the most interesting contributions.
For now that´s all from here. Have a nice time wherever you are now. I hope that snowdrops and St. Agnes’s flowers are happily growing in our temperate zone and that it won´t take much time to smell tulips and daffodils in the streets, accompanied by noisy singing of returning birds.

Projects, class 4 and 5:

My bestfriend by Chodon, class 4
My bestfriend name is Tenzin Tsomo. Tsomo reads in class V. Tsomo is 12 years old. I like my bestfriend. Tsomo is very beautiful. Her English is very good. She has two brothers and three sisters. She likes her mother very much. Tsomo´s father leaves to Kuru. She likes playing very much. She likes writing very much. She likes her house.

What will I do when I leave Kargyak school? by Rangdol, class 5
After I leave Kargyak school, I go to Dharamsala school. I will become teacher. Then I will be back in Kargyak school. I will teach every subject. I will make a new house. I will have a shop in Kargyak. I will make a criket ground here and I will play criket with my friends. I will also help my mother and father.

My favourite season by Desal B, class 5
I like summer very much. Because summer is beautiful. There is many grass and flowers, many vegetables and there is our field. I like flowers very much. There are also birds and ducks.

Would you like to have a husband and children? by Desal B, class 5
Yes, I want to have a husband. I want to have children. Boys and girls. Four boys and four girls. One boy is lama. One boy is horseman, one boy is farmer, one is sitting in the house. One girl is lama. One girl is going to cut grass, one is cooking lunch and dinner. One is teacher.

My hobbies by Desal B, class 5
My hobbies are dancing, playing on drum, playing with water, playing criket, playing with snow, playing with friends, playing football and playing with marbles.

My usual day by Sonam, class 5
My usual day is Monday to Saturday. I wake up at 7 o´clock. I wake up then I wash my hands. I cook and then I am eating breakfast. At 9 o´clock in the morning I go to school. School starts at 10 o´clock. Classes finish at 3 o´clock, then I go home. I am going from school with my friend. Then we are playing. I clean my house, wash my body and clothes.

Which is your favourite animal and which animal you don´t like? by Tsomo, class 5
My favourite animal are all the animals. For example cow gives meat, milk, cheese, wool and many things. I don´t like dog, because dog is very bad. I don´t like tiger, because he is killing sheep.

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