Kargyak news

The last week has just flown by as was full of events. The most important for the villagers was a celebration called puja where 3 days of fasting were followed by arrival of 2 lamas on Thursday and on Saturday by common feast in front of the gompa. We joined the Thursday celebration with wishes for success in building the school this summer by lighting oil lamps and sending prayers.

Teachers are continuing teaching; they are now practicing verb to be and introductory phrases with the children. The biggest novelty, however, was learning how to play football during PE lesson which the children really enjoyed. And there is still another surprise to come! Within few weeks should start a local young lady with singing lessons where children will be able to learn local songs.

Other changes were in our current home where one of the older daughters arrived home from her Raru school for one week holiday. Unfortunately, she was able to spent only 3 days in the village as her journey took another 2 days each way. Teachers has also moved to their new home with one of the local families on Saturday which will give them great opportunity to practice Zanskari and get to know the local people better. We will hopefully move to our new home sometime this week as the house is about to be finished.

There were also important changes at the building site when the foundations were revised and completed this week so the school can now start growing above the ground. At the brick making site arrived new workers; at first a group of Nepalese workers (from Mohan Lal`s group) who were not very eager to work so most of them left after the first day and were replaced by 2 Raju boys who are not only hard workers but also great fun. They even brought volleyball to the site to be able to play after work while most of us were happy to go home and relax. Both of them were, unfortunately, sent to different working site at the end of the week. The number of bricks is, however, growing steadily.

Both Raju boys and Nepalese from Mr. Suresh group had a day off on Sunday which they used not only for playing cricket and volleyball near the brick making site (they must love it there :0)) but also for a trip to the near by village where they purchased a sheep and managed to slaughter it on the same day. They brought us part of it and Kamila cooked a yummy goulash from it. I honestly think that Honza should give them a day off more often!

Written by Marketa, translated by Milada

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