There we go… news from Kargyak again!

This week we are a purely Czech Team again. David from the United States and our favourite masseur Mathias from France left.

Last week the weather was playing with us. The wind was testing whether the guys would cover the non-finished construction with a plastic before it starts to rain or they will be carried by the wind away and enjoy the view of the valley from higher altitudes… luckily in this battle they were the winners.

Actually, the construction is getting the shape of an building now. It has all the parts a proper building should have - walls, doors, windows, even a roof… looks fantastic, I believe. I guess it´s gonna be a pleasure to go to such a beautiful school.

Last week we organized a children day. There were various check points and the children were going around in teams of appr. 5 and fulfilled different tasks - jumping in a sack, walking along a line blind folded, soaking their faces in a bucket of water in an attempt to get a “fish” out of it without touching it by hands… etc. Matches and David prepared a theater for them… which was quite funny, because whenever one of them screamed all children run away and covered up our Tibetan colleages Tenam and Tenzin Yiga. In the end, every child got an instrument to play (wooden sticks, plastic bottles filled with sand, etc.) and we experienced what it´s like when 30 children start to make noise… amazing. The rest of the day we spent playing softball with the workers from India and Nepal, which was another really strong experience as running in this altitude is quite a challenge.

What else happened last week? Our Pyru had birthday!!! And so we organized a party. We set up the music system in the community hall and after dinner we disguised and made a little crazy carnival. At the beginning there was just us but soon one by one the villagers arrived. Some were dancing, some only curiously staring at the crazy guys dancing with their children until they fell with exhaustion.

Also the Himalayan Health organzation arrived to Kargyak. It is a team of around 30 doctors from Kanada, Usa and Great Britain who pass through the area of Zanskar camping near villages and providing health care to those in need. Also Kargyak children fell them for “victims”. Topchen´s crocodile tears were falling for the teath that he had pulled out, some children have a little zoo in their hair, but otherwise all seem to be fine.

In the school there were some changes, too. As the children have too much energy, we have cancelled the afternoon “siesta”. Instead of that we take walks and try to catch up what they are missing. Some changes have been made in the nursery. The youngest children stay only till 12 p.m., instead of the former 3.p.m., as this was too harsh not only for the children but also for those taking care of them. To make it clear, the youngest children resemble a stormy night… no way to tame them.:-}

In the English language class there has also been some progress. Children have learned questions like: “Where are you from?” or “ How old are you?” which could (hopefully) substitute the former: ”Give me bombons”. On the whole we could say the children are making progress and that´s the main thing.

And that is all for now from the Kargyak village.

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