Sylvia's Journal

We spent all day at the Taktse International School. We followed a class schedule, mathematics with Miss S. in 5th grade, reading with another Miss S. in 4th grade, writing with Miss O. in 7th and 8th grade. We sat on the carpet with eager 4th graders, in rows or in circle, calculated profits and losses and made sentences with difficult new words (melodious, profusely).

And while we were in school the clouds pulled in along with the rain while the temperature dropped. Unlike Afghanistan there is no heat source anywhere – the source of heat is body temperature and the right clothes. It is hard to believe that all these people live here at 7000ft through winters and snow with no heaters. Like the Afghans people walk around barefoot in flipflops and plastic sandals.

We had brought an Afghan wintercoat for our host, the blanket type wrap. I gave it to him and then asked it back to keep me warm. Most everyone else wore wintercoats. I was utterly unprepared for the cold and the rain that followed. All through the last half of the day and the night it rained as if it was monsoon time. The roads where drenched when we drove back over muddy tracks in a car that has no four-wheel drive. We looked anxiously up the hill, fearing landslides. Later our host told us that landslides happen during monsoon time and not now.

The only living creatures happy with the humidity were the orchids. I can see why they thrive here.

We took Ashley and Jack, Tessa’s friends and schoolmates, temporary teachers at the school, back to our hotel for a gourmet meal, something they don’t often have. They started their nine month tour of Asia with a three months stint at the school, to get grounded. In May they are off further East to return to the US in November. We also watched Sita’s classmate in his headmaster role. It is wonderful when friends of kids become good company for the parents, interesting and impressive young adults with whom we share some common history that revolves around the Waring School, first the one in the west, in Beverly, and now the one over here in the east.