By the time we left Calcutta on Saturday night we were all pretty
frazzled and worn out from a week of hot weather and hard work. I
don’t know about the rest of the group, but I was definitely dreaming
about fresh air and mountain views. After an overnight train and a
five hour jeep ride through the mountains we finally arrived in
Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim.The population of Gangtok is 30,000
(compare that to Calcutta’s 14 million), and the entire city is built
along winding mountain roads with spectacular views of green valleys
and snow capped Himalayan peaks in the distance. It’s a dream come
true.
We just finished our second day of volunteering at the Palzor Namgyal
Girls School, a private school of 1,000 students. We had no idea what
to expect coming in, so we were all caught off guard when we found out
we would be teaching classes of 30 students with no lesson plan, just
a few games up our sleeves. We were even more surprised to find that a
lot of students were our own age. It’s pretty intimidating trying to
teach subjects we barely remember learning about last year and I think
we all have gained a lot more respect for our high school teachers. We
did some brainstorming last night and came up with lesson plans and
ideas to get the girls thinking more creatively, so most classes went
a little more smoothly today. Luke taught philosophy, Noah talked
about politics, Jess led art projects, Maddi taught Spanish, Phoebe
sang and danced, Becca taught English and Hindi, and I taught a lesson about the demographic
transition model and world population growth, no big deal.
We have two more days at the school, and then a few more free days to
explore Gangtok and prepare for our trek. And since internet is pretty
sketchy here, we’ve decided to go technology free for the next 2
weeks! So don’t expect to hear from your kids until we arrive in
Darjeeling around March 27th.
Stay tuned for one more update before we hit the trail, but for now,
Shanti Bahar.
-Lydia
