Namseling Village Hike

I received a call Saturday morning from Doug, who is a senior advisor to RTC, asking if I wanted to go for a hike in the afternoon. I immediately said "Yes!" Doug and his wife Janet have been in Bhutan for over three years and have overseen the development of RTC from the very beginning. They are an older couple – Doug is a retired financial planner and Janet is professor emeritus in social psychology at the University of Pittsburgh – and they live in the building across from mine. Since my real grandparents are very far away at the moment, I guess they'll have to be my surrogate grandparents! I was very honored that they asked me, and it was nice that they did because it's hard to do things around here if you're not in-the-know. Doug and Janet also have a car, which is very convenient to get around in Bhutan. 

My co-worker, Samir, was also invited along. Samir is of Indian heritage, but was raised in California and ended up going to graduate school at Stanford, so we had an immediate connection. His desk is also near mine in the faculty block. 

We met in the parking lot near my building, just as it started to pour (good ol' monsoon season). Fortunately it cleared up fairly quickly. This is a picture of my apartment building from Doug and Janet's apartment building. My apartment is the one on the upper-left (with the brown and yellow detail). 

Recognize this plant? If you do, the DEA has a few questions for you! As you might have heard, one of the quirky features in Bhutan is that marijuana grows wild everywhere. It is only recently that drying it and smoking it has been discovered here. Traditionally, marijuana leaves are fed to pigs and the local name for it literally means, "pig food." This picture was taken on the side of the road where we parked the car. 

We drove south on the main highway and parked near a series of road-side shops. The village of Namseling is located down from the main road, so most of the shops sell produce from the village. This is an area that can be considered the South Thimphu Valley. 

Typical river bridge crossing. It was pretty rickety and the Thimphu Chhu [river] was swollen and raging due below your feet due to all the recent rain. These kinds of bridges are always adorned with prayer flags, and now I know why!

Samir and Doug take the low-road, while Janet and I take the high-road. The trails we took were unmarked, and there were many that crisscrossed the floors and walls of the valley. These were mostly local trails for cattle, farmers, monks, dogs, and whatever else. 

The ruins of an ancient house that could be 100 years old or could be 1,000 years old – it's hard to tell. Most houses and property remain in the possession of families for dozens and dozens of generations, passing down matrilineally to the oldest daughter. If a house is a abandoned, it means that some sort of misfortune struck that family and no one will re-build on the land because of bad omens. 

Hanging out with the cows. 

A large gourd hangs down from where the road was cut into the hills. Vegetables grow wild all over the place in Bhutan. 

We walked up to a small and beautiful monastery overlooking the valley. The monastery is either new or undergoing renovations. 

Doug, Janet, and Samir walk to the monastery. 

Prayer wheels. 

Peering into the windows, I was taken aback. The inside of this quaint little monastery was beautifully and ornately painted and there were several large golden statues at the altar. There were candles burning, but no one was around. This picture doesn't quite do it justice, as I pressed the camera against the glass. 

Detail of outside painting. 

Prayer flags overlook the verdant valley. 

A typical Bhutanese farm house, with chiles hanging out the windows drying in the sun and a bin full of peaches ripening just below them. 

On our way back down, looking north towards Thimphu. 

On the trail with Doug, Janet, and Samir. 

Entering the village of Namseling, crops abound. Here's corn that is planted around chiles. 

Namseling Village. 

Re-crossing the Thimphu Chhu. 

Pausing for one last view of the valley floor. 

Buying produce at the road stalls. 

Another quirk of Bhutan is chewing on dried cheese. If you look at the above picture with Doug and Janet, you can see it hanging on the far right of the picture. Here's a closeup picture. You buy a string of cheese and pick off chunks to chew at your leisure. Sometimes you see people wearing them like those candy-necklaces back in the States. The cheese is rock-hard and does a number on your teeth, so – like doma – I don't think I'll make this a regular habit. 

. . . 

After the hike, we drove back to RTC and freshened up. Doug and Janet were meeting a friend in Thimphu, and drove Samir and I into town with them. Samir and I did a little shopping and browsing around, and then had dinner at Seasons Restaurant, which is the favorite pizzeria in town. It's pretty good considering we're in the heart of the Himalayas! Samir's friend Ugyen also joined us and we had a great evening eating pizza, drinking Bhutanese beer, and conversing. Ugyen works for the Foreign Ministry, so he has lots of good stories and insight. (His father is also the dean of the nursing school so, Emily, he's a good person to know!) Samir and I returned back to RTC later in the evening tired, content, and just a little buzzed from the Druk 11000 "Super Strong" beer. All in all, I would say that this was probably one of favorite days in Bhutan so far. 

The Joy of Cooking ... in Bhutan

While occasionally I will swear off rice because I have it almost every single meal, in general the food in Bhutan is fresh and tasty. I would say that while there are some unique aspects to Bhutanese cuisine, it mostly is a mixture of Indian and Tibetan influences. I do a lot of my own cooking at home, especially for dinner, and have access to an incredible array of local produce through the Centenary Market in Thimphu. Either the food you can find in Bhutan is local and fresh and unrefridgerated, or it is heavily processed and imported from Thailand, India, or Bangladesh. There's not a lot of in-between.

The other day I decided to try ema datse again, after the first round didn't go so well. Ema datse is the national dish of Bhutan, consisting of chiles and cheese. You can also find a third ingredient mixed in from time to time, including potatoes or mushrooms or tomatoes, for example. The first time around I used a local cheese that I had purchased at the market. Of course, the cheese was unrefridgerated (as is all meat, eggs, and dairy here). The cheese I purchased turned out to be really pungent yak cheese and was not only terrible for ema datse but also terrible for my stomach.

The second go-around I broke down and used processed cheese from Amul (big manufacturer of processed food in South Asia). Without a lot of local guidance about local cheese, this was suggested as a good alternative. It actually turned out pretty well.

Here's a break-down of a meal in Bhutan...

Buy some fresh chiles in the market and cut them into strips. 

Leave the seeds in, if you are brave, or take them out if you are not. 

Fry the chiles with onions in plenty of butter. 

Once the chiles and onions have softened, add the cheese and water to get a nice soupy cheese. 

Your pan will require some intensive cleaning afterwards. 

And you've got ema datse! Dig in! 

For this meal, I also made a nice vegetable curry with local vegetables: 

cauliflower, carrots, beans, eggplant, tomatoes, and, of course, dried chiles!  

Finish off the meal with some amazing fresh mango! 

It's official: I work in Bhutan.

Visiting Draktsho

Today I made my first step in procuring research sites for my dissertation. When I explain to people here exactly what my research is on – namely, inclusive education meanings and understandings in Bhutan – they almost always say: "Have you visited Draktsho?" This is interesting for a couple of different reasons.

First, Draktsho is a vocational school specifically for adolescents and young adults with moderate to severe disabilities. It is a "special school," if you will. What is interesting is that when I say, "inclusive education," people in Bhutan generally conceptualize it as meaning specifically education for persons with disabilities. 'Inclusive' means that they are included in a school, somewhere, and not that they are included with their peers in general classrooms and schools. I'm not surprised at this association, as it is a pretty common one around the world, even in the United States. Already this is shaping how I approach my data collection.

Second, it is interesting that Draktsho is so well-known. Whenever I am referred to Draktsho, I always get the sense that people believe that Draktsho is doing good, and important, work. They seem proud that it exists. This is a positive development for persons with disabilities here, although I have not yet seen or heard of any sort of cultural or societal stigma attached to them in Bhutan.

Two of the study-abroad students from Wheaton College are actually doing an internship at Draktsho, so their advisor (and my neighbor), Jeff, asked if I would help guide their experience since he knew that was my field of expertise. While I am looking for authentically inclusive classrooms to research, I think it is important to include schools like Draktsho in the mix to get a full sense of the special education scene here. I had already been wanting to visit Draktsho, so I jumped at the opportunity to oversee the Wheaton students' experience.

I had a meeting this afternoon with the Program Manager of the school. This actually proved difficult because there is no transportation to and from RTC from about 10:30am until 3:30pm. This was also compounded by the fact that today is Tuesday and, thus, "Pedestrian Day"when all cars and half the taxis are banned from entering Thimphu. The front office at RTC arranged for an odd-numbered taxi (for today was odd-numbered taxi Tuesday) and I made it to Draktsho around 2:00pm. It cost me about Nu.400 for the trip (about $7), which seems low by American standards but on a Bhutanese budget I cannot keep doing. I will have to figured out a better transportation option if I am to go once a week.

Draktsho is located on the outskirts of the main city of Thimphu, nestled in the hills along with the Thai and Bangladeshi consulates. When I first arrived, students were congregating in front of the building and many were friendly and I even got a high-five. From what I could tell, most were students with Down's syndrome, autism, and other intellectual disabilities. From the courtyard, I walked up the steps and into the first office I could find, which turned out to be Finance and Administration. The gentlemen there were friendly and called up to the Program Manager that I have arrived.

Right away, the Program Manager (I am trying not to use names, although I've already given away the name of the school) seemed pleasant and interested in my work. She informed me that the students were on a half-day of school today, and I was startled when she explained that it was because "one of the students had expired last night." I did a double-take: "expired?" "Yes," she went on, "Very sad. It was a boy with CP [Cerebral Palsy] that choked during dinner last night. The cremation ceremony was this morning and the whole school attended." Holy crap, I thought.

It was all very matter-of-fact. I expressed my condolences, but it felt unnecessary; perhaps this was just in reaction to the Program Manager's straight demeanor, but it could also have been a deeper cultural and Buddhist experience of death that I was feeling. Buddhists, of course, believe death to simply be an evacuation of the "soul" from the body, to be reborn again until they reach enlightenment. The body is a shell, although this is complicated a bit by the very Eastern idea of the mind and body being one and the same (as opposed to the Western-Cartesian conceptualization). Corpses are always cremated here, often openly – just as death is experienced openly here and not hidden-away like in the West. Famously, there also exists in Bhutan the practice of "sky burial." This is a Tibetan practice in which the corpse is brought to a high altitude by the family to be devoured by vultures. While this may be shocking to Westerners, the practice is very Buddhist in that the meaningless body is returned to nature and the sense of oneness maintained. This is featured in the excellent BBC documentary, Human Planet, which I very highly recommend. 

Anyway, I digress ...

After the situation was explained by the Program Manager, we talked about my involvement with the school. I expressed my wish to visit one afternoon a week, and she agreed. The Program Manager also asked if maybe I would like to provide some expertise to the school, of which I agreed.

Draktsho is a school of about 55 students and 9 teachers. The student population ranges in age from 10-30, so it is quite a diverse group. The younger students have the subjects of Math, English, and Dzongkha and the older students are on more of a vocational track. Skills-training offered include weaving/tailoring, carving/wood working, cooking/baking, and other vocational skills. According to the Program Manager, the school has so far graduated 35 students and these students were in high-demand from businesses in Thimphu. Some of the graduates of Draktsho have gone on to work at Big Bakery which, as I think I already mentioned, employs only adults with disabilities and makes some of the best bread in town. The school does not board any students, so most live at home with their families.

Recently, Draktsho expanded to open another school in Eastern Bhutan. This school does board students, and actually has over 70 students. One interesting thing I found out while talking to the Program Manager about Draktsho-East is that Southern and Eastern Bhutan has a much higher incidence of disability than the Western Haa-Paro-Thimphu area. She speculated that this was because alcoholism is a problem in those areas (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome), and the practice of cousins marrying was also fairly common. These are also the most rural and remote areas of Bhutan (which is already one of the most remote countries), so poor living conditions also play a huge factor in the higher disability prevalence rate. I would love to visit Eastern Bhutan and see this for myself, although it is a grueling 2-3 day drive (and, to put it in perspective, it is only about 140 miles "as the crow flies" so this should give you an idea of the terrain and difficulty of getting there).

Draktsho is entirely NGO-funded, deriving its support from organizations such as the Youth Development Fund, the Bhutan Foundation, the Tarayana Foundation, and AbilityBhutan with some initial assistance provided by JICA (the Japanese international development agency). I was surprised to learn that Draktsho receives absolutely no support from the Bhutanese government, even though it works with many of the government schools and refers students back and forth between them. The Program Manager expressed that Draktsho had limited resources, and mentioned a recent meeting with UNICEF and the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) to solicit funds.

Since school was not in session, I didn't get a full tour of the school. The Program Manager did show me the school store, where the student handicraft works were sold. There were some very nice items and I definitely made a note of items that I wanted to purchase later (it seemed awkward to purchase them at our first meeting). Draktsho, being outside of the city center, doesn't get a lot of walk-ins to its store, but they also have a shop in the Paro airport that does a good business.

In many ways, Draktsho reminded me of Bauleni School in Lusaka, Zambia, where I visited and stayed last year. Both schools were primarily designed for students with disabilities and both had a vocational focus with an entrepreneurial spirit. And, while I have mixed feelings about the segregative effects of such an environment, both Bauleni and Draktsho provide purpose and motivation for young people with disabilities in communities where they might not experience it otherwise.

...

After my meeting at Draktsho, I walked back to downtown Thimphu, which took about 20 minutes. It has been cold and rainy these past couple of days but, thankfully, it didn't rain on me. I went to Ambient Cafe to grab some coffee and banana cake – both delicious at Ambient – and ran into some of the Wheaton students hanging out there. We sat together and talked for awhile, and then I went to grab some groceries at the "8-11" store and looked as books at DSB Books, which is the best place in town to get local books on Bhutan. When I was ready to head back to RTC, I actually ran into the Wheaton students again on the street and we made it to the central bus station just in time to catch the last city bus back to RTC (as opposed to taking a taxi: a difference between Nu.25 and Nu.200).

Walking up to the bus, I heard someone shout out, "Matt!" I looked around, and to my surprise I saw my friend Noorin, who is a teacher in Punakha for the Bhutan Canada Foundation and that I had met several weeks ago (I mentioned her in a blog post awhile back). She is flying to London tomorrow for her brother's wedding, and stopped in Thimphu to buy some family gifts and stay the night before heading to Paro tomorrow. On the bus we both shared some stories about classes and education and the differences and difficulties of teaching Bhutanese students. It is always nice to talk to fellow teachers about educational issues – as anybody who has ever been in a teacher's lounge can attest!

I was grading my first essays of the semester this weekend, and it was a bit depressing. The students in Bhutan get no lessons in critical thinking, persuasive writing, or knowledge synthesis. The primary and secondary school system is very much still rooted in the old British (via Indian) educational model of rote memorization and fact regurgitation. I cannot directly fault the students for not having these skills, but I am somewhat stuck because RTC's mission is to emphasize them. So, as a teacher, I am caught in the middle of where RTC wants them and where they are.

This, alone, was not the depressing part. What is deflating is how many students innocently and blatantly plagiarize their essays. The funny part is how obvious it is, sometimes the students even forget to change the font and the copy-and-paste job jumps out at you and hits you in the face. Even though RTC has a strict academic code, it is still a widespread phenomenon. When I told Noorin about this, she put it in perspective, and it all made a lot of sense. Noorin pointed out that it was a systematic problem that begins in primary school. For example, when a primary school student is told to "write" a poem, they are encouraged to copy one from the book. Thus begins a long career of acceptable plagiarism and un-creative thinking. I'm not saying that there is any one "right" way to do it, but education has to be more than copying poems from a textbook!

I also had student essays that didn't follow even one of the clear guidelines for the assignment that I provided, essays that weren't even about the right topic, and even one essay that was overtly racist and sexist all in the same paragraph.

Today, in class, I returned their graded essays and went over some of the issues I observed and re-clarified my expectations of their written work. I hope that I at least see improvement in their next papers. I always hate to be the "bad guy" in these situations, as well as the judicator of failing grades, but I guess it has to be done from time to time. However, I'd rather let it motivate me to be a better teacher, rather than allow it to form low expectations of my students.

Indian Independence Day

Yesterday I was invited to a house party to celebrate Indian Independence Day, which marks the day that India gained independence from Britain in 1947. Jaya, an English professor at RTC, invited mostly "chilips" (the Indian slang for 'white people") and said that the Americans and the Indians both have a shared history of shedding British oppression (although we both did it very different ways).

Americans celebrate their independence day by getting drunk, eating lots of junk food, and lighting off fireworks. Indians celebrate their independence day by having a dinner in the evening with friends and family. Seems like we both celebrate in our own cultural ways!

It was fun to spend time with faculty outside of work, especially because we often don't see each other during the day (as we are teaching, working in different departments, working in different locations, etc.). Just to add a little absurdity to the whole thing, Cathy – the librarian – brought a game of Mexican bingo ("lotería") and ... on Indian Independence Day ... in Bhutan ... with a mix of Indians and Americans ... we played Mexican bingo.

Gotta love this global world we live in.

I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few...

From left to right: Jaya, Prajna, Ingrid, & Liz

Sourav and his family (who is visiting from India) came over. 

Also in the this picture: Kal and Mustaque, who is from Sikkim.  

Mustaque, Prajna, Liz, and Ingrid. 

Classes have been going pretty well this week and I feel like I'm in the flow of the semester now. I just played a game of soccer tonight and managed to make it for the whole 90 minutes. Maybe I'm acclimatizing after all ... either that or playing soccer at 7800 feet is getting me more fit. Probably both. 

A week of classes, a soccer tournament, and Shakespeare?

Kuzuzangpo!

We are now on our second week of classes here at RTC. Teaching the first week went okay, although it is always hard to know how it went from the student's perspective and made especially difficult when filtered through a different cultural context. The students have adjusted pretty well to my teaching style (groomed in the West), and I have tried to adapt it to meet their needs. There are some interesting dynamics at play because the college wants to position itself as a higher-education leader in Bhutan on learner-centered approaches and developing critical thinkers, although the students have gone through an entire primary and secondary school system where that wasn't emphasized at all. Add to that the fact that, as I wrote on in an earlier blog post, RTC must conform to the RUB policies which are inherently more old-school and strict. So this translates to a lot of adjustments being made in my lesson planning and improvisationally in the classroom. There are certain things that I am not willing to budge on, however. I believe strongly in strict deadlines and attendance, coming to class prepared, and being a participant in the class. Attendance has been terrible for the first week, and I am bit concerned that they are not concerned about it.

Like any class anywhere in the world, there are the students that are stellar and always come to class and always do their work, there are students that perform the bare minimum, and there are students that struggle to get-it-together academically. This, of course, is the challenge of any teacher and as an advocate for inclusive learning, I am trying everything I can to reach everyone. Of course, students have to show up for that to happen. I told them all the first day that I will not fail anyone who comes to class and does the work, but I know already that I am going to have to fail at least some and it breaks my heart.

We had an interesting discussion in my Media & NGOs class today that I think was rather successful in getting the lesson across. I first asked them if anyone had been to the United States, and only 1 out of 36 had (I was actually surprised anyone had been, considering only 2 other people in the class had been outside of the country and that was to Thailand). I then asked them to list all of things they could think of about the United States that they knew of. Here's a sample of a very long list:

• Land of opportunity, rich, Las Vegas, technological, Yellowstone, LeBron James, obese, New York City, militaristic, lots of sexual activity, power, baseball, melting pot, 9/11, Hollywood, Iraq/Afghanistan Wars, Coca-Cola, Mickey Mouse, medical marijuana, homosexuality, Barack Obama, etc. etc. 

It was a fascinating experiment of reflecting what I knew – consciously or unconsciously – about the United States back from the Bhutanese youth whom had only heard about the United States and never experienced it first-hand. Not only was this interesting as a researcher, but I was also satisfied that it made my point to them that when I asked, "Now where did you hear about all of these things?" to which they replied, "The media!" and I could almost see lightbulbs turning on above their heads. We then discussed what characterizations of Bhutan they thought were portrayed in Western media. Almost in unison they replied, "GNH!" [Gross National Happiness] and we all kind of laughed because it was true. (I am planning on writing a whole entry on that topic soon.) Other things we came up with were:

• Buddhism, rich in culture, Himalayas, "Shangri-la," isolated, King, Peaceful transition to democracy, refugees, etc. 

Next we discussed whether these stereotypes were true or more complex (which, of course, they were always more complex). I explained more about the US and how it projects itself a certain way, but on the inside there is a lot of criticism and controversy and paradoxes. They explained in much the same manner about the Bhutanese stereotypes in Western media. I told them about how the Nepali-refugee issue has been covered in the West and they told me how it was covered in the country, i.e. very differently. I then read them two stories on the 2008 Tibetan riots before the Beijing Olympics. The first story, from the New York Times, described the violent crackdown and the international condemnation. The second story, from the Xinghua News Agency, described the dangerous and anarchist Tibetans and the intervention of the Chinese military to restore peace and order.

The point of the lesson, as you could probably deduce, is about the power of media narratives and their effect in projecting certain characterizations. I find that this was a fruitful and fascinating conversation to have in a country located far away from the United States. While Bhutan is geographically far, globalization has brought the messages and stories of far away places to Bhutan at the blink of an eye, but not a lot of the context travels with it. To the rest of the world, LeBron James is our ambassador and Hollywood is our Public Relations Department. Chew on that for awhile. 

...

Yesterday, I played in a soccer tournament to raise money for the restoration of the Wangdue Dzong (see previous posts, or international news). It's actually an annual tournament but this year they are using it to raise funds. The tournament lasts about four weeks and involves teams from businesses, ministries, colleges, and other institutions. Yesterday, we played the Tashi Power Company's team, and unfortunately got stomped 0-3. I got my first – I think – yellow card of my soccer career because I didn't understand the substitution policy and went on the field to replace the player before he had exited the pitch. You'd think they could have just told me to stay off, or given me a warning at least, but apparently they are sticklers for the rules at this tournament. Oh well, glad my yellow wasn't for anything real. 

The game before us. We played on the field at the Royal Institute of Management. 

Dordenma 'Golden' Buddha overlooks our game. 

Getting ready. From left to right: Yeshi, Sonam, Budhi, Arun, Suraj, and Kimi (our faculty supporter). 

Our team in action. 

...

So I think I may have gotten roped into being in the RTC Faculty production of Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors. Cathy, our librarian, is very persuasive. I was, and still am, hesitant about committing to too much right away, as I am still putting in a lot of extra time preparing lessons and haven't even started to visit schools in Thimphu and collect data for my dissertation. Not to mention that I am playing soccer 1-2 times per week and basketball once a week. We have our first table-read in about 20 minutes and I'm hoping that I can convince her for a small part. I made the mistake of letting it be known that I had an extensive theater background, so it might be hard to tone down the commitment. I have to admit, however, that part of me is excited to be back on the stage. It's been awhile...

First Day of Class

The view from my kitchen window on a beautiful first day of school. 

It's back to school for me!

Today was the first day of classes at RTC. The two classes that I am teaching – "Youth and Society" and "Media and NGOs" – met in the morning and they are classes for the Year 3 students (aka, the seniors). This is nice because my first students at RTC are ones that have been around here for 2 years and know the college culture. The first year students are very immature, academically, and there is a lot more hand-holding to get them to be college students.

However, there are many differences between the RTC students and the American college student. One of the professors here told me that their academic level sits between a good American high school student and a decent American community college student. While I am not approaching the students here with low standards, I do think already that this is an accurate description and helpful in recognizing their initial level in order to challenge them to excel. For my first two classes, only about 50% of the students showed up (36 students in a class, total). I'm still not sure where the others were. There were some moments of immaturity – the guy who asked to go to the bathroom and never came back, the chatter, the unwillingness to ask questions or answer prompts – but these are things that I can work with as a teacher. There are interesting cultural elements at work as well, such as every student calling me "Sir" and when they do speak up and present something, they will only talk directly to me and not to the rest of the class. Bhutanese also tend to speak very softly in class in order to respect the teacher, although this is hard for me personally as I can only hear about 50% as well as most other people. We'll work on that.

In my last entry, I described the higher education system in Bhutan but not really how things worked at RTC. In stark contrast to American colleges and universities, students at RTC (and other Bhutanese higher education institutions) attend class from 9am – 4pm in much the same way as an American high school. The classes are one hour long each and, also unlike American higher education, classes at RTC meet everyday. In other words, I teach two courses so that means I teach twice a day, everyday. However, differently from either the American high school or college systems, the students do not switch classrooms. The third-year sociology/political science students have class in room C11 ... for every period of every day. (It is the teachers that move around.) Plus, all students of the same year in the same track – here, sociology & political science – take the exact same courses together at the exact same time. For example, the 36 students I have in my "Youth and Society" course are the exact same ones in my "Media and NGOs" course because they are all third-year students. This is nice for me, because I only need to learn 36 names. I will also be advising some of the third-years on their senior projects, but that hasn't started yet.

It's actually kind of nice to live on campus because I am able to go home whenever I want. After my last class at 1pm, I walked home and made lunch and did some laundry and even took an afternoon nap (which, as Emily can attest, I rarely do). I find that the Professor lifestyle suits me, as I can spread out my work and have flexible hours (outside of my obligations to the college, department, and in the classroom, of course). I'll probably do some more prep work tonight after dinner.

...

I went into Thimphu a few days ago, and then again yesterday. There is a faculty shuttle that makes several trips back and forth between RTC and Chang Lam Square in the heart of Thimphu, and its a free service. There is also a city bus which makes regular trips as well and that is Nu25 (~$0.50) so it's not too bad. On both trips I have taken a taxi back for Nu200.

Yesterday I took the bus into town and happened to meet a Canadian who is working for the Bhutan Canada Foundation as a teacher in Punakha, which is the next dzongkhag (or "district") over from Thimphu. I was considering the BCF as a possible entry into Bhutan, but I'm glad I found RTC first. Noorin, the Canadian, is a teacher for the Punakha district schools, most of which are pretty rural and remote. She is having a much different experience than I am in Thimphu, and definitely more like the experiences of Jamie Zeppa in Beyond the Sky and the Earth (if you've read that book). Anyway, she was a special educator in Canada so, of course, we hit it off immediately. She gave me some good contacts in Thimphu to get ahold of in relation to my research including the director of AbilityBhutan and the in-country director of the BCF teachers. Bhutan is definitely a country where once you meet one person you automatically have an invitation to at least two or three other people. Punakha is about a two-hour ride from Thimphu, but I would like to make it out there at least once or twice to observe the situation in rural schools. Noorin told me that she does have students with disabilities in her classroom – mostly learning disabled – but there is definitely no support structures in place for these students. I would definitely like to know more about how that works.

Here's a few pictures from my time in Thimphu yesterday.

Thimphu might be one of the only country capitals in the world without a traffic light. Rather famously, the main intersection in town is controlled by traffic police whom gesture the cars through and look like part air-traffic controller, part mime. 

Clock Tower Plaza on Norzin Lam ("Lam" means street). This is one of the main focal points downtown and they are still performing regular benefit concerts for the Dzong that burned down in Wangdue Phodrang. 

This is where I spent most of Sunday afternoon: Ambient Cafe. It would be a decent coffee shop in the States, but in Bhutan it's definitely amazing. I had my first cup of coffee in weeks, and it was excellent. This is also the meeting place for all the expats living in Thimphu. I'm thinking that this will become my regular Sunday afternoon haunt. 

Just north of downtown there is about a quarter-mile of stalls like these that sell Bhutanese handicrafts from sellers in the rural districts. It's called the Craft Market Bazaar and you can find lots of handwoven items, carved wooden masks, handmade paper, trinkets and curiosities, prayer wheels, and – of course – lots of phalluses. I'll definitely have to explain that in another entry! For now, let me just say that the Bhutanese have no problem painting phalluses on the sides of houses or carrying phalluses around with them as a protective amulet. It's not as common in Thimphu, but in the rural districts I hear every house has a phallus painted on its side. Like I said, I will definitely write a whole entry on this phenomenon later. 

On Higher Education in Bhutan

I have been busy preparing for classes, and all of the faculty have returned so the college is starting to feel like a college. The first year students have arrived, also, and have been registering for classes and moving into their dormitories. That has kept the staff busy as well.

As I am preparing to teach, I thought I would take a moment and explain what higher education is like in Bhutan as I have come to understand it personally. There are some distinct and interesting differences between Bhutan and the United States, as one would come to expect.

In Bhutan, secondary school ends at Grade 10 and high schoolers take an exam in order to enter Grades  11-12. However, if they don't pass the entrance exam into upper-secondary they can go to a private upper-secondary school. About 40% of Bhutanese upper-seconday students go to private schools. At the end of the upper-secondary grades (Grade 12), there is an entrance exam into higher education.

Students that perform well on the college entrance exam are admitted to the Royal University of Bhutan system and their entire higher education – including room & board – is free of charge. Some very high performers of the college entrance exam are granted scholarships to attend colleges and universities abroad – mostly in India, but also some in Australia, Europe, and North America. The King grants these scholarships personally. The Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) is a system of 10 colleges. There is not actually a physical place called 'RUB.' This system is only a few years old. Previously, the colleges operated more or less independently. The first college in Bhutan – Sherubtse College in Eastern Bhutan – was only founded in the late 1980s. Other colleges include the National Institute of Traditional Medicine, Paro College of Education, and Gaeddu College of Business Studies to name a few.

There is a severe space-crunch in RUB, however, and many students who pass their college entrance exam do not get a spot in RUB colleges. There are only around 2,000 seats available at RUB for each in-coming class, even though 6,000 students have passed the college entrance exam. Because of this, about 2,000 students take their studies outside of Bhutan (again, almost entirely in India). Those that are left (around 2,000) either do not go into higher education or now have the option of attending Royal Thimphu College (RTC) – where I work!

RTC is the first and only private college in Bhutan, established primarily because of the higher education space issue mentioned above. It took its first class in 2009 (very recently!) and the first graduating class graduated last month. By examining that last sentence, you will deduce that higher education in Bhutan is three years long. The director of RTC, Dasho Tenzin Yonten (btw, 'Dasho' is a title of respect given to high members of Bhutanese society), gave these reasons for establishing RTC:

• To provide choice (aka meeting the demand that RUB cannot meet)
• To provide an alternative to the textbook/exam system in higher education
• To develop critical thinkers
• To make a difference in the education sector of Bhutan
• To contribute to society

This year, there are about 900 students enrolled at RTC. Because RUB takes the highest students, and many other academically-motivated students study abroad, RTC has a very specific student profile. Mainly, RTC's students are those that didn't have the marks to make it into RUB, but have the family money available to pay for private tuition. The student services and administrative staff at RTC noted that in many of their application essays, the students referred to themselves as 'failures.' In other words, these are not the most motivated college students in Bhutan. The guiding principles of RTC seek to make it a progressive leader in higher education in Bhutan. It is restricted by its novelty and the characteristics of the student body. However, RTC is now taking on students that have had high enough marks on the college entrance exam to be on full scholarship, and the King has pledged that a few select top students at RTC will be granted scholarships for graduate work abroad.

Another restrictive element to RTC is that it must remain an 'affiliated college' to the RUB system, and thus must fit under their rules and regulations. Unlike the United States, where colleges and universities operate independently, Bhutanese higher education is very restrictive. All colleges must adhere to the Wheel of Academic Law that is formed by RUB officials. What this is entails is a fully-prescribed academic sequence that no college is allowed to alter. This is a source of frustration for the administration here at RTC that would like to align their academic philosophies more with progressive Western higher education systems. For example, RTC must make students take a final examination in each module (class). But, RTC has stretched the rules a bit by de-emphasizing the final and putting more weight on continuous assessments (exams, papers, quizzes, projects, presentations, etc.). This is common in Western higher education. For a long time, RUB prescribed only the final exam as a measure of passing or failing a module. If a students failed any module, they were not given the option of repeating the course and, thus, were dropped from their program and the college. There was no incentive for RUB to keep around students if they were subsidizing their education and there were thousands of students clamoring to get admitted. RTC was the first college to allow its students to repeat modules and to give their students multiple opportunities to pass exams. RUB has since revised some of its policies around this as RTC has challenged them. 

Conformity to the RUB system also personally impacts my teaching as I have a syllabus that is dictated by the RUB – everything from the learning objectives, to the assignment break-downs, to the readings themselves. However, RTC allows me to make subtle (or not-so-subtle) changes to RUB's curriculum. Thus, in my own module planning, I have a hybrid of RUB-prescribed readings and my own selection. RTC also wants me to put more emphasis on continuous assessments rather than the final exam, as dictated by RUB. As you can probably imagine, there is a lot of push-pull between RTC and RUB and every change to the syllabus must be justified to the RUB academic examining committee. Whereas RUB's philosophy is much more rooted in 'information-reguritation' on exams and lecture-based teaching, RTC is trying to push the higher education system in Bhutan to accept more learner-centered teaching and classroom activities and exams based on Bloom's taxonomy of low-order to high-order learning (memory, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation). 

It's an interesting higher education system that is bureaucratically trying to manage its traditions while also progressing forward to meet the demands of the times. While I do not necessarily endorse private education as a solution, I am excited to be at RTC because of its role in challenging some of the status quo in the RUB system. The phenomenon of private colleges springing up in countries that subsidize their public higher education systems for top students is well-documented. However, in those countries it is almost too easy to start a higher education institution and there is a lot of corruption and deception. (Even in the United States, there is a growing problem of for-profit higher education institutions that don't deliver quality 'education' but take your money anyway.) In Bhutan, it is not easy to just start a college, and you must receive Royal permission to do so (His Majesty is the de-facto president of RUB). So for RTC to be in operation can be considered a major coup, and speaks to the persuasiveness and passion of our director. 

It will be interesting to see how higher education evolves in Bhutan, as the system is quite new (the United States has about a three-hundred year head start; modern Europe has about a thousand-year head start). One thing that has already changed in Bhutan is that the minimum requirement to enter the civil service – including a politician in the national government – is a bachelor's degree. (Imagine if we required every member of congress in the United States to have a college degree, while so many American politicians pride themselves on being 'folksy' and un-educated.) This new credentialism in Bhutan will no doubt raise the demand for higher education even further and how RUB responds will affect the entirety of the country.