From Mongar to Kanglung

The bridge across this river was the border between Mongar District and Trashigang District, where Kanglung is located.

The lighting wasn't ideal for this photo but it gives an idea of just how windy the roads in Bhutan are.

We left Mongar around 8 am bidding farewell to Kendra and Will. Then we headed to Yadi (warm, beautiful Yadi) Secondary School where we dropped off Scott Harris in a very suitable, livable “sick room.” When the room is not occupied by a BCF volunteer teacher, it’s supposed to house sick students since Yadi Secondary is a boarding school, but, as the principal said, they don’t have sick students often. All of us were envious of his campus, his very nice principal. We drank tea, ate cookies, said goodbye to Scott, and set off for Trashigang. At the split off for Trashigang and Kanglung, the two buses finally parted ways. Our bus – Nathalie, John, Maureen, Rinzin, Scott, and I – said bye to Jean Daniel, Ian, Vicky, Julian, and Shauna.

From the split it was about one hour to Kanglung. The bus started climbing up and up and as we inched closer and closer to Kanglung, I started getting excited and anxious and telling myself over and over again to not expect much. The closer we got to Kanglung, the better the views were getting. We passed Nathalie’s school which has a fantastic view of a sloping mountain side with terraced farm plots. We then passed Sherubtse College (Scott’s school) and finally arrived at my school and met Tenzin, my new principal. We didn’t get beyond the front entrance of the primary school before we drove to our new home to unload our stuff. From the school, Tenzin pointed our house out – a large yellow house on a hill overlooking an incredible view. We would occupy the first floor (which is above the ground floor).

When you walk into our place, you enter into a small hallway – with three rooms off it – which opens into a large living area and the most stunning view – wraparound windows looking out over upper market and toward the mountains. On the clearest of days, which today was, you can see snow-covered peaks in the far off distance. The kitchen is massive with tons of counter space. There are two hot showers, two bathrooms (one of which has a western flush toilet). In total, there are three sinks in our new place – three sinks that release running water, hot running water. It's certainly an upgrade from our bucket baths and bucket everything in Tanzania. Our only complaint is that this home is much too large, large enough to house a family of five or six. Scott and I will figure out some way to fill it up.

Once we said goodbye to John, Maureen, and Rinzin, Tenzin gave us a tour through Kanglung. There are shops with any food item we’d need, small places to eat, banks with ATMs, an upper market and lower market (which two clusters of shops), a monastic school, a temple, and beautiful Sherubtse College. Kanglung even has a milkman who delivers fresh cow milk every day.

We spent the evening unpacking and getting settled in. We burned incense to commemorate our arrival, something we were told might be a good idea.

Rinzin in front of the sign to Kanglung Primary School, where I'll be teaching this year. Rinzin was another phenomenal Bhutanese individual we got to spend time with through BCF. He was on the bus we took from Thimpu. He's a great teacher of cooking and has the best laugh. Below are more early shots of Kanglung, our new home.




The monastic school.

On campus of Sherubtse College, where Scott will be a lecturer.