In March 2008, Gabriele Reifenberg and Ruth Melling from the UK, spent two weeks at the Lepcha school, teaching the children. Gabriele reports:
After several days of bureaucratic hassle in Gangtok to get our innerline permit, my friend, Ruth Melling, and I were finally off to Dzongu on Saturday, 1st March. The jeep ride took us along a typical Sikkimese road: the Tista River down below and tree or fern-lined mountainsides on the other side. We crossed and re-crossed the river on sometimes rather dodgy-looking bridges. However, after about four hours we reached Passingdang and received a warm welcome into Loden Lepcha’s house. Here we were amazed to be given a room each, and enjoyed our first meal in the separate kitchen (subsequently it seemed easier all round for us to eat in one of the rooms). The toilet facilities were also in a separate building a few steps away and we could wash there if we didn’t want to join everyone else at the hose in the yard.
Our teaching duties started on Monday. As we were the first volunteers to come to the school, setting the timetable was somewhat experimental. We soon decided that nursery, KG and Class 1 were a bit tricky without mother tongue and so we concentrated on Classes II, III and IV. The small numbers (40 altogether at the time) made it easy to get to know the children quickly and to learn their names. We had both brought some teaching materials such as flash cards and soon got down to using our interactive style of teaching, which the children really seemed to enjoy. The afternoons generally developed into periods for teaching games, such as “What’s the time Mr Bear?” (there are no wolves in Sikkim apparently!) and singing songs such as “Appa Tashi (Old McDonald) had a Farm”, “Here we go round the Mulberry Bush” (which they knew already), “The wheels on the bus”. Ruth had brought a tape containing these songs, so we hoped they would continue to be sung after we left. The children were very quick to learn.
The three main classrooms of the old school were showing signs of wear and tear, but a new school building was being constructed. Already now in July one of the new classrooms is in use. It was wonderful to meet the teachers, the children and some of the villagers and experience a little of their daily lives. The only frustration was the restriction on permits which meant we could have just five days’ stay at a time. One can only hope that this will change soon.
Gabriele Reifenberg
July 2008
