Yesterday, July 28, 2009, I made my first trek to the village of Shey to visit the two schools at which I will be instituting the Follow Your Art photo literacy program. Taking off from Leh, by bus, was a fairly easy task. The buses are not always on time, but there are many of them running and the bus station is relatively easy to reach on foot. About a half an hour after stepping onto the bus to Shey, we arrived. I thanked the driver, paid my 15 rupees (roughly 30 cents), and began to walk toward the main village. I passed an amazing monastery, built in the early 7th century, many rock carvings, the "holy fish pond" (an ecological preservation area), many chortans, and even more smiling Ladakhi faces. After 15 or 20 minutes my friend, Eric, and I made it to the first school: Druk White Lotus, or as the locals call it, "Druk Padma Karpo Institute". Eric, my tavelling buddy, is an old friend of mine, once my photography professor, then my teaching collegue, is a filmmaker and professor from Daytona State College in Daytona, Florida. The trek up to the school together was beautiful. Upon reaching the school, we encountered the head of the educational program, Prassad. He offered to give us a tour of the school grounds. The institution is nothing short of amazing. I have seen absolutely NOTHING like it in the states. Everything runs on solar energy. The buildings are all thermally heated by the sun and, through specially laid flooring, retain that heat through the cold, Himalayan winter. We visited many classrooms including the pre-k and elementary school area, the junior school (grades 2-4), middle school (5-7), and the soon to be built high school (8-12). The first students to ever attend the DWLS are currently in the 7th grade, and so the school is adding classrooms and grade levels as those original students ascend each year to the next stage. At every turn, I was shocked at the resourcefulness and "eye" of the architectural group building the institution. There is also a greenhouse in the works for next year where students will learn to plant, grow, and cultivate their own food. the classroom for the greenhouse is located directly in the middle section of the greenhouse, so the students will be learning in and amongst the growing plants. Simply wonderful.
The school has also built four separate housing units for students living too far away to bus home each day. These 150 students live in the "hostels" at school, do their own laundry, and live with each other for the school year (becoming a kind of family for one another). As these students spend much time away from their families, I have a growing interest in working closely with them, hoping to utilize the cameras and writing as a way for them to connect with each other, the world around them, and to speak about the families back home which they are missing so much. Also, I will be working with the kindergarten students a lot, as some of these children are also living at the school. As four and five year olds, you can imagine how much they are missing their mothers and fathers. The projects will focus on self-awareness: "Who am I? What is my culture? What do I believe in? Who am I in my family? What will I be when I grow up? How do I hope to change the world", etc.
There is also an expressed interest from the teachers that I enter into many different general education classes (i.e. science, math, health, etc.) and build projects that will reinforce what those teachers are hoping to get across to the students for that particular semester. I begin my work at Druk White Lotus School on August 4th and can't possibly express to you how excited I am to meet these kids and put cameras into their very capable hands!
After visiting Druk White Lotus, Eric and I walked a few feet down the only road running through Shey to the Lamdon School. There I met the principal, Lama Labzong. Lama Labzong is a monk from the Spituk monastery who has been working at Lamdon and acting as head principal for ten years. He was jovial, welcoming, and very excited about the prospect of the program being at Lamdon school. Lama Labzong offered Eric and I a wonderful meal at lunch time to share with him. We sat on the floor and talked about how the school came to be. Labzong told us of his many failed efforts to put successful roofing on one of the school's buildings (he put up roofing about five or six times, but the unforgiving winds blowing down from the Himalayas constantly thwarted his efforts). He is an amazing man. Because Lamdon school is on summer break, he invited me back on August 18th to discuss the program and fitting it into the students' schedule.
I'm very happy and excited to be working with so many wonderful students and teachers at two very amazing schools here in Ladakh. I will be posting onto this blog and hope you can all keep up with the work Follow Your Art will be doing with these children.
