Moving

Pangbisa

We got moved last week, transferring from our house in the construction zone to a Residential Advisor suite in a dorm on the campus in Pangbisa, a small rural community with a cafe, two small stores, and lots of cows and dogs. It’s blissfully beautiful and quiet here - except for the six 20-something males living down the hall from us, most of whom are Jay’s students. They also helped us move our stuff in, which was really sweet. We were a little surprised at how much we had accumulated in two months, though mostly kitchen and household goods that we will use up. We wanted to make sure we were well provisioned before we moved up onto the mountain.

 

The dorms are called hostels here, and this one is mostly empty because the students who lived here are 5^thyears who are spending this semester doing externships. Because the campus is newly constructed, the building is more energy efficient and warmer than the house we moved out of, which makes us very happy, and the kitchen is newly outfitted with energy efficient appliances and gadgets. We have a lovely view of the mountains, and the weather rolling up the valley. We are glad to be here.

 

My new favorite work spot in the lounge of the hostel we are living in.

 

But it also has its hurdles. I don’t think either of us has written much about the challenges of this campus. This is part of my work too.

 

Like many temples and monasteries in Bhutan, the law school is in an isolated spot high up on a mountain, a good ways above the country’s only international airport in the Paro valley. The buildings of the school, which I have posted pictures of before, are built in traditional style, and are lovely solid structures. The road to the school is good, but narrow and windy, like every road in this country.

 

But the isolation of the school presents challenges. For the students, who live there 24/7, traveling into town is at best a weekly option. Because the budget for the initial phase of building was limited, the focus was on essential structures like dorms, classrooms, faculty offices, and dining hall, and there are no recreational facilities, no gathering commons, no bookstore/café or game room that you would likely find on most college campuses. The students have limited ways to be anything other than a student.

 

And it’s a small school: with maximum 25 students per class, there are at most 125 students on campus. With the 5^th year students doing externships, some outside the country, and with less-than-full classes, there are currently about 83 students on campus. Having such a small student body creates social challenges, and there is a strong tendency for too many students to stay holed up in their rooms.

  

I don’t think any of the students have cars, so they are limited in how often they can get down the mountain to Paro. It’s not hard to get a taxi from Paro up to the school, though it is relatively expensive, but it is nearly impossible to call a taxi to the school to take you down. Sometimes students get rides to town with staff or faculty, and sometimes they hitchhike along the road, walking until they can get a ride. Or maybe they have a friend or family member who can come up. 

Some faculty and staff live on campus in what is intended to be a graduate student dorm, but many of them stay there only during the week, and on weekends go to Thimphu or other parts of the country to be with their families. They have a more fluid tenure on the mountain than the students do, but many faculty also commute either from Paro, which is a half hour, or from Thimphu, which is an hour and a half, and makes it so that those faculty are on campus infrequently. Some faculty come to campus only to teach their classes, making the campus community less robust than it could be. And should be.

So it’s a pretty isolated existence for the students, which creates challenges for their emotional well-being.

 

This is where my work starts.

When I got here, I did a student survey so I could understand what was working well, what wasn’t, what was needed, what I might be able to do. Most of the students reported being stressed or even depressed; many asked to have a mental health counselor on campus; many wanted exercise facilities or other non-academic resources so they could do something other than their studies. Many felt a need to be seen and supported. So I have been trying to respond to all of this, without having a magic wand to wave, and say “poof!” there is a gym, a bus, a social life, a coffee shop with yummy pastries and strong coffee.

One of my favorite things about working with students is the students. They are really smart, energetic, thoughtful, and creative. They make lots of plans to do things, and take as much advantage of the resources that they do have. My role is to enhance that, provide them with support and an ear, and work tiny bits of magic here and there. My goal is to infuse a philosophy of student-centered education into the campus wherever I can. It’s been challenging and frustrating, but with some successes. And I just started working with the new Assistant Dean for Student Services, who is wonderful, enthusiastic, and committed to improving the students’ lives on campus. So that has been a marvelous addition to my work.

 

 

At the Paro tsechu, a yearly festival, with students.

 

The students took us to the carnival that came into town during the tsechu.

Jay and me in the academic block, sporting our traditional clothes.

 

 

Moving On

Having just moved ourselves up the mountain and settled into our cozy spot, I am now getting ready to leave. It’s really hard for me to leave before the end of the semester, but it’s been harder for me to not be able to be with my family and process my sister’s death with them, so I made the difficult decision to leave here early. I really don’t want to leave, but I need to go. I'm sad to leave the students, and they are sad to see me go.

 

I will leave for Seattle later this week, and then go to NY for a week to my niece’s wedding, where I can be with my siblings, their kids, my kids, celebrate and grieve, and process the fact that there are no longer four of us. We were always A B C and D (D being me!) but now we are no longer alphabetically intact. I just don’t know what to do with that, so I need to go see if I can figure that out.

 

I will continue to work remotely - thank you Zoom and WhatsApp!! Jay will stay here and hold down the fort, supporting the students, and playing honorary member of the Office of Student Services and do what he can to fill in for my absence. So the story continues, just not quite how we thought it would. This is my lesson this semester: how to be accepting of things I have no control over, and bear it all with grace and humor. It feels like a PhD program.