Poco a Poco

The last few weeks have been a whirl, bit by bit getting settled, oriented, acclimated, and verified. We are back living on campus, with its plusses and minuses. We spent three days in Thimphu last week doing the immigration dance once again, because our work permits from last semester expired before we returned, because we had not extended them before we left, because we were not clear that we were coming back. So we had to go through that all over again, and I was astonished that it was even more complicated and exhausting than the last time. I still feel a little traumatized by it all! I may write more about that at some point, but the bottom line is that we are thankfully visaed and permitted again. Phew!

I thought I'd just share some photos for now, to catch up a bit on what we've been up to.

Most days we walk up the hill from the law school into Pangbisa, the small settlement up the hill, mostly for the exercise and acclimatizing, but also to do some bird-watching, stare at the sky, and shop at the two small shops there.

It was summer when we got here, though the last few days have seemed to be starting to turn to fall, and to harvest time. We watched a group of people harvesting potatoes with the help of several bulls to turn up the soil - we didn't want to bother them but then we got to buy the potatoes at the shop that is in the ground floor of the large yellow house across the road from the field.

The next day, we went back to get cabbage, cauliflower, and bok choy that the shop owner harvested for us that afternoon. Dinner! We are getting much better at feeding ourselves, and understanding how to cook at 9000' with limited cook gear.

And we get to experience things like these wild mushrooms that we got at the market one day - I have never seen any like this, and they tasted quite different, very earthy, like the forest floor, and not really "mushroom-tasting".

A lovely shot of the law school at night, from the trail up to Pangbisa. It is so picturesque, but also so isolated. You can see lights across the valley - there is a cluster about mid-way up the opposite hill, but also isolated lights further up, including one just barely visible at the top. Most of the country is settled like this, very sparse and remote, and not very easy to get to. We are happy that the road to the law school is improved (I realize that is a relative concept!) and we are figuring out how to manage the isolation better, getting more organized with rides into town and learning how to stock up.

The law school has its own pack of dogs that we have started to recognize, and a few of them have begun hanging out on the ground by our windows. One morning I watched from our window as these dogs came up over the edge of the hill, one by one, and slowly settled down, only to be roused a few minutes later by the barking of another group of dogs across the way. Then, one by one, these guys started to return the barking, and eventually some of them disappeared back down the hill. It's a dog's life!

This photo is not very good, but you can see in the upper half, just to the left of center, a small animal in the tree - light gray surrounding its face and darker gray body with the tail hanging down. This is a gray langur, an Old World monkey, which (as I am learning!) do not have prehensile tails. Walking along the road from the campus one evening at dusk, we watched at least a dozen of these guys flinging themselves through the trees along the side of the road. Because they don't use their tails to catch themselves, they just hurl their bodies from one branch to the other and grab on as they reach the next tree. It was crazy watching them, I'd see a body fly through the air and then hear it land with an enormous crash of leaves and branches. They "talk" to each other with a sort of guttural snort, so it was quite the visual and aural show for our evening walk. 

Because we are nearing the end of the rainy season, everything is vibrant green - a big change from when I left in the spring. 

We watched these rice fields get planted in the spring - now they are ready for harvest. Even though it means the end of the rain, I look forward to all the rice fields down the mountain turning yellow in the fall.

But mostly we spend a lot of time watching the clouds and the sky....