Explorations

We have been enjoying a not too hot (so far) Seattle summer, and trying to organize our return to Bhutan for fall semester. After getting help from our local congressional office (yay!!), along with support from the State Department (which administers the Fulbright program) Jay was able to get an emergency appointment for a new passport. We had no idea that passports are THE hot issue this summer - so many people have stories of having to cancel travel because their passport renewals have been taking so long. Our congressperson said that it is the one issue they're spending the most time dealing with! So we felt very fortunate that Jay was able to get his renewed, which put into place all of the mechanisms for getting work permits, visas, and plane tickets, and setting into motion our scramble to get ready to leave again.   We took a quick trip to LA, driving down the spine of the west coast so that we could leave our car with Adam and Whitney. We had a lovely week there, so wonder...

Jay arrived in Seattle a few days ago in one piece, after finishing up classes and saying goodbye to his students, who were very sad to see him go. But with the promise to return. Jay alluded to this in one of his last posts, and we have also told some folks about this - Jay was awarded a Fulbright grant to teach in Bhutan this next academic year. We learned about this shortly before I left the country in May, and so the last weeks have involved figuring out if and when our return will happen.    But it’s not so simple. As has been our experience with just about everything related to Bhutan - a conundrum wrapped in an intricate web of beauty, peace, frustration, spirituality, hope, stoicism, tradition, deference, hierarchy, and the most incredible potential.   We decided that if we were going to go back, it would be for the fall semester only. So Jay began discussions with the academic dean about whether there was a role for him there, and he proposed to develop a course ...

A missive from Jay: I am on the tail end of teaching this semester, while also planning a fall class. More soon on that process and our plans. But I wanted to take a moment to share some observations of things that have become commonplace for us: Archery Archery is the national sport here. A lot of people do it, either using fancy high-tech bows (compound bows) or traditional bamboo bows. It’s not just a youth versus elder thing. One of the 20-something faculty assistants at JSW “plays archery” using a traditional bow. Official tournaments apparently have teams of 13 archers taking turns with two arrows each. Our friend David watched one of these tournaments, apparently a very competitive match. The prize was a washing machine for each team member of the winning team. An exceptionally awesome prize for the tournament.  In assessing the health care system in Bhutan as we prepared to come here, one colleague who lived here for years explained that for simple stuff, you are ...

It's been a while since I've posted anything. For the last few weeks, I have been traveling, celebrating, grieving, ailing, hugging, crying, contemplating, eating, and sleeping. My head is spinning. I have been in so many time zones, and places, and states of emotion. But now I have landed in Seattle and I get to stay put for a little while, screw my head back on, and remotely resume my work at the law school for the remainder of the semester. I miss the JSW students and the mountain, but it was so good to go to New York and be with all of my family there, and celebrate my niece's wedding while grieving my sister's death. Extensive emotional exercise. I am still processing it all. And Jay is still in Bhutan, so I get to experience it through him for a while longer.   Before I left Bhutan, our friend Sangay suggested hiking up to a temple above the law school and lighting butter lamps in honor of my sister Barbara. It was a lovely thing to do, and Sangay had arranged for...

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 th years 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, an...

From Jay: There are a million stories to tell, and I think we are both anxious to write and communicate more, but between the logistical challenges of living here and actually doing the work, I find myself with a fraction of the time I had expected to have to reflect and write. But I want to share what is happening in our home life here. We live in Paro Town, and need to make our way up the mountain the days that I teach or one of us otherwise needs to be on campus, on a half-hour long drive on a windy mountain road, 16 km and 2000 foot climb. But the stress of securing rides was manageable because we had a pleasant spot to come back to in Paro. About a month after settling in here in our comfortable place, (christened Buddy’s House now, after our local Paro-dog), the vacant lot next to us that once hosted Buddy basking on top of his big pile of sand, and periodic wandering cows, and our view of the mountains to the south, exploded into an intense construction p...