Saturday, May 24, 2014

Tibetan skies

Tibetan Skies      May 5, 2014

Marci texted me: "Look out the window!What is that?"
A Sun Halo! Caused when sun's rays pass through ice crystals and cirrus clouds at a 22* angle.....
Apparently it was reported on the Canadian news!
I have also included a few gorgeous skylines from my window. Now, to paint them.....







Saturday, May 10, 2014


Seniors Graduation Photo Day

Although the seniors still must write their finals and a huge province-wide teacher placement exam, then complete a month of teacher training in a primary school, Photo Day was as fun as graduation.
Fortunately I arrived in my Tibetan chuba (dress), and was seated with 200 Language Majors and their teachers in front of the tall steps to our activity centre. (That photo was formal, so didn't get a shot with my camera). Then we stood around laughing and taking photos (of course I had to include a selfie). You'll notice chubas from 4 different areas of Tibet. Eventually we found ourselves in front of the school fountain with the President and Party Chairman. Enjoy the joy of my students (and don't you love those mountains in the background?)





















 The Tibetans have a wonderful tradition of giving thin white cadahs at birthdays, weddings, arrivals, and graduations. I'm wearing 28- one each from every member of the senior class - I felt like a cross between a bride and Santa Claus....

 Happy Mother's Day from Tibet!

In honour of Mother's Day, I've included an assortment of photos of mothers and their children, plus quite a few children who do not have mothers.
I thought I had a larger assortment - because I'm always smiling at babies, but so often mothers don't want to be photographed. The grainier ones were cropped from photos taken at a distance, and yes, the little girl in the pink jacket is looking at piles of yak carcasses. I promise I'll work on getting a better collection for next year, because I am surrounded by beautiful, ruddy- cheeked children.
Enjoy, and Happy Mother's Day! (especially to my favourite mother - my sister-in-law Cynthia.)




















                          Happy Mother's Day from Tibet!

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Easter in Tibet


  Easter 2014

Happy Fu Huo Jie!  Happy Resurrection Day!

Very few people know about Easter here, so there were no bunnies or elaborate chocolate eggs. But we still had fun!

I taught the Easter story to my classes, showing them how to use props to tell a story (they really understood the word "empty tomb" when the yellow and blue egg didn't have any candy in it!), but I didn't take photos.
The first few photos show my orphan kids dyeing Easter eggs and having fun. The next photos show the ELIC teachers enjoying Easter brunch, then dying pretty cool eggs (I learned all sorts of things about my team mates..) Jesse enjoyed finding eggs in a local park where we met some of Scott's T.U.'s students with some exquisite eggs. It was a warm, wonderful day. Happy Easter!