Most of us rise and somewhat shine around 7AM everyday. We trundle around our rooms gathering lesson plans, school materials, tying chupas, and grabbing TP. We eat a delicious breakfast of paranthas, porridge, and most welcomed coffee in the kind owner’s kitchen, and then we walk the 15 minutes to school.
Around 8:45, assembly starts. The students line up in the yard by class number and sing a prayer and the Tibetan national anthem. On some days, there are skits, poems, or stories presented by some of the students. At 9, period one begins, and so they go until the end of period 8 at 4pm. There is a chai break, and a lunch break, where we are served the best Tibetan food ever (yay tingmo!).
We all teach different periods, and when we’re not teaching, we’re sitting in the lunchroom among the students and other teachers, working on lesson plans, and chatting. On Thursdays, we stay a bit later because that’s the day the students get time in the field up the road to play games after school. Last Thursday, we decided to take them, and with Jennica supplying balls and instruction, we taught them doctor dodgeball.
For those who aren’t aware, this is an incredibly strategic game when played well. Tactics such as the human shield, decoy doctors, and ball hoarding make significant differences in the outcome of a round. Our Tibetan students picked up on these immediately in the first game. And over the next 2 hours of rounds, the game only became more intense. Volleys of colourful balls were fired in unison at the doctors. Screams of joy could be heard from afar when the opposite doctor went down, this meant sure victory. Aim became more precise and the roll of a doctor a higher honor. Shouts for another game were constant after every win, and we played until sunset, when the light insisted we go back to the school for even the neon balls were becoming hard to see.
The real question now, however, is what do we teach them to play this Thursday?
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