Parry Newsletter 19^th April 2006

 

Room 605,

Jambayang resort,

Postal Box 583,

Thimphu,

Bhutan.

+975 2 322349 rm 605

[email protected]

 

 

Hi everyone,

 

Well we have arrived safe and sound in Thimphu and it has taken me 2 weeks to get to the point where I can write a summary of events so far! We arrived and had a car waiting at the airport with our friend Dorji (an obstetrician). A giant Prado, which has proved useful on the windy and steep roads of Bhutan! We drove to Thimphu from Paro and moved into our accommodation- two really nice serviced apartments with joining hall. The girls have an enormous room with their own TV (with cable), bathroom and even kitchen. We are have a second TV, bathroom and larger kitchen and bedroom which is very big and seconds as our living room and office.

In the first few days we were able to make phone calls from our room and visit internet cafes. On Sunday 9^th April we headed back to Paro (1.5 hour drive) for the annual Tsechu (festival). We stayed there in a lovely cottage in a resort for two nights and had a great time. We drove up the valley to get a great view of Mount Jhomolhori- 7314m- the highest of the Himalayan mountains in Bhutan. We visited an ancient Dzong (monastery or castle), dated from 1649. We also went to the festival and saw some traditional dancing and clowns. It was packed and girls were a constant source of fascination, especially Rosie with her blonde hair. She had her cheeks tweaked so many times- poor thing!

We also saw an amazing monastery called the Tigers nest. It is literally perched on the side of a cliff. There are heaps of monks and monasteries, always miles from anywhere. Often on top of hills. Whist in Paro, we managed to pick up a Sim card so now have a cellphone (+975 17619340), which is very useful!

We got back to Thimphu on Wednesday. On Thursday Dave headed off early to Paro airport to pick up Elin, our niece, who came over from the UK to help with the girls while Dave and I work on the project. It was great to see her safe and sound. The girls were so excited to see her and Rosie wanted to be carried around by her after that! Elin has her own room one floor down, but spends most time upstairs with us. I forgot to mention that we have a fantastic view of the town from our windows as we are up on a hill (as most places are in Bhutan). We also have a very good and cheap restaurant at the resort, who will also do take out to our apartment! On Friday we also had a major breakthrough- internet in our room!!

On the Thursday and Friday Alice was at school and I took Rosie to a Montessori preschool here. The head teacher- Wangmo- is lovely and very dedicated to the children. Rosie has settled really well and this week has been going by herself from 9-1pm. In her room there are 5 Bhutanese children and 5 ex-pat children. We have become friendly with a couple of ex-pat families already and have done some lovely walks around Thimphu with them.

Alice is settled also and is at a tiny international school; with around 15 children age 5-13 years. They are putting on a play at the end of term and she has two biggish parts. Each evening Alice and Elin practice her lines. Elin has been offered loads of volunteering options to do while Rosie is at preschool. It looks like she’ll help at the preschool once a week and go to teach young monks English another morning!

Started the project this week. Going well and looking forward to spending some time on delivery unit soon. Have a look at the separate report if you’re interested!

 

Emma, Dave, Alice and RosieX