With my toilet paper earplugs (more effective than ones you can buy), I slept quite well. The mattress is thin, though, and uncomfortable so I will get the one from the spare bed to add to it. Hopefully, that will help.
Our plan was to go back to McLeod but it was raining quite a lot. I went anyway as it would be good to buy some warm things to have for inside; there's no heating here and certainly no insulation. We had to walk into the village (10 minutes) to catch a bus to Dharamsala and then get another to McLeod. In fact, we got a jeep for the last part and it's just as cheap as the bus (10 Rs.) Ken showed the others around the village and we went to Kunga again for a drink (where I'd had breakfast here). I bought some woolly fingerless gloves, some slippers, long woolly socks and a blanket. That gives you an idea of how cold it is here right now. We then went into Dharamsala to buy more things and had lunch there. It was raining the whole time we were out but when we got back to the school, it felt good to put my purchases to use. Even though I have to wear all that stuff, it's better than being cold.
Dharamsala itself is nothing special. It's a typical Indian village with lots of small shops. There are some Tibetans there, too, but my first impressions were that it is not very Buddhist-influenced. McLeod is more so as you will see monks going around quite a lot but it doesn't have a very spiritual feeling in general.
So, we're not living in a Buddhist setting and we are more on the outskirts of a tiny village (called Fathipur).
The rest of the students came back this evening and we all ate together, 28 of us crammed into one classroom! My room is by the front door and every time the students go in or out, they leave the door wide open. As my room is very amateurly-built, the cold air gets in. I will have to request them to close it when they use the door.
There is a gap between two windows in my room but I used the plastic bag from my blanket, rolled it up and stuffed it into the gap, which has reduced the draught a great deal there.
We had a meeting after dinner, just to see which books we would use and we'll have a full meeting tomorrow morning.
I felt more relaxed and comfortable after getting warm things and after putting in extra layers for the mattress, it is now just about enough.
16 January
I got up when the students rang the bell for breakfast and after that, we had a couple of hours to look through our books that we will teach with. It was still all quite unclear as to what we would do as there are five teachers for three classes and we will all teach each of them. We had a meeting at 11 and after two hours, it started to become a little easier to understand. I guess we will get our heads around it once we get going but it all seems over-complicated to me. I will be teaching more grammar than the others due to my experience and what the two existing teachers already do.
I went up to the spring to wash my hair and it was a relief just to do that. I need to wash some clothes but with the constant rain, I don't want to go there for that right now.
I found some card and started putting strips of it to block the gaps in the door frame but as I was doing it, the students kept leaving the front door open again. I asked Choephel at lunch to ask the students to close it but he wouldn't. He just said they always leave it open. I said it's not much to ask but he wouldn't do anything about that, which annoyed me. He said instead that I could move rooms but after getting settled here, that was asking a lot more than getting them to close a door! It's not exactly difficult.
The students seem friendly but again, not as different as I expected. They dress in a western way and behave like western teenagers. I don't think I am going to have the experience that I'd hoped to, which was to live in a Buddhist-influenced community. One of their dorms is opposite my room so I have to hear all their noise, too. It's like being in student halls with one bathroom between all the teachers and students. With a squat toilet and a cold water tap... Oh well, I'll get used to it, maybe.
I hope the weather gets better soon as it is so miserable but we'll have to wait till next month at least.
I have the week's timetable now and we each teach three lessons a day and it changes each week (I can't see how that is necessary) but this week I will finish at 12.20 on two days. I'll get my washing done when I have a break.
At dinner time, I found out that the other teachers were also feeling miserable with the weather and the general plan is to stay in McLeod at the weekend just to get some warmth from a hotel room and shower. It's started off in a grim way but I knew it was going to be more extreme than living in Ecuador. But this is only due to conditions at home, here...!
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