Although my living through the year was relatively minimalist, there were a number of items I had purchased for my house – in anticipation that the house would have walls, doors, windows, pluming fixtures and little else.
My landlord provided a bed frame, a coffee table and a wooden bench seat – with its wooden hardness eased minimally with a carpet covering, and a television which received BBS1 – mostly programs in the national language Dzonkha. The reset of my minimal furnishings and kitchen appliances and utensils I had purchased in Thimpu and brought east.
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| Scullery |
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| Kitchen |
Within weeks of arrival, after clarifying that I had spent my own money to acquire these luxuries and the government had not provided them for me, I had people asking about buying the fridge, gas stove and gas cylinder when I left. These items I could probably have sold a number of times over, especially the gas cylinder – occasionally gas cylinder exchange is available in the village but other times one might travel to Trashigang or Trashiyangtse to find that none were available that day. And I was told that there was some complex paperwork that might need to be completed in order to effect the exchange.
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| Living Room |
So I decided it was time to start to sell my possessions. I compiled a list, showing the purchase prices I paid and what I wanted to sell for and posted it onto the staffroom wall. It was not long before the school caretaker asked if she could come and see some items and altogether purchased the mosquito net, heater, mats and water boiler over the next few days.
My neighbour confirmed her interest in the fridge and also my mattress and was happy to leave the acquisition of these until my final day.
Other staff brought my iron, curry cooker and pressure cooker (yes, one of those items popular back in the 70s) and saucepan and my close friends identified some of the smaller items.
By the end of my stay in Kheni I was down to cooking with the rice cooker and one saucepan.
I had decided that my class 7 kidu boys – those boarders from particularly poor families, and one of the class 7 girls, Sangay, who had invited me to her family’s house several times, could have what was left. Visiting Sangay’s house had been humbling; her family were so generous yet had so little. The kidu girls in class 7 would get assorted bits and pieces I would take with me to Gyelposhing for the winter program.
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| Living Room |
Changes to the arrangements for departure left me with a bus ticket on the public bus after result declaration day – my choice – and the opportunity to send a bag directly to Thimpu with some of the other BCF teachers if I could get it to Trashigang. An option which my very kind principal helped me to utilize.
In between my sorting and early efforts to pack up the bag for Thimpu and a bag to go directly to Gyelposhing with the girls participating in the king’s winter camp, I had a stream of visitors. Friends sharing their frustrations and problems, students for final assessments to scrape a few extra marks and students bringing gifts of fruit. Oranges, sugarcane, groundnuts, feijoa, and red rice heaped upon my kitchen table until I seemed to have enough for a market stall. Very kind and much appreciated, but some had to be shared.
Some of the students came after result declaration, as requested by me, and I sent them off with water filter, rice cooker, electric fan, buckets, kitchen utensils and assorted “stuff”. 5 minutes later my neighbour came to inquired about my rice cooker for someone’s auntie. There had been a text message some time before but no follow up so I had assumed lack of interest and it was already on it way to Monam with one of the boys. Apologies were duely made.
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| Bedroom |
The final packing up was hindered by many visitors wandering in and having a conversation in the middle of where I was attempting to run around in circles and achieve a degree of organization before the designated time for my taxi to depart.
Finally the decision had to be made that more bags than initially anticipated were required, both for the items to travel to Gyelposhing and those coming with me on the bus. So much for last minute light packing!
Thank goodness I had a taxi arranged to travel to Trashigang rather than my usual method of hitchhiking.
