Greetings to all followers of our Himalayan oddysey

Not so long ago in a Zanskar land far far away we have returned from our school trip from town of Padum. Firstly to say our school trip was a big success and memories will last for long time. These days we are already back in Kargyak where most of us returned safely and in good health condition, and some kids retruned bit ill, being it a result of travel sickness or camping in tents in cold nights. But lets start from begging. We have left Kargyak towards the end of july with students of class 2 and higher, leaving few unfortunate students who will not be able to survive 2 day trek to Padum through Himalayan desert. In addition we took two horses and packed them with essential food, camping gear and clothing. Then we were finally ready to go, and we have to say that all youngster trekkers were very skilled leaving many trekking groups behind.

On a second day we have reached town of Padum, estabilished our camp and off we took our students for a welcome dinner to a local restaurant. You would not believe how interesting was to observer reactions of children on things so common for us such as car, their strong lights, exhaust gases, rich variety of fruit andvegetable or even the surprise that water from sewerage is not drinkable and that only source of drinking water are wells with osmosis filtration. Lets  move backt to the intial object of our school trip which was buddhist festival in Karcha Gonpa. This festival was filled with theatrical and dancing performances full of colourful custumes and decorations reflecting deamons and gods so typical for buddhistic mythology.  Outside of this festival the probably most fascinating activity for children was cruising local bazar, which consist from only one street and one crossroad, but is supprisingly filled with so many goods. Well Padum is administrative and cultural center of Zanskar so it makes sense. Having done this school trip it is quite funny to see that Europeans kids are escaping into the wild with their school trips leaving big towns and polution behind, while Kargyak kids long for noise and hectic  life of Towns offering options to buy anything from lollipop to water spray gun. And it makes sense :-)

               On the way back things got bit troubled. Our two horses got maybe  bit bored so they runaway and got lost.  Shortage of food and increasing exhaustion lead to the only solution David stayed with load for horses awaiting their return and Adam took all kids  back to Kargyak, and as they had no tents and sleeping bags all of us spent night in Testa village full of their relatives, uncles, aunties, grandmas.. etc. So shelters and food was easy to find and was nice luxury at the end of long day.

After our return to Kargyak  everything has moved back to the old routine. Students are starting to get ready for small upcomming exams, just months before final tests. One of good news for our eldest students is that from new school year new classes 7 and 8 will be opened and our school will be in alliance with local govermental requitements.

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