Life in Samey

Hi friends, thanks for stopping by! 

If you’re new to my blog, my name’s Joe Crow and - you guessed it - I’m a crow! I’m originally from Britain but now I’m living in the Kingdom of Bhutan. If you would like to know more about me or Bhutan then please read my previous blog entries.

Our home in Samey.

The view from outside our house!

I’m not living here on my own though; I’m living with my good friend, Mr. MacInnes. He’s a human being unfortunately, but despite that he’s not too bad to live with. Besides, he can help me type my blogs because he has actually got fingers! He’s the real reason I’m here, because he’s a primary school teacher and he decided he wanted to go and teach in Bhutan. Well, I couldn’t let him go all by himself could I?!

When Mr. MacInnes applied to teach in Bhutan, we had no idea of where in the country we would end up. It was up to the Royal Government of Bhutan, and an organisation called the Bhutan Canada Foundation (BCF), which school would most like to have us. [If grown-ups would like to know more about BCF then please click here]. They decided we would be best in Samey Primary School. Samey is pronounced ‘Sammy’. It’s a very small school, and there are only 103 children in seven classes. Mr MacInnes will be teaching English to children in four of the classes.
Samey Primary School is in a little village, also called Samey, which is in the Dagana district of Bhutan. Can you find Dagana on the map?

 

Our home!

The road to Samey.

We went to a party!

Me outside our home.

This is the reception classroom (called PP here)!

Children playing outside the hall.

We’ve now been living in Samey for two weeks! It was quite exciting moving here, as I am the first ever yellow-beaked crow to live in Dagana. Also, Mr. MacInnes is the first ever person to live in Dagana who isn‘t from Bhutan. Because we look a bit different, lots of people (and birds!) have been interested in learning about us and where we are from. Although we are different, everyone has been very kind and welcomed us in to their communities and homes. We’ve been invited to lots of parties and dinners, and even to watch special archery matches!

Mr. MacInnes and I live in the school grounds, which makes it nice and easy to get to work in the morning! We live next door to another teacher, and very close to the headteacher too. I bet most of your teachers have to drive their cars to school each morning! Well all of the teachers here live very close indeed!

Samey is at the top of a steep hill, and there are only a few houses. The only way to get here is by a farm road, not the kind of road you will be used to. It takes quite a long time to drive up it because it is very rocky and muddy. I can fly up and down very easily but Mr. MacInnes gets tired legs from walking! There is a small town at the bottom of the hill, where Mr. MacInnes can buy some food. The shops are all very small, and there are no Tescos or Sainsbury’s or any other supermarket here! So many of the things you might buy are not available in Dagana. Mr. MacInnes says he misses pizza and humous the most!

The favourite foods by far here in Dagana are rice, cheese and chillies. Yes, chillies - the spicier the better! Some of the food is so spicy it burns my beak! But I’m slowly getting used to it. The most popular dish is called ema datsi. That’s chillies (usually halved, but sometimes whole) in a cheese sauce. Yowch! I’ll stick to what I can find on the ground thanks! But Mr. MacInnes seems to enjoy it. He’s crazy!

It’s so very quiet and peaceful here, and there’s lots of time to read my favourite books and go for a flap in the beautiful countryside. Mr. MacInnes got all excited because he went walking and saw a type of eagle called a Steppe Eagle. Hmmph! Crows are much more interesting! They’re waaaay cleverer too!!! Sometimes the peace and quiet gets interrupted by the shouts and cries from excited archers or noisy dogs. There are lots of stray dogs in Bhutan but most of them are friendly. However they do keep me up at night with their barking sometimes! If you do go walking in Bhutan it’s very common for people to invite you into their house for a cup of tea as you walk past. People like to show kindness to each other here and often if you say “no thank you” to something offered to you, people will keep insisting until you say yes!

I hope you can get an idea what my home in Bhutan is like from the pictures. Until next time, goodbye and Tashi Delek!

Joe :)

What is Buddhism?

Hey feathered friends (and a big hello to the ones without feathers too)!

Visiting a Buddhist temple.

     

Do you remember that last time I was telling you about how most people in Bhutan are Buddhists? “Buddhist” might be a new word for some of you. I know my crow pals back in England won’t have heard it before. But then again, most of them can’t speak English as well as I can! 
(PS - did you know a group of crows is called a ‘murder’? It’s true!!! I often hang out in a murder of crows!)

A painting of the Buddha.

I thought with this blog update I’d try to explain a bit more about what Buddhism is and what Buddhists believe, so here we go!
It all starts with a man known as ‘the Buddha’. He lived over 2,500 years ago and was born in an area near the border between India and Nepal. You can find out where those countries are by looking at the map in my last blog post. They are very near to Bhutan!

Another painting of the Buddha.

The Buddha’s real name was Prince Siddharta Gautama. Yes, he was a real prince! Because he was a prince he had everything he could want - money, good food, lots of nice possessions and a powerful family. But one day, the young prince snuck out of the palace to have a look at the places around him. He soon noticed that not everyone was as lucky as him. He saw sick, old and dying people, and he realised that all of the nice things he had couldn’t help save people from the problems of the world. As he grew up, the prince decided to leave behind his royal life to search for the true way to help people escape from suffering. One day, he sat under a tree and entered into a deep meditation* in which he was able to develop complete peace in his mind. For the rest of his life he taught people how to develop this peace, and about how caring for and loving others brought true happiness.

Some Buddhists are visiting a temple. One of the ladies is spinning prayer wheels.

Throughout the many years since his death, people have read, studied and followed the Buddha’s teachings. These people are called Buddhists. They aim to not only reach total peace and happiness (a state called nirvana), but to help all other living beings reach this happiness too. The main focus for a Buddhist is to develop love and compassion* for all living beings. This is known as Buddhism.

Many Buddhists believe that when you die your spirit lives on, and comes back to live another life. Maybe I’ll get a chance to be inside an egg again! However, the goal of Buddhism is to escape from the cycle of rebirth and suffering that everyone goes through, and to reach nirvana.

The Wheel of Life. This picture shows all the different ways you could be reborn.

The Dalai Lama [Image from The Guardian]

There are different kinds of Buddhism in the world, and the type practised in Bhutan originally comes from Tibet. This is a country on the northern border of Bhutan (have a look at the map again!). The Dalai Lama is the most famous Tibetan Buddhist in the world. He is a very special man; even some of my crow friends have heard of him! He is a good friend to children, and has written many books on how to be happier and have more compassion.

In Bhutan you can see many pictures and statues of the Buddha. Tibetan Buddhism uses a lot of colourful paintings, pictures and statues to help people in their meditations. You might often see people bowing down in front of statues of the Buddha or other important figures. However, they are not worshipping them like a god, but showing respect and thankfulness for the Buddha’s teachings.

Many homes have statues to help remind people about the Buddha's teachings.

These are prayer wheels. 

When spun around, the wheels help people eliminate bad thoughts and concentrate on positive thoughts and wisdom. Some of the prayer wheels have a beautiful bell attached to them that rings out very loudly. I have to fly round them very fast to get them to move, but you must always do it clockwise!

Another prayer wheel. In the background are lots of prayer flags.

Can you see the big building behind me?
 

These kinds of buildings are called chortens in Bhutan. These are also called stupas. They often have Buddhist relics inside them, like the ashes of respected monks. The one in the picture is a very, very big one, but most are quite small. Buddhists often visit them as places of meditation, and to concentrate on developing compassion. They are often in very peaceful places, and are lovely to fly around and think about the world (but I always fly clockwise around them!). Buddhists believe it is very good for you to build stupas.






I hope you've learned something new about Buddhism! If you have a question for me, please write it in the comments below. I'll do my best to get back to you as quickly as I can (but I find it very hard to type without fingers)!

This is the big chorten. It's called the National Memorial Chorten.

A smaller chorten.

*Meditation - Spending time in very deep and quiet thought. 
*Compassion - Showing kindness and caring, and being willing to help others.
*Relic - An old object, usually belonging to someone or something very important.

Part 2 - All about Bhutan.

From indianstyle.com

                             Hi again!
I thought I should tell you a little more about Bhutan, the country where I will be living for a whole year.

Bhutan is a very small country, and only 745 thousand people live there. That’s not a lot at all compared with England! They also speak different languages to back home. The main language is called Dzongkha, although in some parts of the country they speak other languages. Would you like to know some Dzongkha? It’s difficult for me to squawk it but I’ll try my best…

Kuzuzangpo-la (Koo-zoo-zang-po lah) : Hello

Kadrinche-la (Ka-din-chay lah) : Thank you

Give it a go yourself! You might impress your friends.

Bhutan is very far away from England. I couldn’t have flown here on my own so I’m glad I took the aeroplane with Mr. MacInnes. It’s so far away that when my pals back home are eating their lunchtime worms, I’ll be getting ready for bed! And when it’s morning here it is the middle of the night in England!

Because Bhutan is in the mountains, some parts of the country are veeeeeeery cold (in the highest points) and some are quite hot (in the valleys at the bottom of the mountains). I quite like Thimphu in the daytime because it’s nice and sunny and I can flap about with the other birds. But at night it is so cold I have to wrap up tightly under my wings.

My favourite thing about Bhutan is that the national bird is the raven! Crows and ravens are from the same family so that makes me feel very special. People here tend to like animals, because most of them are Buddhists. This is a religion which teaches about how important it is to live a good life, and to always be kind and caring to other living things. You can see many Buddhist temples throughout the country, and they are very beautiful. Hopefully I will learn a lot more about Buddhism so that I can tell you all about it.

A HUGE statue of the Buddha.

These are prayer flags. People plant them to send good wishes to all beings.

Bhutan is a developing country. That means that not all the people have easy access to some of the things we think of as normal, like schools, hospitals, electricity and the internet. In fact, Bhutan didn’t have television until 1999. That was a long time after other places in the world. Some children have to walk for several days until they get to school. Remember that the next time you have to walk in the rain!

This is the national costume of Bhutan (for men), modelled by Mr. MacInnes. It's called a Gho.

This is the King of Bhutan.

From boston.com

He is quite young for a king isn’t he?!

His father, the fourth King, decided that Bhutan should develop at a pace that wouldn’t damage the special culture and ways of doing things in the country, and would benefit everybody. He called this approach Gross National Happiness, or GNH.

GNH is very important in Bhutan, even teachers have to make sure their lessons support it!

Archery.

The national sport in Bhutan is Archery. The archers have to fire their arrows at a target which is very far away, and there is a lot of singing and shouting involved. If an archer hits the target, his team-mates will sing his praises. However, the opposition team will try to put him off and will sing about how bad his shot was if he misses! People do like football and basketball too, especially as the King is a keen basketball player! But nothing comes close to archery yet!

Can you see the little white rectangle in the distance? That's the target!

I will tell you some more about Buddhism and GNH another time. But now I need my afternoon flap!

Tashi Delek! (Goodbye and Good luck!)

Let me introduce myself!

 

Hi, my name is Joe. Joe Crow!

I’m called Joe Crow because that’s what I am. A crow! I’m a little bit different from most crows. Do you know why? It’s because my beak is bright yellow. Most crows have a black beak but I was born differently. It made me very famous in the woodlands of my home town, Eastbourne. That's in England. I was so famous, in fact, that I became good friends with some of the humans! Especially those at Pashley Down Infant School (more about that later). My pet, Mr. MacInnes (more about him later too!), was a teacher there so I got to know lots of different children.

Me and my pet, Mr. MacInnes.

You see, crows are extremely clever birds; our bird family, called corvids, are the cleverest of all bird-kind! That’s why I was allowed to help Mr. MacInnes in the class. Humans need a lot of help, and I’m much better at solving puzzles than he is! I was very good at helping in Pashley Down School, and I was never, ever naughty... Just ask the children! Anyway, one day Mr. MacInnes decided he was going to leave Pashley Down School. It wasn’t an easy decision, apparently, he had to think about it a lot. But when he left, so did I. And we didn’t just move to a new school, or a new town. We moved to an entirely new country, in an entirely new continent! The place we moved to is called Bhutan.

A river in Paro, Bhutan. The international airport is in Paro.

Here you can see the peak of Mount Jomolhari, the tallest mountain in Bhutan.

Bhutan is a very small country in Asia. It’s next to Tibet and India, and it is very mountainous. That means there are lots of big mountains! I’d never seen mountains before and they really are... enormous! The mountains all have different names but together they are called the Himalayas.

I was a bit scared when we moved to Bhutan. Mr. MacInnes said there were tigers and bears here, and I didn’t know if the other birds would like me. Also, everything here is so new. The animals, the scenery, the buildings and the things people wear and do are so different from back home in England. Some of the things that I do seem strange to the people here. But I am used to being different, and I’m sure I will get used to things eventually. I hope you can see in the pictures how different things look.

A lady selling vegetables in a local market.

Mr. MacInnes says that I will get to meet some new children soon, in his new school. It’s called Samey Primary School. Before we go there though we are spending two weeks in the capital city of Bhutan, called Thimphu. Mr. MacInnes says that we have to do that because schools in Bhutan are not the same as in England, and there’s lots for him to learn before he can teach here. While he’s been learning about Bhutanese schools, I have been exploring! Have a look at my pictures and I’ll tell you some more about them.

This is a dzong. Dzongs used to be fortresses but now they are district government buildings.

Many of the dzongs are hundreds of years old! They were built to defend the country from invasion.

This is an old dzong which burned down in the 1950s.