Working as volunteer at the Tikse Lamdon school (Sept – Dec 2012)

My name is Lila, I am a 23 years old French volunteer, and I have been working in Tikse Lamdon school for almost 3 months. I started working here in early September 2012 and am staying until early December.

I really enjoyed my time in Tikse, where I found the sweetest children I have ever met, even when they are teenagers… The school welcomes students from LKG to Class 8 (5 years old to around 14 years old). As for the village itself, Tikse is a most beautiful place, surrounded by snowy mountains and a magnificent Buddhist monastery, which some people call “the second Potala of the world”.

I would like to say that Tikse is a very nice place to work as a volunteer, even though the freezing cold of Ladakh and the sometimes “not so good” management of the school can also make it tough and boring from times to times…

Concerning accommodation, I have been staying in the students’ hostel, right beside the school, where more or less 50 students live in rooms of 8 or 9. Living in the hostel is at the same time the highlight and the toughest part of my stay… It is really a wonderful experience to spend a lot of time with the hostel students, who come from poor families living mostly in far away villages. The children are so happy to have someone to play with. They like to show me their homeworks, their soft toy (for those who have one…), and to teach me the basics of Ladakhi. Sometimes, I even felt that the main part of the volunteer service in Tikse was about helping the warden to take care of the hostel students, who really miss their parents and family, and who become so affectionate whenever someone starts playing with them…

However, living in the hostel is also really tough. We have no running water; power comes only for a few hours every day (from 6pm to 11pm, when there are no power cuts); the toilets don’t have any window, and they are very far away from the main building… So, of course, most of the time, the cold is quite difficult to bear because the building is very poorly isolated (some windows in the students’ rooms have remained broken throughout my stay…). In early October, taking a shower becomes a real achievement, because the ground and the atmosphere of the “bathroom” is freezing cold… So, to my eyes, living in the hostel is really worth it, but it requires a lot of motivation sometimes…

About the schoolwork itself, I must say I had been preparing myself to work as English teacher, but when I arrived in Tikse, the headmaster told me that the former maths teacher had resigned one month ago, and he asked me to take his place until the final exams, taking place in late October. In this way, I have been teaching maths for classes 2 to 8, for one and a half month. In the beginning it was rather scary for me because I have never liked maths so much when I was a student… So in a first place I had to rely a lot on the coursebooks… But I quickly noticed that the students were quite gifted in maths, and everything went really well.

Concerning the coursebooks and the Indian syllabus, I must say that English coursebooks are far too complex for the students’ level (I found 19th century poems in Class 6 books for example, with very high-level questions and answers). On the contrary, it was a good surprise for me to see that the Maths books were very adequate, colorful, and full of funny and practical exercises, so it was a good tool for me during the lessons… I must say that it is quite difficult to step away from the coursebook, even as a volunteer, because the headmaster is often keeping an eye on what has been done and not done, and he requested me to go in depth through all the chapters before the final exams…

After the final exams, a local maths teacher came to work for the school; since then I became “English assistant”. I teach English along with the local English teacher for classes 2 to 8, and so far it seems to me to be a very good partnership… I can help the students with specific grammar points or pronunciation; and it is also very efficient to work with a Ladakhi-speaking teacher because she can translate anything whenever it’s necessary, especially with the lower levels…

Concerning Ladakh, and especially the Lamdon network, I think that there is a kind of competition going on between the different Lamdon schools, and I think the headmasters all want to get the best results… In general, the competition spirit is quite developed in the School : for each exam or test, the teachers are announcing which student got the first, second and third positions, and then prizes are offered. Of course the students are motivated, but maybe they also focus on the marks too much…

So, it is true that sometimes everybody works hard in Tikse Lamdon School… But, actually, while some weeks are very busy and quite stressful, others can be really boring. For example, in early October, a ceremony was organized for Parents’ Day, with many songs and dances performed by the students. In order to make the dances perfect, many afternoons and even days of school have been cancelled and devoted to dance practice… This can be funny for a few days of course, but afterwards the teachers suddenly realized that they were very late on the syllabus, and they had to rush a lot before the exams, putting a lot of pressure on the students… So my main comment about the work in Tikse Lamdon School would be about the irregularity of the work.

Besides the work itself, I must also say that living in Ladakh for a few months is of course a wonderful experience. This country is incredibly beautiful, be it the icy and shiny mountains, the ancient white-washed gompas, or the amazing clear skies of the Himalayas… It is really something to wake up every morning in this place!! However, staying here in the very end of the schoolyear (I mean especially in november) can be quite tough and a little bit boring…

Almost all shops and restaurants in Leh close by the end of September, as soon as the tourist season is over… So for future volunteers who would like to experiment Ladakh outside the main tourist season, I think you should try this experience with someone, or make sure that you are able to make friends with the locals within few weeks… I must say that Ladakhis are really very friendly and good-hearted people. As far as I’m concerned, I had great fun with most of the local teachers, and even outside the school I met most friendly people with whom I’m sure I will stay in contact…

So, in short, I would say that if you are not afraid to be sometimes a little bit bored and to feel VERY cold most of the time, it is really worth it to give a few weeks of your time to the Ladakhi children, who are really the cutest and funniest and nicest kids I know so far…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I want to let you know that I have looked at a lot of volunteer organizations since I did your program and you have (as far as I can tell) one of the best. I really like how much you personally care about each volunteer and each school.
Anne GillilandDenjong Pema Choling Academy