Adventure Playground 'Roundhouse' going up

We built the frame of the timber roundhouse in the adventure playground, which is looking beautiful. After asking for the housemothers assistance this week they came to help us begin planting flower seedlings on the spine.

Planting on the residential spine

His Holiness Gyalwang Drukpa was invited by His Eminence Thuksey Rinpoche, Chairperson of the Druk Padma Karpo School, to inaugurate the "Dragon Garden", and to watch a series of performances by the school children and a presentation by the landscape architects from UK.

Three years ago this month, a big mudslide hit our school in the night and did a huge amount of damage. Nobody was killed on the campus, but more than 200 people lost their lives nearby in the Indus Valley. School staff saved our residential students and led them to safety on adjacent high ground. Villagers' fields were left covered in mud, boulders and debris, dramatically affecting their livelihoods.

The school buildings took a direct hit, but top-class design and good construction enabled them to withstand the large forces. The mud made a terrible mess inside buildings, and carried away books, furniture and equipment.

Unwanted guests

On the vegetable front we have suffered at the hands of lizards, mice and caterpillars having had seed and seedlings eaten...but all a learning process. Now that many of Ladakh's trees and flowers are out in bloom I am reminded of how much beauty there is amongst the native species and what a diverse palate is available to the plantsman.

Native species

Fruits of our labour

This week saw the installation of boxes into the latrines in Residence 4, the idea being that they will be filled with the sawdust from the carpentry workshop. I plan to give the children and housemothers a talk on how to use the latrines, putting a scoop of sawdust down the latrine after use, thus the end-product will be of a better quality than the existing product, the reason being, the carbon of the sawdust helps to breakdown the nitrogen-rich faeces in a carbon-nitrogen balance.

Cuttings pit

We have planted the seedlings in the greenhouses and summer growing area, many vegetables and some melons. It was a fantastic effort getting all the planting done, which was satisfying to all.

The soil is fine and over the years it will get better and better. The trenches have been excellent for seedling development and have provided us with our own seedlings. Now all carriers are full and the total for the greenhouse and summer growing area is more than 70.

We have mulched our fruit tree beds which will help to begin to create better soil and retain moisture – increasingly important as now summer is here, I am also reminded of how strong the sun is and how hot it will get over the next few months.

This week has been a good week with continued progression. We finished planting trees in the visitor's centre and have created some small flowerbeds, filling them with flowers beneath. Jigmet of the Visitor Centre has taken full responsibility for irrigating what we have planted this year.

On Monday we went to Taglang-la to collect slate. It was an interesting day and great to see so much beautiful stone all around the mountain. I tried to take two main colours so that a substantial amount was obtained but there is a plethora of available stone up there some in the most beautiful colours.

On Friday a delivery from Jains arrived which is a promising sign, their MD from Srinagar is in Ladakh next week and is scheduling a meeting/visit here. Aside from all the seedlings that we planted inside the green house, we have planted a few more trees inside the visitors centre terrace and made use of the plant stock we have been developing, by planting out two borders inside the Visitor Centre.

This year has seen the South block of Residence 4 constructed, from the foundations being dug through to completion, accommodating 44 students and including a latrine block.

The two-IT suites pictured below have also been completed, and facilities for the School Managing Committee are being built on site too.

In order to landscape the school campus and create gardens, the site needs irrigating. A drip irrigation system is being installed that requires digging trenches throughout the site for the main water pipes. The JCB has been invaluable for this work.

The final components of the 1km long defence wall are finished, this has been a huge undertaking and taken two years to complete. The wall averages 3m high.

The JCB digging foundations at the beginning of the construction season in April.

Students take part in many extra-curricular activities. A few senior students performed in a cultural programme organised by the Ladakh Buddhist Association to celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr. B R Ambedkar as seen in the photograph.

The school also took part in the Buddha Jayanti procession organised by Ladakh Buddhist Association and various students participated in the cultural programme.
The students of Class 9 were taken to see a Science Exhibition organised by Bharatiya Vidya Niketan (BVN). There, the students saw different models and exhibits illustrating various scientific concepts and theories.

The House competitions continue every Saturday at school.