Siddhartha School Library

Here’s the beautiful Siddhartha School on flat barren desert valley surrounded by mountains. Because it seldom rains early morning activities and school lunch can be held on the grounds around the stage area. Each morning a different student starts off the day leading all the children in the Anthem, prayers, exercises, thought for the day and then each grade level has a representative give a presentation. The presentations can be a poem, song, skit, short story or something special that the student has come up with. Then they file off to class. There are 8 class periods of 45 minutes each. Period 8 is for art, music, drama, and special activities. There is a tea break in the morning and in the afternoon for teachers and the kids use that time to study, play, socialize and hang out.

This is a visit to the 3 & 4 year old classroom which is brightly decorated and has lots of space for activities. We decided to take a group picture – we’re all saying Jule (Julley) which means hello, goodbye, welcome, thank you and probably more things in Ladakhi. The two young women in the back row are students from Smith College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Khen Rinpoche teaches a short course there every year so the students get to know him well. Jaime & Catherine are spending the summer teaching English, helping in classrooms, substituting when a teacher is absent AND they have been asked to help prepare a skit with the children for the graduation festivities.

Now some before pictures of the Siddhartha School Library – this past year they built book cases and received some book donations. There are more books than I expected but most are old and worn. As you can see most of the shelves are empty and there are no real reference books such as encyclopedias, atlases, dictionaries, etc. My second day at the school was spent teaching skills on how to gently handle books and then reading the multi-cultural story Baby Rattlesnake which I had brought with me. They sent two classes a period to the library – one higher grade and one lower grade. Two teachers each period got to see how a librarian works so this turned out to be good modeling for when they take over. They’ve decided that when they have a free period someone will serve as librarian. I will give a workshop to the teachers later in the summer. I designed a rubber stamp for the books which they all loved – I had it made in Dharamsala. I also showed several of the teachers examples of a primary, middle and senior school library to get ideas on how to furnish and arrange the Siddhartha School Library. I’ve also drawn a layout that I think will be attractive and we have discussed plants, posters, reading areas, etc. I think we will have accomplished a lot by the end of the summer. I’ve asked the grade 10 students and a couple of teachers to help me catalog, stamp, and put labels on all the books. Then we will arrange them properly on the shelves. I’ve suggested putting the Easy books on one side of the library with a nice rug and cushions for the little children and then benches with cushions and study tables at the other end with the older level books and reference books. Below are some of the classes I met with the second day of work.
















































I also got to meet Stenzin Namgyal, the 2nd grader that I sponsor. After he saw all the other kids sideling up to me he became less shy and came around me quite often with a big smile. I know over the years that we will become very close. This weekend I bought him a little Spiderman pencil box, Spiderman lunch bag with thermos, and all sorts of school supplies. I’ll have to find out what the best and proper way to give those to him – I think it needs to be possibly a visit to his home. I’ll get some good pictures of him to share once we become less shy with each other.

I have made a decision to try to fundraise again this fall for the following:

• LCD Projector 2000+ ANSI Lumens
• Laptop Computer
• Satellite Internet (initial startup cost $3,000.00) then a modest monthly charge. Currently the school does not have Internet access.
• Additional books and media resources