SAI NEWSLETTER 7 July, 2008

SECMOL ALTERNATIVE INSTITUTE
FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER
Volume 4 No. 7
7 July, 2008

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NEWS HEADLINES

JNV Course
On 20 June the 140 campers left and about 40 students for JNV course arrived for one week.

New Foundation Year
On 26 June the new Foundation students came to the campus.

Bimonthly presentations
On 27th June the senior and old Foundation students gave their last presentation about responsibilities, for the new students.

End of Foundation Year
On 28 June old foundation students left campus.

SECMOL Staff meeting
On 28 June SECMOL staff quarterly meeting was held on campus.

Secretary election
On 28 June we elected a new secretary. There were two candidates, Jigmet Tsering and
Dechen Angmo. Jigmet Tsering
won by 20 votes. The new coordinator is Rigzin Norbu.

New Calves born
Two of our cows, Baskit and Badol have recently had calves,so now we have plenty of milk in the campus. And Bazes will have a calf soon.


Solar Course
On 30th of June a course for carpenters and masons from remote areas and Spiti started on campus. It is about solar houses.

SECMOL Advisor visit
On 2 July, former SECMOL Director Kaga Sonam Wangchuk came from Nepal for a one-week visit to Ladakh.

Teacher group visits
On 3 July a group of ten senior teachers from USA visited and discussed education with the new students

New Foundation students join

On the 26th of June 30 new foundation students joined our campus. Some of last years foundation students decided to stay one more year because of their positive experiences. Furthermore there are 12 school students this year who were foundation students last year. They go to school in Leh and come back to campus every day. On 29th of June all the senior students handed over the responsibility to the new foundation students. The college students have exams soon so these days they are very busy with there studies. This year Acho Sonam is going to stay as a technical helper and acho Norgay as Technical manager. Because he is the Campus Director, which is a very big job

Foundation students leaving

On the 24th of June all the old foundation students organized a party because most of them were leaving soon. We also gave a gift to all the staff and Hostel students. After that we danced until midnight. By the end all the girls were hanging on each other and crying. On the 28th of June the old foundation students officially finished the one year foundation course and left campus in the morning. It was an emotional scene with most students crying as they hugged each other and said their goodbyes

Picnic

On the 19th of June all the students and some volunteers went to Shachukul for a picnic. The other purpose of going to Shachukul was that there is a monastery festival called Kabgyat. All the college girls and Acho Sangrup had exams soon, so they declined to go. Acho Norgay stayed behind because he had lots of things to do at campus. We left from campus at around 9 o'clock, and arrived in Shachukul in the
evening. Acho Sonam left campus the day before to prepare all the things which we needed. Gyatso invited us to his home so we went there and we had some tea and then came back to our tents. The next morning we left Shachukul and we went to Pangong Lake where we had breakfast and when we came back from the Pangong Lake there was a foot print of Padmasambawa. we visited the site then made our way back to campus.

Bimonthly Presentation

On the 27th of June we celebrated our bimonthly presentations. We had a guest during this time. His name is Stanzin Namgyal and he is working in Ecology. At the end Tseatan Angmo got a prize because she was the most responsible in running the shop over the last two months.

Seminar

All the students from Lalok went for a seminar in Leh. It was organized by the students who are studying outside of Ladakh and it talked about the education system in Lalok and gave us the chance to give different suggestions. They also published a magazine called Ladakh Drayang, with the collaboration of the students who are studying out of Ladakh and the monks of Shachukul Monastery

Springdale Public School Wakha

The students from the Springdale public school came for an educational trip to Leh. They stayed at the SECMOL campus for two nights. During their stay they learned about the energy efficient way in which the campus was designed and about
solar energy and its benefits. During the day they visited many monasteries and schools in Leh. On the first night of their stay everyone introduced themselves and participated in a talent show where both groups of students and the mason class sang traditional and modern Ladakhi songs and performed traditional dances. On the final night of their stay SECMOL hosted a dance. The morning of June 5th the Springdale Public School departed while the principal of the school thanked the staff and students of SECMOL by presenting a yellow scarf as a gift.

Basic Solar and Thermal Concept for Masons and Carpenters

Four day workshop on basic solar and thermal concept for about 20 carpenters and masons took place on Phey campus . Four NGO’s and other proxy NGO’s in Lahoul and Leh conducted the workshop. Under this project 1000 solar buildings are to be constructed in four years. The main aim of the project is to combat the climate change by improving the mode of space heating. One of the most polluting and energy consuming things in Asia is space heating. Therefore, one of the measures to create comfortable living space while being energy efficient is to use solar energy or by building energy efficient buildings. Solar Building disagrees with the following issues:

A.Heating cost of a conventional or an ordinary building is high
B.Construction materials becoming costlier
C.People suffer from respiratory diseases and other joint pain
D.Collecting fuel wood or dung is Labor intensive work
E.No handicraft work can be done.
F.Useless debris left behind when concrete building is to collapse to rebuild
G.Transportation cost of building material becomes high
So,Why don't we choose to build Solar Buildings? Because the problems given above are not invited by the solar building but rather solar buildings help almost all the seen or unseen problems around us.Because in solar buildings most of the building materials are gathered from the construction site and surroundings.
Participants: Five of the participants from this workshop were from Lahoul Spiti Kyelong and others were from Leh district.

Guest speaker for the workshop were:
Tsewang Norphel (glacier man) and Sonam Wanchuk, Founder and Ex-Director of SECMOL
Facilitator:
Rigzin Namgail Director Shesyon Solar Earthworks (SSE)
Konchok Norgay General Manager of SECMOL Alternative Institute (SAI)
Guests of honor and participants during farewell assembly:
Vincent Country Director
Mr. Jorgais Director LEDeG
Mr. Tsultim Director (LNP)
About 50 students, foreigners and teachers from Campus
By: Norgay
The masons are putting in insulation



Interview with Jigmat Namgal Mason
CT: What is your name?
J.N: I am Jigmat Namgyal.

CT: Where are you from?
J.N: I am from Tsaga.

CT: What is your main propose to come here?
J.N: I come for training for Mason .

CT: What have you learned in these few days.
J.N: I learned about Tuktum, Insulation like why insulation is good for and. how to put insulation.
Why solar building is south facing Black painting and etc. I even learned a lot of things during activity.

CT: Are there any Solar building in Tsaga?
J.N: No.

CT : What do you think. After you go back to your village do you want to build a building?
J.N: I think so. But it is quite expensive for poor families But these days the govt. is supporting us to build solar buildings

What is life?
And what is the purpose of life?
Life is very precious, so don't waste it.
But enjoy it.
Always be happy but don't forget who
you are. Don't be sad.
Keep studying with a big ambition.
It will achieve your GOAL .
The purpose of life is to be happy, so
enjoy it , and help each other.
If you can help, don't harm other
people. This is the purpose of life.
So my dear friends it is my little
advice for you.
Thanks,
By: Lobzang Dadul

Announcement
We welcome comments and suggestions for the improvement of our newsletter. Send us your articles by Wednesday or put your articles in the box next to the suggestions box with your proper name.If your articles come late then it will appear in the next issue. You can also write us a letter about previous issues.

If you bring sayings or other items from a book or magazine, please give the source.
Thank you!

From The Campus Times Editors

Editor: Lobzang Dadul