Nawang Dorjee shows us a model of the school.
Nawang Dorjee is the principal of the TCV College in Bangalore, and we’ve been communicating with him through e-mail for several months. Since the beginning I’ve been a little scared of him, mostly because his writing style seemed somewhat harsh to me. Lately, as we’ve gotten closer to our first meeting, I’ve tried to imagine what he might be like. Would he be mean? Would he bite? (Kidding on that last one, kind of).
Now we’re here, at the TCV College, in Nawang’s office. It’s post-interview and we’re chatting on a comfortable couch. We’re sipping masala chai tea and Nawang is inviting us to lunch. He’s awesome. And he’s he’s laughing. He’s laughing because he’s telling us about his experience at a Dude Ranch in Colorado, and I imagine him in a cowboy hat. I’m laughing, too.
This is unexpected. This is excellent. This is typical.
This is my final day of reporting in India.
Working on this journalism project has been more fun than I could have ever imagined. Ashley and I tried to plan a lot before we arrived, but I’m honestly surprised that we managed to pull everything off. Somehow we managed to make it to all three cities, and we managed to meet all our contacts. We spoke with incredible students and teachers, and we heard some truly amazing things. The Tibetan people were welcoming, warm, open and kind. I am so grateful for their help, and I hope we can do their stories justice when we finally put together our project.
