Beyond the Sky and the Earth

One of the first people Zeppa meets at Sherubtse is an Indian woman about her age named Shakuntala who works as a librarian. Shakuntala takes Zeppa out to lunch at Pala’s. Pala  is a man in his fifties who makes and sells food to students, and his wife, Amala, helps him. Zeppa is surprised at how worldly the students seem compared to the people in the villages, listening to pop music and wearing t-shirts for bands like Metallica.

Later, a fellow teacher named Mr. Bose tells Zeppa about the importance of taking attendance. When talking about groups of students, he calls them “boys” regardless of the gender, although in fact about 80 of the 500 students are female. In class, Zeppa struggles to say the names during attendance, then starts a lecture on Macbeth only to learn that they finished Macbeth last term. She panics, then tells them to write a composition for her on any topic.

Next, Zeppa has a class of new students. They are almost as unruly as her old second-grade students, with 79 of them in the class. This nevertheless makes her feel more comfortable. To her surprise, when Zeppa gets back to her apartment, Catherine is waiting for her to take tea, and Pat, a Dutch nurse working in Tashigang, is with her. They take tea with the Fantomes—Mrs. Fantome teaches chemistry at Sherubtse while Mr. Fantome is a retired English lecturer.

In class, Zeppa continues to feel out of place, as one day, students call her “fat” and “simple.” When Zeppa writes to Lorna about it, she explains that “simple” can actually be a compliment in Bhutan that means “easygoing.” Zeppa also writes to her old class, and while their replies make her happy, she’s sad to hear that their new teacher beats them. Zeppa struggles to write anything to Robert.