There are over hundred students in our school who live in rented houses all by themselves. The school calls them self-catering students. These students are mostly from far flung places in Samtse. They were placed to Samtse HSS after completing their lower secondary education from their village school.
Coming to Samtse has not been easy for them. Most of these students do not have any relative or family in Samtse to stay with. They have to find their own accommodation. They rent single rooms and make their living with the little money their parents send every month.
One popular place where we find most self-catering students is Sukreti. The place is located on the slope of the west hill overlooking the school. By foot it takes about fifteen minutes to reach the place. What stands between the school and Sukreti is a wide gully where Sukreti river flows. In winter it dries up to become a stretch of dry sandy land but in summer the monsoon replenishes it and becomes one formidable river to cross.
The incessant rain over the past three days has swollen the river. The roaring sound of the river is getting louder by the day. Today 28 self-catering students from Sukreti couldn't make to school on time. They were stranded on the other side of the river. But they somehow crossed the river and made to school only in the third period. When I saw them they were all drenched in water. When I asked them about how they could cross the river, they said that they sought help from the elderly passersby. They said that the passersby carried them on their backs across the river. Some said that they carried each other on their backs. While some had to go a long way upstream looking for a shallow section of the river. Some of them lost their footwear in the river. One of them got her lunch box washed away. Some of them got their books drenched. Most of them looked terrified and were worried as to weather they would be able to make their way back home in the evening.
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