Joe's Journal: Let me introduce myself!

Hi, my name is Joe. Joe Crow!

I’m called Joe Crow because that’s what I am. A crow! I’m a little bit different from most crows. Do you know why? It’s because my beak is bright yellow. Most crows have a black beak but I was born differently. It made me very famous in the woodlands of my home town, Eastbourne. That's in England. I was so famous, in fact, that I became good friends with some of the humans! Especially those at Pashley Down Infant School (more about that later). My pet, Mr. MacInnes (more about him later too!), was a teacher there so I got to know lots of different children.

Me and my pet, Mr. MacInnes.

You see, crows are extremely clever birds; our bird family, called corvids, are the cleverest of all bird-kind! That’s why I was allowed to help Mr. MacInnes in the class. Humans need a lot of help, and I’m much better at solving puzzles than he is! I was very good at helping in Pashley Down School, and I was never, ever naughty... Just ask the children! Anyway, one day Mr. MacInnes decided he was going to leave Pashley Down School. It wasn’t an easy decision, apparently, he had to think about it a lot. But when he left, so did I. And we didn’t just move to a new school, or a new town. We moved to an entirely new country, in an entirely new continent! The place we moved to is called Bhutan.

A river in Paro, Bhutan. The international airport is in Paro.


Here you can see the peak of Mount Jomolhari, the tallest mountain in Bhutan.

Bhutan is a very small country in Asia. It’s next to Tibet and India, and it is very mountainous. That means there are lots of big mountains! I’d never seen mountains before and they really are... enormous! The mountains all have different names but together they are called the Himalayas.

I was a bit scared when we moved to Bhutan. Mr. MacInnes said there were tigers and bears here, and I didn’t know if the other birds would like me. Also, everything here is so new. The animals, the scenery, the buildings and the things people wear and do are so different from back home in England. Some of the things that I do seem strange to the people here. But I am used to being different, and I’m sure I will get used to things eventually. I hope you can see in the pictures how different things look.

A lady selling vegetables in a local market.

Mr. MacInnes says that I will get to meet some new children soon, in his new school. It’s called Samey Primary School. Before we go there though we are spending two weeks in the capital city of Bhutan, called Thimphu. Mr. MacInnes says that we have to do that because schools in Bhutan are not the same as in England, and there’s lots for him to learn before he can teach here. While he’s been learning about Bhutanese schools, I have been exploring! Have a look at my pictures and I’ll tell you some more about them.