Clarke in Sidhbari : Dalai Lama Teaching!

Just thought I'd give an update. At work I'm super busy now- I'm making a nutrition curriculum for the NGO that they can teach to their 60 youth groups and the 15 schools they visit. So that's a big task- we are trying to make it as relevant as possible to the way people eat in this district, the money they spend on food, and the nutrition problems they have (LOTS of anemia in women and girls, and even boys). Also I'll be helping with a program that the NGO runs where they help farmers switch gradually to organic farming- so as part of this they buy the farmers' produce at a fair price and sell it a bit over market price in the touristy area nearby. So mostly foreigners buy, which means they need english-speaking people to help sell (me!).

And- I went to see the Dalai Lama today!! He is giving 4 days of teachings at the main Tibetan temple in that same town where the tourists all go (related I'm sure). So we got up at 5am, took a cab to this town, and went into the temple to put our cushions down and reserve seats. Most people go the night before so most places were taken. But we got good spots in the end where you could see him in the inner part of the temple (there are gaps looking in) and you could see the screen of him up-close too.

He came in by 930am and gave a two hour lesson, and another 2 hours after lunch. Lunch was provided by the temple in big masses but we left to go stretch our legs a bit and got a snack on the street. The teachings were sort of difficult to understand because the translation was very delayed and the translator I think had a limited english vocabulary. But I was able to get the gist of it I think. It was an amazing experience. There is such respect and awe for him- when he first walked in everyone was peeking around trying to get a view but it was still very calm and there was a really nice song the group sang. The teachings are hosted by a Taiwanese group, so they got reserved seating in the inner temple space. When he walked by them they had such a wonderful and culturally-different reaction than I've ever seen. It was like...the crowd swooned towards him but at the same time they gasped ('ahh'). I loved that.

I hope this turns out to be a good account of my experience. I'm so tired so I'll take a look later and see if there's much to add.

Oh, no photos of today unfortunately because no cameras were allowed.

But here are some other recent ones:

My view out the bus last day off

Looking back at Ceinwen and Jane (and our fellow volunteer Christina in the background)

There is a "Temple Walk" around the main temple in McLeodganj and this is on the walk

View from the Temple Walk

On Sunday I went on a field visit to a village 1 hour walk from Khanyara. This is Khanyara as we hiked up the mountain

More view from the hike

For the visit we had a youth meeting in the local school. This is the view from the school of a house in the village.

Inside the school

The boys made Diwali cards! (early maybe? but we hope this means it will be a really really big holiday)

After the meeting we walked to a Temple and then had lunch in a field. It was SO BEAUTIFUL. But the clouds were out which meant there was yet another snowy-mountain view we couldn't see!