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!

Ate lunch here

Me!

Walking to the temple (Bhavna, Marie, and Pooja)

Me at the little Temple on the mountain

On our way to and from Knowledge Centre in Khanyara there is a litter of puppies! Maybe 10!

Me at one of the many rivers running down from the mountains. This one has a red bridge we cross to get to Knowledge Centre.

Pooja day

Hi!

Yesterday we went to Maa-Beti Mela which was a great success. We didn't end up too involved since it was all in Hindi but there was a good turnout (maybe not enough mothers though) and many girls did performances in the theme of mother-daughter relationships. Our decorations looked great though! My camera battery was dead so I didn't get any photos but I'll try to get some from the others and put them up. I wore my new, tailored outfit which is very nice. The craftsmanship is really amazing! Nice details and everything and it fits well. I hope to get another when new, winter fabrics come in.

Today we went to Pooja (worship) and lunch at Dr. Kusam's. Dr. Kusam lives below us so we didn't go far. First I got up and went to Nishtha, the local health clinic where Dr. Kusam and another important woman, Dr. Barbara, work. They use all homeopathic medicines I think. She gave me some 'beads' (not sure of the proper name) for my motion sickness and also some for my cold. I have a cold right now and I imagine I'll get more with the basically-outdoor-showers and lack of heating and everything. So after that we went down for lunch but the Pooja wasn't over so we sat with many women who were praying and singing songs. That was very nice although I was pretty hungry. Lunch was really good! Served much like the wedding but on a smaller scale. Maybe for 30. The workers from Nishtha also came. Also finished with sweet rice- did I explain what that is? It's like warm sugary rice with almonds. At the wedding it was pink but today it was orange. I liked the pink better..I'm not really sure if there was a difference though.

After that the others went to work at Jagori campus but I was feeling sick so I slept all afternoon. They got organized in terms of our projects for the next little while. Ceinwen and I will be in charge of preparing a nutritional kit and teaching curriculum which I'm very excited about. There will also be a similar project on body literacy (sex ed). Also there are two research projects that need our help. One is to compile about 300 surveys on health in the community- basically enter the data into a computer database for analysis- and the other is a continuation on a project a past McMaster student did on access to medicine in rural India.

Last night also Jane and Marie (who live in a different house) came over for the night. All six of us ate chips and watched a movie (Stardust)- good bonding time for sure. I'm glad we can fit them here.




Ceinwen took a video of our place! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DinJ-kxgawY

Ceinwen spilled ALL of our soya sauce (maybe 750ml)!! And we have no drain in the floor (which for some reason I'd expect here) so she just sopped it up a lot with a rag. 

Another beautiful view! This is from the red bridge. To go to Marie and Jane's house or to walk to Khanyara Knowledge Centre we have to walk up the hill, past Jagori, to the red bridge. Then we cross it to go up the hill to Khanyara or downhill to Jane and Marie's. So this view is from our side of the red bridge looking up towards Khanyara. Behind the house on the lower hill you can sort of see some village-like spots- that might be Khanyara. Not sure.

Thinking of you all!

Some photos

The day after the wedding feast was the third day of the wedding in Khanyara. There was a procession with the bride and groom and music! Here is the bride in this tent. 

The groom is the man with the brightly-coloured thing on.

When they got to the end of the road there was a jeep waiting for the bride and groom plus a bus for lots of people. I don't know where the people were going because I think the bride and groom go off together on their own. 

Here are some of our decorations for Maa-Beti Mela. Some of the SATH workers strung them on the roof which made a really pretty sight. Then we took them down and they'll go up tomorrow morning at the school where the festival is held.

This is the Knowledge Centre in Khanyara. We are making flags that people will wave during a song at the festival. It's amazing how much detail and effort goes into these preparations- so many handmade posters and decorations. In Canada we'd just get things printing in masses. For the flags we bought fabric, cut it into triangles, sewed slits for posts, painted "Maa-Beti Mela" on each flag, cut posts out of bamboo with a small machete-looking thing, stuck them in the flags, and taped the posts so they weren't sliver-y. We ended up with 187 flags. Imagine the hours that went into this!!! I was happy I had some sewing skills to contribute. I sewed and taped many flags.  

The view of McLeodganj from Baghsu Road.

Our coffee and cake! I already miss it just looking at this photo.

Two women selling Tibetan crafts on Temple Road in McLeodganj. This whole road was lined with stalls . Also the town is in a cloud- most of the time I think!

3 weeks in

Today we are officially 3 weeks into our time in India. It's hard to believe!

I had my first day off today and Ceinwen and I went to McLeodganj which is a town 1 hour from us where the Dalai Lama lives- as a result it's totally packed with foreigners, whether on vacation/travelling/living there fore much longer. We took a bus to Dharamsala, then a taxi to McLeodganj since we were impatient and no bus was leaving for a bit. When we got there we:
1) got momos. this was street food which felt risky although we had been warned it would very likely be totally fine
2) went for coffee-- there are all these western-style coffee shops to please all the westerners! i had a good cappuccino and we split warm chocolate cake with choc sauce and cream (mmm) and they played Sufjan Stevens which made me feel so weird to be so far from the western world but in this bubble of western-ness
3) walked around, looked at all the stalls (scarves, Tibetan jewellery, sining bowls)
4) bought more momos (not as good as the first ones)
5) went to the temple--learned that the Dalai Lama will be at the temple tomorrow! so cool! we also learned that his next teachings are Oct 1-4 so next day off we need to go back to McLeodganj to register for a day or two of learning with the Dalai Lama!
6) shopped at the stalls we had looked at --I bought nice big prayer flags for my room, and a pair of great pants that will hopefully last longer than the pair that I bought in Delhi (almost fallen apart), and a box of ginger tea from this shop that sells cheese. Ceinwen bought asiago but I decided it would be even harder to go without if I tried some.
7) went to the post office- it costs 14 rupees to mail to Canada so send me your address and if I can I will send you something!!
8) got more momos. this time in soup from a Tibetan restaurant run by a monastery
9) bus to Dharamsala, then grocery shopping at this modern-looking gas station (I got peanut butter, nutella and mustard. good staples you can't get elsewhere)
10) taxi home to Rakkar---Ceinwen and I were both feeling sick so it was good to get back fast. The roads are rough and the buses can be PACKED. Plus there would have been a 30 minute walk uphill after getting off the bus. So we spoiled ourselves.


Hope this was a bit interesting. We met a woman from Nanaimo BC which was nice.

Can you tell I like momos? and all I want is more

xo
PS monsoons seem to be over! 

Good day!

Today there were many highlights. Lately I've been going to the Knowledge Centre to help prepare for the festival. Making posters and flags and things. It's sort of boring but I'm coming to know the people that work there better and I like them a lot. They are so nice and caring and they really look out for us. I'm getting more familiar with how to take the bus, and yesterday morning I was all ready to pay the right guy but then the woman from Jagori with me had already paid. It's like...even though I'm not completely clueless anymore they are still so generous! It makes me realize how genuine it is.

Anyways, today--- Ceinwen and I had to walk in the rain up to Knowledge Centre because the bus never came. The clouds were really high today which was new weather and it was windy which was also new. My umbrella is almost finished. So the walk was no good. BUT when we got there, after waiting around for a bit, we went to a wedding! It was such a great experience. It was day 2 of 3 of the wedding and it was a woman from Khanyara (where Knowledge Centre is) marrying a man from Dharmsala. I didn't see the bride and the groom wasn't to arrive until this evening, but we had a big lunch with maybe 100 people. We sat on plastic rice bags that had been sewn together and for each person there were leaves stitched together to make a plate. There was a full rectangle of us sitting cross-legged all facing in plus on row in the middle. I was worried I was under-dressed (not in local clothes) but it was okay because it wasn't too fancy. I sat across from about 5 little boys though who laughed and pointed at me the whole time. I felt sort of self-conscious but it wasn't mean they were sweet. So these men would come around and dish out food onto every leaf-dish really efficiently. There was rice and then a series of maybe 7 curries with more rice and water in between. We ate and ate and you had to cover your plate to decline or they'd just keep piling it on. It was so great. Such a good cultural experience and such good food. They bring around a basket full of chilis too- I took one to eat with my food but couldn't eat much of it. I did well eating with my hands but Ceinwen and Marie struggled a bit. First time for them so it makes sense. Oh also, beforehand they sat us in a room for chai and some snacks while we waiting for the big feast. At the end they brought sweet rice which is slightly pink and warm and sugary with almonds and other flavour in it. It was good. When you finish you fold your leaf, and then at the end you go to the side to pour water over your food-y hand.
Anyways, that was a very cool experience. It made my day.

After that we went back to make decorations for the festival, watched some local girls learning a dance (Manju taught them- she is so good at dance and I've heard everything else. Manju is 25 and has been with Jagori for 10 years. She offered to come over to teach us to cook! She also took us to buy fabric and go to her uncle who is a tailor), and then took the bus home. When we got home the sky had cleared and we saw the MOUNTAINS. The for real mountains. They were so much bigger and more amazing than I expected. To be honest I didn't even know they were sitting behind the clouds all that time. Even when we caught a glimpse it was like 1/100 of what's really there. I sat and watched the view until the sun went low and then came inside. ...power just went out... (normal).

I hope it doesn't rain again tomorrow. The weather has definitely been changing since the 'end of rains' festival 2 days ago. It was quite cold today unless the sun was out, and my feet are cold right now. Apparently even though winter here isn't bitter like in Canada, it's drastically different because of the lack of heating. I will probably wear my winter jacket for 1.5 months straight. I don't know how I'll shower!

The view from the street outside my house. There is a convenience store to the right and another one behind me that you can't see. The rest of the photos show the view from our porch!

The house on the right is mine! You can see the door to one bathroom and the door to the kitchen to the right of that. 

xo Clarke 

Back in business!

After a few days I'm back with what I think will be a working site! It's been busy so there hasn't been much time but I hope you don't mind switching to this URL. 

To update you:
It's Friday night now- I spent the week doing a combination of busy busy things. I moved into my new house. I cleaned my new house. I spent some time at the Jagori campus. I went to Dharamsala to pick up some supplies (pillow, garbage can, lunch containers). I went to the main road in Sidhbari 3 times. It's about 20 minutes down and maybe 25/30 back up. There I got a SIM card for my cell phone, found 2 restaurants (one Tibetan but they never seem to have their veg momos available, and one that serves Western food and many teas), found a shop called "My Earth Store" that sells organic products and some meditation books and things. Cooked a few meals, ate a few good meals at the NGO. 

Today was our first day working, since we take Thursdays off here and every second Wednesday. It was handy to settle in for 2 days and do errands before work. All 7 of us from McMaster went with Navneet (our main English-speaking friend and contact at the NGO) to the Knowledge Centre in a nearby town. This is a building with computer access for villagers, and 3 rooms for gatherings. This is where SATH (Social Architects for Tomorrow in Himachal- check it out at jagorigrameen.org) runs its youth group meetings and plans for events in the community. Here we met a group of SATH workers and sat with them planning for Maa-Beti Mela (Mother-Daughter Festival) which is on September 23. They expect about 400 mothers and daughters at this event and are planning activities and performances to celebrate and encourage positive mother-daughter relationships. We talked about factors that create a gap in communication between mothers and daughters here and what activities may help address those factors. It was very interesting but somewhat limiting with the language barrier. We had 2 people able to translate (Navneet as well as my friend from McMaster, Esaba) but even so it was hard to keep things going with full communication. We had lunch and tea with them and took the bus home for 2 rupees. It's funny because taking the bus down the hill is easy since it is less full, but taking it up is quite tricky and therefore we walk. It was 3km--tiring but manageable. Apparently that walk is about 1/10 of the type of walking we will be doing. Or trekking I should say. 

I'm sorry I can't copy your comments here but thank you so much for following. I miss you all and hope everyone is well. Keep updating me on your lives! I love to hear. 

This is the view from the deck on one side of my house. Absolutely beautiful although I've only seen it this one time. Monsoons mean it is very cloudy so I'm eagerly awaiting clear skies!

The view but a bit wider. On the right you can see the eves of my house. The house you can see is the back of the neighbours' house- it faces the road that goes up the mountain (towards Jagori) and down the mountain (towards the Sidhbari main road)

This is the view from the main meeting room in Jagori. You can see a few tiny house on the mountainside. I have already spent a lot of time thinking about who is up there and how they spend their time. 

Meeting on the first day. The 4 women on the left came with me from McMaster (I'd name them but can't really tell), followed by Navneet in the brown and Christina at the back in the blue. Christina arrived here 2 weeks ago from Boston and will be at Jagori for 2 years. Another foreigner here is Helen, who came from Scotland in May to a nearby NGO. She had a negative experience there and was able to come to work at Jagori. Her first day at Jagori was also ours. 

xo Clarke 

Blog seems to be broken...

September 12, 2012

I’m having a problem because I can’t access my blog. (Had somebody in Toronto post this for me).

In terms of my real-live life, things have gone quite smoothly so far but it’s still a bit busy for me. I find myself being jealous of other staff at Jagori or even people on the street because I can tell they are comfortable- they have a purpose in whatever it is they are doing, they have routine, and they are used to their environment. There are 2 men who do maintenance on the Jagori grounds and today I felt jealous of them. One group of people were extending a patio- round stones that they would later grout (sp?). Also outside one of the buildings they were putting in a new bench. I don’t know if they normally do so many new things but it was interesting to see. There is a lot of slatework here since there is a slate mine in the mountains behind us. the bench was very beautiful with slate that had been cut to fit one tile (laid to look like a diamond) between every 2 pieces of slate. I like to watch how people work and build here because it requires so much time and attention to detail that I don’t see as much in Ontario. Everything is done by hand. I wish I knew more about building so I could understand the differences between here and Canada better.

Tomorrow we hope to do a deep clean of our place. I don’t remember if I said this but I live with 4 of the women I came here with from McMaster. We have two bathrooms and two kitchens and all are in need of some real scrubbing and disinfecting. Also I want to do my room so I don’t feel like I can’t touch anything. Someone before me left a hot water bottle and I think I will take it over for cold weeks. Apparently we won’t need to buy space heaters since real winter doesn’t start until December. We leave early December.