CENTRAL AMERICA ALUMNUS BLOGS
Fall 2007 CAM Semester
Thursday, November 8, 2007
McLeod Ganj!
Nothing but good vibes today as we approached McLeod Ganj, the site of the Tibetan government in exile and the Dalai Lama, by bus and started seeing more and more Tibetan faces - beautiful, high cheek-boned, smiling faces whose friendliness and compassion is so contagious you jsut can't help but smile yourself. Okay, maybe that sounds a bit extreme, but in contrast to the often angry-sounding shouts and glares of many Indian men in the markets, it was quite a delight. I liked McLeod right away...though it is definitely a tourist hot spot (though aparently it's off season now because it's "too cold"), it has a really nice, chill atmosphere, and the people are so friendly and welcoming. This is definitely a different India from what we've known so far. Oh yeah, and spinach momos (traditional tibetan food, like a dumpling) are flippin' sweet.
So anyways, we all went to a restaurant and met our host families. My host ma greeted me immediately with a nice warm hug - I was glad to be able to express the compassion I was already feeling just from being there a half an hour. She insisted I call her Amala, the Tibetan word for mother, and welcomed me into her very tiny and modest but neat, clean, and beautiful home, adorned with posters and pictures of Tibetan scenes, the dalai Lama, and (gasp!) even Bob Marley! And in the back room was her prayer room, with a whole shrine with little Buddha statues and pictures, Thanka paintings and a big picture of His Holiness gazing out with his cheerful slitty eyes. Amala then took me to her work place, a Tibetan Herbal hospital, filled with dozens and dozens of jars of little round pills mysteriously labeled (well at least to me) in Tibetan, and she worked busily, distributing them to a constant flow of people. It was cool to see the hospital, because it looked just like a 'normal' doctor's office/small hospital would back home, and I'm not used to seeing herbal medicine in that context back in the states (here it's the norm). In the evening, I helped her make dinner - a delicious vege and (gasp) TOFU stir fry (food I've been craving the most in India; don't know why they don't have it anywhere else). Then she taught me some Tibetan words/phrases. There's Tashi Delek, which is the standard greeting, like Namaste in Hindi, and Tookjiche, which is thank you. Then we talked more, about her life, Tibet, concepts of god and compassion in Buddhism - and about how in the western world people are always looking above them with jealousy, wanting more, never happy; but here, with Buddhism and I think in India in general, you look down and are so happy to be blessed with what you do have instead, realizing that a big house/car, and money can't buy happiness. Doesn't that make just a little too much sense? If only more people could realize that...if only, I think of all the idealistic possibilities.
November 2nd
This place is awesome. This morning I awoke early and went to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's temple with Amala and Nannerz...started off with a really nice walk through on the grounds through the pine forest with the morning sun shining through the thousands of colorful prayer flags streaming from tree to tree. There were stones everywhere carved and painted with the beautiful Tibetan script, aisles of prayer wheels, and loads of colorful stupas, at which Dolma made offerings of rice, tea and flour and then had us do the same, offering to the gods but really praying for peace for all of mankind. In the ritualistic sense, it was similar to Hinduism, and many other religions we've witnessed here, but, at least I thought, it had a different vibe - being in this Buddhist atmosphere, walking past smiling monks in their rich red robes,meditatively turning the prayer wheels, and entering the temples with the incredible ornate Tibetan thangka paintings and embroideries, mandalas, and big golden statues of Buddha and Tara - I don't know, but something about it all brought a constant smile to my face even though all the rituals, prayers and symbols are all Chinese to me (well, Tibetan, not Chinese). But I think that for me, those are parts of religion I'll never understand because they don't hold any meaning or resonance for me.
Anyway, thus began the lovely day, then I went to Thangka painting with Marshall, Elana, and Justina. Though it wasn't 'painting,' for we each had to precisely copy a pencil drawing...whatever we drew "wrong" (i.e. if a line was off by a millimeter or two), the teacher erased and corrected it to what the original exactly is - the phenomenal part is it was all by memory, and he didn't even need to look at the original! It is such a precise, exact process, which people study for 6 years (they can't even touch paints for the first year), learning to draw the images from the ancient Buddhist scriptures exactly, from memory, and so I can appreciate it greatly for that (and of course because the outcome is so freaking beautiful), but personally I don't think I'd enjoy it because there's no room for free drawing or creativity, which is what art is about for me. But, if anything, as Marshall wisely said, it gives you an appreciation for how much you'd pay for one (about 30,000 rupees, like $800ish)!
Later, I ate an awesome veggie burger and even more awesome chocolate cake!!! oh, why is food the most exciting part of my day?! Well, I guess it wasn't because then I had sitar lesson, which went really well. It's a tough instrument, the strings are sharp and dig grooves into your fingers, but it's so beautifully resonant, and it felt almost natural playing it.
When I came home Amala greeted me warmly with a hug and ginger tea, and she had a friend over, this guy who's a journalist/Tibetan youth congress member/political activist for Tibet. We talked for a long time about Tibetan history, all the oppression by the Chinese, and the free life Tibetans can enjoy in India...quite a history I'd previously only known a little about (now they don't teach you about this holocaust in school), full of so many atrocities and human rights violations the Chinese have blatantly committed. Since their invasion in 1949, the Chinese have brutally killed over one million Tibetans - about one sixth of the population, destroyed, destroyed thousands of very old monasteries and other religious sites, deforested and abused the land and natural resources, and tried to wipe out Tibetan culture and replace it with a modern Chinese culture. Up until 1970, many Tibetans were able to flee to India for freedom and for education of their own language, religion, and history (attempting to preserve their culture) which was prohibited in their homeland. But come 1970, the borders became much more strict and patrolled by more soldiers shooting at anyone, even children. Even if they were not shot, it was still a long, cold, dangerous trek through the Himalayas. Thus, there are still many Tibetans in their country, though it's hard to call it that considering how much they are controlled and exploited. And, being peaceful people by nature (and religion), their only weapon is the pen - education, and spreading awareness to the world with a message of peace. They are blessed to have the Dalai Lama as the epitome of that compassionate message, spreading it around the world with his incredible charisma and warm smile. Speaking of which, His Holiness is coming through tomorrow! Don't think he's talking then, but even just seeing his cheerful face will be cool...Tibetans are so incredibly moved by him - when Amala talks of him, she practically gets tears in her eyes.
November 4th
This morning, Amala's friend came over again and we ended up talking for a few more hours, this time mostly about Buddhism, and he explained some basic aspects of it to me, mainly the 4 Noble Truths (where one accepts suffering as a part of life and tries to figure out the cause of it in order to end it), the idea of 'god' (which is still pretty confusing to me), and attaining enlightenment. He also talked about how Buddha encouraged questioning his teachings - in fact, debate is a huge part in a monk's education. Buddhism is flexible enough to bend and flow with the ever-changing times...for instance, I asked about women in Buddhism - although they used to not play such a large role, they've questioned tradition and changed for modern times, making it legal (as of 2 years ago) for women to get their Phd. in Buddhist philosophy, and also Buddhist nunneries are becoming more and more common. I think that these open-minded and intellectual aspects of Buddhism separate it from many other religions, and makes it almost more of a philosophy, and this is something that really draws me to it.
Later, I went to Tibetan massage lesson with Garrett. Tibetan massage is for pretty much the entire body, and is a series of movements for each section, always done in the same order (sort of like a reiki session). Today we learned the back. It's pretty cool to learn how to massage, and it'll definitely be sweet to get a massage every day! Some other people are doing cooking as their internship, and they made some delicious-looking momos today.
Then at 2 pm, Amala and I headed over to the main square, where the Dalai Lama was to be passing through! No one really knew when, though, so we ended up waiting for about 3 hours. Everyone was really excited to catch a glimpse of HH, even if it was going to be brief, and the crowd was filled with merriment and the smells of burning incense. After a few hours of waiting, I got pretty tired, and when he finally came through, he drove by so fast in a car with reflective windows, so I barely saw him. Even though it was such an ephemeral moment, it was still cool to see his smiling face in person, and to observe the out-of-this-world level of compassion and respect the Tibetans have for their truly remarkable leader.
more to come later....there's just so much to write about here! so I'll just keep adding on to this post.
-Sea
Posted by India group at 3:38 AM 0 comments
Friday, November 2, 2007
Tea, Halloween, and some good volunteering:)
Well it has been an interesting week leading up to McLeod Ganj. After the Yoga Ashram, we took a night train from Rishikesh to a city called Pathencot on our way to stay at the Bandle Tea Estate in Palampur. Since trains are infamously late in India, we thought even though our train was suppose to get in at about 2:30am, it wouldn't really get there until 6am or so....plenty of time to wake up and get our stuff before exiting the train.
So, we ate some dinner on the train which was surprisingly good, and then went to bed early all expecting a good nights sleep. At about 3:30, we were awaken by our group leader Nannette. She had been the only one awake to look out for our departing station, and it turned out the train was relatively on time and we were at the train station at that moment. So slowly we woke up, got our stuff and were making our way to the door when the train started to move. Three of us had managed to get off the train before it was moving, and the rest of us lined up at the door looking at the moving ground. Nannette was first at the door, looked back at all of us and asked "Are we going to do this?" With the same adrenaline rush, we looked back and nodded yes and off we went. Nannette and Garrett were the first off and managed to stay standing. The rest of us were not as lucky....I was next and managed to fall after two steps, but I was lucky in that I could see the rest of the group being Justina, Robert, and Sea jump off and land on the ground. Everyone was laughing, no one seriously hurt.
If anything, I think we gave the locals a nice scare...maybe they were wondering how many people would come off the train...is this something that they do in our country?? For the rest of the day we thought about this and started laughing. When I thought of it, I am impressed with our group. we stuck together and now have a pretty good story to share with everyone when we get back.
After we brushed ourselves off, we walked out to the taxi stand and took a three hour taxi to Palampur. The ride wasn't the most comfortable as we managed to fit 9 people plus bags into one car, but we just wanted to get to our destination.
In Palampur we stayed on a tea estate with an ice cream factory....two great necessities of life. The host, who we called Babu, showed us around his factory the first day and then we sat down to a wonderful Indian meal at the end of the day. Since this family is of the Brahmin caste, it was interesting to see how they live in comparison to the other families we have been with. They have a more proper placement in the town, and everyone respects them. Driving in a car with them to the village we were volunteering at you could notice small differences, such as no cars would honk or people would say Namaste all the time.
This family had also invested in helped a small village near their house that had only been connected with the town with a road 6 months ago. Though we were suppose to help with the labour, it turned out that it was better to let the locals work on it and we would do a cultural exchange with the village at the end of the week. It was a little disappointing as we wanted to be more directly involved, but I think in this society it is best to let the people work with the ones they can communicate with because they have a different and efficient way of doing things that is different from us.
At the end of the week, we went up to the school in the village to share some dances and posters about hygiene. They did a traditional dance, and we did the macarena...the closest thing to traditional American dance that we could think of. Then we talked about washing hands, hygiene, Halloween (as this happened on Halloween) and presented them with a mask and some posters with numbers and animals in English and Hindi.
By the end of the week we were ready to move on to our location now, Mcleod Ganj. The area is beautiful and everyone is enjoying their Tibetan home stays. We only have one week here, but it should be wonderful one!
-Elana
Posted by India group at 9:46 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Himalaya Trekk and Yoga Retreat
We left Laxman-Jhoola on October 13th for a 7 hour jeep ride to the town of Barsu at the base of the Himilayas. After camping one night in Barsu (and eating a dinner of some supreme spaghetti), we hiked up for about 5 hours till we reached camp, which was just below tree line.
At camp we were greeted with 5-star hospitatlity in the form of a pooper tent; needless to say it was just a hole in ground, but it was covered...so you know...it was legit...maybe too legit?...
Anywho, we chilled out around the fire, as it was beginning to get a wee bit nipper, and/or hiked around in exploration checking out the uberly supreme sights of towering bluesih peaks surmounting themselves above fluffy whites.
The next day we continued up to a ridgeside where we descended into a little valley pool where we set up camp, except that the pack mules had not yet come, and it was starting to rain, and by rain I mean snow, and by snow of course I mean hail...
Anywho, we waited untill the mules arrived standing like fishsticks and chatting through chitters with our guide, Bije(I'm pretty sure that's his name...). After they came and camp had been established, the weather, of course, cleared up enough for us to play stick ball, which turned into cricket once one of the Indian Mule dudes came and played.
We all sort of chilled out, played some cards, took some good poos, and what not untill dinner. Then after dinner we were met by a thunderous rain storm that, upon further inspection (i.e. looking out the tent flap), was in actuality a thunderous hail storm. We then went to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night to broken tents and some snow...just in time for Christmas...or not. The next morning we decided not to advance onwards but instead to tuck tail and bail. We had an epic snow ball battle on the way down...Marshall lost, cause he throws like a sally.
So that was that, and after another 7 hour ride we were back in Laxman Jhoola at Phool Chatti Yoga Ashram. We would wake each morning at 6 to go to meditation, pranayama (breathing awareness), and yoga. Then a breakfast of pooridge, banannas, and chai. At 10:30 we would go on a 'meditative walk' somewhere; we went once to a waterfall, the beach, yada yada yada... Lunch of dal, rice, and bread was at 12:30. Untill the discussion/lecture at 3:00, where we talked of yoga and the like, we were free. Then more yoga at 4. At sunset a temple ceremony was performed and dinner of dal, rice, vegetables, and bread (and perhaps a sweet if we were deemed worthy) at 7:30ish. Then we'd sleep and do it all over again.
Now we are not there and I can stop now...Kudos Jack.
Posted by India group at 2:28 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The Mountain Center
We left Missourie in jeeps that winded around the mountain roads, and shifted altitude level many a time. Eventually we reached a "gate" with "guards" blocking the road the the mountain center. When I say "gate" I actually mean a chain between two tree stumps. And when I say "guards" I actually mean a few elderly, emaciated Indian men sitting around smoking beadies. We wanted to just go through but our taxi drivers were too 'intimidated' (or trying to make some extra money by taking us the long way) to go through. They raised the price because of the new length and we considered walking for a bit. After arguing for a bit, we took the taxi to the center.
The center is run by a woman named Duaba who is a bit 'quirky' but does amazing good things for the area by running a nature preserve and an orphanage.
We did 'gibberish meditation' which is a silly thing where we yell gibberish for a while before becoming quiet. I thought it was weird.
We had to build a fence to protect against deer who were eating her food. We made it entirely from things in the jungle. We but tons of thorn bushes in it, natures natural barbed wire. The deer did not mess with it, the food was untouched the next day.
She then had us learn some Raiki where we learned how to use energy by concentrating. We did a 12 hour fast, and had a vow of silence during it. In the morning during the silence and fast we were 'initiated' into raiki and sent off to do a vision quest in the woods. It was really nice to be alone in nature for that time. I think the fasting really does cleanse the body too.
I continued up to the ridge and saw the Himalayas which were absolutely beautiful. The biggest mountains in the world. I wandered around up there most of the day and then came back at sunset like the rest of the group.
At dinner we were supposed to tell about our vision quest. Although I did not find my destiny or anything, I still feel like I learned a few valuable things from it. Ben had the best destiny. When asked about his vision quest he said, "I found, sitting on a rock, that my destiny is to be a man!" Duaba made a funny , surprised expression, which made me laugh.
Duaba left early the next morning and we had to go make a wall to make a playground safer, so kids did not fall of a cliff. We arrived at the playground to find that the 'cliff' wasn't really there. But the principal insisted we take stones out from under this swing set Oh well. Afterwards we got to play tag with the kids which was tons of fun.
We returned to the mountain center later. A great guy named Gary was teaching us Yoga and helped us communicate with the Nepalese workers there. Later that night we sat around a fire, Sea playing her guitar, while Justina, Elana and Garret sang. Marshal, Robert, Ben and I stayed up late talking about the world (probably disturbing Seas sleep because her cot was near us) and covered every imaginable topic.
We felt segregated from the workers there, who ate in a separate room. We asked them to eat with us one night. On the last night at the Center we dined with them. We bought a chicken from a lower town and they made very spicy chicken masala. We all ate together and the workers were very happy. They said in all the years they worked there they Had never eaten with the western group before, only worked for them. They said they were glad we wanted to know them as people, and did not think of them as anonymous labor. We asked why it had never happened before and they said because the other groups just think differently from us. Seems like people like our group wherever we go.
One of the staff named (something like) Greece kept saying Bahod acha chicken hai! He said this about a thousand times. It means "the chicken is very good". He also kept saying that he was very happy. After our feast we turned the generator on, plugged in some speakers, put music on and danced the night away.
Before returning to the Bungalo I stayed out looking at the stars for a bit with the watchman who sang a Hindu song/prayer for a while.
I think everyone in the group went to bed feeling like a good thing had happened that day, and that we had crossed a gap. Everyone was happy including the staff. The next day we awoke, not as visitors, but as friends of the staff, and we felt united.
Then we went down to work at the orphanage.
Posted by India group at 11:35 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Mussoorie
We've finished our language classes after two weeks now. We have unexpectedly received a physical education as well, seeing that it is about a thirty minute walk from our home stays uphill to school. The classes have helped a lot when communicating with our families and I have been able to pick up a word or two. I think a two week crash course in Hindi was very aproprtiate for a three month crash in India.
With our days off, we went to a waterfall that turned out to have an unsightly group of round bellied Indian men at the bottom frolicking in the water. This, of coarse, didn't detour us from enjoying the water ourselves. The waterfall stole Robert's glasses. Our second day off was spent atop a Hindi temple where the some of the western Himilayas were visible when caught peeking through the clouds. We broke a coconut as part of a ritual and drank the milk which was very refreshing after the climb up.
All of us have internships that last about an hour each and depending on how interested you are in the subject you can take a class almost everyday. My original internship was massage but I decided to switch to learning the tabla instead after the second class became "too close". Most of us are now learning from a kind elderly woman who teaches us harmonia and vocals simultaneously. Once we all get our parts down, she joins in with tabla, bringing everything together. It all sounds really good.
Some of our evenings are spent visiting different temples. So far we have been to a Hindi, Muslim, Jainist, and Sikh temples. Also, Saun and I were taken by our homestay father to the local church. Inside was very beautiful with light colored walls and stain glass windows. We got to play a 100 year old organ.
Even though Mussoorie is a great town in the hills, I think some of us are ready to move on after being here for almost two weeks now. Tommorow we will be leaving via 4 wheel drive jeeps to a "mountain center." I'm not really sure what to expect but we're the type of group to look forward to the unkown. We will not have internet access for about two weeks due to our next location, so send your emails now!
Everything has been great so far and I think we're all excited for what's ahead.
-Bennett
Posted by India group at 4:32 AM 1 comments
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Greetings from Mussoorie, India, a British-founded hill station at the base of the Himalayas in NW India. This is all coming up on my computer in Japanese characters, so I hope this works!
It has been a whirlwind, fast-paced week for this group, starting in Delhi exactly one week ago. The jetlag has since dissipated, and although culture shock has taken its place, that too is dissipating with each passing day.
Delhi was extraordinarily hot and humid, as was Hong Kong, but that hasn't stopped the students from exploring and pushing the limits of their respective comfort zones. From day 1, Marshall and I have been continually amazed at the aptitude and maturity of this group, and we learn each day from their example(s). Here in Mussoorie, we are at an elevation of 6000ft, and climb daily to Hindi lessons to an elevation of 7200ft! We are all acclimatizing well and getting our exercise just in the process of walking to school. By the time we get to our trek, we should all be in great shape.
At this point, we have visited a Muslim mosque, Hindu temple, and Buddhist gompa. The students have been in their respective homestays for 4 days, 2 in Hindu families, 2 in Muslim, and 3 in Roman Catholic. Those in Hindu families are having the most difficult time adjusting due to the extreme differences in how they tend to relate, and we converse daily about this. However, despite this, these girls are having many moments of richness as well.
We are all a bit homesick, and are leaning on each other for this.
It is Bennett's week for doing the blog, so I'll stop here for now and defer to him for details from a student's point of view.
-Nannette (& Marshall)
Posted by India group at 1:48 AM 3 comments
Friday, August 17, 2007
Welcome to the India blog
Greetings and welcome to Carpe Diem Education.
Carpe Diem Education offers 3-month semesters designed for college students, GAP year students, and high school seniors. Posted by Ethan at 5:43 PM 0 comments Newer Posts Home Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)