Sorry for the delay 😀
Kailash-La again, wrapping up the our last week of planned travel here in the beautiful mountainside town of Mcleod Ganj, the home of the one and only, Mr. Lama himself. It took some serious skills of bus hoping to get here, but we finally arrived early afternoon on Thursday just in time to meet Neema La. Neema La is the fantastic woman who helped organize our stay, fed us at her delicious restaurant, and gave Sterling, Tully, and I Hindi lessons every day (yes, in a Tibetan speaking culture). When we arrived Neema-La gave us a short overview of our options for the week (Hindi, Tibetan, internships, volunteering, etc.) as well as a few helpful Tibetan phrases. We were then introduced to our Tibetan Ama-Las (moms) and said goodbye to each other as our Ama-Las walked each of us to home to meet the rest of our Tibetan families, who we would be living with for the next week. All of our families were very different; from the size of family members, the size of the house, how well they could speak English, their jobs, and their stories of how they arrived in McLeod Ganj from Tibet.
When we weren’t spending our time planning and preparing for our last week of student travel, we spent most of our time independently filling our days with internships and site seeing. Internships included jewelery making (Sarah, Tully, Alice, and I), Tanka Painting (Ellen), and Hindi lessons (Sterling, Tully, and I.) Dan, Greta, Sterling, and I took a full day to hike the 3000 feet of elevation gain up to Triund. It took only a few hours to reach the top, just in time to have a clear view of the INCREDIBLE snow covered mountains that were standing only a short valley across from us. We had a cup of chai and ate some noodles from a small food shack, laid out embarrassing the view, and did a little exploring. Sterling then set up camp, where him and Greta slept for the night. I had to be back home by dinner so Dan and I ventured our way back down the mountain a few hours before the sun set. The walk down was so fun and my dinner was delicious and so worth it, however Greta and Sterling enjoyed the most amazing sunset that night and sunrise view of the mountains the next morning!
That same day on Monday November 26th, the Shanti Flamily prepared a little surprise for Miss Sarah-makes-it-Rainez 19th B-DAY. We celebrated with black forest cake (extra whip cream), Japanese dinner, and lots of random presents! Including a scarf, Cafe Coffee Day coffee mug, stickers, Chocolate, a poster of the Dalai Lama, and Greta’s famous Carpe Diem t-shirt. 😀
The week was amazing, and our time was well spent, but what we may be walking away with most however is everything we learned from our experiences in the Tibetan culture. We all managed to hear the stories of our host families and made it to a play and movie about the sad truth on China’s occupation of Tibet. This gave us all a much clearer understanding of what happened and what is still going on today. We all made at least one visit to the Dalai Lamas temple and witnessed the nightly candle light vigil, where a long line of people walked around the town holding candles and singing in remembrance and bringing awareness to the rise of Tibet’s self immolation.
Speaking for everyone as our time ends, it was an amazing opportunity to live with Tibetan refugees, hear their stories, see their ways of life, and get a true inside experience and understanding of their culture. I know I plan on returning one day to visit my Tibetan family 🙂
Oh and money was well spent here in McLeod Ganj, I think all of you can be expecting good gifts 🙂
LOTS OF LOVE AND HAPPINESS BEING SENT FROM INDIA <3