Hello from India! once again this is Kenya, i have been given the bittersweet honor of writing the last blog post from the India Shanti 2016 crew.i was so fortunate to have traveled around northern India with a group of 9 phenomenal people who i can proudly call a part of my family. This last week we found ourselves back in McLeod ganj, a beautiful city in Dharamsala home to his holiness the (14th) Dalai Lama who we had the pleasure of meeting, and shaking hands with as he told us jokes. we were all so humbled to have that opportunity. we also met with a Tibetan monk named Ven. Bagdro, a political prisoner of Tibet who talked to us about the Tibet genocide, and how he had escaped and was tortured and is now advocating to free Tibet of the Chinese government, his story was so moving and there was not a dry eye was in the crowd. we taught English to monks and other members of the community. i went to the Dalai Lama temple with my host mom, Caroline, Monet, Paulo, James and Georgia did a Thanka painting internship and Alex and Donovan took an Indian cooking class. we all came back from each experience with more knowledge than before. we have stayed with wonderful host families. After Mcleod ganj we headed for Amritsar, were we visited the holiest of places in the Sikh region; the Golden Temple where we ate most of our meals with thousands of other people. at least ten thousand people get fed there a day by donation! the food is non stop and free and delicious. we went to the border ceremony where Pakistan and India have this sort of battle of the borders and they preform and then shut the gates. the girls joined the dancing crowd and danced until they couldn’t dance anymore. finally we are back in Delhi staying at Wonghden house as we did on our first day here. we have learned so much from each other and we have all grown so much. we have seen Indian culture in a different perspective and have grown an appreciation for it. as we spend our final hours in India we have shared memories and we know that we have made everlasting friendships. India has taught us to have patience, self awareness and to do things without expecting anything in return. we head home tomorrow evening, taking with us all of our memories, and hey who knows, one day we might all find ourselves here again. so its not a goodbye, its a “see you soon”, mother India!
with so much gratitude,
the India Shanti crew <3
