Mcleod Ganj

Taken by Melissa on the bus ride up

So now that I’ve told you about the transportation stuff, let’s catch you all up on what I’ve actually been doing and where I am now! We’re in Mcleod Ganj, which is the home for the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Dharamsala is sort of a separate place, just down hill from us, and from what I can tell not much is there. We’re way, way up in the far northern part of India; it surprises me every time I think about it.

I’ve said it before, but Mcleod Ganj is simply beautiful. The entire city is built on the side of the mountain so pretty much everything is up or down. We’re staying at the Kailwood Guest house, and it’s pretty nice. Well, our bathroom has a crazy stench and recently has become infested with ants. This morning (September 27) they pretty much covered the perimeter of the room, it was a pretty astounding thing to wake up to, that’s for sure. One of the hotel guys swept them out but they are really tenacious creatures and keep coming back despite our best efforts! Ah well. Speaking of tenacious bugs, this little guy made me smile so I took a picture of him:



The other day he was in our bathroom just chilling on the wall. Melissa scooped him onto a piece of paper and took him outside, where he immediately started crawling straight back for the door, but we closed it and he just chilled there on our mat biding his time and then eventually somehow snuck back in at some point in the day. The bugs here are something else. I’m glad he came back in though; it rained pretty hard, and then it HAILED for a bit, so I think he was just waiting out the storm because he disappeared shortly after it was over. Either that or Melissa found him and took him out again. Hmm.

Anyway, we climb this staircase of 61 uneven steps every time we come or go so my legs get quite the workout. You can’t quite see the top in the picture since it curves around but...it’s a really big staircase.



Continuing with the “wildlife”, the stray dogs here seem much bigger than the ones in the south; there are some really pretty dogs here, though they are still un-pet-able disease-ridden animals. Then, as always, there are the cows roaming nonchalantly through the streets that make me smile. I was surprised the other day when a Tibetan monk told me that the number one complaint of most Westerners is the cows roaming the streets!! I absolutely love it; it makes me smile a lot. I find the drivers a LOT more annoying, the roads are tiny and it’s hard to fit a car through all the people (and cows and dogs). Anyway. Oh! And we have monkeys! It’s already been determined, I know, but I love the little guys. I’ve seen them here and there jumping between roofs or hanging out on telephone wires, they just chill out and freak out and are cute. The place right underneath us has chickens too, so we hear a rooster crowing multiple times throughout the morning and pass them hanging out on the street all the time. I saw one almost get run over by a car the other day, the bumper brushed its feathers but the driver slowed down and it got away. The driver also gave me a strange look, probably in response to the obvious concern I had for the chicken. Then there are the hawks; my favorite morning activity is to sit out on the patio and watch hawks swoop through the air right in front of and over me. They are so beautiful and majestic! I would watch them all day if I could.



But enough about animals, onto our Shenanigans! Melissa, Spencer, and I go to a Conversation Class for people learning English; it’s really fun, you just go and sit with a group of Tibetans (size depends on how many people show up, I’ve had one, three, and five at a time so far) and talk about whatever. We also unknowingly volunteered to teach English to an Intermediate class. We had no idea that’s what we were going to be doing until the day before we started; we thought we were just helping out. But no, we do the lessons, give and correct the homework, the whole shebang. It’s pretty intimidating, but the class is nice and very patient with us and it’s kind of fun in a weird “I have no idea what I’m doing” sort of way. Monday there’s supposed to be another teacher coming, so we’re hoping she’ll take over and we’ll just be able to help out like aides or something. Our fingers are crossed.

Luckily, we haven’t had class since Wednesday. It was cancelled Thursday and Friday for the Dalai Lama’s teachings!! We were able to go to the temple and listen to him Thursday and Saturday, it was so cool. It was completely packed, and he spoke in English for parts of it, but when he didn’t we could listen to a translator through the radios we rented. He reminds me so strongly of the late President Hinckley; just the love he has, the love people have for him, the love he inspires. He’s so cute; I couldn’t help but smile every time I saw him. He walked past us going in and going out and though there were a bunch of people between us we still saw him really well. He has a really infectious and pleasant laugh, even when I didn’t understand or hear him I just had to laugh along. He had a pretty informal air about him for most of it, he would pretty much just be like “ok, I’m done talking now, come back for the next session”, but very smart and very honored and loved. Despite the large number of people, the monks served these really good, really thick bread “patties” (for lack of a better description) to everyone as well as butter tea in the morning and sweet tea (chai) in the afternoon.

I’ve also been making some really cool friends. From the conversation class there is Tenzin Chupa, who shared his mat with us for the Dalai Lama’s teachings. Tibetans believe that sitting on the concrete or ground will make you sick, so they are very adamant about you sitting on something even if it’s just cardboard or a sheet, but Tenzin had a long mat like what you put under a sleeping bag. Also from Conversation Class is Woser “Shine”. He’s a monk who I agreed to help individually with his English. He’s pretty good, he just has a few questions and wants a chance to practice more, so I answer the questions as I can and then he answers whatever questions I have as well. Shamba is also from the Conversation Class; I've talked to him twice and am glad for it because he LOVES to talk so it makes conversation so much easier. Then there is Sonom who runs a clothes shop; she’s super sweet, I bought a long-sleeved shirt from her within my first day or two of getting here and now I wave or shake her hand and chat with her whenever I pass by. There is another Sonom from the class we teach; he’s quite the character but very helpful and fun. I met Topten because he was minding his friend’s music store and now I see him all over the place. Plus, he’s friends with the first Sonom so that’s pretty fun. Saturday I met Bhumsun, who actually sang at this Open Mic thing I went to last Monday but I didn’t talk to him at the time. He was just sitting on the street and started talking to me while I was waiting for a car to pass, I think he recognized me from Monday. I’ve also met an Israeli named Gal (Ghahl, not like “She’s a sweet gal”) who’s pretty cool and I see her everywhere now, so it’s fun to say Hi to her and just chat here and there.

So here is a really long post to give you all a basic run-down of what’s going on these days. We’re heading down to meet with a visiting Field Study staff member on October 1st and will be back in Mcleod Ganj on the 6th, at which point we’ll have host families to stay with! If all goes according to plan at least. Here’s hoping! I was a little anxious at first, I’m going to be living in a complete stranger’s house, but Tibetans are so generally kind that I’m not really worried too much. I’ll miss the hawks in the morning, but I’m sure it’ll be a blast and a really good experience and am excited to see what happens next!


Taken from Guest house patio.