11
Location: Dharamsala
This morning began as usual, with stairs and then breakfast at Common Ground. The breakfast is always good, and the pancakes and coffee make the three hundred stairs worth it. My learning partner, Kuncho, arrived and she told me that today she wanted to go to her house. It was rainy, so it was nice to be someplace clean and dry. We began by making some Masala tea to warm us up and just talking. I noticed that she had a copy of Contact Magazine, a magazine that discusses the situation of Tibet and its people. She told me that she liked the magazine, but couldn’t read it. So, for today’s lesson, I had her read me some of the articles, and I explained the words she had trouble with. After we had read for a while, I played her some of the music I like, and she made roti, which is similar to Naan. She always makes sure to give me peanut butter because she knows that I like it. She walked me back to Common Ground around noon and then we went to teach at Men-Tsee-Khang.
We played games and made conversation with the students at Men-Tsee-Khang. Then, we left for Lha conversation class. I was lucky and got to have Kunchok with me. I also had four monks: a teacher, two classmates, and a student. We talked a lot about Buddhism and their own stories, especially coming from Tibet and their educations. It’s always interesting to hear about Buddhism because it’s not something that I’m exposed to where I live. This evening we had a drum class where we played African and Indian drums. The Indian drums were exceptionally hard, but we enjoyed watching the teacher demonstrate how to play. To say he was enthusiastic would be a massive understatement. We finished the night off with dinner and some card games.