I've arrived safely at the monastery. We got there Thursday, late afternoon. I'm staying at the monastery in Sani, a very small town. Right now, I'm in Padum, which is the closest village with an Internet connection. It's about 9 km away, but it's still an adventure getting here.
Where to begin? I've experienced so many new and unexpected things over the past week, since I last posted. I'll try and give a brief recap.
The drive from Leh to Sani took two days. We left Leh around 9am on Wednesday, and made it to a Kargil in about 8 hours. It was a visually amazing car ride. We drove through the mountains, stopped at a monastery and saw monks chanting prayers, and went to the highest point in the Ladakh region, which was around 13,500 ft. elevation. I have a picture to prove it. The road from Leh to Kargil is the "better" road, which is a very subjective term. It was mostly paved, but there were some very rough patches. Also, it was about one and a half lanes, which made head-on traffic exciting for the passengers, wondering which driver will pull off to the side. But we made it safe and sound to Kargil. We left the next morning at 6am, for we had about a 10 hour trip ahead of us on rougher roads. It was unpaved, save a few spots when we were going through towns, but our drive handled it very well. We only had one mishap along the way. A flat tire. But our driver quickly changed it, and we were on our way.
Before leaving Leh, we decided to spend our two months in the Sani monastery. It turns out that no one had been able to tell them that we were coming, though. So when we arrived, we were not expected. It turns out that the nuns have never had a teacher come before to teach them English, and their levels vary from close to none to knowing a few words. So we have our work cut out for us. We've been able to communicate oru basic needs to the nuns, with their little English and hand gestures. We're also learning some Ladakhi. One of the nuns, who is 14, has an English and Ladakhi book, so we've been looking up phrases and having fun trying to pronounce the words.
We've had two classes so far. On Friday, we rested and tried to figure out what to do with class. Saturday was our first class, and we spent most of it trying to figure out their what they really knew. Some are quite good at writing, some need a lot of help. So, we're starting with the basics. We're going over the alphabet, learning words, and trying out phrases. Mojun brought a beggining Enligsh text so we're taking ideas from it to think of converstations to learn. Since we don't really know their language, we're teaching through meanings and symbols.
Since they've never had English teaches before, we weren't so sure how our classes would be received. But they are eager to learn, which makes it a lot less stressful. I hope that we can make some progress with them over the next two months. Actually we don't even have that much time here. We leave August 9th to head back to Leh.
Getting to Padum is a bit tricky. There is a bus that leaves once a day, but not on Sundays. Thus, I think that we'll be coming here on Mondays, but most likely every other Monday. The bus leaves around 9am, gets here around 9:30am, but the Internet cafe doesn't open until noon, and then the bus leaves around 3:30pm. So we have lots of time to sit around Padum. There's not too much to do here, it's pretty small. Today we sat in a restaurant and had tea.
I can't even begin to visually describe this place. I'm up in the mountains, surrounded on all sides. The monastery is built up a hilside above the village. From a distance, it looks as if nothing is growing on the hills. At closer inspection, one can see tiny vegetation holding onto the ground. Driving along, one is surrounded by a rocky landscape, and then all of a sudden there are green fields on either side of the road. It's spectacular. I've taken a few pictures, but I didn't bring my cord to upload them. I'll upload pictures once I return to the U.S.
I think I've written enough of a novel for now. I'll make it back in about two weeks. Until then.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Leh
Well, I've made it to Leh! We arrived early yesterday morning, but I slept the day away, so this is my first time out of our guest house and to the internet cafe. I'll tell you a the highlights of my travles thus far.
I had a layover in Newark of about 5 hours, which ended up being a bit longer for a few reasons. First of all, my flight from Portland landed about thirty minutes early! Then, about an hour before my flight is to take off, the sky turned very dark and grey. A lightening storm rolled through, and they grounded everyone for a bit. We were delayed getting on, and even more delayed taking off, since the ground crew couldn't work during the lightening storm to load the bags and food. But, I slept. I slept a lot on the almost 14 hour flight to Delhi, surprising for me.
As I looked around the airplane, I realized I was one of a few people not of Indian descent. The, I wondered what those other non-Indian people were doing, where they were going. I had that same reaction on my flight from Delhi to Leh. In my mind, Leh is this unknown, remote place. In fact, it seems to be the starting point for many trekkers, as is obvious by the many trekking companies that line the road. I also wonder how people decide to go trekking in the northern part of India. It's absolutely beautiful here, for sure, but also very remote and takes a long time to get here. I suppose there are many people who are looking for that next big adventure, and this spot is certainly adventurous.
In Delhi, since my flight was late landing by about 2 and a half hours, I only had 3 hours to rest in the hotel room by the airport. I tried to nap, but I may have slept too much on the airplane! As I was leaving at 3am, I had a sense of wonder about what I was about to begin, the trek to the monastery. I met the other intern, Mojun, at my hotel. She had just arrived from Hon Kong at 2am, and we were on the flight together to Leh.
Arriving in Leh, I landed at 10,800 ft. elevation. I felt it. Also, I was exhausted from the traveling the the 12 and a half hour time difference. Don't ask me where that half hour come from, I don't really know. Anyways, we collected our bags and were off to meet up with SonamDawa, who arranges our hotels and transportation here. He took us to our guest house, which is at the edge of town, going up to the mountains. It is absolutely beautiful here, the mountains are enormous, and some still are covered in snow. We had tea, were shown our room, and then had breakfast. Breakfast consisted of a sort of bread that was puffed up, visually it reminded me of nan, but tasted nothing like it. They gave us locally produced apricot jam and some butter to eat with it. Delicious!
I slept allllll day yesterday. I was exhausted. We had dinner in our guest house, which was a vegetable soup, rice, a kind of lentals, and some sort of green vegetable that reminded me of cabbage or seaweed. Not too bad. Then we went to sleep. I woke up around midnight, and didn't really fall back asleep, just rested until about 7:30am.
Today I think we might see some religous sights. Tomorrow we take off for the monastery! It will take us two days by taxi, which will be very interesting... Hopefully I'll be able to post soon afterwards, but I really have no idea where the nearest internet connection will be. I have Sundays off, so hopefully I'll be able to make it someplace then!
I had a layover in Newark of about 5 hours, which ended up being a bit longer for a few reasons. First of all, my flight from Portland landed about thirty minutes early! Then, about an hour before my flight is to take off, the sky turned very dark and grey. A lightening storm rolled through, and they grounded everyone for a bit. We were delayed getting on, and even more delayed taking off, since the ground crew couldn't work during the lightening storm to load the bags and food. But, I slept. I slept a lot on the almost 14 hour flight to Delhi, surprising for me.
As I looked around the airplane, I realized I was one of a few people not of Indian descent. The, I wondered what those other non-Indian people were doing, where they were going. I had that same reaction on my flight from Delhi to Leh. In my mind, Leh is this unknown, remote place. In fact, it seems to be the starting point for many trekkers, as is obvious by the many trekking companies that line the road. I also wonder how people decide to go trekking in the northern part of India. It's absolutely beautiful here, for sure, but also very remote and takes a long time to get here. I suppose there are many people who are looking for that next big adventure, and this spot is certainly adventurous.
In Delhi, since my flight was late landing by about 2 and a half hours, I only had 3 hours to rest in the hotel room by the airport. I tried to nap, but I may have slept too much on the airplane! As I was leaving at 3am, I had a sense of wonder about what I was about to begin, the trek to the monastery. I met the other intern, Mojun, at my hotel. She had just arrived from Hon Kong at 2am, and we were on the flight together to Leh.
Arriving in Leh, I landed at 10,800 ft. elevation. I felt it. Also, I was exhausted from the traveling the the 12 and a half hour time difference. Don't ask me where that half hour come from, I don't really know. Anyways, we collected our bags and were off to meet up with SonamDawa, who arranges our hotels and transportation here. He took us to our guest house, which is at the edge of town, going up to the mountains. It is absolutely beautiful here, the mountains are enormous, and some still are covered in snow. We had tea, were shown our room, and then had breakfast. Breakfast consisted of a sort of bread that was puffed up, visually it reminded me of nan, but tasted nothing like it. They gave us locally produced apricot jam and some butter to eat with it. Delicious!
I slept allllll day yesterday. I was exhausted. We had dinner in our guest house, which was a vegetable soup, rice, a kind of lentals, and some sort of green vegetable that reminded me of cabbage or seaweed. Not too bad. Then we went to sleep. I woke up around midnight, and didn't really fall back asleep, just rested until about 7:30am.
Today I think we might see some religous sights. Tomorrow we take off for the monastery! It will take us two days by taxi, which will be very interesting... Hopefully I'll be able to post soon afterwards, but I really have no idea where the nearest internet connection will be. I have Sundays off, so hopefully I'll be able to make it someplace then!
Friday, June 13, 2008
Packing...
So, I'm packed. And I have over 24 hours before I leave. Very impressive, right? Somehow, I've managed to fit my life for the next two months into a backpack and two small carry-ons. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything! Just a few more hours and I'll be on my way!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
The plan
So, I'm sure most of you have heard something about what I'll be doing this summer. I'll explain it all now.
It all began in Paris, and I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my summer. I knew that I wanted to have an internship that was interesting and related to my interests. My interest lying in education, pretty much all internships are unpaid, so I looked to my school for funding. Then I began looking at the internships that they offered, and just browsed through the international internships. And I found a few that looked very interesting. I applied, had an interview over Skype, and a few weeks later was informed that I had an internship! Then I told my parents about it.
I'm interning with the Jamyang Foundation (www.jamyang.org) which is a U.S. based non-profit that supports women's education in the Himalayas, where there is a strong Buddhist culture. I'll be living in a monastery with the nuns, and I'll be teaching. I'm not positive yet what I'll be teaching, but I'm assuming English, and I would be open to math or social studies. We'll see when I get there!
But where is there? I'll be in the Himalayas, in the northern part of India. I'll be in the region of Zangskar (there are various spellings), but I'm not sure yet which monastery I'll be at. There are two or three in that region. I know that the monasteries are all located in small villages, and I may have to hike a bit to reach the monastery. It will be remote, that is for sure.
My trek begins Saturday, when I leave Portland at 7:30am and fly to Delhi, with a stop in Newark. I'll be traveling for about 25 hours. I arrive in Delhi at 8:15pm on Sunday, and the next morning I have a flight to Leh at 5am. Leh is the capitol of Ladakh, a neighboring region of Zangskar, and the closest airport. From there we travel two days by taxi to Zangskar. That's about all the information that I have right now. Someone associated with the Foundation will be meeting us in Delhi and assisting us in our travels within India. There is another Mount Holyoke student who is interning at the site with me, and we will be traveling together from Delhi. I don't know her, but it'll be nice to have another MHC student there with me!
I think that's enough for now, maybe too much. I might post more before I leave. We'll see, this whole crazy blogging thing...
It all began in Paris, and I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my summer. I knew that I wanted to have an internship that was interesting and related to my interests. My interest lying in education, pretty much all internships are unpaid, so I looked to my school for funding. Then I began looking at the internships that they offered, and just browsed through the international internships. And I found a few that looked very interesting. I applied, had an interview over Skype, and a few weeks later was informed that I had an internship! Then I told my parents about it.
I'm interning with the Jamyang Foundation (www.jamyang.org) which is a U.S. based non-profit that supports women's education in the Himalayas, where there is a strong Buddhist culture. I'll be living in a monastery with the nuns, and I'll be teaching. I'm not positive yet what I'll be teaching, but I'm assuming English, and I would be open to math or social studies. We'll see when I get there!
But where is there? I'll be in the Himalayas, in the northern part of India. I'll be in the region of Zangskar (there are various spellings), but I'm not sure yet which monastery I'll be at. There are two or three in that region. I know that the monasteries are all located in small villages, and I may have to hike a bit to reach the monastery. It will be remote, that is for sure.
My trek begins Saturday, when I leave Portland at 7:30am and fly to Delhi, with a stop in Newark. I'll be traveling for about 25 hours. I arrive in Delhi at 8:15pm on Sunday, and the next morning I have a flight to Leh at 5am. Leh is the capitol of Ladakh, a neighboring region of Zangskar, and the closest airport. From there we travel two days by taxi to Zangskar. That's about all the information that I have right now. Someone associated with the Foundation will be meeting us in Delhi and assisting us in our travels within India. There is another Mount Holyoke student who is interning at the site with me, and we will be traveling together from Delhi. I don't know her, but it'll be nice to have another MHC student there with me!
I think that's enough for now, maybe too much. I might post more before I leave. We'll see, this whole crazy blogging thing...
Getting Ready...
Well, I've finally set up my blog! I'm just getting started with the packing, organizing everything that I'll need. Probably should have done this last week, but who's for being prepared in advance, anyways? I'll post more later about what I'll be doing for the summer.
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