many little solutions add up...

the special school that i have been working at in dharamsala is only a temporary solution to the need for a school that supplies specific educational resources to a vastly under-represented population. a few years ago a former CCS volunteer (my program) was involved in the special school program and fell in love with the kids. upon ending his volunteer time he found out that the program was temporary and was to be terminated shortly due to lack of organization and funding. when he returned to the states he felt his calling and started his NGO "harmony through education." his idea was to set up schools for the mentally and physically differently-abled populations in developing countries and provide a jump off for these kids and their families. over the last few years he has been raising money and planning to start his first school in dharamsala, india. the money has been raised through donations and fundraising events thus and grant money is in the works. the vison for the future includes opening schools all over the globe and providing viable and sustainble help accross many levels in the community.
his website is located here:
http://harmonythrougheducation.org/

the kids in the pictures at the website are the ones that i am currently working with and we will be moving to the new school on its own land in the next few weeks! i have spent some extra time painting and cleaning the house, that is HUGE, and is the former residence of the dali lama's sister. the new space will boost legitamacy and will hopefully increase awareness and participation within the community for this population. it is really powerful to be around a truly grassroots orginization that is full of promise and vision.

hopefully this project goes well and adds another piece to the puzzle of over-turning the current global-mainstream-dominator-paradigm that leaves certin groups out, does not plan ahead and is not mindful of all its actions. as we move into the future and are surrounded by seemingly boundless infomation, communication and technology, we need to take stock of all members of this earth and consider how we can serve the world as we serve ourselves. there is no doubt that the world is changing and new ideas are rising to battle the widespread issuses facing our world, but there is no one solution and no save all approach that can deeply fix our globe and transform our thinking. it is about creativly finding many solutions to push back the ills and failures of the past and collectively modifing behavior to piece-by-piece unite this world and create one that will last and encourage us all to strive for and achieve true peace, bliss and love..... its all about baby steps. lets walk together.

volunteer time

me and the new crew of volunteers uniting at a cafe for chats and plans:


after cruising the city in slums and posh spots in delhi for a week i was ready to move on. last saturday my volunteer program met up in some rented flats in a nice section of delhi. there is 21 of us in total. the range is huge as there is a family of 4, a father-daughter team, a mother-son duo, and college age kids ranging from engineering majors to broadcast communications and a few teachers and social workers mixed in. everyone seems to add something unique and the group is bonding fast. it is really really nice to get to start doing some work after seeing all the need and division between rich and poor.

we had a few days of orientation that included a little language, lots of chai (chai tea translates to tea tea, like table mesa...), lectures from local professors and great food. everyone began getting to know one another and prepare for placements upon arrival in dharamsala. there are a few different things that the volunteers are split between. each place is its own NGO and my overall program Cross-Cultural Solutions, acts almost as a broker to align locally established facilities with the volunteers needed to operate. some in my group are placed in day care, others in schools for english, computer skills, womens empowerment, youth centers and my placement is with a special school for developmental "differently-abled" kids from 6-18. currently there are five students at the special school (as it is called), three volunteers and a teacher that helps the kids with sign language, numbers, english, hindi and fun times. in two weeks the school is moving to a new house and will expand to have a speech therapist, physical therapist and a special education teacher. its really exciting because it is just getting off the ground and there are lots of preparations for the expected added attendance to rise to 15. it is really awesome to work with the kids and i will post later with more pictures and info about what is going on with my placement.



as for dharamsala, it is beautiful. we arrived into the city as it was literally wrapped in a cloud. it gave the place a real sense of mystery and excitement. the rout from the airport was filled with little villages, monkeys, rolling hills and lovely valleys as we climbed to the city on a mountain top. the city itself is beautiful and i have had a few custom made shirts and pants created for 10 bucks total. everyone is really friendly and the houses, meals and staff are terrific. it is really peaceful and i am excited to get a chance to live here for a while and be invested in the place that i am enjoying.

on the first day, me and few ohter woke before dawn and hiked up to a hindu temple for the god shiva perched above us just outside of town. we climbed as the sun rose and illuminated the land below. it was a tremendous way to get to know the place that is home. the views were spectacular and the feelings at the top were soaring with the receeding clouds. i am so happy to be here and feel very blessed to have been propelled upon this journey by so many wonderful souls back in the states. thank you all. hoorray life!!

Lotus temple

this temple was in southern delhi and is a key structure of the Bahá'í faith. the faith is based on a few tenants:
Bahá'í teachings emphasize the spiritual oneness of humanity and the underlying unity of the major world religions. Religious history is seen to have unfolded through the influence of a series of divinely-sent messengers, each of whom established a religion that was suited to the needs of the time. These messengers have included Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, the Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Muhammad and, most recently, the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.

it seems like a pretty cool idea to me but also proclaims the last profit, for whom the religion is named, as the incarnation of all of the previous teachers. his words were found all over the building inside and out. i have no pics from the inside as when i tried to snap one quickly, a lady chastised immediately and watched as i deleted it from my camera. woa. the building is sweet, the ideas seem neat to me, but underlying the whole thing was a sense that this was in some way the eastern version of Scientology. i wonder if baha was a science fiction writer....?
good stuff, met some nice people who claim this as their practice. whatever floats your boat i guess. awesome building.

india begins

india is intense. i have been told so many times that it will flip your world around. well there is no amount of prep that can come which will ready me for delhi in the middle of the day. it is hot, crowded and everything is multiplied by a billion people. it is wonderful. i transported myself to the city center as soon as i awoke the first day. i took an auto rickshaw from my hotel in the far north of the city in a Tibetan enclave/colony where i am staying. the ride blew my mind. no traffic rules obeyed. huge trucks everywhere. so many horns. so many people.

it has taken a few days for me to really SEE what is going on in this country. the first few days were just a blur of information overload. it was almost as if i could not discern different things and was just wide eyed the whole time. i have seen crowds, i have seen poverty, i have experienced heat all before, but never on this scale. it is wonderful.

as time passed and i started to walk the alleys, streets, bazaars and stations i have begun to pick up on the subtleties of this place. i have seen through the desolation and despair, i have seen the beauty and love, i have seen the horror and fear, i have seen the tradition and peace. never have i experience so many polarities juxtaposed so snugly. things are extreme here. i feel almost catatonic when i sit and think about what is going on in this place. it is wonderful.

i went far of the beaten path yesterday and wandered through a street. people almost stopped what they were doing in the hustle and bustle to stare at this strange kid with weird hair. i smiled. they smiled. i met locals. i ate really REALLY hot food. to find my way back i went through the most impoverished trash filled shanty town i could imagine. people were tired. kids were playing in waste. people were joking. there were smiles. my heart pained and swelled. things are extreme here.

later in the night i met up with some people that i encountered at a museum a few days ago. we went out with a friend of a friend from the area. after spending my day in trash piles i suddenly found myself in a car being chauffeured around. we went to someones house that had an armed guard at the gate. there were street kids wandering around barefoot aimlessly outside the walls as we entered the A/C of a 60 degree house. where am i? we went out to a hipster bar and had delicious food and a pint or two. what i am doing? i struggled all night to understand how this was happening. how can i or anyone else do ANYTHING when there are so many needy people everywhere. how can this happen?
i always thought there was a huge divide in the USA between rich and poor, but everything is extreme here.... all in all it was a fun night and i saw yet another side of this place. i get the feeling i could spend and eternity here and never really understand what was going on.

amidst all of polarizing experiences i have found moments of extreme solace in this land. i can make out distinct smells, rich colors, individual souls and beauty in everything. i have never been anywhere like this before. i am excited to keep exploring and move out of the city and into 'the hills.' my cousin nate was right when he said, "india is gonna F you up!" thanks cuz.

Neon Tokyo

i only spent one night in the big and crowded city. it was great but i am i glad i spent my time in the wonderful countryside of this place rather than in megapolis land. they really wanted people to BUY STUFF here!!! i ended up meeting a kid from fort collins that graduated from CSU last year and we had some mutual friends, name is will and major was construction management.... weird.

peace out land of the rising sun, its been great.

8 waterfalls hike

my friend kristin from fairvew high school in boulder moved to japan a year ago to teach english to middle schoolers. we hadn't seen one another in three years, so why not meet up in japan? she took me out for a night of fun which included too much beer, food and plenty of new faces from americans, to japanese, irish, austrians, kiwis and aussies. quite the evening of fun. the other teachers on the program were awesome and all had many tales of the trials and tribulations of living in a strange new culture. i found out that if you just yell and lift your beer glass, the japanese just assume that you are cheersing them. smile.


we awoke the next morning and went on an incredible hike through the mountains, up a canon and past 8 huge waterfalls. it was one of the most beautiful places i have ever been and ended up being a 6plus hour voyage.


woa. glorious.






along the hike there were bridges and ladders constructed to assist. someplaces had chains that were bolted into the sides of rocks, across rapids and around rocks. i couldnt help but hope that i could fully trust whatever person created the helpers.


after a long day of hiking, sushi was in dire need.


this restaurant had $1 a plate sushi that came around on a conveyor belt and you just grabbed whatever looked good. note to self: fermented soy bean curd wrapped in sea weed has a gnasty after taste.....

kyoto tour

i was sitting beside the river in kyoto relaxing after wandering around the city for a few hours. as i sat, a man came up and asked me what i was doing in the city. we got to chatting and he insisted on taking me for a three hour tour of some of his favorite spots. we walked through the flower districts that house some of the most famous gesha houses and then went to the above zen temple which is the oldest of its kind. he gave me the history and tons of neat facts!





the temple was such a place that i did not even feel as if i was still in the city. i was fully transported away to a land of tranquility and peace. i could just imagine the space brimming with monks walking slowly and contemplating each event as it traspired.

Zen Center outside Kyoto

I spent four nights at Hosenji Zazen center outside of Kyoto, Japan on top of a hill nestled nicely in a bamboo forest. The days were peaceful and slowly long. Many japanese people (when i was here there was only one other westerner present) at some point go to a center like this in order to seek training, healing, relaxation and deeper learning. Zazen is seen by many, including some monks i spoke with, as more of a skill rather than as religion. the whole point is to learn how to be fully present in the moment and be accountable to all of one's actions. the whole structure of the day is based around facilitating an environment conducive to the fruition of such goals
Daily sched:
5:20am Wake-up
-tai-chi
-meditation and group chanting
-daily cleaning
-breakfast
-tea
-daily work (one day was 2 hours of weeding a 2 square meter moss patch)
-tea (so much tea)
-work
11:30 lunch
-free time: for me this included napping, reading about zen and quatum physics, yoga and juggling
4:30 dinner
-tea
-reading form buddha's teachings (dharma), chanting, sitting meditation, walking meditation
9:00 tea
10:00 lights out (i was already sleeping)



Dinner and breakfast were formal affairs. each part of the meal had a ritual and there was no talking.





each morning during dawn and evening for dusk we spent a total of four hours in this room meditating together. it was really interesting to sit with eyes slightly open and notice the subtle changes in light as time passed during the beginning and end of each earth rotation. it was also really intense to sit in a room with 15 people and be totally still, yet fully connected with one another via each breath.


running water could be heard from this garden in all rooms of the center. such a cleansing and centering noise to be with always. during meditation the sound of the rush and splash was the best tool for me remaining present in the moment.

Organic Farm Treehouse Stay

the farm, called the earth embassy, was near the base of the infamous mt fuji. the mountain is around 12,000 feet and is quite dramatic as it rises well above anything in the country. it is a dormant volcano that created the rich soil of the region. the farm that i stayed at was a model eco-conscious teaching facilty, restaurant, guest house and co-operative place. the breakfast each morning was delicious and usually consisted of fresh salad, hard boiled egg, home made bread and lovely rice pudding.


the treehouse was all mine and tucked into a large tree. it was a great place to wake up in and do some private yoga.


view from bed.


i didn't get a chance to climb fuji (this time) but there was excellent hiking all around. the scenery was immaculate and the views of nearby lakes and hill were breath taking. the forests were incredibly dense, moist and full of moss, ferns and a million different kinds of trees. i could totally picture samurais battling it out in the woods with leaves flying everywhere....