a day in the life... or something

i can't believe that 3 weeks have already passed here in dharamsala. its been quite the experience. a majority of the volunteers left yesterday as the most popular duration is 3 weeks (mine is 6 weeks). of the original 27, there are only seven of us here for the weekend as we await the new group due on tuesday. it was sad to see people leave as we had all become surprisingly close in such a short amount of time. good memories and people to visit in future to come.

as mentioned previously, my volute er time at the special school is quite exciting as we are in the final preparations for moving to the new school. i have been busy doing regular classes while also trying to help out with the new place. the opening party is scheduled for the 14th of july and we are expecting around 50 people to show. its great to watch the project move towards fruition. the school looks amazing and is equipped with hand painted stars, clouds, fruits, veggies, numbers and the alphabet. we just got a computer, curtains, new lights and there is mini-garden in the works. these kids are getting an amazing facility, great staff and fully deserve this blessing.

my days are long but move swiftly and are often quite stimulating. as of now, the special school is only in session in the mornings. i have been running the class of 4 lately as the teacher and other staff are trying to crunch out the final details on the new space. we usually start the day with some simple yoga poses and exercises to get the blood flowing. all of the kids have some form of physical difficulties so we do a wide range of things from stretches to jumping to wrist and head rolls. its one of my favorite parts of the morning. we usually move into sign language next. there is a set of like 30 signs that use a modified form american standard and are geared at helping us all communicate about basic things. the kids like to test me on my ability and laugh hysterically if i mess up a little. we are also working on hindi, math and english with three of the students both in notebooks and on the computer. they are all at different levels and it took me a few days to figure out what sorts of exercises and homework were both challenging and possible. one of the hardest things to communicate has been the concept of carrying when adding larger numbers. using beads, fingers and tick marks have been the fail safes. the end of the morning always involves bananas, cookies, parachutes, balls and fun matching games. we also do the india version of chutes and ladders, which manifests as snakes and stairs... fun times. i loving the challenge and smiles that each day brings and i have a HUGE respect for those that teach special ed on the regular, it is both a skill and an art.

since school is over in the afternoons i have experimented with a few different activities. some afternoons involve painting aforementioned walls at the school and others are for reading, naps and wandering/wondering. i also have spent some time volunteering in the tibetan section of town, called Mcloud Ganj, teaching conversational english to exiled monks and students at a place called the hope center. the stories of escape from china are always the intro and its great to hear first hand about Buddhism and life as a refugee. also, earlier this week i had a chance to listen to a lecture by the head of the national tibetan library, which is located a few minutes from my flat. the monk was amazing and had the most gentle and sincere candor of anyone i have ever met. his previous job was accompanying the dali lama on his foreign trips and serving in his cabinet, so he had quite the inside scoop on the man, his plans for tibet, talks with china and what enlightenment means/feels like. he uploaded tons of data into our brains and did it with the jolliest of smiles. i got the ask the final question of the session and had my mind blown by his explanation of "emptiness." woa.

while i am at the halfway point in volunteer time, it is still new everyday and india always has surprises. i am interested to meet the new volunteers and take some more weekend trips around the area. on a side note: a yogi just opened a studio next door to me this morning and rocked my world with new-to-me postures and a segment of laughter yoga along with tons of breathing techniques. his eyes are bright and full of playful joy as they dance in the candle light of early morning. holy moly.

life has been good and i feel very privileged to be on this adventure. it is so rewarding to give and receive on such a visceral yet somehow still mystical level with the kids, other volunteers and the culture. i feel that i am learning sooo much and absorbing information all the time. my voice has also become strong and i have ended up in some pretty interesting conversations with anyone that will listen and share with the kid who has an octopus on his head :)

it is really powerful to wake to a disastrous newspaper headline from the world at-large and then bear witness to those in the trenches finding the pure beauty that always accompanies its negative opposite half. it is sometimes hard to see the light in the midst of despair and fear, but it is always there, it just takes a correctly focused set of eye-minds....



wishing bliss everywhere to all.
i love india.
i love you.
namaste.