Cooking class, motherly instincts and I'm a graphic designer?

Hello. Yes. I’m still alive. I’m sorry I went awol like that, it has been a crazy couple of days… and I’m going to do my best to remember it as accurately as possible.

Where did we leave off? Hmm, okay, four days ago, the day that I learnt how to make the T-momos in the early morning… remember? Classes were finally back to normal again, so I had the morning class with Tulku Jigme and then the 3 hours of English classes with my monks. Did I write about the big projects that I’m doing at all? I don’t even know… I’ll briefly re-explain just in case. So when I was sick in bed with a throat infection I had a stroke of genius, an epiphany… I realized that the class I had taught when I was half sick was the best class we had had so far. I wondered why and then I realized it was probably because I was sick and taking the class so slow. Turns out the monks work way better when they are not put under pressure. So there I was lying sick in bed having this moment of realization and within a few seconds I had an idea. I would, instead of doing a new things every day, plan a project that we could do over a number of weeks. In the end I decided on poster making with the two younger classes and biography writing with the older class. SO, how is it going you ask? It was the best idea I have had in a long while, the monks love it. The mix of creativity, they have a ton of fun, the fact that they get to go at their own pace and at the same time they are still learning… really, I thank you a thousand times sick Charlotte, you are a lifesaver.

Also, I found a baby in
a box

After the classes Paldin asked whether I wanted to go for a walk. Of course I said yes, I want to take in as much of the green as I can before I go back to the desert. The route we took was stunningly beautiful. We were in the depths of the Nepali country side where no one speaks English. Whenever someone would pass us and see me they’d strike up a conversation with me… in Nepali. After I’d exhausted all my phrases (AKA Namaste and tapaai ko naam ke ho) they’d leave. But there was this one, super old and super sweet, lady who I literally had a conversation with although we didn’t speak the same language. She’d speak Nepali and I’d speak English and we would just understand! We were totally on the same wavelength. She’d point to the clouds and say something, I knew she was talking about the rain and I said I have an umbrella, took it out and showed her… I could tell she was saying the umbrella was way too small, and I said there was nothing I could do, then she pointed to the village and reassured me that I could go get an umbrella there, and the conversation went on and on like this… with Paldin just listening in the background, smiling. I had NO clue whether what I was saying and what she was saying were actually in tune with each other, but afterwards Paldin was just in complete awe, saying how the conversation almost made perfect sense. And this is for you Ms Robin, it was seriously like the scene in ‘Translations’ with Moire and Yolland… minus the kissing… Anyway, then it started getting dark and we went to find a place to eat. We ended up going to a super sketchy shop where the monks go to get their Aloo. I ordered veg chowmein (these Chinese noodles which are everywhere here in Nepal) not expecting much, only to discover 30 minutes later that they make the best chowmein I’ve ever had… wow, don’t judge a restaurant by it’s sketchy-ness? Then there was a power cut in the village and we were forced to walk back to the monastery in the rain and in the dark.

Our monastery's dog, Baloo!
He's the only reason why I'm
not crying over Maks all night...

The next day was the day of the VIN meet up; they have monthly volunteer meetings where we all gather and discuss issues and exchange tips. I was supposed to go on my own to Kathmandu but the supervisor (a monk who is usually the go to person for the English teacher, who arrived 3 weeks after I did because he was visiting his home town) offered to drop me off at Boudha because he was bringing the Japanese lady to the airport. Turns out the Japanese lady was leaving! In the car she was saying her goodbyes and I was the one who was about to cry, not her… and just realize that this isn’t even my goodbye… I am SO not mentally prepared for the 26^th of July, the day I leave the monastery.

We arrived at Boudha and the supervisor showed me which bus to get to Balaju, Kathmandu. I would end up getting to the office WAY before everyone else would but I didn’t mind, I’d have time to do some wifi stuff. I got the best seat in the bus; shot gun, so off I went on my own, for the first time… Then about 20 minutes into the trip there was a tiny traffic jam, so we waited there, standing still when I casually glanced over to my right only to spot two familiar looking tourists sitting in a sea of Nepali people in the bus next to mine… they were Rachel and Colten! Yep, out of all the possible times and buses that we could’ve decided to take we chose the two that would end up next to each other in a traffic jam, I don’t even know… Karma? After another 10 minutes of travelling I got off at the stop, and 2 minutes later Rachel and Colten got off at the same spot… crazy, and perfect, because I had no idea how to get to the VIN office.

We walked to their hotel first and on our way we bumped into another person! Pat! With him was one of the new June 15^th volunteers, a French girl called Laura. We had a cute conversation and then we arrived at the hotel. There I had my first shower in 4 days (the monastery has been having water problems for a while…). I will never ever ever take a shower for granted again! After hanging out in the hotel room for a bit we made our way down to the VIN office. We arrived and realized more people had come earlier. We talked and I met all the new volunteers as well as volunteers who’ve been here for a long time but that I just hadn’t met before. Two Chinese girls called Ashley and Ming, another French girl, this one called Elisa, an guy called Barry from Australia, a guy from the US called Andrew, another American called Clem, a German lady called Julia… And guess what… I found out that a couple of them already knew me because of the blog! OH SNAP. Turns out Bhupi has put a link on their website and that people who are interested in teaching at monasteries have been reading it… OH MY. Barry said that his monastery experience is completely different from mine though, so I have to warn all of you who are reading this because you want to go teach at a monastery; every monastery is different!

We had the volunteer meeting, which was really helpful. I was taking minutes and feeling all professional. Then we split up and all the monastery teachers sat together and exchanged tips. I told everyone about my 2 week projects and they were all super excited; some are even going to copy the idea! Afterwards we had a Chitwan meeting. Because I was sick I didn’t end up going to Chitwan (a very popular national park in Nepal WITH ELEPHANTS) with our group of volunteers, so instead I am going to go with the new group of volunteers! I’ll be leaving this weekend! I am so so so excited.

VIN was then trying to organize a dinner with all the volunteers, in the end only half of us ended up going. It was at the Nepali Chopa… the ultimate tourist place; traditional food, Nepali dancers, red dots on your forehead when you enter the restaurant. The food was lovely, but we got Dal Bhat which is what we all eat every. Single. Day. So we were not too excited… the monastery’s Dal Bhat is WAY better, I need to find a way to compliment the monastery cook. The dinner took longer than expected and by the time we were done it was so late that there were no buses anymore! I was stuck in Kathmandu (unless I wanted to pay the taxi 800rps). Instead I decided I would stay in a hotel and get the morning bus at 5:30 am.

Everyone else has their day off on Saturday; I’m the only one who has their weekend on Sunday. So everyone was drinking and I was just sitting there with a juice box. Of course I was uber motherly again – tucking all the drunkards into bed by the end of the night… almost even read them a bed night story… I slept surprisingly well in the two beds which we’d pushed together that I was sharing with three intoxicated people. My alarm went off at 5:00 am and like a ninja I left the room as quiet as I could on my way to find a bus. The streets were really quiet and empty and it was lovely to see Kathmandu like that for a change. The entire trip took over 2 hours, I was back in the monastery by 7:30 am. I taught my classes and then by the afternoon I left to Kathmandu again; I had cooking lessons with Isuda (the VIN cook).

The final product!

I arrived in Kathmandu at 1:30 pm, I had taken the bus but they had dropped me at a place that I didn’t know so I took a cab down to Thamel. They did not drop me off at Thamel, just somewhere near it. So there I was stranded in the super busy city; I had no clue where to go. So I just followed my instincts and started wandering. And HALLELUIA BABY JESUS within 15 minutes I had found the bakery “Hot Breads” (of course I remember Hot Breads because they have the same chain of bakeries in the UAE) I could’ve shed a tear; I knew where to go from there! I magically made my way to Premium hotel, booked a room and had a nap. I woke up an hour later and called Isuda, she instructed me to find a cab and give him the phone. After some driving and a few more calls we arrived at the street. Isuda found me and we wandered through the alleyways to her sister’s house. Along the way her best friend found us. We got to a big house and I was really surprised, then I found out that her sister lives in one of the rooms in the house. There is a family that lives on the top floor that rents out rooms, the bathroom is shared. I entered the ‘house’ and found myself standing in a room smaller than my bedroom in the UAE. Except this room functioned as the kitchen, the dining room, the living room and the bedroom. I didn’t feel upset for them though, they are happy with what they have… all it made me think about was why in the west we feel the need to live in such big houses? Why do we need so much unnecessary space?

The three women were the best, although Isuda’s sister (who is pregnant by the way) and her best friend don’t speak English we still had the best time. We chopped vegetables, had something to drink and then Isuda started explaining how to cook fried rice. We also ended up making Aloo curry and Nepali pickled potato and cucumber. So as of now I can cook all three dishes! And they are actually pretty easy to make once you know the steps! THE FOOD WAS SO GOOD. Oh my, I was pregnant yet again with another food baby. At the end of the meal they all invited me to come around again in two weeks so that they can teach me how to make a dessert type thing who’s name I obviously forgot again… I am so excited! I made friends!

I then took a cab back to the hotel and met up with the other Charlotte and Spyro. They had been drinking the night before and were super tired and not up for going out… we ended up buying three huge boxes of juice and a ton of snacks and just stayed in the entire night, ordering food from the hotel kitchen to our room and reading each other’s blogs and talking about our experiences; it was actually a really, really good night… Charlotte had a mini freak out because she didn’t have her laptop with her but within 30 minutes we discovered it was under the table at the VIN office; we’d have to make a trip back to the office the next day.

We all had a lie in, Spyro left in the morning to go back to his monastery, and then Charlotte and I decided to go to a place called “Yummy” for breakfast; sounds promising right? On our way we bumped into Pat and he had breakfast with us. Then we went to the office. It was really quiet, Charlotte got her laptop back and then George came downstairs. He told us about Bhupi’s dilemma… a few weeks back Google changed their logarithm and because of it the VIN website is no longer on the first page when you google “volunteering in Nepal”, instead it’s on the 10^th page!!! And because of it Bhupi hasn’t received any emails from anyone interested in VIN for the last two weeks! There is nothing he can do about it except try desperately to get people to mention the website on their blogs or facebook pages. Now normally I wouldn’t ask people to promote anyone but this organization is so genuine, cares so much about the community and are so attentive towards their volunteers; they don’t deserve to be lost in the depths of google. So please, please, if you have some time share www.volunteeringnepal.org on facebook or on your blog (if you have one). Thank you a thousand times if you do…

Look. At. This. Puppy.

Yes, so Bhupi is looking for different ways to get the word out about VIN and he got an offer from a university magazine for an ad placement. George asked the group of people whether anyone knew how to design ads, I had no clue how but I have used publisher before to make my mom’s business cards, so I offered my help. I ended up spending over 3 hours on the damn thing… by the end of it I showed Bhupi and George and they were so so so happy, it was totally worth my time. So, I’m practically famous, I mean my ad is going to be published somewhere… line up if you want an autograph ok?

Then Charlotte started feeling terrible, she was really not feeling well at all… and knowing my freaking mother instincts you allll know what I did next. I helped her out for the next few hours, we went to her nunnery to get her medicine, and by the evening she still wasn’t feeling better so I decided I would stay with her during the night to look after her. We were planning to crash on the couches at the VIN office but then Bhupi offered us to sleep in his house! We agreed and off he went calling his wife telling her to make extra food. After a walk and a cab ride we arrived at his house. As the director of VIN I expected a really big house but he lives in a simple 2 bedroom, kitchen, living room and toilet flat… that just goes to show how good this organization is. Of course the food was delicious, and his little daughter was the sweetest; we watched Indian Idol together. Charlotte and I slept like babies in the huge bed and I woke up yet again at 5:00 am to catch the bus to Sundarijal, I had to teach again!

So this morning I arrived to the monastery at 7:30 am again, had class with Tulku Jigme and had the 3 hours of English class again… I did my laundry; finally learnt how to do it properly… Tenzin taught me, turns out I’ve been doing it completely, stupidly wrong for the past 3 weeks. Mom, you would’ve been so proud, I even got a picture for you!

Yes, so I’m back at the monastery, and this will be the first week where classes will be somewhat regular. That is until Thursday afternoon, when I leave for Kathmandu to go to Chitwan!

Holy smokes, can’t believe I just remembered the events of the last few days in a somewhat coherent manner… snap

Charlotte x

Angry men, delicious food and T-momos!

So much stuff has happened the last 2 days!

After I was done uploading the blog post two days ago I started making my way back to the monastery. On the way an old man (who I had briefly met before with one of the monks) called me into a tea shop and offered to buy me tea. I had met him before and the shop was full of people so I figured it was okay. I entered the shop, sat down and within 5 minutes the old man had started throwing a tantrum. Out of nowhere he started ranting to me, very loudly, about how he HATES Nepali people, and how he HATES Indian people… the shop was full of Nepali people but he didn’t care. He kept this up for a good 15 minutes, declaring how he loves Americans and Europeans and how in his heart he is American. He said that it’s Nepali people who only care about money and about nothing else… I have a feeling he’s never been to America or Europe… He was growing more and more enraged, so much so that a group of people started to gather around. There I was awkwardly sitting across from this possessed man with people all around us. Yeah, so I was feeling super uncomfortable, absorbing all his negative, angry energy like a sponge and wanting to cry (of course). As soon as I finished my tea I rushed out of there. The next day when I was back in the village a number of people came up to me to ask me if I was all right… turns out this really is a village and the episode with the old man going crazy whilst talking to the new girl was the latest story…

So much love for these amazing people!!!
They just radiate happiness

Other than that everything has been going great! On the same day that the encounter with the old man occurred the man and woman who own the shop where I go for internet invited me (they finally found someone to translate their Nepali into English) to have lunch with them the next day! So yesterday at 11:00 am I went off to the shop with Paldin (who had to do some internet stuff). When I arrived they were already busy cooking away, it smelled amazing! Really, these people are so nice; you can just feel their warmth. So whilst Paldin was doing his internet stuff I was attempting to make small talk with the couple, whose names by the way are Ramsaran and Giatri. I call them Ramsaran-ji and Giatri-ji out of respect though (thanks for the tip Carol, they were so pleased). Anyway, so there I was watching them cook whilst Ramsaran-ji was calling out all the names of the vegetables they were throwing into the pan; chimi, aloo, tamta… Then Paldin joined the conversation and we started talking about their family. Turns out they have a son and daughter! As soon as the conversation started Ramsaran-ji left the room, he came back with a photo album, his laptop and a DVD disc. We looked through the photo album and then he showed us what was on the DVD; his daughter’s wedding video… he is the epitome of a proud father. The video involved cheesy music, shaky cam and bad animated effects but it was so great either way… if I ever get married I’m totally getting one of these videos made. You know, I could just ditch university and start up a company in Nepal that makes those kind of videos… Ooooh

The food was ready at 12:30 and Paldin was invited along too in the end. We were guided to the dining area where Giatri-ji loaded tons of food onto my plate… oh my, I’m a really small eater so I didn’t know what I was going to do. The meal consisted of Dal Bhat, Chimi-Aloo (my favorite one of all the things I tried), Aloo, Chickpeas, spicy pickled stuff and sour pickled cabbage. So much of the food was spicy so I was not having the time of my life (I’m such a wimp with spicy food, don’t even get me started) but I managed it by mixing it in with the rice and lentils. In the end I ate SO much food that it felt as if my stomach was going to explode… whenever my plate started looking empty Giatri-ji loaded it up again. I’m pretty sure I gained about 5 kilos just that afternoon! They told me all (via translations through Paldin) about where the vegetables had come from; their garden, even the rice! Turns out they have a patch of land where they grow everything that they eat (I could shed a tear of envy). Ramsaran-ji proudly declared (in English!!!) “no chemicals!!!”. What a dude. I asked whether they could show me their garden some time and they said of course. I’m so excited!

I don’t know how I managed the 10 minute walk back to the monastery with my super full stomach, but eventually I got there and I crashed onto my bed for a nap. At around 2:00 pm I went down to Paldin’s room and we watched some Russell Peters, hilarious, of course. Then at around 3:00 pm I had to go down to the village because Colten was coming for a visit. It was so badly organized though, I didn’t know when he would arrive and he didn’t have a phone on him because Rachel had taken it with her to the hospital, stomach bug. I sat there waiting for a bit, then I figured he’d probably come around 4:30 pm because that was the initial time we had planned the day before. I decided to go check my email for university stuff (I’m busy picking my courses) for half an hour and they I’d go wait again… at 3:45 pm I left the internet place and went to sit on the edge of the road where the bus usually stops. I sat there for more than two hours, all the way until 6:00 pm! Then I decided it was time for me to make it back to the monastery, I’d tried. I texted Rach and she said that Colten had probably changed his plans and had run off with a hippie he’d met at Boudha or something. She apologized on his behalf.

So I was walking back to the monastery, I wasn’t feeling annoyed really (I swear the Buddhism is affecting me), I had had some good tea and a great conversation. However, once I started walking up the ramp into the monastery monks started shouting at me “Zizi your friend! Zizi your friend!” …COLTEN HAD BEEN WAITING AT THE MONASTERY FOR ME FOR HALF AN HOUR!!! Turns out that Colten had arrived to Sundarijal at 3:30 pm, I had literally JUST missed him. And he didn’t know where he was supposed to go and ended up climbing a mountain up to what he thought was a monastery (which turned out to just be a pretty roof). At the top of the mountain (after almost two hours of walking, oh my God) he found a guy on a motor bike who told him that there was no monastery there and that he would drive him to the monastery. And that’s how he got to Nyingmapa. Colten was so chill about it “it’s okay, I had such a good walk in the green, I did some meditation and read my book”… so proud of him. Seriously though, this is so typical. There I was waiting for 2 hours whilst he was already at the monastery…

I showed him around the monastery, introduced him to my students, showed him my room (which turns out to be only one forth the size of his room; he’s at a super rich monastery) and I introduced him to my neighbor Tenzin. They totally clicked with each other and ended up having a really long conversation, I was partly in the conversation partly in heaven because Colten had brought a whole jar of peanut butter which I was hogging. Colten was invited to have dinner at the monastery, he’d never tried Thukpa (the Tibetan dish) before. All they eat, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, at his monastery is Dal Bhat, so he was super excited to be trying something different for a change. Whilst at dinner I asked the cook (through one of the monks) whether he could teach me how to make T-momo, the thing we eat for breakfast every day. He said yes and told me to get to the kitchen the next morning at 5:00 am! 

Then the older monks (who had been at Boudha all day again) started arriving and I introduced Colten to them all, we’re all the same age so it was kind of cool and strange… of course most of the conversations consisted of football. Then we were informed that there would probably not be any more busses at this time in the evening! Uh-oh, dilemma. So we were making our way to the village when I remembered that I had made friends with a guy with a motor bike! I asked the monks whether they could ask him if he could take Colten (Colten offered to pay for the petrol) back to his monastery. The boy went to ask his father and in the end the father offered to take him! This is Nepal! So Colten got a ride back and I sat and had some tea with Chelsea, Sonny (the two monks who’d helped me) and the motor bike guy. 

Wet hair + T-momo pride!

When I got back home I set my alarm to 4:30 am and went to bed. This morning I woke up with a super sleepy head, got dressed and made my way to the kitchen. There the cook had already started making T-momo, he showed me how to roll the dough and how to shape the dough (a twist and pinch). I actually got the whole twist and pinch thing in one try and I was so proud of my efforts, I was so ready to make some T-momos! My pride quickly disappeared when I realized that I am the slowest person ever, the cook was done with all of his side of the table when I had just made 7. But he reassured me that it was all okay and that I was doing super good. The T-momos were then steamed for 10 minutes. So simple, yet soooo good. He told me that I should come back in a week and he’d teach me how to make the dough itself! I think I passed the test! He gave me 5 T-momos to take with me and I almost died (normally we only get 2 every morning). So this morning I am on cloud nine surrounded by T-momos and happiness.

My monkeys!

Today I have regular classes again (yesterday I only taught the youngest ones since there was another big Pooja in Boudha) and then tomorrow is the VIN volunteer meeting! I’ll keep you updated, wallah. Till next time!

Charlotte x

The Pooja on steroids

Wow, today was a loooong day. This is how it all started…

Playing Nepali card games with two
monks and a soldier...

Last night at dinner time whilst we were all talking about what we had done on our day off (because of the strike I had stayed in the village all day, drinking tea, walking, reading and playing cards with the locals) one of the monks invited me to go to Boudha with them the next day to go to the big Pooja they were going to attend at another monastery. At first I said no; I had to teach the next day! But then they informed me that 2 of the classes were actually going to go to the big Pooja as well, so I would only be teaching the little ones. After some back and forth in my mind I decided that I should seize the opportunity. I asked the elders for permission and they all gave me the go-ahead. I had no idea what to expect, all I knew was that I had to be ready to meet them downstairs at 7:00 am.

So today I woke up early to get everything ready. At 7:00 am everyone started gathering outside and we started walking down to the ‘main road’ of the village. But before we got there all the monks suddenly started entering this small shop. Seeing my confusion they informed me that they were getting breakfast, apparently they make the best potato (‘Aloo’) and chickpeas there. So there we were all crammed into this seriously far too small space having Aloo and talking away. When we were done we started heading to the place where the buses arrive. After a 5 minute wait a bus arrived and we were ready to go.

Breakfast!

The monks treat me with so much respect that I’m starting to feel like a spoilt princess… in the bus they make sure I have the best seat, they ask to carry my bags and they always make sure that I’m not hungry or thirsty. I don’t know what to do with myself half of the time... After 30 minutes of being in the bus we arrived at Boudha. We entered the main gate without paying (monk wasta) and then went through all these little side streets until we arrived at an enormous monastery. The monastery (Chechen monastery) is the biggest Nyingma (the old school Buddhist practitioners) monastery in Nepal. It’s beautiful, and massive.

Boudha with my monks

In front of the monastery's Pooja
room with Gelchen and Aryen

We followed the crowd of red and orange robes into the big Pooja room. I wasn’t sure whether I was allowed inside, I was 84.6% sure I was the only white person, the only girl and the only one who didn’t have all their hair shaved off. Still, the monks let me enter the room and there I was in the middle of an immense sea of monks, awkwardly sitting there, my white sun-light-reflecting skin and female face attracting weird looks from everyone… thank God that I chose to wear an orange shirt today and not my hot pink one or I would’ve been the complete anomaly.

After a few minutes the monks got used to me, except for the occasional 6 year old monk staring me down. After all of that shock and getting used to I finally took time to look at where I was. This Pooja was literally our little monastery’s Pooja on steroids… the room is 8 times as big and instead of 50 monks there are over 500 monks all in the room. The drums are bigger, there are more trumpet players and thousands of bells, a giant Buddha statue and there is even a microphone for the head monk to chant into. Wow. I felt so honored to be allowed to experience the energy of this Pooja. Even though I couldn’t join in with the chanting after a while my body started rocking from side to side to the pace of the chanting, I didn’t know what was happening to me, then I looked around and saw that many of the monks had the same thing going on, so I just went with it.

My students were sitting next to me and every 2 minutes they’d ask if I wasn’t too bored, in the end I just told them to stop asking; I seriously wasn’t, instead I was in awe of the moment I was experiencing. After an hour had gone by my butt started to hurt though and my foot was half asleep, then by the time 2 and a half hours had passed it was break time and I was happy that I could finally stretch my legs again. I don’t know how these guys keep this up all day!

During the Pooja the monks had tried to teach me a mantra and as of now I know this one by heart; Om Ah Hum,Vagra Guru Padhma Sidhi, Hum… I told my neighbor Tenzin when I got back and he had the look of awe in his eye; apparently this is a very impressive thing to say? I’ll ask Tulku Jigme what it exactly means tomorrow – lol what if it turns out it was something offensive and the look of awe was actually a look of shock and devastation?!!

Pokoda, pokoda, pokoda

Anyway, during the break I found out that the next session of Pooja would be from 10:30 to 12:30, and at that moment I decided that I wouldn’t join them for the next one. I had had the 2.5 hour experience and I don’t think my body could take another 2 hours of half-lotus position. So off I went back to Boudha with two of the monks who hadn’t had breakfast. I treated them to breakfast at a rooftop restaurant and we also had some tea, by 10:30 am they left to go back to the monastery. I found out that the restaurant had wifi and did some email stuff and had some Pokoda (because I am rebellious, actually because I forgot about what the Tibetan doctor had said until I had scoffed down 4 of them already). Then I went on a quick shopping spree; I bought some presents for my brothers (are you excited Mathijs?!?!).

Making the canvases!

No easels! It's just a rope attached
to the wall.

The end products

Then at 12:30 I went to go find my monks. I magically found my way back to the monastery (I was giving myself mental high fives for my efforts) but then I realized that none of the monks were at the spot we planned to meet at. I tried to call but my phone was malfunctioning. So I was alone in this massive monastery, after some inner debating I decided to go explore. I made my way to the monastery’s art school.

At the front door a group of monks and students were talking, I joined the conversation and then somehow got one of the students, Dipa, to give me a tour! There are 6 years of study in order to become an expert at the elaborate paintings, she was in year 3. She showed me all the stages of paintings from making the canvas, to drawing onto the canvas, to painting the background to finally the small, intricate details with the 2 mm brush!

After the spontaneous tour was done I decided I would try to find the monks again. I went outside and boom there was one of them! I asked him for Sonny’s (one of my monk friend’s) number and called him, somehow my phone was working again? We met up and went back to the roof top restaurant (if you’re ever in Boudha, it’s called paradise restaurant, get the Devil’s Momo, it’s amazing). More of his friends called and in the end we sat there with a total of 5 people. I had brought by playing cards so we spent their lunch time playing cards and having tea with the Boudha Stupa in the background and with the background song of rain falling. At 1:30 pm they had to go back to the monastery and I was left to my own devices again.

Dhachung, Nawand and I.
Asked them to take a picture with me
especially for the blog! 

I decided to switch tables to this long table where two old Tibetan ladies sat. After some reading I decided to start a conversation. They were wearing the traditional Tibetan clothes (which are so elegant) and I complemented their dresses. Their faces lit up and they started a conversation about the clothes and the difference between the outfits of married and non-married women. They gave me the address of a tailor who makes the best ones, a place called Cho Dhondup, so I might be rocking one of the dresses in the near future. We carried on talking for half an hour about the monastery, Tibet and about their jobs as volunteers at an elderly home. They had an appointment and had to leave but they made sure they got my email address and my phone number so that we can keep in contact and so that I could visit them at the elderly home one day! I made friends! Friends with two old Tibetan ladies… clearly, the best kind of friends to make…

I did some university stuff on the laptop for the next half an hour and then my stomach started calling for donuts (they have vegan donuts here; without all the creamy icing and stuff) so I went to go find a bakery. I found one and sat down, I spent my time reading a book only to find out the donuts on display were a lie! The donuts were rock hard and 4 days old! So I had to get a bagel instead… close enough. Then at 4:00 pm the time had come for me to make my way back to the monastery (my monks had told me that Pooja finished at this time).

When I arrived at the monastery again I realized Pooja was definitely not over yet. After some wondering around I spotted a group of monks my age and asked them at what time Pooja finished; they told me 5:00 pm! So I had an hour to kill. I hung around with the group of monks (they didn’t speak much English at all but we made do with what we had) and within 15 minutes I had somehow, magically, managed to arrange/invite myself into another tour. The group of monks showed me around the entire monastery, from the rooms which go on for ages and ages, to the giant prayer wheels, the class rooms, to the eight mini stupas. Then we went and sat down outside the monastery gates on the stairs which made for an awesome picture. There we talked some more and they tried to teach me some more Tibetan in their broken English (I now know how to say nice to meet you; kerang tukpar gapo jun!).

We waited until 5:00 pm and then a storm of monks started leaving the Pooja room and lining up for dinner! The lines went on and on and on. My monks finally walked past and we were reunited, I introduced them to my new monk friends only to find out that they are part of one of the monastery football teams which they play football against! The monks all told me that I was allowed to get dinner, so there I was again an anomaly in the sea of monks lining up. Dinner was fried rice with mushrooms and soup! The dinner was a special type of dinner because of the Pooja and then I saw that people from all over the town started entering the monastery to get food; when there are big Pooja’s they make food for everyone!

Look at these dogs! So cute

My monks and I sat on a patch of the wet grass and had our dinner, it was really, really tasty. Then when we were finished we hung around the monastery, took some polaroid pictures with the beast (they also refer to the camera as ‘the beast’, it’s great) and then we walked back to the main road to catch the bus. In the crowded bus they made sure that I had a good seat and that I was definitely not carrying any of my bags (filled with the presents). After the 30 minute bus ride we were back at Sundarijal, I love this place, it’s really starting to feel like home. There we went to a tea shop, had some spiced tea and talked some more and I finally had a donut!!! At 6:00 pm we all got back to the monastery and I crashed down onto my bed and started writing this!

Tomorrow is big Pooja at this monastery… and I’m starting to wonder whether I’ll actually ever start teaching again… but I’m not complaining!

Charlotte x

Ps. Remember how in one of the first posts on this blog I was all like "I'm totally Dora the Explorer with this hair cut and the backpack that magically just contains everything you could ever need"... now I swear I have not said this to any of the monks, and they don't know about my blog, but look what one of the monks gave to me yesterday!!!! I can't handle this!!!

Three day update

There’s a slight problem. I haven’t written about any of the things that happened for the past three days. Now you may think; but Charlotte can’t you remember what you did? And to that I say, I have a terrible memory. Okay, I may be able to remember school stuff well, scientific concepts ect. But if we watch a movie together and a year later you mention a quote from the movie, expecting me to remember I will stare at you with a blank face. This has led to various people thinking that I’m a fraud… “hey have you seen the movie Memento?” to which I reply “yeah I have” (and I swear I actually have seen it) this is then followed by a whole story about the movie and a question “what was your favorite part?” my reply is silence… I don’t remember anything. So of course the person thinks I am lying about seeing it but wallah I’m not! It’s just this damn memory… The thing is I remember things that happened but not the order in which they happened. All the moments are just a blur, not a timeline. Same thing with these past three days.

What I do remember are these moments:

Me trying the herbal medicine for the first time. I’m sitting there at the desk in my room looking at these balls of dried herbs not knowing what to do. Then just as I’m about to start chewing them my neighbor Tenzin walks by. He stops me and tells me that I shouldn’t just eat them like that! The stuff would end up being stuck in my teeth all day. He quickly ran to his room and brought me this thing with which I can grind the herbs up into a powder and then drink it with water. Even as a powder the medicine tastes so so so bitter, thank baby Jesus that Tenzin saved me just in time; I would’ve probably had a stroke if I’d chewed them up.

I was feeling a bit better and decided it was time to clean the room (mom, you would've been so proud). I ended up reorganizing the whole room; moving the small table to the other side of the room and the shelves somewhere else as well. Whilst attempting to move the thousand kilo shelves I discovered that there were a ton of books on the bottom few shelves. They looked ancient. This discovery was followed by me feeling like a detective. I took all the books out and saw that most of them were Japanese, I looked at the notebooks and saw neat handwriting, I found a huge bottle of shampoo and conditioner which looked super old, incense, a dried up Buddhist butter lamp… there were even letters dated from 2009… so feeling all CSI I pieced together that a Buddhist Japanese woman probably lived here 4 years ago and that ever since she left the people who took over this room (the other English teachers before me; Emily, Jeff ect) did not bother to clean any of the stuff up. So I felt it was my duty to do so. There was so much stuff, I didn’t want to throw any of it away so I put as much as I could under the bed, but there wasn’t much space there either because previous people had been putting their crap that they didn’t want to take back with them under there too… cassette tapes, travel bags, pillows… So there I was left with a ton of books for which I had no space

The same day I decided I should clean up the monastery ‘library’ as well, I mean I had wanted to do that ever since I saw it for the first time (it was a hot mess) and now that I had to put all these books somewhere I figured now was the time. So I spent around one and a half hours cleaning up the library. And damn it looks so good now; all the books are on the shelves according to their size and whether they’re travel, dharma, language or literature. Whenever the monks would walk in whilst I was cleaning up they looked at me as if I was a crazy person; I don’t think anyone had ever cleaned up the library before.

The sketchy internet place with the
best spiced tea

Paldin informed me that there is an internet café literally 2 minutes away from the monastery. I have been walking those 10 minutes to get to the back of that sketchy shop for the last few days for nothing! So one of the afternoons he took me to the internet place. It was filled with boys Mathijs’s (my little brother who is 12) age… and they were all playing counter strike! It felt a little like home. It was okay but I ended up missing the older woman and man who would always be so nice to me. The next day I had to go upload a blog post and I decided to take the 10 minute walk anyway, being welcomed by them with their smiling faces and having the delicious spiced tea is totally worth the walk.

Yesterday I went to Boudha with Paldin (I swear Paldin is like my main man, he’s probably my best friend here… most of the other Yogi’s are on retreat, meaning they’ve taken a vow not to leave the monastery for a couple of weeks/months, so Paldin and I usually end up venturing together). We went to have tea at this newly opened Spanish restaurant of which Paldin knows the landlord, and we ended up staying there for the next 2-3 hours! They are so nice and welcoming, they gave us tons of free Spanish food (I could only eat the gazpacho though; yum) and I met new people! I had a long conversation with two really nice girls from the US (of course I’ve forgotten their names) and we exchanged email addresses, we will probably meet up some time in the near future. After we left the restaurant Paldin and I finally went pant shopping. It is my goal here to buy so many pants that I will never have to wear jeans again. I mean I can get pants here that look socially acceptable but that feel like pajamas; what else could I possibly want in my life? So we bought 2 pairs and then had a small snack at a Tibetan restaurant café… then we left back home with the super crowded bus.

Oh yeah! Classes. When I was sick I came up with a great idea; instead of teaching one new thing every class I wanted to try to do week projects. This is because that day that I wasn’t feeling well and just did very slow classes the kids worked super well; they work best when they have lots of time. I figured I don’t have a syllabus to work by, why am I putting pressure on these kids to learn something so quickly if we can just take a long while to do it, and they’ll enjoy it! So for class 1 and 3 I decided we would make posters about our favorite animals. The first day we would draw, the second day I’ll teach them adjectives to describe the personalities of the animals, the third day I’ll teach them emotions, so they can describe how the animals make them feel, then the next two days I’ll do colors and sizes and the last day they’ll have to present their animal to the class. In the end we’ll have so many posters that I can finally make the empty white room look somewhat like a class room! For class 2, the advanced class, I decided that we would write biographies. I put everyone in random pairs of two; they’re partners writing each other’s life stories. We spent the lesson writing questions for the interviews which we will conduct the next two lessons. This was followed by everyone getting super excited “oooh miss, we are reporters now???” After the interviews I’ll show them how to structure the story and then for the next few lessons they’ll write write write. The last day of the project they’ll present their stories to the class. This way they practice speaking (asking the questions and presenting), listening (writing notes during the interview) and writing! I’m actually really excited about it all, I’m ready to just do my own thing and be creative instead of follow the previous teacher’s lead (what I tried to do the first week with the exercise books, it just wasn’t working).

I think that that’s all I’ve got. I’m busy writing another post for the blog in which I’ll explain a bit of Buddhism to you!

Well, I was supposed to leave to the VIN office in a couple of minutes to have cooking lessons but I’ve just been informed by the monks that there are no busses and no taxis at all today! Apparently there is a strike. I guess I’ll just have another quiet day at the monastery… which I don’t mind at all!

Charlotte x

Going to the Tibetan herbal doctor!

View from my room every evening!

Yesterday I woke up with even worse throat pain than the day before, so I asked whether I could have a day to rest. I felt super guilty but all the monks reassured me that my health is what is most important, so that put me at ease. Paldin took me to the village pharmacy where I bought Strepsils, cough syrup and allergy medication (for the rash). Then I had to do some grocery shopping; toilet paper, class materials, some snacks, and I decided that I might as well go to the shop to upload my latest blog post. I think the shop owners (a husband and wife in their 50s) and I are developing a deep bond even though we can’t say a word to each other. The wife made me spiced tea and just when I started to feel a bit hungry it was as if the husband heard my thoughts because he brought me an apple. After I was done I walked back to the monastery, scarf wrapped tightly around my neck, jacket on. I was really not feeling well; I should’ve probably left grocery shopping till another day, then again, no toilet paper? No thanks.

It was a really hot day so I was sweatin’ it out in my room trying really hard to sleep. I drifted in and out of sleep for the next I don’t know how many hours. Then at around lunch time the monks started visiting me again, asking whether they should bring me some food or something. One yogi, called Urgan, even brought me a new book to read and a picture of Buddha to hang above my bed. I could’ve shed another tear. Then a few hours later my throat became unbearable, the type of pain where even just lying there hurt. So I texted the VIN office and asked whether I could go to the hospital (they had sent a text in the morning telling me that if I needed to go to the hospital I shouldn’t hesitate to ask). We organized that Akkal would come and get me the next day at 7:00 am. Then a couple of minutes after my phone call another group of older monks came and knocked at my door and, as if they had read my mind, offered to take me to the hospital. I decided I should stick with VIN because they had just spent the last half an hour planning for Akkal to take me.

Also to Dr. B, I found the
three sisters method here in
the village!!!

I took some pain killers and had some of the tea that Paldin had brought me; I was feeling a bit better and decided to do some drawing. I’ve been doing a lot more art since I got here (I can hear you saying “I told you so” Dr. B hahaha) mainly portraits of Nepali people. Whenever I’m walking in the village and I see an interesting face I ask whether I can take a picture… old faces are the best with all the wrinkles. I have one picture of a lady who only has one tooth, so great. Anyway, so whilst I was drawing the principal came for a visit. He is always meditating so this was only the second time that I saw him. I apologized for not making it to class and he gave me the same lecture that all the other monks had given me when I’d start apologizing. Then I found out that he also doesn’t talk much to me because he’s insecure about his English. His English is really not that bad so I went on to tell him he was wrong and that he was doing great! His face lit up, which was awesome. He told me to take lots of rest and then he left.

I finished the drawing and did some reading; finished a book! The Buddhist book which my neighbor, a Yogi called Tenzin, had given to me. So I went to go tell him I’d finished the book. He was busy making these weird little pink things out of stuff that looked like playdoh. He explained that he was making offerings for Pooja. I told him that I was going to go to the hospital the next day and of course he responded how he always responds; with a lecture on what would actually be a better idea. Of course I don’t get annoyed with him, that’s just the way that he is (I always call him my advisor, he always laughs when I do). He told me that I should go to a Tibetan herbal doctor called Dr. Chookey. I said that I had already made plans but he said he’d write all the information down just in case.

I went to sleep early, and I swear this is the best sleep I’ve had since I’d gotten here. I don’t know whether it’s because I finally have a curtain in front of my door (Paldin put it up for me), or because the picture of Buddha is above my bed or because I left all the window curtains open because my clothes were drying. Either way, I had a super good night. I woke up today with less pain than the day before but my throat is still killing me. Akkal came to pick me up at exactly 7:00 am and off we were to the hospital. I told him that Tenzin had told me about the Tibetan herbal doctor which was located right by Boudha and asked him for advice. Akkal said that he didn’t know and that he could go there or to the western clinic, he said it was my call. So there I was feeling all sick with this choice on what to do. My thoughts went like this… you know what I’ve been getting this damn throat infection every single year now, and every single year I take antibiotics and it just comes back the next… maybe it’s time I try something new. So I told Akkal that I wanted to go to the Tibetan doctor. I figured, I’m in Nepal, let’s be adventurous.

Breakfast with Akkal

We got to Boudha and I thanked baby Jesus that the piece of paper Tenzin had given me was still in my pocket. After half an hour of searching we found the place! After two flights of stairs we reached the ‘clinic’ only to discover that it opened 1.5 hours later… so I invited Akkal to have breakfast with me at a restaurant close to Boudha. I had Pokora (which I found out is actually called Pokoda… typical) for breakfast, because why not? And Akkal had the Tibetan t-momo (which I have every morning at the monastery). We found out that there was wifi at the restaurant so I went on facebook real quick. Messaged some of my favorite people and then I found out that Allyssa had somehow, accidentally, put the link to my blog on facebook for everyone to see! So much for having this semi-private thing going on, where the only people who have access to it are those that asked for the address… I went with it and made it visible to everyone. So hello new readers!

All the herbal medicine!

One and a half hours had passed and we started making our way back to the doctor. On the way I bought some pants (to replace the ones I lost during the biking incident…). Then we got to the place. We entered the tiny room and then a super sweet old lady came into the room, Doctor Chookey. She looked at me, asked me to write my name and age on a paper and then held my wrist for a couple of minutes. After she let go she started writing in Tibetan like a madman. She went on to explain that I had throat pain and a dry cough. She said that I am sensitive to cream, lemon, soy sauce, alcohol (lol) and fried food (no more Pokoda?!! Or masala Lay’s chips??!). She said that when I take these things I become more prone to infections. We talked some more about where I had come from and about the monastery I’m staying at and she said she helps lots of the monks from the monastery. We took a cute picture together and then she directed us to a dark room where all the herbs were kept. A lady there helped me to get all the different medicines. I have to take a different type of herbal thing (which is a hard ball that I need to chew) every breakfast, lunch and dinner and I also got a special type of herbal tea. I’ll let you know how the medicine tastes tomorrow; I have a feeling it’s not going to be the best thing I’ve ever tasted. I’m going to go rest now!

On an unrelated note, look at this picture of
me and a baby goat having some
serious loving eye contact!

Charlotte x

  

Sick sick sick

It has happened. I am sick. Lying here on my beautiful pink covers (which by the way are covered in flowers and text saying “we have a date”), surrounded by the peppermint green walls in the clammy hot room. I have terrible throat pain, a cold and a probably unrelated weird rash all over my hands, wrists and feet. Of course out of all the possible things I was prepared for (food poisoning, diarrhea, constipation ect) these two things I was not. This is how it all went down…

I was already feeling a bit sick at the VIN office, but I blew it off as it just being my body reacting to being over-tired. When I got back by cab I collapsed into my room and had a good sleep. The next morning however I woke up with a sore throat again. Oh snap! Wait! I have to tell you something about yesterday though! I had my first lesson with the top monk; Tulku Jigme. Holy moly, this man is so wise and so calm. The way the lessons work is that every day at 8:00 am I make my way past the two massive guard dogs (a German Shepherd and a Saint Bernard, both were offerings to him) towards the door of his house. There I knock and wait for Ngodup to open the door and I make my way over to sit on the couch. Tulku Jigme and I talk for about 45 minutes. He has picked a book for me, called Counsels from my Heart by Dudjom Rinpoche. He reads the lectures from the book and then stops to explain it to me in more detail and to answer my questions. It’s so great because I still have the freedom to ask countless questions but there is a structure in the lessons. Wow, it’s kind of crazy to think that one of the most respected monks is teaching me, I feel so grateful (again).

Anyway, so after I was done with the lesson by Tulku Jigme I made my way over to teach the three English classes. This time I taught using the books that all the kids have, it was so boring, I need to find a way to make the lessons fun again. After class I had lunch and then Dinesh the VIN volunteer coordinator came for a visit. VIN is so supportive of their volunteers; I told them I had a problem with the middle class and immediately they come for a check-up and give me tons of tips, trying to help. He gave me advice to make a small test in order to divide the class into different levels or to do the buddy system, where one of the more advanced English speakers gets paired with one of the less advanced English speakers.

After I was done with the chat with Dinesh I asked Chelsea to show me where the internet place is. I found out that there is one spot in the entire village that has internet connection (one of the phone cables was stolen so everyone is internet-less except them). I sat at the back of the hot, sketchy shop for a good two hours drinking delicious lychee juice and uploading the six posts which I had written over the past couple of days. The internet was free, I didn’t even need to buy anything to be allowed to use it, but I did. I ended up seeing that there was a special type of Lay’s chips here; Indian Masala, so I bought that and some peanuts. Damn the Lay’s chips are so good, may or may not have to bring a stash of bags back to the UAE! On the way back (carrying a cute umbrella to protect myself from the burning sun) I went past the fruit shop, bought some mangoes and pomegranates. I swear they have the best mangoes here; SO DAMN GOOD. Then on my way home I bumped into Paldin! He was going on a walk and asked if I wanted to go, of course I said yes.

We walked through the villages; saw the people and he showed me the farms. They can literally grow anything here, the soil is so fertile. There are animals all around, cows, chickens, ducks, goats, rabbits, street dogs. Oh my God, talking about street dogs… okay here I was walking and suddenly I see a group of Nepali girls who are about my age. They stop me and start a conversation with me; I’m here all excited thinking I’m going to make some friends when all of a sudden I feel something on my leg… I look down to find that one of the street dogs is raping my leg… yep… I ended up shaking the dog off and awkwardly shuffling away. The girls were laughing and horrified. I don’t think our friendship will go very far… so much for first impressions.

Paldin and I meandered through the farmer’s houses, up hills and down hills. It had rained the night before so everything was slippery. I was trying to keep up with Paldin, but I was slipping and falling all over myself on the path down the hill. There I am being a klutz when all of a sudden I hear voices behind me. I turn around slowly, making sure I don’t slip again, to find four ladies following the same path as me but with bags of grass carried on their heads! Imagine me there stumbling all over myself trying so so so hard to make it down this hill without slipping and then I turn around to find these women walking with super heavy bags on their heads as if it’s nothing… Yep, typical.

Paldin meditating

So apart from my blunders and awkward moments the walk was awesome. We ended up going to a small restaurant in between the farms. Then I remembered I had cards with me! Paldin showed me some Nepali games and then I invited the restaurant worker to come play the game with us. One of the Nepali games is actually super similar to a Dutch game (pesten!) so I totally surprised them with my mad skills (years of experience of playing the game with my granddad, Opa de Bekker). The restaurant workers invited us to eat some noodles with them; they were so good! Then I had a massive craving for Pokara (my number one favorite thing to eat in Nepal, it’s on the same level of goodness as Momo). Then coincidentally the waiter of the tea house in which I had Pokara for the first time (during the first walk Paldin and I took together) showed up! So we asked him if he could prepare it for us and then we’d walk over to the tea house within 15 minutes.

When we got there we sat at the same tables as before had some black tea and the yummy Pokara. Then we realized we were probably going to miss dinner at the monastery so we decided to order some dinner there. This was the mistake. We ordered Aloo Paratha but it turns out (and no one in the restaurant told us this) that they didn’t have the flour to make it, so we found out they walked all the way to the village to get the flour just so that they could make it for us. We ended up waiting 2 and a half hours for the Parathas, we contemplated leaving but they had gone through all the trouble of getting the flour that we decided we should wait. By this time it was already super dark, then when the food finally arrived it started raining! Oh my. It was so cold and late (I had planned to sleep early so that I wouldn’t get more sick) when we finally left. Thank god that I had my umbrella with me because it was raining like crazy.

We got back at 10:00 pm which is WAY passed my bedtime. And as you guessed, I woke up even more sick in the morning. GODDAMN. I still went to my morning class with Tulku Jigme, by the way I asked him if I could write about Buddhism on my blog and he said of course, he even offered to check whether what I write is correct! So be prepared for some Buddhism! Then I went to my first class, the youngest class. Today was definitely the best class I’ve had since I got here. Because I wasn’t feeling well I just took it easy and we just did one exercise… but I realized that they were having much more fun with no pressure coming from my part (“5 minutes left”) and this class I interacted way more with them, praising their drawing skills (I always make sure we do some form of creativity in the lessons, so today I taught the names of places, airports, hospitals, and I accompanied them by pictures which they all copied into their books!). One thing which totally made my day was that this boy who I had been struggling with, he’d always blow off the activities and not participate, ended up having a complete 180. All I had done different was give him some one on one attention and talk to him about his drawings (he drew a really good peacock, for the word zoo, and I helped him color it). All it took for him to snap out of his rut was some of my attention, it felt amazing to see him change to quickly, and I felt kind of bad that it was my lack of support that caused him to act like that. So maybe being sick isn’t such a bad thing, it made me slow the class down and now I realize that that’s way better for all of them; even for the most difficult student. They just need more of my support, it was difficult to do that at the start though but now that I’m getting to know them I’m actually developing relationships with all of them. It’s great.

Then the next group, the older kids, made their way to the class. It started okay but about 20 minutes into the lesson I was starting to feel really really tired and sick. The monks noticed it on my face and asked whether I was alright. I asked them whether the principal would be okay we me ending the lesson early, they said he was easy going and would understand. So I gave them homework and stumbled to my room where I collapsed onto the bed once again. I had a 2 hour nap and woke up by the lunch bell. I was really feeling too sick to go over to the lunch room so I decided I would just eat the chips that I had bought the day before. Then within the next 20 minutes four monks visited my room all offering to bring me lunch! I feel so so so loved I don’t even know what to do with myself, everyone is so caring and so concerned and so helpful. At tea time the same thing happened. Then Paldin came over with a pot of tea and cookies, we watched a documentary together because I was feeling a bit lonely all trapped up in my room.

The documentary is called Samsara. It is one of my absolute favorites, please please please watch it! It starts very slow, and it takes time for you to get into the rhythm of the film but really the concepts it shows are amazing and thought provoking and it will change the way you look at life. I found out by the way that Samsara is a Buddhist word; it is the opposite of Nirvana, it means life on Earth as we perceive it, including suffering and only temporary happiness.

Then a really nice Japanese lady, Akimi, who is here to also learn about Buddhism came to visit my room. She is so caring, she told me to take lots of vitamin C tablets (which I actually did bring! Hurrah!), drink lots of tea and even offered to take me to the hospital. I told her that I want to wait to see how the rash is tomorrow and then maybe go. I just can’t believe that everyone here is being so kind and supportive… Oh, I just feel the love.

Sick but happy,

Charlotte x