Two days to go

I have two days left at the monastery. By this time on Friday I will be saying my final goodbyes. 

The last couple of days have really been very peaceful. The monks all know that I am leaving soon and they are all being really attentive, asking me lots of questions about what I will do after I leave, whether I’m excited to see my family again, how my packing is going and whether I will come and visit the monastery again.

Tenzin, one of my students
who protested the first class
saying "I no good draw"... Now
2 months later he brings me this.
This possibly makes me more
proud than any English
class did...

Since we finished all the projects (we finally finished the biographies!!!) the lessons haven’t really been lessons but just catching up with each other, drawing, playing bananagrams and talking about the goodbye party (which is tomorrow!). Adorable things continue to happen, from monks giving me drawings as gifts to the youngest monk coming up to me at the end of yesterday’s class and whispering in my ear “thank you, I love you” I could’ve cried, maybe I did a little once they all left……

Getting my nails didddd

I have been spending most of my time writing letters for all of the monks and yogis like a mad woman. I brought Burj Khalifa postcards with me to Nepal (gosh I’m so forward thinking) because I knew that I wanted to give the people something when I left. But the cards are way too small and the writing won’t fit on it so I’m giving each of them a hand written letter, the card separately, a mango and a pomegranate. I’ve also written a really, ridiculously long letter for the next English teacher. VIN doesn’t have anyone lined up yet (because of the low numbers of volunteers signing up due to the website problems) for the monastery so I have no clue who it will be but I decided to write a letter anyway because when I got here the previous teacher had left me nothing and as a result there was little continuity in the lessons. I also wrote a couple of tips, but not too many because figuring it all out by myself was one of the things which taught me the most and I want to give that opportunity to the next person too… Oh when I think back to my first bus ride alone in the cramped microbus…… Walking up to the village, figuring out where the good food was (I hope the next teacher finds Ramsaran-ji’s place…) Going through this wild Tulku Jigme/Buddhism experience… oh I wish I could be a fly and watch what adventures the next English teacher goes on here at Nyingmapa Wishfulfilling Monastery…

Intense banagrams game

The losers eating their bricks out
of frustration

Right so I had planned to go to Ramaran-ji’s tea shop to do a simple blog post upload, have my last Kazaa (a nepali snack, try it!!!) and then say my final goodbyes to them. I turn up at the shop and all the doors are locked. Right. So I decided to camp outside the shop until 12 figuring that they were probably taking an afternoon nap in their house. It’s another super hot day today so I was sweatin’ it out with a random dog keeping me company when I had a stroke of genius; I had Ramsaran-ji’s number!!! I called him, which posed a slight problem, I don’t speak Nepali and he doesn’t speak English, but somehow he understood what I meant because two seconds later he was standing right next to me! Turns out their house is a tiny little room attached to the teashop, they invited me inside. That’s where I am right now, I just finished eating lunch with them and they instructed me to go on my laptop so they could sleep a little longer. I love it when things like this happen. So yes. I’m here in their room/house, I’ll spend a little more time here, drink some juice, have the Kazaa and then hand him and his wife the goodbye letter (let’s hope that we can find someone to translate it for them…) and that will mark the start of all the goodbyes.

Charlotte x