A couple of days ago we had our first monkey visitors. I woke up to hear chattering noises outside and went out onto the balcony to find a family of monkeys coming down the hill. The babies were bouncing around like mad on the roof above my room, peering over at me and generally behaving very cutely, while the adults solemnly rooted around for scraps of food and food wrappings - never hard to find around here.
The following day I woke at 6am to the sound of bells and clattering hooves, and the donkey brigade was solemnly making its way up the hill to the top set of Snow Height apartments, where they are putting another storey onto the building.
I've started the Spoken Tibetan class. There are about 20 of us, and we work in pairs, doing little dialogues like: I'm Tashi.. Are you Tashi? Yes I'm Tashi...Are you Tsering? No I'm not Tsering...Who are you? Are you Tashi or Tsering?.. I'm Tashi..and so on, which we repeat over and over, substituting doctor, nomad, girl, Rinpoche, nurse, cook etc as we go. It's fun and seems to be working..
I've also started teaching at Tibet Charity. I have an Upper Intermediate class of 17 people, although only 9 turned up to the first class on Friday. I have - so far - one nun, one monk, a young woman and a young guy who I remember from last time, and the rest are all young guys; mostly Tibetans, one from Bhutan. All very friendly and responsive - I think it's going to be a good term with them. Most have come out of Tibet within the last few years.
Talking of which, it's now very hard for Tibetans to come out of Tibet through Nepal, as the Chinese have been leaning on the Nepalese government and the border is much more strictly monitored. Thngs are also really hard in Tibet since the spate of self-immolations in the last few months. Check out www.phayul.com if you are interested in recent news from Tibet.
I'm sitting in Lhamo's Croissant cafe, one of the nicest in McLo (and it certainly has the best, cleanest toilet which is a big plus!)Delicious food and a pleasant atmosphere. I'm sitting at a low carved table on a rug-covered cushion, and there are photos of Tibet and Tibetans all round the walls. I just had ginger-carrot soup and lemon ginger honey for lunch.
I'll try and load some pics while the internet's working properly..
If you liked this story, you might be interested in reading "Between Monks and Monkeys", written after my first time in Dharamshala in 2010. Available as an Ebook for US$1.99 on Kindle, NOOK, I-tunes etc, or as a paperback (email me for details.)
