Started teaching today!
Hi all! Just a quick update, I am exhausted!
I began teaching two senior geshes this morning, it was wonderful. Immediately following, I went to ITTA (www.TibetanArtSchool.com). I was able to give Ngodup $400 for one of the thangka that sold on eBay’s World of Good site.
He said that the website I had built them was getting a very good response, and he was being contacted by many people through it. I got to see a MASSIVE thangka that he and his students had completed for a Korean Monastery.
After that I met with Matthew, who does human rights monitoring in Nepal, he was very interesting to speak with, and tomorrow he is introducing me to three nuns who had recorded freedom songs from prison, they want to open a community center in Sidhpur, about 30 minutes from Dharamsala. It will be important to have a center there, as many of the new refugees live in that area, and resources are limited. They are looking for donations, books, medical supplies and computers.
I met also with the directors of the Hope Center, and reviewed what has been happening in the past three months since I’ve been away.
Tonight I started teaching Ngawang, the President of Gu Chu Sum. He is a monk, and was a political prisoner. We will be working on grammar and vocabulary, but in particular, part of his job is to explain to Westerners what the conditions are for political prisoners in jail. So, we are focusing on this area in particular. The stories are heartbreaking. Ngawang is lovely, he laughs quite a lot, and has made it clear I am welcome for dinner in his home any time.
I stopped into Tenzin’s class tonight as well — Patriot was lovely, and before I left, send me a large quantity of flash drives. Tonight, after we worked on pronunciation, I got to surprise the first student with one of the drives (I am giving them out to one student a class, who has done the best on their homework.)
I am SO proud at how much they have progressed in three months!
That is all for now!
Hugs, Heidi