We Miss you Dad!

Early this morning, Dad and the crew left the clinic for 3 to 5 days.  The crew consists of Phunsok, one of the Tibetan doctors, Wambao, one of the translators, and Dawn, an RN from Boulder.  They will be visiting three health clinics in this region.  At each clinic they will invite the docs and potential community health workers to come to a health festival on September 6th, here at our clinic.  The point of the festival is to recruit more community health workers (Tibetan women trained to help women in childbirth to lower the infant and maternal mortality rate).  Visiting three clinics will take three to five days because of the bumpy, dirt roads and the high mountain passes.  Also (see in “Our Journey from Jiegu Town to Surmang” post) getting gas may be a big problem... Left at the clinic are Mom and I, Droga (the other Tibetan doctor), and Drolma, (the other translator.)  I am looking forward to some “one on one” time with Mom when Dad’s gone.

Phunsok

Droga

Dawn

Wamboa

Drolma

The first thing mom and I did today, was start to create a Camera Obscura.  This is a box with only one small pin hole for light.  If you point the pin hole into the sun light, an image of outside will appear, upside down, on the opposite side of the box.  In order to view this amazing experiment, you must put a dark cloth around your head and the box,  so no more light will seep in.  We came across this idea in a National Geographic magazine.  A photographer made a Camera Obscura, but the whole room was the box.  He first put dark plastic over the windows on a sunny day.  Then, he cut a dime sized hole in the plastic, and watched as the opposite wall exploded with the upside down reflection of the scene outside.

In the middle of making the Camera Obsocra, we were distracted by the guitar.  I learned my first song on the guitar ever!  From beginning to end, “Yellow Submarine”!  I plan to surprise Dad with the song when he comes home!

Today, I want to congratulate our first unknown follower from Istanbul, Esra.  We think that Huseyin and Dilek passed on the word.  If so, thanks a lot!  Peter, to answer your question, we have not gotten sick on the trip, only a few belly cramps from not drinking enough water.  Since we’ve been chugging down more water, we’ve all been feeling better.  Vicky, to answer your question, we do not even get Tibetan news let alone English news!  We only have slow Internet on rare occasions, when the power is on.  And, John, to answer your question, as many degrees of separation between me and potential followers as you can get!  And to everybody else, I love the comments.  Thanks!  Please spread the word!

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!                     

Hiking in the TAR

This morning, I woke up and did a lesson of math, before today’s big hike.  We left the clinic armed with cameras, sunscreen, lunch, and water bottles.  Initially, we hitchhiked about a mile down our valley to a village where we crossed into the TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) and began our hike up another river valley.  

Bon Monastery at Start of Hike

Along our path, we saw many shaggy yaks and horses.  I noticed an interesting horse behavior; it was almost like the horses were kissing. 

Halfway along our hike, one of Dad’s patients came out of his house and invited us in for hot water and noodles.  Inside the home, big red beams painted with traditional Tibetan patterns supported the ceiling.  The room had a brick floor, and we sat on carpets with dragons, and Tibetan symbols.  It was cool that we were able to communicate with the family with only a few phrases of Tibetan.  As we watched the man’s wife put yak dung in the stove with the same hand she later used to wipe out our soup bowls.  We looked at each other and shrugged.  Dad said, “That’s why we brought the Cipro.” 

Inside of Family's Colorful House

In another room, the family had a large stack of yak skins.  I was not quite sure of the use of all these skins.  It did not look like the family had anything for turning yak skins into coats.  It just looked like they had 100 yak skins mothballed.  If that were the case, it was sad that they killed all those yaks for no reason. 

View into Room with Yak Skins

Dad with Father of the Family

Mom of the Family with Son

Monk at the Family's House

After we left the Tibetan house, we stopped to have our packed lunch (of course we are always hungry.)  We ate on a boulder by the river.  While we were eating, three local kids ran up to us and showed us a wild berry that was good to eat.  It tasted sour at first, but then we got used to it.   We continued walking along the exotic trail by the river.  All around us we saw colorful Tibetan houses, carved scriptures on rocks, stupas, prayer flags, and extremely friendly people.  We soon found a good swimming spot.  We jumped in the river and felt the cool water on our overheated skin.  Durning our swim, two Tibetan kids watched us closely.  We seemed to have been a form of entertainment for them. 

Later on our walk, we came upon a rather plain looking stupa and monastery.  The Stupa looked old and crumbling. The monastery also looked very old.  It didn’t have the typical colorful Tibetan decorations.   At the old Stupa and Monastery, we turned around, and headed back to our valley.  From there, we hitched a ride with a Chinese construction truck back to the clinic.

Old Stupa with Monastery Above

We are now in our peaceful clinic watching the sun go down.  Here in Surmang, it gets dark quickly, and we have to be efficient with all of our evening work.  For dinner we had home made noodles.  If you have not already noticed, noodles are part of our regular food agenda. 

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The Day of Play!

This morning, I went with Martin (the Swiss Buddhist staying at the monastery) to teach English to the young monks.  It is amazing to me to see the friendship between all the little monks.  They all treat each other like brothers.  In the morning when Martin and I entered the monastery, I got the vibe that a sleep-over had just happened.  Martin and I walked up the stairs to a mediation room, where we set up to teach.  Near the back of the room there was a big green gong.  All of us sat on traditional carpets.  We started class with meditation.  Then, Martin set up a black board with Tibetan script and English lettering.  We tried to teach them how to say “my name is.”  That was tricky for them because they had practically no focus.  They were all roughhousing.  We tried to teach the monks “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”  They lacked enough focus even to sing the song.  Some sang other Tibetan pop songs, others stared into space, some shouted completely random things.  

After we finished the English lesson, I went home and had lunch. I filled my belly with a delicious meal of rice and veggies, and quickly ran down to the field to start a soccer game with the monks.  The kid’s ages ranged from ~ 5 - 12.  I was one of the best players on my team.  It was a nice change from playing soccer in Germany, where I got my butt kicked. 

When I came home from soccer, I had played until 5:00!  I first played cards with Drolma,  a translator at the clinic.  She taught me some cool Tibetan card games that I did not already know.  I taught her the classic English card game, “War.”   After that Drolma and I played bad-mitten for about half an hour.  When she got tired, I practiced kicking the soccer ball in the courtyard of the clinic. 

Pansi and Ocho, the Tibetan ladies who clean and fetch water, just made a delicious batch of hot bread.  They first roll out the dough in round shapes the size of one’s palm.  They then fry the dough on a stove heated by Yak dung. I am going to go get some!

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Pictures from around the village:

                
            

Hoops with Monks

Today, we had an ordinary morning.  I woke up and had simple instant oatmeal with only sugar.  I eat this every morning and have grown quite fond of it.  I then finished my school work for the day.  I completed some math, and read 100 pages of my current book, a story taking place during the Chinese cultural revolution. 

After lunch, my parents and I went to a field near the clinic with a basketball hoop.  Mom, Dad, and I were shooting hoops when a teenage monk joined us and started playing.  Then more monk kids started to come.  The young kids were shy at first.  But with time, we practically had a game going!  After playing for an hour and a half, the monk kids had to go to school, and the playing stopped.

On our way back to the clinic, we ran into Martin.  He lives in Switzerland, and practices Shabala Buddhism (a branch practiced in Western countries.)  He is teaching English in the Monastery next to our clinic.  He wondered if we wanted to go for a hike with him up into the hills.  We grasped the opportunity, and headed up towards a Buddhist retreat center.  When we passed the center, we had to be very quiet.  Monks go to this isolated place to meditate in silence for three years.  Three is an important number to Buddhists; three times around the Khora, three incense burned at the temple, and three years of meditation.  As we passed the retreat center, we heard drums. We hiked above the retreat center, to the top of a mountain where prayer flags were draped.  From there, we  looked down at the beautiful village.  We then hiked down the other side of the mountain leading right down to the Stupa, where we do the daily Khora.

Retreat Center

 

We came back to our peaceful clinic.  Before dinner I had my first bath in Surmang.  In an outdoor shower stall, my Dad and Mom poured water from a basin onto my hair.  I then washed myself.  It feels good to be clean in my dirty clothes.  Tonight, the two Tibetan men of the clinic, Phonsuk one of the Tibetan doctors, and Wambau, the translator,  cooked a soup with eggs, greens, and homemade noodles.  I liked it but not the greens. They tasted like spinach to me.

I am excited to explore more of Surmang tomorrow 

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic! 


 

                              

The Clinic

I have written quite a bit about Surmang, but not much yet about the clinic where we are staying.  It was envisioned and created by Lee Weingrad, the man who we met in Beijing.  Twenty years ago, Lee was living in Boulder, Colorado, when he was being taught Buddhism by a very special monk.  This monk was the 11th incarnation of the Trungpa Rinpoche, which is one of the highest positions in the Buddhist religion.  Lee made a real spiritual connection with the Rinpoche, and, after the Rinpoche died, in order to give back, Lee organized the creation of this clinic.  He created the clinic here in Surmang, because this is where the Rinpoche’s monastery is. 

Our Clinic

Dawn, a nurse, and Drolma, a translator in our kitchen

Over the past twenty years American health workers have been coming to this clinic, as volunteers, to help provide health care.  Currently, the clinic has two exam rooms, and the living quarters (where we are staying) are upstairs.  Two Tibetan doctors work here seeing sick patients from the Surmang region.  Also, the Tibetan doctors are working with American public health volunteers to lower the mortality rate of women and babies during childbirth.  In this region, one in five babies die in the first two years of life, and one in three hundred women die in child birth.  It’s hard to imagine childbirth being so dangerous.  I have always thought of it as being safe when my friend’s mother’s have had another child.

Our day today began with a nice walk down the long valley beyond our village.  Right at the beginning of the walk, a man invited us into his house for bread, apples, and hot water.  He spoke no English, so we had to use our Tibetan vocabulary.  In Tibetan, we figured out that he was the father of one of the doctors in the clinic.  The living space was on the second floor of the house.  The lower area was where they store food.  I thought it was super nice of him to invite us in, being strangers.  One would never do that in the U.S.A. The rest of our walk was dusty and beautiful.  Fields of open land, with rivers flowing through them.

Hot and dusty

Prayer flags on our walk

A Nearby Village

Prayer wheels

After our walk, we came home and I am writing my blog.  I just had a yummy dinner of rice and many creative toppings.  I am excited that I do not have to move for another month.

A Good Dinner

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Surmang Clinic

Today I woke up in our relaxing clinic in Surmang (苏莽乡).  The clinic is in a little house in a remote town near the border of Tibet.  Surmang is just outside of the Tibetan Autonomous Region.  The Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) is a designated part of China that is strictly controlled by the Chinese government.  All the people in Surmang are Tibetan though this is just outside of the TAR.  We are located at 12,500 feet above sea level.  At this altitude, just walking up the stairs leaves me panting.  My body is slowly adjusting to the high altitude. 

The clinic is heated by burning yak dung.  In the village, you can see piles of yak dung drying in the sun.  Ladies in traditional dress roam the kitchen and stairs of the small clinic.  Everyday the ladies bring water up from the river to the house and store water to be boiled for sanitation.  They carry the water in big buckets hung on a stick of bamboo which they drape over their shoulders.  In the morning, I have a bowl of oatmeal to start the day.  Some of the Tibetans eat tsampa which is mix of sugar, barley flour, salt, yak butter, and water.  I have tried tsampa, and I had trouble getting it down.

The first action of the day was Dad leaving to see a patient in a neighboring village.  He road on a scooter, driven by a member of the clinic who would translate for him.  Mom and I then went to the stupa, a spiritual place for Buddhists, located next to the clinic. There is a circular path around the stupa.  Buddhists walk around this path, chanting and spinning prayer wheels, or holding spiritual beads. They walk at least three laps around the stupa and place stones on the stupa to count their laps. This ritual is called the khora and some Buddhists walk this daily and on special dates.  At the center of the stupa, is a series of large white crafted stone monuments with Buddhas looking down on you.  Also along the path, there are colored flags that people hang all over the trail.  On the flags, prayers are written in Tibetan script.  We finished up the khora with five laps and continued with our day. 


Dad returned from the patient’s house which turned out to be in the TAR.  Then Dad and I went back to the stupa and did some water colors.  There was a pretty stream right next to the stupa where we sat and painted.  Then we went to a bathing pool on a river next to the town.  Around the pool were two monks and horses.  The river was dammed forming a small muddy pool.  The water was very refreshing.



Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

Tomorrow I will talk more about Surmang and the Clinic.       
          

Our Journey from Jiegu Town to Surmang

 Sorry the blog has been unreliable, lately.  You must understand that some nights the blog cannot be done.  Either it is too late, or the internet is not working.  Today, I am in Surmang at the clinic.  Two days ago we traveled from Jiegu Town to Surmang.  We spent more time trying to leave Jiegu Town than we spent driving. 

We woke up in our moldy Jiegu hotel two mornings ago.  At first, we had to do some shopping for our clinic.  At the market, we bought food, hats, and vegetables.  Also in the market, eager sales men sold skinned Yak heads.  This was hard for me to accept, and to write about.  The market was very chaotic.  Loud generators were running, and people and honking cars were dodging each other.  The muddy streets were filled with people from different ethnic groups: Han Chinese, Tibetan, and three Caucasians.   


After we finished shopping at the market place, we had to go get gas.  This may sound easy to you...but Jiegu Town after the earthquake a year ago, is unique.  The streets are a mixture of rubble, half way built buildings, tents, chaos, shops in tents, and lines...long lines. The first two gas stations we visited were closed.  The third gas station had a line of 18 cars, and only one pump.  This gave us two hours to have a peaceful lunch in a tent next to the line of cars.  Amazingly, the cook of the restaurant happened to recognize my mom from her visit in Surmang, her home village, 16 years ago.  This was a high light of the trip for Mom.  The woman told us that her husband died in the earthquake. 

Chaos at the Gas Line

When we had finished lunch, we were now the second car in the gas line.  Then the gas pump stopped working.  So we drove back to a gas station we had checked earlier.  It was going to open in two hours and we were the first in line.  While we watched and waited, and as other cars filed in line behind us, city workers started to do construction on a pipe directly in front of our entrance.  When they raised the pipe, our entrance was blocked.  City workers then created a second entrance to the gas station at the opposite end of the line.  We were now last in line.   Finally, at 5PM, we got our gas and left on our four hour drive to Surmang. 

Construction on the Pipe Blocking our Entrance

The drive to Surmang was astonishingly beautiful.  There were high mountains and Buddhist prayer flags.  Along the bumpy dirt road, we saw nomad tents and kids my age herding yaks.  We arrived late in the evening, to be greeted by all the friendly people in the clinic.  Yesterday I recovered from altitude, and laid low. Today, I am doing school work, but I managed to have some time to play soccer with the local monk kids.  We also flew kites.  I am excited to explore the rest of Surmang, and become settled down for the first time on this trip!


 
Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!                 

P.S.  If you like my blog, please pass the word.  By the end of the year, my goal is to have at least one person I do not know following my blog!