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!

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!

Pictures from around the village: