Hi all,
First thing to report is that i'm feeling so much better now - pretty much fully recovered from being ill last week. It's good timing because this week has been really busy.
The Dalai Lama gave public teachings on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so we were all going down to the temple at 8am and then sitting on cold stone floors for hours at a time trying to follow some seriously complex Buddhist philosophy. The DL taught in Tibetan but there was a Korean translator there (as the teachings had been requested by Koreans) and everyone else had to buy or rent little FM radios so that we could pick up the English translation. The guy who was translating was very good most of the time but he did tend to forget that he was always being heard, even when it wasn't his turn to translate, so every yawn, cough, throat clearing etc that he did was also heard by hundreds of other people! While the teachings were mostly too complicated for my little brain, the atmosphere was incredible, especially as we sat in with the Tibetans rather than in the designated Western section. Everyone was very keen to share their food and drink with us, although that unfortunately meant I ended up having to drink an enormous bowl full of butter tea, just to be polite. This stuff is pretty awful, it's made out of milk and butter and hot water and is very salty with an oily film on top. The best trick is to imagine you're drinking soup but even so it's hard to keep it down!
I was supposed to be back at work on Wednesday afternoon but the generator packed up so we're without computers until it has been fixed. That means that i've been able to take part in some of the protests and talks taking place in the run up to the Olympic games instead. The march that took place today was an amazing sight as hundreds (possibly over 1000) Tibetans and Westerners gathered at the temple this morning and then snaked our way down the foothills shouting slogans. And amazingly it didn't rain! There are going to be more events taking place this evening and tomorrow as the various NGOs try to get as much press coverage as possible.
I can't believe that i've got less than 3 weeks left here before i start to make my way back to Delhi, i've really started to feel like i'm part of the community and i've finally started to learn a bit of Hindi (Tibetan is far too tough)!
Hope everyone is well. xxx
PS - i've finally uploaded some more photos!
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