Imminent Departure

I'm still in McLeod. This is my last (self-concluded) week of teaching, and as was bound to develop on a long enough timeline, I have split feelings about departure. Exclusive of my rather enjoyable grammatical debates with my intermediate class of monks, I've gained some sort of relationship with the students, and that led me to accessing games at the basketball court (in India!), so now I'm all happy eating momos.


My two most chummy students, Dorjee (left) and Sanjay (right). This photo does a pretty epic job of spelling out the essence of their polar personalities:


I was waiting for Dorjee(1-above) from my beginner's class at the bus stop while talking to Dorjee(2), a student from my advanced class. While I was waiting for Dorjee (1) at the basketball courts, I asked to share a ball with an anonymous character, who I discovered was named Dorjee (3). There are about ten names in Tibet. A third of them are Tenzin (the mame of the current Dalai Lama), while the reminder are generally divided among: Sonam, Jigme, Tashi and Tsering. There is a minority group. Sanjay stands alone so far. Though bills posted for "Sangy's Kitchen" abound.

Bok choy is the ubiquitous vegetable. It's kind of like a symbol in the fresh produce caste system. Exclusive bok soy sellers are the untouchables. If you have oranges (a seasonal speciality), you can bring in the flocks - and it means you're probably selling everything else too. Buying vegetables is way cheaper than they cost prepared in soup, but I can boil water about as efficiently as I am able to have hot showers:


There are few cows and cars that mark this town's narrow streets (though I did see a cow eating prayer flags while walking khora last week - the celestial forces of Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism at war!) The roads are essentially designed for a single vehicle to pass with the exclusion of pedestrain consideration. Of course, this becomes problematic when one motor vehicle becomes two:



With the stealth of approaching from behind, I got this picture and gave the man five rupees before he "namaste"ed me. Ha!


On the eastern elderly: crossing the Himalayas, the 100 valley steps by daybreak...what ever happened to an afternoon with The Young and the Restless?


The flock here is thinning. It's time for paint jobs and renos. The air has become pinchingly close to home, with the mountains scattered with their first snowy dust.


Soon, the move south (east).


Yar.