November 9, 2009

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Several days ago, I attended my first drum class of the young monks.They were doing an African warrior rhythm and as soon as they started playing (there were about 20 of them) I had a moment of absolute joy. Watching these young monks pound their hearts out on these drums as they danced and did the African warrior chant. There were four monks who were playing shakers--these are big metal instruments that look like giant tweezers with little cymbals all over them--pretending that their instruments were spears and doing an African warrior dance in the middle of the circle of drummers. The combination of my love of drumming with the unrestrained exuberance of these children and the excitement and paternal encouragement of the (Scottish) drum teacher combined to create an enormous grin on my face. Maybe one of my favourite moments of the trip thus far.

I also taught the second of my acting classes to the young monks and I was really surprised by their imaginations. Like other teenagers I have taught in the past, their energy was a bit off the wall sometimes. We did two hours of theatre games, physical warmup and vocal warmup...it went by so quickly (I can't believe I did 2 hours of warmups!) that we didn't even get to rehearsing, which was a bit of a shame, but hardly matters in this circumstance. I will help the teacher come up with a rehearsal outline for the process. At the end, again, so wonderful. I think that every single monk stopped and said, so incredibly genuinely "thank you madam for teaching us acting". My heart melted.

Today, I took a beautiful walk around the stupas, had a brief (and not necessarily successful) attempt at conversation with the old Tibetan woman who sits there all day every day (me having no Tibetan except "hello", "thank you", and various foods...kind of like my Italian...and her having no English).

It has been storming like crazy here last night and today and I've loved it. Before my walk, I sat in my room bundled up reading. I have two very large windows in my room and I watched the blowing trees through them. I have loved the rain today and the mountains now have snow on them. I admired the red temple against the green forest and white mountains. I have been wearing my poncho and getting caught in doors when I go into buildings.

After my walk around the stupas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ShambhalaStupa.jpg), I walked through the grove of spruce trees with thousands of prayer flags strung through it. The sheer amount of prayer flags draping this area and the way they move in the wind is completely gorgeous and ethereal. Then I saw some goats, hurried past a monkey (I used to wish I was Jane Goodall, now I am puzzled as to why anyone would want to spend time with these animals). Then I went up to the butter lamp room. It's a huge room with walls covered in tiles with the Buddha on them and long tables covered in, essentially, candies. Most of them are usually unlit, but today when I went up, some young monks were on "butter lamp duty", cleaning out the metal cups the butter and wicks burn in. The kids were covered in soot, looking a little Dickensian. One had drawn a handlebar mustache and a goatee on his face in soot. Today, almost a thousand candles were lit, all lined up in rows along two tables. It was amazing to watch the fire move. I lit a butter lamp myself. I plan to check on it tonight.

I think I'll describe the area around Sherab Ling: On one side there are enormous mountains (now covered in snow) and you often see paragliders flying around them (it's beautiful to watch how they move). The other sides are covered in spruce forest/jungle and are valleys and rolling hills as far as the horizon. It's gorgeous.

My accommodations also, on a more mundane level, are amazing. There are lots of dogs that live outside and they are all very sweet. there are two that are puppies and just poof balls...they kind of look more like guinea pigs. My friend Karen and I decided today that they are not dogs, but wozzles. The name seems to suit them better. the food is great. Lots of vegetables and dairy. One of my favourite dishes is, to my shame, the Indian equivalent of potatoes and cheese wiz. My room has two windows, a soft bed (normally in India, travelers will literally get bruises from the beds), HOT WATER!!!!!, a western toilet, and a laundry line THIS is luxury. Also, it is dry and I have a heater. Bliss. I could stay here forever.

I have also had the incredible incredible (I don't know what I did to deserve this) luck to have mingyur rinpoche see me for private instruction for about an hour each time, several times a week. I am dumbfounded by this opportunity. I don't think I've ever felt so lucky.

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[Leenie]

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