enjoying a lot

Dear friends and family,

I've almost been in Mcleod Ganj for 2 weeks now! I started working in the nursery on the 11th. It is really great there and the kids are the best! They are so incredibly cute and fun. There are 32 kids and 5 staff members who work there fulltime. But luckily there are always some volunteers around. At the moment we are with 4. And still we have our hands full handeling the babies. First it is free play time for the kids. Than we do the name game where the child has to raise their arm when we say their name. After this they play with lego. Than it's time to sing songs! They really love this part and they all try to sing along. Then I always go to the other room with the small babies. There are 8 small babies and 3 of us. So they get some extra attention and learn more. Around 11 it is lunch time, which always is a challenge. And than they go to sleep. Than the older children get their lunch as well and than they also go to sleep. After this I'm finished at the nursery for the day and I go home!
I normally have some lunch myself and just read a book or walk around, go for a small hike or visit the temple.
At 4pm I do the english conversation class. Most of the time I have 4 to 6 students and I just ask them questions. I enjoy doing this a lot and the students are incredibly greatfull for this opportunity. I also learn so much about their culture and their lives.
One day there were very few volunteers to teach. So we had all the advanced students with only two of us. Therefor we decided to have a debate. The subject was: a pen is mightier than the sword. As I'm sure you could imagine, this discussion really heated up. For the Tibetans this is a very difficult debate since all the students are refugees and know that if they don't fight the Chineese back, they will never be able to go back to their own country and live a normall life. But on the other hand they are all buddhists and believe in the non violent approach. A lot of students are monks as well. It was so great to havr this discussion with them and hear how they feel about this. It was by far the most interesting day I've had here.

I am starting to love this place and I even think it's the best place in India I've been to so far. (Except for last weekend. The town was flooded with Indian toerists who come here mostely to smoke weed and drink. It was not very nice and I'm glad they've left by now)
But every day I seem to meet someone new. So most nights I hang out with someone. Last weekend I met a guy from Canada who was really amazing and taught me a lot.
Monday I met an other volunteer working at Lha. He invited me to join him to movie night in some english school. Here they showed us a movie about the panchen lama. He is, together with the dalai lama, the most importent spiritual leader of Tibet. They belive him to be the reincarnation of one of the Buddha's. But he was kidnapped by the Chineese when he was only six years old. No one has ever seen him since and this makes the Tibetans really angry and sad. During the movie we were served 4 different kinds of momo's which is a traditional Tibetan dish.
Last night I also went to a cafe where they showed us 3 short documentaries about Tibet and what is happening to the Tibetans. Afterwards we had time to ask questions and have a discussion. I went together with some new volunteers who had just arrived in Mcleod Ganj and the Swiss guy.
All the things I've learnt about Tibet by now makes me want to help these people even more. But this seems nearly impossible for I can't give them their rights back. But at least I hope to create a little more awearness this way. It is so easy for us to look away. But please imagine for one second you would not be able to go home again. You can't visit your family anymore. All the conversations you have with them are bugged. The new generation of your people are being brainwashed if they are still in your country. And if they are lucky enough to have been born elsewhere, they will never have a chance to visit their homeland. People are being killed or tortured if the speak their mind. No-one is allowed to have a picture of the dalai lama or listin to his speaches. This is the reality for the Tibetans. This is their live now. And yet, I've never met such kind and openharted people.

My host family is still amazing and so sweet! Last week I got quite sick and my host mom adviced me to go see the dokter. So I went to a Tibetan hospital nearby. And you'd never believe how cheap it was. I had an appointment with the dokter and got 4 different kinds of medicine for €1,25. Two days later I felt oke again.
I guess I got sick due to the weather. It rained here every day and the humidity was so high that it even took my sweater 5 days to dry. By then I could wash it again. Now my hostfamily does my laundry because they have a washing machine and a dryer which makes everything much easier. And luckily for me the monsoon is already getting over. We haven't had rain for the last 4 days. The farmers here are not so happy with this however because the rain is necessary for the rice to grow. But it might rain again today!

I guess that was all for now!
Love, Aylene