Nepal-Volunteering Winter06

The last one....

Namaste everyone! … it is ten o’clock in the evening, I don’t feel like sleeping, neither like practicing the keyboard and I just finished reading my latest book. So I decided that since I am already long due for a Blog Update I might start writing my entry. There is always a high chance that I won’t finish due to the frequent power outages. For about 40 hours a week we are without electricity. This can be quite annoying especially at night but as with many things here I got used to it quite well.
The weather has finally become warmer and sunnier. Two weeks ago we had some rainy days and it was terrible cold. Most streets (there are hardly any asphalt or concrete made streets) get extremely muddy, making it impossible to go out or do some sight seeing. I managed to rewash the same clothes trice because every time I hang them up for drying, rain and wind would come and destroy my efforts.
Last week whole Nepal, or at least all the Buddhist parts were celebrating Losar, (Tibetan New Year) which is considered the biggest and most important religious feast in the Tibetan Calendar. Our school, since being Buddhist took part in most celebrations and the kids got a week of holidays. The day before Losar is traditionally spent with cleaning the house (and oneself) as well as decorating the house altar with Kabse, sweets and other eatable things. In the photo you can see Karsang one of the Senior Students decorating the altar in our living room. After a couple of days those offering to Buddha are distributed amongst students. (so they are quite keen to offer delicious things and lots of sweets haha!) Losar itself started with a Prayers session at 6 30 in the morning (during summer students usually have the daily prayers session at 5 30!!) and was led by the Principal. After the Prayers we all got served a special breakfast (the kids love it) consisting of dyed rice with dried fruits and Tibetan tea. Afterwards all the kids received a bag full of kabse and sweets. Their eyes were all shining and they were so excited because this year’s bag was apparently much larger than last years one. Losar is the only time during the year when the kids receive a present from the school. (Birthdays are usually not celebrated and many kids don’t even know their birthday.) Then all the girls dressed up in the beautiful Chupas (traditional Tibetan dress) and the whole school went to Trangu Rinpoche’s monastery in Boudha to offer Katha (white scarves) to the Buddha statue and image of Rinpoche. (who is currently in India). Afterwards while the kids went back to enjoy special games, one of the senior students and me decided to visit another monastery (as it is Tibetan custom) and offer Katha to its Rinpoche and receive his blessing. The monastery was crowed with people as well as monks and nuns. All people were wearing cultural dresses and some had come from far villages (often involving many days of walking) to receive the blessing of Rinpoche. During the whole day as well as the next I had been doing many photos and unfortunately I lost all of them. I think some of the kids who always want to play with my camera deleted them unknowingly.

I think one of the reasons why the kids love Losar so much is because of all the delicious (for their taste) food. Already weeks before they were told me about all the nice food and tons of Kabse served during Losar. The daily Dhal Bhat is enriched with special vegetable curries and meat dishes once the kids get the Tibetan Momo and Chowmein (fried noddles) for lunch and ice cream as desert. A hit seems to be the milk coffee they get for breakfast instead of the usual tea. The joy of the kids about the coffee and ice cream was quite thought provoking for me. In the west I can afford to have coffee or ice cream whenever I want and it has no special value to me, yet here it is a “once a year” thing and hence something very special and precious.

On the third day of Losar kids were taking part in a talent show. Usually contributions consist of dances and singing performances. Some of my piano kids were performing and I have to admit that I was more nervous than them! A big success was the performance of our music club. The “game cup” received the most applause and eventually won the first prize. I think the kids really deserved it, since all of them had shown great determination, enthusiasm and discipline during the daily rehearsals in the week before the show. The Prize consisted of different sweets, snacks and a bottle of Coke. At one of the next days we hold a little party in our Senior Apartment living room! During the Losar holidays I also had the chance to do some sight seeing in Katmandu. Together with Choden, one of the senior students I visited the famous Dubar (palace) Square in Katmandu City. It is the traditional heart of the old city and used to be the place where the kings were once crowned and from where they ruled. Most of the building are made of wood and date back to the 17^th and 18^th century. The entire square became a World Heritage Monument in 1979. Although it is obviously a famous tourist place it seems a quite popular gathering point for Nepali people as well. Choden and me spent two hours wandering around and admired the numerous palaces and temples before we finished the day with some delicious Momos and popcorn which were sold on the street. I also visited Swayambhunath, better known as “Monkey Temple”. As the name already suggests one can find numerous monkeys. I heard that eating something in the temple is quite risky since the naughty monkeys might attack you and steal your food. One monkey was quite interested in my empty fruit juice bottle and skillfully opened (or better destroyed) it to lick the last drops of the Litchi juice. Swayambhunath is a huge compound consisting of several temples, stupas and a large park area. The highlight is definitely the Stupa Plat Form at the flattened top of the hill from which one has a stunning view on the entire Katmandu Valley. You reach the Stupa Platform by climbing up an endless stairway, which is lined with old stone figures as well as traders selling stonework and handicrafts.
Now I am in the middle of my final days and extremely busy! All the kids want to have a last extra piano lesson and somehow there is just never enough time for all. Some of the kids seem to be quite musically talented as they were improving a lot during the past three months. One student also learned to read music and hopefully she will continue teacher the younger children after I have left. Most of the kids are quite forgetful and lazy regarding the position of their wrists. They always forget to properly lift it but I found a good trick to make them do it the right way! I would place a sweet on their hand and the game is that if it stays while they are playing it will be their sweet but if it falls down it will be my sweet! The kids love it! (And all of sudden they have their wrist in the right position)

I am trying to finish off the First Aid Classes with the older kids so that they can sit the exam and receive their certificates. I am also busy with my World Today Classes, the Music Club and a hundred other things that I want to finish off before leaving. Those three months have past extremely fast and I would love to stay a bit longer. In fact I was about to stay much longer because until yesterday I was convinced that I am flying at Friday night. Yet I am flying half an hour after midnight which means I am leaving Thursday evening. (One of those moments when I don’t use my brain.)

Tomorrow I will go up to Namo Buddha for two days to visit the monks, do a First Aid Workshop, play and teach the monks at school and visit the people in Fulbari. Then I have two last days here in Boudha before I will catch my plane home! I know that it will be hard for me to leave the school. I have gained so much here and the work with the kids has fulfilled me tremendously. Yet I know that as I close this chapter (only temporarily anyway) a new chapter will begin. This is the last Blog I post but a couple of days after my arrival at home I will publish my final report which is mainly intended for any future volunteers and students interested in coming to SMD!

How to clean windows and wash your clothes in Nepal!

There are many similarities between Nepal and Austria! Nepali stones will still fall to the earth if you drop them! And most Nepali kids also prefer chocolates and sweets to bitter medicine or healthy vegetables. Yet there are a lot of differences. Firstly we definitely have a different concept of height! Nepali people dare to call our beautiful Austrian Alps the “Austrian Hills”. Well, I guess with many of their mountains being 6000 meter or higher this is somewhat understandable. Secondly the Nepali perception of a proper breakfast differs greatly of mine or the Austrian one. While Nepali people prefer spicy bean or potato soup for breakfast we Austrian rather stick to our Muesli or rolls with jam for breakfast and have the soup for lunch! I NEVER have Nepali breakfast here! Iiiiuuuu! The mere imagination of bean soup at seven in the morning is already terrible! Well actually I have to admit I made an exception when I was in Namobuddha in the Monastery. I simply had no other choice since there was nothing else for breakfast and it was VERY VERY cold. So I bravely ate my bean soup and drank my butter tea! (Tea with rancid butter and salt!!-if you classify it as soup rather than tea it is quite eatable (well drinkable) haha!)
Ok thirdly, the different concept of time! One minute in Austria will be about five minutes in Nepal! Consequently this means that if you have an appointment at ten it will be pointless to show up punctually because nobody will come before 10 30 or 11. (and sometimes simply not at all!) Yet the day here still has only 24 hours! Fourthly we have quite different preferences in toilets! While I will always choose the western toilet (if I have the choice) many Nepali people (I did a small survey) prefer the squat toilet! Asking for the reason I learned that they don’t like the western toilets because the seats are so cold! Hilarious! (Well sometimes in the mornings it is so cold in the bathroom that you can see your breath!)
Fifthly and lastly (well there are many more things… it is impossible to list all of them!) Nepali people (or better Nepali women) have a quite different idea on how to clean windows and wash clothes. Here come some of the experiences I have gained so far! In my second week we had the monthly “clean the whole apartment” day! My duty was to clean all the windows! Nice and easy I thought! Well… I thought! Asking for some cleaning agent (which we use at home) and a clean cotton cloth I found out that window-cleaning stuff simply does not exist and the only cloth available for cleaning was so dusty that the window got dirtier than it was before. I was advised to clean the windows with plain cold water and newspaper!! Well, I thought I know it better (as I usually do haha!) and took some general floor cleaning liquid and tissue and started with much confidence. I did not get very far! The extremely dirty windows just wouldn’t get cleaner! But the dirt, which before was equally distributed would now accumulate at some places, making the whole window look even dirtier than before! After this rather daunting experience I decided to try out the cold water and newspaper and to my surprise it worked! (Although I have to admit it worked only for Nepali standards of cleanliness!-my mum would have never accepted it! Haha!)
The other rather surprising discovery I made about the Nepali way of washing clothes. I can understand that 99 percent of Nepali people cannot afford the luxury of a washing machine, yet I thought they would still use hot water to soak the stuff before washing it! Well .. again I was wrong! Mostly they will use simply cold water and some special soap and a piece of jute to shrub the clothes! I didn’t believe that my clothes would get clean this way! So I bought washing powder, heated up water, soaked the stuff and then kind of started washing and scrubbing it! Apparently it didn’t get clean! So in my despair I got the common soap and the jute and started scrubbing them with cold water! And to my surprise I worked this way! Since then I am usually washing my clothes this way! Especially after it turned out that the washing powder (which I reassured my self was for colored clothes) made blue sprinkles on my white T-shirt and white sprinkles on my beloved blue UWC sweater! Ahhh!) So for most of my clothes Nepali washing method turned out to be the most efficient one! Except for my white socks! They would always get brighter, yet they would never get white again! (Unfortunately Persil “whiter than white” washing powder is not available in Nepal). The solution is a permanent reduction in my socks stock! Well… socks are very cheap in Nepal! And they usually don’t sell white socks (or simply don’t wear socks at all)! I know now why! Haha!

Buddhist Music

The last two days I spent in bed because of a middle ear infection. That meant I got REALLY bored because there is nothing to do besides reading, sleeping and eating. However this also gave me some time to update my Blog. Now I am healthy and happy again and I guess I have slept about thirty hours in advance! Haha!

When I was in Namobuddha I had the opportunity to attend the Puja (the traditional service in Buddhism). The instruments and the melodies were fascinating me and one of the monks was so kind to explain me their nature and function. Even though he could not tell me too much about them because of the language difficulties (on both sides haha!), I could learn quite a lot and also take some photos! All instruments are produced in Tibet and merely used in Monasteries. Usually only nuns and monks are entitled to play them, yet they sometimes make exceptions for lay people who are doing a long-term retreat.
The Gyeling is a trumpet like instrument made of wood and brass. With the fingers one can differentiate sounds and pitch levels. The Gyeling is not only used during Puja but as well to welcome a Rinpoche or high Lama and its music is considered an offering to Buddha. The sound of the Gyeling reminds me of a mix between a trumpet and a clarinet (if at all possible to imagine such a mix haha!)The Rakdung is much larger than the Gyeling and entirely made of brass. For very precious Rakdungs they sometimes use silver and gold. The Rakdung is usually only used during the Puja. The monks told me that playing the Rakdung is physically very tiring and requires a lot of training. Hence monks will not learn how to play it before they are eighteen. The Rakdung produces a very deep and profound sound, which reminds me of a Didgeridoo.

One of the most interesting and mysterious instruments is the Kangling, a flute made of human bone. Apparently the thighbones of young dead females are considered to have the best quality! Asking about the selection and supply of those bones I learned more about the rituals surrounding the death of a lay person in Tibetan Culture. Conversely to the western tradition of either burning or burying the body, Tibetan people usually cut the body into many pieces and offer them to the birds. I was quite shocked when they told me about this tradition. Offering the body to the birds is considered a compassionate and generous act (to the birds) which increases merit and hence is widely accepted and appreciated. The person cutting up the dead body usually inherits his or her belongings. I think that even a million dollars or a Steinway would not make me do this job!!
Hearing the story about the Kangling I was quite curious to actually see and hear its sound. The monks could show me the flute, yet they were not allowed to play on it. I asked for the reason and learned that its sound will call bad ghosts. Only during special occasion they are allowed to play it and at any other time it must be carefully wrapped up in scarves and stored at a safe place. Even the wind howling through the bone would call the ghosts! Curious as I am I wanted to know more about those ghosts but the monks did not seem to know more about them or could not give me any further details.
During the Puja the monks do not only use brass instruments but also quite a few percussion instruments such as the Daru, (also called Chodar), the Nga or the cymbals like Rollmo (left side) and Silnjeng. (right side of the photo)
The Daru is made is of wood and goatskin. I was told that the finest sound is produced with a snakesin membrane. The wooden frame and the coverage of the instrument are usually beautifully decorated with colorful paints. The Daru is often played together with the Dhilbu, a metal bell. The player of the bell will also often hold a Dorje in the other hand. A dorje is an important object which indicates amongst other things endless creativity, potency, and skillful activity. It is a symbol of permanence. As far as I understood everything in Buddhism is subject to permanence. Our impermanent perception of life is considered to be illusory. Because we are not enlighten people we have not realized that life is empty and hence an illusion. (The whole subject about emptiness in Buddhist Philosophy is tremendously complicated and highly difficult) In fact I doubt if I have understood anything really thoroughly and whatever the monk would explain I was more confused afterwards than I was before! Haha!
Sometimes when somebody has died the Dhilbu (bell) is played together with the Kangling, the human bone flute. The big brother of the Daru is the Nga. Its membrane is made of cow skin and I was told that it takes a lot of power to play it.
Most instruments are used during the Puja. At first sight they seemed to be played in a quite disorganized way, yet I was told that everything from timing to duration, rhythm and melody is fixed and written down.
I was curious how the scores for such music would look like and which notation they use. One monk was very kind and showed me some music sheets, which he keeps in the prayer books. The notation turned out to be very basic, giving only simple instructions regarding melody, pitch level (mostly very low) and rhythm. Well there are actually no divisive rhythms but one can find a lot of additive rhythms.
The melodies are composed by high lamas or the Karmapa (the spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu line) and passed on from generation to generation. Usually there will be something similar to a reciting tone and I think the melodies are based on a simple major pentatonic scale.
When the monks found out that I am music student they gave me some MP3s with traditional Tibet music and recorded music of the Puja. I think that it is fact rather impossible to really describe how it sounds! So when I come home I might prepare some photo show and take the pieces for the background music. I can also send you a sample by mail!
Ok, I need to finish.. it is 4 55 pm and at 5 they will turn off the electricity! Load shedding! Apparently it is so dry in spring that there is not enough water to run the turbines of the water power stations. So for about 6 hours every day there is no electricity! Mostly without warning! Haha!

Namobuddha

The last couple of days I spent in a place at the end of the world – yet a particularly beautiful end! I am talking about Namobuddha, a little village in the mountains, which hosts the Thrangu Monastery and the Shree Mangal Dvip branch school for monks. Fortunately, we (Some SMD senior students, Jess (Canadian Volunteer and me) were able to go up in the school jeep. Sitting on the bed of the truck I greatly enjoyed the stunning, yet not completely clear view of the mountains. Due to the rocky road I had a lot of trouble taking photos and my bum and stomach were not too happy about it either. Haha!
The monks warmly welcomed us and I got to know Karma Phurbo, the cousin of Dolma Sherpa (my second year at the UWCAD). There are about 100 little monks in the branch school with the youngest being just seven years old. I found out that although some of them are there at the wish of their parents, many have chosen their destiny as monks for themselves. It seems that monkhood is a great honor for each little monk himself as well as for his family.
In the afternoon Karma Phurbo one of the older monks showed us around and explained all the meanings of the various statues in the Gompa (Monastery-Temple). the dozen of prayerflags and the colorful Mandalas on its ceiling. One of the main attractions in Namobuddha is the little Stupa, a famous Buddhist pilgrimage destination in the center of the village. According to a legend, in a previous life, the Buddha came across a tigress close to death from starvation and unable to feed her cubs. The Buddha felt compassion and sorrow and offered his body to the tigress. In the woods below the Stupa is a little mountain spring with extremely clean and good water, which is said to be blessed.
Karma Phurbo and the other monks (the photo shows one old monk who made us laugh so much) were tremendously patient is answering all our questions about Buddhism and Buddhist Philosophy. He tried to explain us the concept of emptiness, which is highly complicated, and extremely challenging for newcomers to Buddhism. In fact even if we understood some of his points we ended up more confused then we were before. (Apparently Buddha has warned of this phenomenon and consequently urged his followers to pursue the teachings step by step.) I also realized that there is a huge challenge regarding difficulties and limitations of the English language. Tibetan contains many words for phenomenon and entities, which cannot be named effectively in English. This of course contributes a lot to the confusion and misunderstandings. One of the greatest impressive experiences was attending a Puja (prayer service). Afterwards some monks were kind enough to explain to me the instruments used and they showed me their prayer books and the notation of the melodies. Highly interesting so I think there will be an entry on Buddhist music soon!
In the evenings we mostly crawled under the covers and read books if there was enough light (electricity in Namobuddha is very unreliable). I read the book called Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chogyam Trungpa. I realized that mediation and the various phenomena explained are closely related to the experiences I gained when practicing Autogenic Training or doing breathing exercises. Some of the concepts related to meditation, such as the balance between devotion and attention I have already encountered previously. They are highly interesting and definitely something I want to explore more in depth.
The first word that actually comes to my mind thinking about Namobuddha is “aju”, the Tibetan word for shivering cold. In the mornings I was just not able to get out of bed. Getting up, fumbling into the cold bathroom, washing my water with such icy water that it almost hurt and then finally getting dressed was just such a nightmare. In fact I even anticipated those terrible moments in my dreams during the night! Haha! Also during the day I spent most of the time freezing, except when I was eating or drinking tea or running around. When our monk heard that we went to a little shop to get an extra cup of tea he brought us a kettle, tea and milk to our room. (This is just one example of the great kindness and care that the monks showed us). Drinking tea or just simply hot waters helped us a lot to stay warm.
In the mornings we would give classes to the little monks at the monastery. Many of them were in India at that time and hence only two classes were present. I would teach them some musical games, which they seemed to enjoy a lot. In fact they got quite competitive and the winner was presented with a chocolate bar. One afternoon we went to the playground and I taught them “ghostball”. They were engaging enthusiastically and fighting for their win, yet afterwards most of them wanted to play football. The supervising teacher told me that they only get to play twice a week and that football is just the ultimate game for them!
On the last afternoon some monks took us to Phulbari (Tibetan for Flower Garden), a beautiful park in the middle of nowhere. On the way there we passed typical, traditional Nepali villages and kids would gather and greet us. We made some photos, distributed sweets and I promised to print off the photos and bring them their pictures when I go back in March. It was quite funny because some of the kids had never encountered a photo camera before and hence did not know how to behave or look! You should have seen their faces when they saw their own pictures on the screen! Hilarious!
Phulbari turned out to be a stunningly beautiful park with a surprising number of blossoming flowers. The owner is some German business man who also has a house in the park and who is kind enough to open the park for the public when he is not living there. The photo shows us with some monks at the little pond in the park. It was taken by the gardener and caretaker who had never seen a digital camera before and who seemed to be very happy to be the photographer.
We were enjoying such an amazing time in Namobuddha and hence none of us really wanted to return to Boudha. However I had scheduled so many piano lessons and I missed all the kids at SMD a lot! So after four days we decided to go back and I promised to come back before my departure to Austria. The bus ride back was quite an adventure. The bus was incredibly crowded with at least twice as many people as its capacity and many of them had to sit on the roof. I was standing inside and felt like a sardine in the can. Apparently all people could stand straight expect me (I am just way too tall for Nepali buses) haha! So I tried to squeeze my neck and head into the space between the heads of the others and the ceiling! Haha!
When we finally arrived in town I was tremendously relieved that the bus did not crash on the way and that I could move and breathe properly again! And I was longing for a shower because in Namobuddha even thinking about showering (of course with icy cold water only) made me freeze instantly.
Now school starts in SMD, which means that I will be probably even more busy… I will still try to keep you updated and the next entry will hopefully be about music.

Busy life here!

Sophie is very busy again! Most of you will wonder about the “again”…..when was Sophie ever not busy? Haha! Having settled and being (kind of) familiar with the system I fully started off with my activities. These days my primary occupation in the afternoon is to teach kids piano. The children come to me to sign up in pairs for a 30 min. lessons. Initially I had many kids signing up but then not showing up or being late. I realized that many are either too small to know the time or don’t have watches or take the piano lessons with the usual Nepalese laid back attitude. The second week turned out to be much more organized and since I began listing the names on the blackboard in the mornings, most kids will turn up I
on time. Many of the kids have already had their second lesson in which I started teaching them little songs. The first lesson was mostly reserved to explore the E-piano and its sounds. We would race along the keyboard and try several ways of “how to play the piano”. Many of the children have never seen a keyboard before and it is a pleasure to see their joy and excitement when they are “playing” piano. Also my “Music” Club lessons went into the second round and the “cupgame” seems to quite a hit, which I am very happy about! Last week I also taught my first “World Today” Class which aims to make the students more aware of current topics and at the same time foster critical thinking. I chose to confront them with the execution of Saadam Hussein and the controversies related to it, which were dominating the world news at that time. It turned out to be huge challenge to get some responses or initiate some general discussion about the death penalty. I realized that I am also in a position of immense responsibility since most of the kids will just regard what I say as true without critically analyzing it. And who would not be biased on such delicate topics as the execution of Saadam Hussein?
Last Saturday, which is the weekly holiday in Nepal, I went to see the family of Jashawi, my Nepalese first-year in Adriatic College. They gave me a warm welcome and we had dal bhat for lunch. For the second time since my arrival I stepped over my own shadow and ate with fingers! (the usual habit of eating here). It is quite a challenge to actually place the food in your mouth and you need to be careful not losing half of it on the way there! Conversely to my clumsy style, the Nepali people are very adept at using their fingers when eating.
After lunch we walked to Patan City to see the famous Patan Durbar Square and dozen of temples. Patan, an old Newari town is said to be built after the Buddhist Dharma Chakra (the wheel of righteousness). There are four Stupas built around the city, which date back some 2250 ago!! You can find more than 1200 Buddhist Monuments of various sizes and shapes in and around the city! The Patan Durbar Square itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Patan Museum located on the square was thoroughly restored by the Austrian Government (another example of how much good stuff my country does haha!) before it opened in 1997 for the public!
The museum is full of traditional sacred art of both Hinduism and Buddhism. These photos show some of the many gods and goddesses I came across and one shows an acient highly decorated oil lamp.I don’t know how many times I have hit my head during our tour through the museum, but I think it is full of bruises now! Haha! The other photos illustrate how small the door entries and how low the ceilings in the galleries were.
Va bene, I think I need to finish and prepare my music theory class for today afternoon. On Saturday I will probably go up to the Monastery and the branch school of SMD in Namo Buddha for three days! I am looking forward to that and hope to get a glimpse of the mountains! I will keep you updated!

Boudha Stupa

This will be a very short entry about the famous Boudhanath Stupa which is located near my school. It is a popular pilgrimage spot and the main attraction of the city. A stupa is usually a Buddhist monument of veneration. You will find many monks and nuns as well as lay people circling the Stupa, (always clockwise), praying short Mantras such as Om Mani Padme Hum and turning the dozen of prayer wheels. The auspicious numbers of circumambulation are 3, 7, 21 or 108. I usually stick to three! Haha!
I took the second photo during an auspicious night. (related to Moon Cycle) when the whole stupa is beautifully decorated with lights.