itch to live... » India

Nepali Bus Drivers…

Heather — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:59:49 +0000

…are adrenaline junkies! And the folks at Jhamtse Gatsal can’t be talked out of their generosity: there wasn’t a helicopter the day we were to leave, so Dorjee, Teke, and Amdo drove us all the way to Tezpur (2 days!), where we could catch a bus the rest of the way to the border. The drive was still beautiful, and there was definitely much more of a military presence in the area than when we came (4 months ago), due to some recent tensions with China. We spent a night at the border of Nepal, in Kakarbhitta, then spent a whole day on another bus to Kathmandu. So far, bus-riding in Nepal puts the craziness of driving in India to shame! 11 photos.

4th Month at Jhamtse Gatsal

Heather — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:28:32 +0000

Wow, how the time has flown! This was a very busy month, trying to wrap up all the projects that we’ve been working on. Wish we could stay longer, but our visas say we have to go for now — but that just means we’ll have to come back again someday. We’ve really loved our time at Jhamtse Gatsal, and feeling like we could share our talents in some small way. The month of September was also busy with the arrival of 22 new students, as well as the grand beginnings of a community outreach program being organized by this community. 27 photos.

Trip to Tawang

Heather — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:46:03 +0000

We all went for the Community Outreach meeting that Jhamtse Gatsal was hosting for teachers from all the remote communities…. But we also visited a monastery with amazingly beautiful artwork adorning inside and outside. Oh, and made friends with a small yak. 16 Photos.

Dam(s)

Heather — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:47:42 +0000

Yesterday our friend Steve sent us an article from National Geographic Adventure magazine that talks about the area of Arunachal Pradesh where we are. Turns out our home for the last 4 months has been in the news lately. Anyway, the article mentions a number of planned hydroelectric projects for the region in a newly begun race to exploit and develop resources. The rivers truly are astounding, and I hadn’t been aware of any damming, but after reading it something clicked. There’s been lots of dynamiting below us lately. (We’re situated on a ridge that overlooks the confluence of 2 big rivers). I just thought it was roadwork (they are building a new road to connect to Bhutan), which itself is very destructive and ugly, causing lots of erosion. In the last week or two there have been earth-shaking explosions, followed by the roar and dust-cloud of avalanching earth. A month and a half ago another volunteer and the director found some huge tunnels being dug down by the river. I don’t know much about dam building….but I wonder, and it makes me ache to think/know that it’s being done. I can’t imagine how many villages will be displaced, how much rainforest will be drowned, how many people and animals further down the line will be affected. I’m all for non-destructive, well-thought-out development and creation of energy (Jhamtse Gatsal is a great example of leading in that area, since they installed solar panels this summer). And I think hydro has potential there. But not by damming. Oh how I wish that people and governments would be less selfish in what they are choosing to preserve in this world! I want to do something, but corrupt governments controlling everything have a way of making one feel quite helpless. Ideas? The only one I can come up with is to hurry up and come back here with my kayak, before it’s too late.

3rd Month at Jhamtse Gatsal

Heather — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:57:27 +0000

Another selection of photos from around the community. This is alot of everyday happenings during all of the month of August. 40 photos.

Independence Day – India Style

Spencer — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 08:09:48 +0000

Almost the whole community packed into the truck for the 30 minute drive to Lumla for Indian Independence Day festivities + dance competition. There were lots of colorful people there, and we had a really good time. 35 photos.

Fake Governor Visit

Heather — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 06:22:52 +0000

Here’s a bunch of pictures from the day the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh called to say he was stopping by to visit our community. So everyone spent the whole morning cleaning, cutting grass, pruning stuff, washing everything, mending, decorating, practicing dancing, and just generally getting ready for an important visitor, laughing all the while. The ladies even decided to dress me up like a traditional Monpa woman – not the most comfortable everyday wear! In the end, the governor never showed up…in fact we saw his entourage arrive at the Lumla helipad, and then a helicopter came and whisked them away. Maybe he looked down on this beautiful little community from the top of that mountain with some binoculars before he was gone? 37 photos.

2nd Month at JG Photos

Heather — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:32:28 +0000

Another random selection of every day goings on at Jhamtse Gatsal during the month of July, 2009. There are 28 pics.

Solar Eclipse!

Spencer — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:57:25 +0000

Spence: Today I had the chance to go to villages with Lobsang. We had to hike a long way, so we left early (4am) to try and beat the heat…the sun can be intense here. It was already light when we started hiking, but as we were hiking along it started to get dark. At first we thought it was just dark clouds rolling in for another monsoon rain storm, but then it started to get really dark, and we remembered that a solar eclipse was predicted for today! It became dark enough it was like night. Then all of the sudden, the clouds parted right around the most amazing sight. The dark moon emerged with the bright glow of sun rays around the edges. Wow! I was going on about how amazing it was, and how beautiful it was, and how lucky we were to be there to see it. But, one of the house mothers who was with us was pretty scared. Growing up in this area there are alot of myths about eclipses. It was a good omen, in my mind, for the start of a great day.

Heather: I was expecting the eclipse, and excited to see my first one. I had agreed to help in the kitchen all day, and had already been working for an hour when someone said to check out the sun around 6:30. It was pretty cloudy, but they were thin around the sun, and we could see a glowing crescent through the clouds that was getting thinner. Unfortunately, the clouds rolled in nice and thick at just the wrong moment, and we weren’t able to see anything but one lone star when the sky got dark. And it was really dark, which was crazy, since it had already been light since 4am. From the outdoor part of the kitchen, we could hear people from lots of villages below us kickin’ up quite a ruckus. Ngawang told us that they believe that a dragon is eating the sun, and they are scaring off all the accompanying demons until it is born again. Pretty cool…. 9 photos.

Tibetan Villages

Spencer — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:47:01 +0000

We went to the border of Tibet this week. Jhamtse Gatsal is getting ready to accept 20 new students next month, so they have begun going to villages in the area to survey for children to bring, and we got to go along on one of the visits. We followed the route that the Dalai Lama took when he fled Tibet 50 years ago, and our first stop of the day was to visit a big, beautiful stupa in the village of Zimithang, where he was given sanctuary on his first night in India. The villages and the people we visited were beautiful. Traditional, stone houses, built on hillsides just above the raging river (the one we can see that’s flowing out of Tibet), surrounded by high, steep mountains, big gardens, and fields of rice, and with an immediate backdrop of sheer rock cliffs. Like something out of a movie, really. And simple people, carrying on about their lives: cooking on a fire, working in a field, scrubbing clothes. Just about every little stream we see is being used at some point to turn a prayer wheel.