Moving in with Families

October 14^th, 2008

We have been back in Dharamsala for a week now and I couldn’t be more content with my life for the time being. I am decidedly not a big fan of Delhi and have sworn to not go back until it is time to leave. I much prefer the Tibetan northern mountains.

With that said there are two quick note to make about Delhi to those of you who are LDS. First, I got to listen to general conference live for an hour. Can I just say how utterly amazing it was that I got to sit on a Saturday night in an internet café and listen to the words of the apostles live, from the other side of the world. Second, that Sunday we got to attend the branch in Delhi. We’ve been told since we were little that the church is the same everywhere, that every member in the world is taught the same lessons every Sunday. But even knowing this does not take away the awe completely when you sit down with a group of Indians and discuss the gospel in the same way you would back home. It was truly a neat, neat experience. And they were of course, completely friendly and just really sweet to us.

The day after we arrived back in Dharamsala we moved in with Tibetan families here. Now I think I’ve made it fairly obvious that I have loved being around the Tibetans. But moving in with a family has only made me respect and love Tibetans even more. It makes my days seem more real too, having people that I interact with twice a day. Even when I don’t want to venture too far that day, I get part of a “cultural experience” every morning and night.

So each of us moved in with a different family. I seriously have like the most ideal set up I could ask for. MY room is actually separate from the family’s- it’s an upstairs room with my own bathroom. They said they like to put the students there so they can study in peace without the young boys around. But, they told me to come down any time I want to talk and watch tv or what ever. I can be with them when I want and then retire to my room to study or just relax alone.

MY family consists of the grandmother who is bed ridden, the parents (Amula and Pala are what they are called here), their three adult children and then the two grandchildren, ages 3 and 4. One boy is the eldest son’s, the other the daughter’s. All of the kids speak English really well, particularly the boys, one of which works for the government so he speaks English frequently, and the other attended an Indian University. They all know Tibetan, Hindi, and English.

I have breakfast and dinner with them. Breakfast I just go down when I’m ready and dinner is around 8. After dinner we hang out and talk and watch tv. Sometimes Hindi or American movies, sometimes tv shows or music stations, some times the news or sports (much to my delight). I had a great experience with one of the sons the other morning. We were watching the Red Soxes play Tampa Bay and flipping between that a a cricket match, with me explaining baseball to him and him explaining cricket to me. I had a ball!

Anyway, that is all for now, but ask whatever questions you want. Now that I am pretty immersed in things and see them every day there are probably a lot of things I forget to mention… so ask whatever you want to know.

A quick note on my research- without boring all of you with the political details I’m reading and finding here, it completely intrigues me to see how different cultures and groups of people choose to handle different problems. Tibetans choose to handle their situation peacefully, while other groups who have lost their homeland have chosen to react violently, such as Palestinians. It is becoming more and more fascinating to me how these Tibetans have chosen to deal with their situation…