A slip of the tongue and a wrong turn on the road. Are often the basis of a thrashing (Tibetan Proverb)

I used the above as my title because I could not control my mouth from anger. Here is the Wylie Romanization. kha nor lam nor gnyis de. nyes rdung gzed p’ai gzhi ma yin.

We are currently on vacation at TC MEC, while all the Tibetan schools are also on summer break. Summer consists of ten days. It is quite nice to be around kids, meaning that Choeyang (featured in the picture above) is home a lot watching tons of TV. Choeyang and I have developed quite a love hate relationship. At times she is intimate with me like I am her brother and at other times she is totally hating my guts calling me names like “dukcha” which means bad and “lang go” which means ox. We fight like brother and sister and it has been quite fun. I make of her front teeth which are very black from rotting.

I have also been playing with some other children. My current place of stay is suited down the hill from the Yongling School which is dedicated to the HHDL’s senior Tutor known as Ling Rinpoche. I have befriended some children from that school. I met them while there was a Tibetan cultural show happening at the school. The kids were tripping out over my height, skin color, hair and my ability to speak choppy Tibetan. Their favorite game involved me lifting about 20 little kids of various ages over the top of my head one at a time. We also played an interesting variation of tag. Nothing shows how old ones butt is getting than playing with a bunch of little jits. The good thing is that they know me and they always holler at me when I am walking down that steps homes.

About two days ago I was kicking a hacky sack around on the roof of my family’s house when hear someone screaming at me. I looked up; it was some of the kids from Yongling School. They had spotted me. They said, “De shu da” come here. So I grabbed my things and hoofed it on up the hill to the school. We played around with the hacky sack for a good bit. One of the little boys named Thokmay wants me to get him hacky sack like the one I have. I told that he will have to wait until I return to the US. I took his address and when I get back to the US I will send him one. Thokmay is a cute little boy; he must be Indian or at least partly Indian. Though school is a majority Tibetan school there are Indian and some Western kids who attend. One day I was walking behind a small white boy and a slightly bigger Tibetan boy. I was smiling as I listened to their conversation in Tibetan.

At home it has been quite stressful for the family. Tenzin Tashi, the oldest son, has just received he exam results. He did good, but not as good as he wanted. He is trying to go to Medical School and Pala and him went to Shimla (Capital of the Himachel Pradesh) to see what is up. For some reason all of these Medical Schools require a donation which is another name for baksheesh. It is quite expensive and it does not include any other cost. It is an accepted bribe to receive permission to go to school. Also with Tashi being a Tibetan, it makes it quite difficult. The family can not afford such a bribe of which they have been offered to pay between 300,000 to 700, 000 Lacs or Indians rupees. That is about 6880 to 16,055 US dollars. The family is not doing too badly financially but they do not have that kind of money. Thus it is quite sad, for Tashi studies very hard and also the family is depending on him. So he is under a lot of pressure. The funny thing is that if they did not tell me, I wouldn’t know they were stressed. Still they go about their day like any other day without a sight of emotion. The only hint I get is that Pala is drinking. At times he gets quite drunk. If Pala drinks, he will get drunk. There is not in-between for him. It does bring entertainment, for he is quite funny when drunk. Of course Ama Chuki la always puts the smack down on Pala when he gets out of hand.

I am definitely very happy to be living with the family, they have kept there promise to converse with me in Tibetan, which was the biggest desire I had. Note: I got angry at a friend of mine (Lobsang) for always speaking English to me. I totally cursed him out. He is a nice guy. No doubt that his English and Tibetan are better than mine, but all I asked for was his assistance in helping me learn his native tongue. Very time a saw me he spoke English and finally I told him that he has known me for nine months and knew my reason for coming to India and he could not bring himself to help me out. Well to say the least I do not think we are friends any more. I felt relief after that moment, but I do felt that I did not approach him in the right way. I should have talked to him instead of cursing him out. Well next time I see him I well try to talk to him, apologize and maybe he will forgive me. I am such a mean person.

Pax