We are now living with the young monks here at Pema Choling Monastery for the next ten days. It was about an hour and a half trek to get here and two young monks walked to Ghat to guide us to the monastery and porter our bags. When they showed up we were shocked at how young they were to be carrying our heavy bags (11 and 15). Immediately Mark and I tried to stuff all our heavy items into our day packs. When Mark told them he would help carry the bags he was flatly refused. I suppose it was a matter of insult to insinuate that the boys could not do their job. So, we followed behind a bit sheepishly and, even still, they out-hiked us on the journey up to the monastery.
Once here our treatment of being waited on continued. We were served cup after cup of milk tea as the young boys seemed to come two by two to sneak a peek at their new teachers. After we were shown to our room - very modest but with windows looking over some spectacular mountains. At lunch the monks were very quiet sneaking looks at us and whispering. All the meals here are served by the monks (we are always first) and served out of these giant metal buckets. I feel a bit like I'm in an Oliver Twist scene! The meals have been mostly rice, dahl, curry, and potato something or other. We can't believe how much food these young monks eat. We can barely finish our plates and most are having seconds and thirds.
We had a short class after lunch to try to learn all the boys names. They were so excited to show us their classroom and their notebooks. Before we were allowed to teach they told us to stand aside as they cleaned the class. They use a bunch of thin twigs tied together to sweep the dust. We ended the afternoon bringing out 2 hacky sacks that Alex brought and everyone played. The monks had homemade versions of their own made from rubber bands. Then they wanted to show Zach and Alex everything they do for play (lots of jumping, racing, marbles, "Kung fu", and tricks). They are very fit and impressed the boys with all their games. A few monks and Zach spent a long time perfecting the butterfly kick. Just picture it...16 young boys all dressed in red monk robes all running and kicking and jumping off big stone walls with Zach and Alex...our boys were loving it.
Dinner was a lot more noise as everyone was comfortable with us and asking us questions. We had brought some maple syrup from Canada and took it out after dinner to share. Nobody was keen to try it until one brave boy brought out a bowl and said yes. Soon, everyone was digging in and literally licking the plates clean (including the adults and cook). After dinner we settled into bed but could hear the boys from where they sleep all chanting and singing for quite a long time. It was a very soothing sound to fall asleep to. The next few days should be quite the experience.
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