Settling in… 1 1/2 months in McLeod Ganj

I haven’t exactly been chronological in my posts, so you may have assumed correctly that we are staying in McLeod Ganj/Dharamsala for a while. 

I posted a video (last post) of the apartment we rented.  It’s 300R/night ($200/month) and has a little kitchen so we can cook our own food.  Our balcony overlooks the valley – there’s a waterfall, eagles soaring, cows and goats grazing – a beautiful scene to wake up to every morning.   We even have a resident mongoose who makes an appearance one in a while. 

We took an Indian cooking class this week taught by a woman from Mumbai.  Well worth it — we learned to make all sorts of yummy stuff.  Malai kofta (my favorite), stuffed paranthas, samosas, dal makhani, aloo gobhi, and more.  Yum yum yum.  And we ate it all.  We will be making the food when we return, if we can get our hands on the right spices.  We are big fans of Indian food.

Tomorrow Brandon starts his Buddhist philosophy class at the Tibetan library.  He’s on the fast track to enlightenment.  I’m hoping it will rub off on me so I don’t have to study as much as he does.

The biggest news is that we are now “English conversation partners” at Gu-Su-Chum, an organization that helps recently arrived Tibetan refugees.  They are all either former political prisoners or family members of political prisoners.  I put “English conversation partners” in quotes because although that’s what we are officially doing, it’s more like teaching a class.  The students (about 16 of them) just started studying English so every day we plan a lesson, teach it, try to dream up fun exercises, and so on.  It’s challenging but already really rewarding because they are so appreciative.  What an amazing group of people.