An Unexpected Change of Plans

The deep vibrating sounds of a gong drifts over me. Quiet chanting floats through the air mingled with the tinkling of wind chimes all around. The air is crisp and clean. Outside monkies sqeak playfully with one another enjoying the morning air. I open my eyes and look out my window to see brillilant strands of red, blue, green, yellow and white prayer flags whipping through the air. This all seems like a dream, and then I remember where I am and what I am doing. Oh yes, I am living in a monastery perched atop a staggering hill that overlooks the entire Kathmandu valley. Oh yes, I am now the sole English teacher to an entire monastery of monks. Am I sure this is not a dream? No this is real, as fantastical as it all sounds, I woke up this morning to find myself nestled in my bed inside a monastery above the small Newari village of Sankhu. I have been put in charge of teaching English to the entire monastery, including some of the teachers themselves and senior monks.
Here is how it all started:
My time at the hospital had almost come to a close, as well as my time with my host family. I was trying to decide what to do with myself for the next few months. More travelling around Nepal? Trekking? I was talking to my Nepali friend Bijay about my possible plans. Bijay is a social worker and has started an organization with a former ELI volunteer (how we all met) called Children for A Green New Nepal which is concerned with cleaning and creating awareness of the environment here with children. Anyway, one of Bijay's "sisters" (I later come to find out she is not really his sister, more in a figurative way a sister) is a monk at Bouddhanath Stupa in Kathmandu. They needed an English teacher, and I quickly volunteered myself. He said I would be moving in the next few days! I was so excited, and it was all rather abrupt and swift so I had little time to even think about what I was doing. In the next few days Bijay told me, actually I would not be working at Bouddhanath but at a monastery outside of Kathmandu in a small village. This was fine I said! The day before I was set to leave I had no idea what was going to happen, but thats the way I like it. So I packed my bags all of us volunteers for ELI had a last good bye dinner at Bijay's apartment where we cooked a big Korean food feast. The next day I woke up early, did some last minute errands, said goodbye to Anuj and the family. Amie, Christine and Bijay all decided to come with me to the monastery to see me off and they wanted to check it out themselves. So we all piled in a taxi and off we went to Sankhu, the small village town close to the monastery. During the whole taxi ride I was basking in the glory of being able to pack up and leave at the drop of a hat. Travelling is wonderful in that way! Farther and farther out of the city we went. Soon rickshaws had transformed into goats, trash heaps had transformed into rice fields, and the hazy polluted air had become delightfully crisp. There was so much green all around us it almost hurt our eyes. You get used to a certain grayish dirty quality in Kathmandu, and when you finally see green again it's almost hard for the eyes to adjust. We continued on and the road become more and more rough. About an hour or so later we were in Sankhu at the road at the bottom of the hill. The taxi driver could not go any farther due to the muddy conditions so we all got out and decided to hike up to the monastery. I buckled on my pack and up we went climbing what seemed like endless moss covered stone steps, hopping over trickling streams, and gazing at the tiny red clad women in the distance bent over the rice fields with the woven baskets on their backs. After a 20 minute walk we arrived at the monastery, my new home! It was a gorgeous sight! The main building is painted a crimson red color and decorated with gold detailing. Stands or prayer flags fill the air when you look up, sort of covering the sky above you like some sort of sacred spiders web made of bright colors. The view is magnificent. The monastery is perched very high up on a hill so you get an astounding view of the surrounding hills, the Kathmandu valley, and you can see the village of Sankhu below; a cluster of ancient looking brick houses in the middle of a great expanse of green rice paddies and terraces. We were met by one of the senior monks who welcomed us and brought us to the dinning hall area. On the lawn all around the monastery little monks clad in marroon and gold were running around, laughing, playing tag, and generally being little boys. We went to the dinning hall where we relaxed for a while after the long walk. Two little monks brought us all glasses of juice, and the cook made us a delicious lunch. We sat around enjoying our Tibetan lunch and soaking up the sights and sounds. After lunch we decided to walk up to the temple that is near by called Vajra Yogini temple. I left my bags at the monastery and Bijay, Christine, Amie and I hiked up the stone steps to the temple. The whole setting is quite ancient. Along the walk up to the temple are small crumbling temples to the sides. After ascending all of the steps we reached the temple. It is a beautiful sight. Hidden in the jungle, the temple is a wonderful, and infested with hoardes of monkeys who made it even more wonderful. We explored the temple grounds for a while. There is one ornate, but rusty looking, main temple with a beautiful shinning trinangular roof. There are some interesting caves up there where some monks apparently sit and meditate. After we were done exploring the temple we went back town to the monastery and I said goodbye to everyone. After they left I settled into my room. I have a very nice room above the place where the monks pray and beat gongs, and chant. There are rows of raised benches and low tables where the monks sit cross legged and reach the pages of Tibetan chant script. There are two large gongs in the back of the room, and there is an immense golden Buddha statue in the front and center of the room. Beautiful and bright painting covers the walls, and on the back of the room there are hundreds of golden buddhas painted on the walls. So my room is above the actual, I guess you would say temple. I have a very comfortable bed. Next to my bed is a huge idol of what I think is Shiva. I have two large windows which overlook the grass yard and the dorm house for the little monks. The younger monks don't live in the same building as I do. There are 2 dorm-style buildings (very nice dorm style buildings) where the monks live. One farther down the hill is where the older monks live, and the one which I can see slightly up the hill is where the little monks live. I share the second floor of the temple with several of the senior monks and lamas. My next door neighbor is one of the senior monks who spent 6 years meditating in caves. Down the hall from me is where a nice old Tibetan woman lives with a few of the other senior monks. She doesn't speak any English, but I think she really likes taking care of me as she is constantly bringing me tea and apples. There is a balcony on our floor overlooking the entire valley. It is the most beautiful sight I have ever seen.
So, I was informed that we were going to have a short introductory session where I would meet all the monks and I would split them accordingly into 3 groups, this would be at 6:30. I was exhausted, so I decided to take a little nap. Around 5:00 I was roused by gongs and chants below me. I decided to get up and investigate. So I went down stairs and peer through the windows to the prayer room. Little monks, none more than 10 years old, were sitting on their raised seats, chanting and reading their Tibetan scripture (is that what you call it?) Two of the young monks were stationed by the gongs and beat the gongs in a wonderful rhythm with the chanting. It was all quite magical. I was amazed at these young boys, and trying to understand what their life was like. At such a young age they become completely devoted to this sort of life. Anyway, I went back up to my room to read a bit of my book. It was about 5:45 and I suddenly looked up from my book with a jolt... Hold on, I thought to myself. How do you teach English? Oh dear, 45 minutes until my first class and I just realized that I have no idea. I racked my brain for a while jotting down some ideas of what I was going to say to these monks on our first meeting. At 6:30 a loud bell was rung which meant time for class. So I went to a room which was specially cleared out to be my class room. It is next door to the monastery library. In this room the little monks sit and glue together yellow paper printed with Tibetan scripture which will be put into prayer wheels.
I walked into my classroom to find it full of mostly young boys with shinning round faces, all clad in maroon and gold, smiling up at me. It was a bit intimidating at first. All the monks were sitting on pillows on the ground waiting for me to begin. I began with introductions, etc, etc... Then I passed out paper and had them all write their names on it. I wanted to see how much English each one of them actually knew. So after talking about myself for a bit I asked them some questions like 'what is your name,' 'how old are you,' 'have you studied English before,' 'how long have you lived at the monastery,' and things of that nature. After this introductory class I collected all the papers and sent the monks on their way. Some of the monks know quite alot of English and some know none. This is going to be interesting, I thought.
I was reading the monk's assignments in my room when the senior monk came to see me. I told me that one of the teachers at the monastery wanted very much to learn English. He is one of the older monks, probably somewhere in his 30's and from Tibet. He is the Buddhist philosophy teacher at the monastery and has just finished further studies on Buddhist philosophy in India. So, since he is the oldest of my students and the teacher to all the other boys, we decided it would be better for him to have private tutoring. So we decided I would be teaching this Buddhist philosphy lama at 8 am every day. This was a bit overwhelming at first that I was to be teaching one of the leading experts on Buddhist philosophy in Nepal, and that he himself was a teacher... Oh dear, I thought, I hope he doesn't think I am a fraud! Then the senior monk and I decided that I would also have class from 9-10 and 10-11 and then from 2-3. This all sounded great to me.
So the next day at 5 in the morning I was woken up by gongs and bells ringing and chants. I looked out my window to see that the little monks where scurrying around the grass ready for the day! I opened my door and a little monk was waiting with a tray of breakfast for me which consisted of yak butter tea, a bowl of thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup), and a stack of sliced buttered bread. I thanked him, and he shyly slided away to find his friends. I at breakfast and prepared for the day. My first class, as I told you, was private tutoring with the Buddhist philosphy teacher. He is very excited to learn English, but truly doesn't know much right now. So we started with the alphabet, capitals and lower case letters and what you use them for. During our tutoring session he kept having to scold the younger monks who were stationed outside the door of my classroom eagerly peaking inside. After class with the lama, I had my second and third classes. These two classes are for the younger monks. They are ages 8-13. These monks are quite eager but also don't know too much. A few can read, so we practiced reading aloud sentences on the board. I also tried to teach them a few question and answer types of things. After these two classes I retired to my room for a bit to rest. Teaching in exhausting! Soon another little monk brought me some lunch. At 1:30 I was fetched by one of my students for my fourth class. My fourth class has about 8 -10 boys in it. This class is alot of fun because all these boys are quite good at English already. Most of these boys are about 13 or so years old and very smart. They are incredibly fast learners. We have already covered nouns, singular and plural nouns, adjectives, vowels, consonants, verbs, and helping verbs just in the first day. The monks are very focused students and very eager to learn, I suppose because they are trained to do this from a very young age. In class they are well behaved and attentive, probably a bit different from your average 10 year old boy. But once they get out of class, they are your typical young boys. I was watching them last night and it was quite hilarious. Still clad in their monks robes they were doing your typical boy stuff: jumping off the roof of their dorms, doing back flips, and playing in the dirt.
So this whole thing is quite amazing. I work 6 days a week, with Sundays off. I am still trying to figure out how to go about all of this. My 4th class is alot of fun because they already known a good deal of English and pick things up so fast. But I know what I really need to figure out is how to teach the ones who don't know anything yet. I am not exactly sure where to start. This had definetally given me a new respect for all my Japanese teachers along the way! This is hard! Another problem is that some of my monks are very eager to answer questions, and some are quite shy. I have found that the monks are typically much more shy than your average Nepali kid. I think they were all a bit confused by me at first, but now they are all just excited to have a foreign English teacher. Some of the monks I have even noticed come to two classes in a row! I suppose I will just continue to learn how to teach as I go. This endeavor I think will be really good for me because I can't help but be patient with it. One thing I am not is patient. After my first class I found myself a bit frustrated that all my young monks weren't already literary scholars. I had to remind myself that I had only been teaching them for one day, and I had to be patient with it.
Life at the monastery is the most peaceful experience I have ever had. Lots of time for reading, writing, and reflection. It is a beautiful place. I really adore all my monks, they are sooooo cute!! They are such hilarious little ones, they are monks, but they are still little boys too. They all were delighted to show me their dog who lives next to the little monks dorm. The dog's name is Sonam Toshi which they all think is thoroughly hilarious because Sonam Toshi is also the name of one of their teachers. Sonam Toshi is a gigantic St. Bernard looking dog.
The only problem, which is not really a problem at all, is that these monks feed me soo much!! I think they assume that teaching these boys is the equivalent to running a marathon (which sometimes it feels close.) But everytime I go back to my room the old Tibetan lady or one of the young monks brings me a tray of food or a bowl of noodle soup! Everyone has breakfast together at 7:30, lunch is at 12:00, tea is at 3:00 and dinner is at 6:30. We have a cook at the monastery who makes delicious Tibetan food. My favorite so far is the Thukpa, which as I said is Tibetan noodle soup. I had had "thukpa" before at Kathmandu restaurants, but it is definetally not the same as this real thukpa. It is a brothy soup, with thick egg noodles and vegetable in it. So delicious! The yak butter tea, as usual, is interesing... Sort of like a buttery chicken broth. The milk tea is delicious at the monastery. One of my students usually brings me a whole thermos full in the morning, which I cannot ever drink all of!
I spend my free time enjoying the views of the valley, reading, exploring the countryside, and talking to the monks who know some English. I have made good friends with one of the older monks who has happily agreed to tutor me on the subject of Tibetan Buddhism. I am excited for this, he brought me 3 interesting books last night for me to look over. All the teachers are very nice, and eager to talk to me in English. The young monks are very shyly curious about me, but seem to be much more comfortable with me in just a day. The village of Sankhu which is below the monastery is great for exploring. It is full of ancient looking Newari stone architecture. Goats, pigs, ducks, and dogs roam the street. On the stone path to the town I usually pass more goats than people.
So, that is the story of how I become the English teacher to this wonderful little Tibetan Buddhist monastery perched in the hills. I now wake up to chanting and gongs instead of honking horns and dogs barking (with the exception of Sonam Toshi when he gets mad.) The clean air sparkles with wind chimes, and the lawn is always full of smiling little figures wearing billowing maroon and gold robes. That is the story of how I came to be living at the monastery.