Working every day outside the walls of the monastery has meant that I've met a whole load of new Indian people. Now just about the whole village is familiar with me. It has also meant that I am now giving English lessons in the local computer centre.
Indians go mad for English lessons. I think it's because they see it as a sort of ticket into a bright future. They associate it with education and development. It's a shame because it sums up the lack of hope that they have in their country. I speak perfect English and it doesn't make anything any easier, but they're still desperate to learn it.
The offshoot of this is that a load of Indian men now have my phone number. Every night I get a text saying
"GOOD NIGHT
TOM"
I don't know who it's from but I appreciate the thought. I also get walked home by a bunch of guys who like to practice their English, so I have t0 go the long way home, so I'm always late for dinner.
It seems I've been inducted into one of the social circles of the villagers.
The school hasn't calmed down either. In fact as I run out of steam day by day, the lessons get worse. (it's hard to make them work when you don't really mind if they do or not.)
Yesterday I made a big mobile with lots of drawings of birds that the class 1,2 and 3 kids had done. I also painted a picture of Minnie mouse in Tibetan dress on the wall. So my legacy will stay on in the school for years. Not just in the minds of the children. Minnie mouse might perhaps last longer than what I've been teaching them. The other day I ran out of ideas so I just did a whole lesson on soup.
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