Whoa!!!! Things are speeding up…

Nelson got into Mcleod Ganj on Saturday and we have spent the last few days hanging out around town and having many conversations about working together on The Enemies Project. I am really excited to work with him here in asia. He is a very innovative person and artist with a huge heart. I have been helping him get settled in here in India and have been helping him find contacts here in Mcleod Ganj as he wants to study the Tibetan-Chinese conflict before we head up to Kashmir.

You all should totally follow Nelson’s blog (linked below). If you click on the “Follow” link in the bottom right corner of your screen you will get updates on how the project is going. And since we will be traveling and working together you will get an Idea of what I’m up to as well. (nelson is updating a bit more frequently as well).

Here is the link to Nelson’s blog –  http://enemiesproject.com/blog

Since we will be leaving Mcleod Ganj soon to go to Kashmir, I had to say goodbye to my English students at Lha. I invited them out for tea after class the other day and we all got together as a group one last time. So amazing… Its funny how things work. I came here to learn and meet people in and get a little involved. Then you realize that in seven weeks you made a bunch of great friends and not only passed through their community but genuenly touched peoples lives… Pretty amazing. In Tibetan culture it is customary to give white silk scarves to people that are leaving as a token of good luck on all their journeys. My students each presented me with one as we were parting. So special

here are some photos of us all!

Here is an image of the prayer wheels on a path that circumnavigates the Dalai Lama’s Temple. Nelson is walking with my monk friend Rabten in the background.

Last night me and Nelson met up with a group of my students whom are all monks for dinner the other night. It was so much fun. There was around five or six monks with us who were from Tibet, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Ladahk and South India. They were all super talkative and discussing different Buddhist philosophies, telling us about their lives as monks and asking us questions about the definitions of english words. One of the words was ‘cosmopolitan’… And it’s a great example of a word because the were quite the cosmopolitan group of monks ha ha ha. We shared an incredible home cooked meal on the tile floor of the building they live in (consisting of Bhutanese, Indian and Nepali dishes – and a bunch of German pastries for desert) So dank… I also brought my guitar and we played music and took turns singing songs till late in the night.

Here we all are eating dinner! Check out my awesome tropical hairdo ah ha ha.

I will try to do one more post before me and Nelson leave Mcleod Ganj for Kashmir. There are lots of opportunities here for nelson to photograph people in  the Tibetan-Chinese conflict for his project. We spent most of today talking with different NGOs about working together and connecting us with people to photograph. We talked with the Ex-Political Prisoners Association, Students for a Free Tibet, The Tibetan Youth Congress and the Tibetan Democratic Party and will talk with more groups and start taking pictures tomorrow. Check out Nelson’s blog for his updates  as well.

Jay la Jaiyung (see you soon),

Alex