Things shake, then flow...

Today classes were canceled again.

Only it was somewhat more exciting (frustrating?) because I was about thirty minutes into class (various English greetings was the topic of the day) when the aftershocks of the latest earthquake were felt. So most of the students rushed outside (understand dear reader that these students have been sleeping outside on the football field for the past few nights in fear and the freezing cold) and I (being the American that I am) thought the teacher should be the last to leave so I waited in the class with the dozen or so students who didn't leave. It wasn't until the headmaster came in that I realized that on the other side of the world the teacher is the first one out and those students who had stayed were begging me to go home so that they could leave too!

So what's foreign teacher to do with half of her first week of classes canceled due to earthquakes?

Don't stifle the Spirit.

Outside where all the students had gathered after class had been canceled I chanced to meet a Chinese English teacher who is here only for this semester. Her English was very good and so I exchanged telephone numbers and knowing that I had the whole afternoon totally free I offered to take her out to tea (which, oddly enough, she had never done in Lhasa). So after an excellent lunch with my teammate of quite possibly the best egg and tomato I have ever eaten I called this English teacher up and within minutes we were settled into a tea house near our school chatting about school and our families and women’s rights (her choice of topic) and once again overdosing on sweet milk tea.

Then she mentioned a temple not far from the school.

So of course we had to go see it.

Can you imagine my surprise when this “temple” which she had spoken of was none other than the Sera Monastery! The third largest monastery in the area; Sera is a maze of crumbling buildings, gaudily painted walls, carvings of various Buddhist gods, butter lamp and water offerings, overgrown tangles of wildflowers and weeds, doors that open to courtyards that are surrounded by doors, and row after row of prayer wheels.

The sky this afternoon was dark and the gloomy grey of rain could be seen descending on the distant mountains. She complained of not enough light for her pictures; I thought it was appropriate.

Sera was a unique experience for me. For the first time I came face to face with the statues that so many people here bow before. I came ear to ear with the chants which spill out of every idle mouth, came eye to eye with the cases of Buddhist writings covered in colorful cloth. I watched as the red-robed monks shuffled clockwise around white pillars wearily spinning wheel after wheel in hopes of gaining merit.

The sky grew darker and darker and we both decided it was time to find our way back.

There is salvation in no one else…

How to overdose on Tibetan sweet milk tea...

Just in case any of you back home were wondering how to overdose on Tibetan sweet milk tea:

It's simple really. Just survive an earthquake, find yourself with ample free time because classes were canceled due to the earthquake, wander through some un-named streets in a neighborhood in Lhasa, end up in front of the Jokhang temple sitting on a wall and watching Chinese tourists with outrageously expensive cameras and monks and beggars and small children and all manner of other humanity.

But where does the tea come in?

Well wait a moment, as you are sitting there please notice the guy walking back and forth suspiciously like he is trying to get up the nerve to talk to you.

If you want to overdose on sweet tea, you'll accept his offer to allow him and his five other classmates (who have randomly appeared out of nowhere) to practice English with you, you'll also accept their offer to accompany them to a nearby tea house after the police officer insists that you are too big a group and you must disperse, once at the tea house you will have no choice but to accept the endless cup after cup of delicious sweet tea until it is no longer delicious and you feel like you might drown. Death by sweet tea... I'm not sure how they say that in Tibetan.

You asked for more pics...

Did you feel the mountains tremble? I did.

Today was my first day teaching.

Imagine walking into a room only to be greeted by forty curious, shy, and surprised faces. Imagine doing that three times. Imagine doing that three times when you were only supposed to do it twice. (Wrong room numbers are the curse of the Chinese education system, and a stumbling block for foreign teachers, oh well, no worries).

Class was very simple today, only introductions and rules. I allowed each class an opportunity to ask me any questions they wanted. Here are some of the questions: Where are you from? Why did you come to Lhasa? What do you believe? Do you have a boyfriend? Will you sing for us?

I love them. I love the students who answered my questions, the students who obviously enjoyed being in class, the students who didn't follow directions, the students who spoke mostly in Chinese, the students who were attentive, the students who came late, the students who were eager, the students who wished that they were in any other place, the students who were kind, who were patient, who were bored.

Today was my first day shopping by myself.

Imagine walking exhausted back to your apartment after two two hour classes only to find out that there was hardly any food. Imagine the sudden realization that to get food one would have to go back out amongst the students and strangers to fend for oneself with only the tiniest amount of language. Imagine, despite all those odds, doing it anyway.

I went into one shop and bought yogurt, sugar, and chicken bouillon (I think). I went to the next shop and bought two onion bread rolls and a cruchy twisty bread for breakfast. I went to the next shop and bought mushrooms, corn, carrots, spinach, and a cucumber. I went to another shop and bought cookies and some milk. I ventured into a final shop and bought a thermos to replace the one which I had condemned due to the funk.

I did these things. I did them by myself, but I was not alone.

Today was my first day surviving an earthquake.

Imagine getting home, boiling water, and sitting down to write a few emails only to be shaken to pieces. Imagine not being able to figure out why the cabinets are coming open, why things are sliding around, why the building sounds like it's being slammed with a jack hammer. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is what a 6.6 earthquake 50 miles west of Lhasa feels like. As far as I can tell there was no damage within Lhasa, and as far as I've heard it's very unusual to get an earthquake here.

Earlier today I had read in Isaiah:
If only You would tear the heavens open and come down so that mountains would quake at Your presence...

hmmmm.....

Yak whisperer...

Let this be a little addendum to the fantastic yak video I just posted:
We just came back from an overnight camping trip in the Shea valley (you can hear my heavy breathing in the video, we had to hike up a ways before we found a good spot) where we came across villages, nomads, beautiful mountain scenery (never fails to blow my mind!), a river, and yaks galore... it was like a yak dream world... so many yaks!

Which makes me feel like listing
Seven reasons why yaks might be the best animal on the face of the earth:

1. They are so loveable. Just look at their soft wooly selves and big old eyes... how can you not love that?
2. They make a really strange snort/moaning sound which kinda makes me giggle... definitely not your "moo moo"
3. They provide milk (slightly sour) and from that you can get the closest thing to cheese that they have here. And we all love cheese.
   
4. They are so tasty. Dried yak jerky is all the rage here and they have tons of different flavors, you mix some of that in some instant noodles and you've got a delicious cuisine my friend.
5. They just wander wherever they please. No mountain pass too narrow, no cliff face too sheer, no intersection too busy...
6. They aren't surprised or disgusted to find you peeing behind a rock, nope they just stare at you with those big old eyes.
7. Yak dung. More than just a cheap, efficient, and not revoltingly stinky source of fuel, it also makes lovely household decor (I guess I should put up a picture to explain... I might save it for the newsletter!)
   

Yak whisperer...

Struck down but not destroyed...

Here are a list of reasons I have for being frustrated beyond all reason today:

• My right hand is sun burned, like burned stiff.
  
• The new cell phone is not wanting to charge (granted it was the cheapest cell phone I could possibly have purchased, however, come on people, batteries all over the world can hold a charge... but apparently not the one in this cell phone.)
• I got my watch fixed today, but the man overcharged me a bit which I don't really begrudge him save for the fact that it's still acting a little strange... I mean I'll pay you more because I'm a chigye (foreigner) but at least fix the thing!
• I bought a Chinese/English English/Chinese dictionary today, only it's basically useless (a fact that I didn't figure out until arriving home) because the English to Chinese part doesn't use Pinyin, only characters, so I have no idea how to pronounce anything, leaving me right where I was before I bought the dictionary.
• I have a massive blister on my left foot, the product of walking miles around the city
• One of the thermoses that I have here for water has some majorly funky funk growing in it... guess I need to get a new one (not necessarily the simple task one might imagine).
  

We are pressured in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.

Because as defeating and mildly frustrating as all those things are, they are nothing compared to the unimaginable freedom of the grace we know. They are not even much compared to the chance to smile at people on the street knowing that my smile is a refection of His, or the leisure to wander in and out of old alleys filled with dusty children and the crumbling beauty of ancient Tibetan homes with a sure and steady knowledge that the Creator of all knows their names and addresses and loves them dearly.

Yeah a busted (cell phone/dictionary/thermos/foot/watch/hand) is a small price to pay. Struck down but not destroyed...