Today I woke up and realized with sadness that it is our last day here. The TCV, a quiet oasis in the chaos of India, has quickly become our home and our students have become our friends. Even though it’s a Sunday and we have to leave at 8 AM, the students still arrived to say final goodbyes. We were presented with hugs, more Katas and banana bread from Lhakpa’s parents.

Saying goodbye is harder than I imagined. The students wanted to know the time difference between India and Seattle so they would know when to check their email to find out that we made it home okay. They made us promise never to forget them. That’s a promise I know I will never break.

Before heading back to the airport, we detoured briefly to the Norbulingka Institute. This is a center dedicated to preserving Tibetan arts and culture. It gave us all a chance to wander through the tranquil grounds, temple Dorma Ling nunnery and watch the artisans at work, while we quietly reflected on our experiences over the past two weeks.

We discussed how meeting, bonding with these students and listening to their stories has been a life changing experience. Through their voices and stories we’ve learned so much about Tibet and its culture, and ultimately about ourselves too. I appreciate Getty Images for awarding me this opportunity and feel privileged to have met such amazing students and have witnessed the success of the Bridges to Understanding program. As the board president for another Seattle-based non-profit with a similar mission – Youth in Focus – this experience has energized me further in supporting and evangelizing important programs such as these.

Somewhat fittingly with our sad mood, it began to rain for the first time on our trip as we said our goodbyes to the other mentors and staff.

On the plane home, my husband Chris and I didn’t waste anytime and started to plan our return visit.

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The local dogs barked all night (again) but Chris still got up at dawn to watch the students practice for the big anniversary of TCV celebration coming up on Saturday.

I woke up two hours later and joined everyone for our usual breakfast of Tibetan white bread and milky chai tea. This is going to be a big day and I am now over halfway through my Getty Images‘ trip with Bridges to Understanding and we still have a lot of work to do to create our digital story.

Luckily, “Team Compassion” works quickly! We finalized the narrative with Lhakpa and he recorded it in just a couple of takes. I had given the team some homework to do – they had to write out how they would put compassion into action. We video taped each student speaking in turn and wrapped up our audio. Check it out!

Picture by Chungdak

Image by Phunima

Chris worked with the students to complete the shot list and shoot any gaps we were missing, including their portraits. Lhapka loves taking conceptual photos and he has earned the nickname “Mr. Implicit.”

Picture by Chungdak

Picture by Tenzin Dadon

We finished our work for the day, pleased with the progress we had made, and headed into town to do some shopping behind some unconventional traffic.

I bought a Tibetan singing bowl and a black and white woven bracelet that Chungdak has told me is called a “Chime Giltoo” (Tibetan for immortal with nine eyes). These are made by Tibetan political prisoners as a symbol to remember their plight. I buy them in bulk.

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Today is the first day of our big photo shoot! We met the students after an early breakfast and went down to Mcloud Ganj to see if our compassionate nun was home. We knew we were in the right place because we were greeted by an abundance of dogs but no one else was home. When the dogs started to growl and circle us, we quickly exited the area.

Picture by Tenzin Lhakpa

Because the nun is central to our story, we are a little lost on what to do next. First we decided to find out why she is not at home and she had a good reason. His Holiness, the Dalai Lama is back in town after being hospitalized. The whole town is going to greet him, including our nun. We decided to follow the steady stream of nuns, monks and backpackers to the main street by the temple.

While we were waiting, the students practiced their photography techniques, including portraiture, framing, capturing the “sweet light” – a popular Josh-ism – and even asking nuns and monks to pose as a back up if our other nun didn’t appear later.

After an hour wait, His Holiness arrived in a motorcade and we got a fleeting glimpse of him. One of our students even got this snap (look in the front seat):

Photo by Phunima

Then, we visited the temple where His Holiness lives before heading back to complete our task for the day.

Yep, back to photographing the dog lady.

As the students (and myself if I’m being completely honest) are still nervous from our previous, angry dog encounter at the house, Lori – one of the Bridges to Understanding staff comes with us. She quickly earns a new nickname – The Dog Whisperer.

This time at the house we call out in unison (and in Tibetan) to the nun, Sonam Tsering, to come out of the house. She suddenly emerges in a mass of barking dogs and climbs up the dark, narrow steps to meet us. The kids jump into action (except Lhakpa who is busy hiding behind me) and a very chaotic paparazzi moment begins. With bulbs flashing and dogs barking and the children yelling in Tibetan.

It gets dark quickly and we have to leave. After cajoling a reluctant Lhakpa into a quick shot with the nun:

Photo by Tenzin Dadon

Chungdak finishes recording the dogs for some ambient noise for our digital story. We shout our goodbyes leaving the nun alone among the barking mass once more.

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Today we met with the Bridges to Understanding staff Lori & Tanya, & Josh, the photography instructor, to briefly discuss the mentoring aspect of the workshop. Suddenly 12 shy, but smiling, Tibetan students entered the classroom & dragged their chairs to the back of the room!

Lori got us up & moving around with an introductory aerobics session & energetic name game. I’ll never remember all of the Tibetan names, although about half of them start with Tenzin, so if in doubt that’s my best guess!

We started the workshop with a photography scavenger hunt with the kids, asking them to  take both explicit and implicit photos of fairly complex concepts such as dreams,  freedom and compassion. Pema, Palkyi & I ventured out in a rather nervous fashion, but I had nothing to worry about — these kids are smart and creative and as soon as a concept was explained to them, no matter how abstract, they totally got it and snapped some great shots.  I think the Getty Images’ photographers have some competition!

Picture by Palkyi

Picture by Pema

Picture by Pema

After presenting all of the work, we were taken on a tour of TCV,  and discovered most of the kids live in group houses, looked after by a house mother, as most of  the students are either orphaned or their parents are in  back in Tibet and the children escaped on their own when very young.  Only three of the students we met lived outside of the TCV, and some students don’t have any relatives at all.

The visit to the “baby house” was very entertaining. The kids grabbed us as soon as we arrived & insisted on showing us around, even though they couldn’t speak,  It was our first realization that although the kids were well loved, by the TCV staff, they were all still seeking attention and contact of any kind. Chris became a human climbing frame until he was rescued by Choeppel, one of the teachers.

The tour took us past the temple where we saw a monk teaching the finer points of debate to two focused students…

(image 30 monk)

…past many group houses, the football field & dozens of kids playing. Ping pong seemed to be a particular favorite.

There’s a tuck shop on site as well as a book shop and canteen.

The tour ended at the library, where I was again accosted, this time by 2 students who wanted me to help them read Dr Seuss. Try to explain the meaning of some of those words to Tibetan kids!

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Today was exciting for us as we met up with the other participants of the Bridges to Understanding workshop this morning. We checked out of the Florence Hotel in Delhi, which inexplicably had paintings of Vermont in each guest room, and are ready to fly up to Dharamsala.

Our Bridges group is small but articulate. Kim, Elizabeth, Owen, Pat, my husband Chris and myself. Getty Images is sponsoring me to attend this workshop and I am nervous but anxious to meet the students and get going.

After a flight on a tiny and fairly unstable plane, we landed in a landscape the exact opposite to Delhi – snow capped mountains, lush green landscapes and most noticeably, a lot less trash.

We traveled for about an hour up many steep and windy roads and finally arrived at the TCV (Tibetan children village) and checked into the guest house on campus. It has simple rooms but is clean and comfortable.

After a dinner of traditional Tibetan food (white rice and vegetables) cooked by Pema, the housekeeper, we chatted a bit and then fell asleep wearing all of our clothes including a wool hat (it’s freezing in the mountains and the building is not heated).

Despite the best efforts of the many barking dogs, we finally crashed. Tomorrow we meet the students!

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