Goodbye to Tibetan Bir & the Monks

Gift to the Monks

Before we said farewell to Bir, we left a gift to the monks. Dine and I bought paints to decorate their classroom, which was in desperate need of some TLC. We asked the help of other volunteers, who were teaching in other monasteries to do the job. After two days, their smelly and damp classroom was transformed into a very pleasant space to learn.
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Classroom before Painting

The monks were very excited watching us and the other volunteers painting and they wanted to help too! They helped us moving all the furniture out of the classroom and bring them back a couple of days later.  

Painting Squad I: Chris, Josh, Clau, Luke & Dawa

Painting Squad II: Dine, Raji and Monks Dorjee & Passang

The monks also helped us painting, but they were making a big mess and wasting a lot of paint, so we send them off the room back to their outdoor English class. They were not happy, but we had the last word. J

Outdoor Class with Volunteers Paula & Maili (Mother & Daughter)

The monks were very kind and brought chai (Indian tea) to all volunteers.  It was a lovely surprise, which brought a smile to our faces!

Phurba serving te to our Volunteer Coordinator Dawa

It was great to see their classroom freshly painted. Although it wasn’t a job meticulously done, all the volunteers felt happy with the final results. The list of happy people included the monks, the monastery runners, our Project Coordinator Dawa and our host-sister Yeshi, who loves this monastery!

Classrom after Painting

GOODBYE TO TIBETAN BIR

Sadly, our time in Tibetan Bir came to an end. Our four weeks in this tiny village went so fast! We really enjoyed spending time with the Tibetan people and learning about their culture. It was also a great experience teaching English to the young monks in the Buddhist monastery.

Tibetan Women dressed in Traditonal Outfit

We say goodbye to this wonderful Tibetan community, whom brought so much warmth to our hearts, especially our great monk students!

Goodbye to our Playful Monk Students

Our next stop is the holy city of Varanasi. After that we will head to our final destination in Cochin, Kerala state. There we will stay in an ashram immersing ourselves into the world of yoga and meditation.