One Week

This is earlier this week: I woke up at 5 a.m. and went running in a rocky, weedy, wobbly piece of land that an orphanage and prayer rooms will be built for Karuna Home.  It’s the safest place, though, because the main road is the road near us and people die on it all the time.  It was really lumpy and muddy and it was only ½ mile per lap, and only if we got creative during the laps with crisscrossing and the like.

Tibetan camps. After running, showering and breakfasting, we went to get my protected area permit from the police station.  We thereafter took a rickshaw to town and bought groceries and other necessary items.  After this we met up with Beau and Lori and went to the Golden Temple and the Tibetan settlement camps.  It is the most auspicious day in Tibetan Buddhism.  Today is Saka Dawa, the day the Buddha was enlightened.  Karma counts twice as much today, I’ve been told, and because of this, many offerings and rituals were being done at the Golden Temple and throughout the camps.  It was spectacular.  Seeing the monks and the people worshipping was beautiful. The sounds, the smells, the sights, all of it was sort of unreal.  I kept thinking of my brother Brandon the whole time, who really was born in the wrong part of the world.  He should be among monks.  I also let my thoughts wonder to the “Free Tibet” movement while passing shops selling shirts, purses, bags, and other items with the phrase printed on them.  As I was witnessing the worshipping and reading the phrase and reflecting on Tibet, Tibet, I began to feel a strong sense of connection to the need for the movement, and a completely different interpretation of what it means.  These people really have been in physical, spiritual, and cultural bondage in many ways, and yet what they have to offer to the world is beautiful and such an asset.  Without getting uncomfortably emotional, let it be noted that I was totally floored by what I saw today.

Children’s performance. Upon returning to Karuna Home, we were able to have a feast and watch a performance by the students.  I cried silently, of course, at the end of nearly every performance. Children with physical disabilities and mental disabilities—some mild, but most severe—were the stars of the show, and the people really loved seeing them.  No one was pitying them, they were admiring them.  It was fantastic.  I knew that these children are regularly relegated to beggars or other positions in life because of confused societal norms or inability to sustain them, but at Karuna they live.  They have such meaning in their lives. My participation was limited to sitting in the front row (!!) with my fellow BYU classmates and other visitors and monks while we ate snacks and drank soda.  At the very end of all the dances and song numbers the kids pulled us up to dance in front of everyone.  My dancing is like that of Elaine from Seinfeld, so they got the show of their lives.  My classmates probably felt ashamed when they saw the way my body moves. 

Research. The people here are extremely eager about getting teacher training from a special educator in a master’s program.  I think my sort of presence here is unusual—especially my being American.  Well I’m a Young American.  Like David Bowie says.  I’m a young American researcher/teacher/master’s student with many years experience and a very confused sense of humor.  The point is, people don’t want me sitting around here for three months watching them I guess.  Who would have thought?

After talking with two beloved professors from the excellent BYU, I’m relieved and happy to move forward with research.  They said it’s normal for ethnographies/case studies to have changing elements, and that I must complete my research as planned (at least interviewing and observing portions) prior to any training of staff, and that I could complete this in a shorter amount of time if things go well and train after. Completing big parts of the original research more quickly means I will be staying at Karuna thereafter entirely to train and volunteer and do other interesting research.  This makes me terribly happy, as I sometimes resent that I'm not intervening.  Soon!