Afternoon of teaching English.

Wow how easy/cheap it is to blog with my iphones. . . wifis everywhere!
Spent the afternoon today volunteering at LIT (Learning Ideas for Tibet). It was such a great experience. Sitting in a room of refugees and monks, as well as volunteers from around the world. I had two student, given a set of questions for them to answer. The theme was family. The goal was to help them formulate structured answers both orally and in writing. After workinh one on one answering all the questions in the small groups the students had to present their answer infront of the whole group. Then we learnt that there was a tradition afterwards, all new volunteers had to sing a song. Luckily, there were 11 of us so we all sang twinkle twinkle little star together. Then the new students had to sing as well. The funny part was that during the class some student cell phones went off and thus facing the punisment of singing on their own infront of the group.
I am really glad I did this and sad to be leaving on Monday for Dalhouise. McLeod Ganj is truly the living Tibet. Horrible to say that, but true in a sense. The tibetians are more free in all aspects. China has built a direct train route from Beijing to Lhasa so that it is easier for Han Chinese to move and develop Tibet into a more Chinese province. Before Chinese occupation Tibet had a population of 6 billion, now it is roughly 5 billion. This meaning in 50 years there has been no population growth, because of fleeing citizens, chinese brutality and the sterilization of women. . . Also, China states that Tibet does not fall under the one child policy law, but if women are found to be bearing a 2nd child they face a huge fine or an inhumane sterilization while awake, and left to heal on there own. Furthermore, many made in China products are actuallu made by imprisoned tibetians, defiantly making me rethink my place of production when buying things. One tging I have learned has been that the Tibetian nomads have been forced to live in concentration like compounds, loosing their tradition of living off the pasturelands of Tibet. China states this is to protect the flora and fauna, but really its to use the land for economic welfare, daming all the major rivers in Tibet that are the source for all the major rivers in Asia. So if you are reading this post please begin your own research and become more aware of the issue. It all starts with awareness, then taking whatever action you can. Om Mani Padme Hum my friends.