Bylakuppe: We left for Bylakuppe on the 12th which was a very long travel day. Knowing I had a presentation coming up in Bylakuppe, I spent the morning trying to do research, but just being part of a generation who has been spoiled with fast internet… I wanted to rip my hair out trying to just do a simple google search. I carried my duffel bag full of mostly my -50 degree sleeping bag. I don’t know why I brought my extreme sleeping bag to South India, where it is about always 90 degrees. To accommodate space for my handy sleeping bag I brought the bare minimum and I was very proud of myself. Eventually everyone else got to the SIT house and we got on a big bus, piled with hiking packs, and college students and drove to the airport. The customs process here and in India is just a giant conveyer belt and if your stuff beeps you just keeping walking through and if it doesn’t beep you get to walk through… so from my perspective this is awesome but in sense of security probably not so much. We then got on an hour and a half flight where the entire time I was staring out my window looking at the Himalayas. I don’t think I even blinked the entire time. To be able to see these huge mountains snow topped just like shown on TV or National Geographic, but in person was crazy. I couldn’t help to think that people have climbed these, and I was just blown away. After a delicious plane meal we got off and ran to our connecting flight, which was I think 4 hours but my time is all off when I sleep the entire time, which is what I did. That night we arrived in Bengaluru where we stayed at a hostel, that is primarily occupied with Tibetan college students who couldn’t go home for the holiday break so they were living in this hostel until they were going to start school in India again. But I was able to take a shower not from a bucket but with a shower head!!! So that was fantastic… even with the giant cockroaches on the shower walls. Then at 10 AM we got on the bus and drove the entire day to Bylakuppe. We did take a nice stop on the side of the highway and eat fresh coconuts..which even for someone who doesn’t like coconuts was refreshing. Hours later and we took a nice detour to somewhere I forgot because one of my teachers just decided to do this at the last moment so it was not in the schedule. But we had a nice lunch where we had to eat with our hands… that still very much grosses me out.. I have not left all of my western views at home, but slowly I am getting less and less grossed out by it. Then we left our shoes at the restaurant and with bare feet walked up this giant pilgrimage site. Which even the best shaped people in my group struggled to climb up all those steep tiny stairs. It was so beautiful to see India from that high, but because I didn’t know this was happening I left my camera and phone on the bus so I had to just take a mental picture. Then when I thought I was at the top, one of my teachers tapped my shoulder and pointed upwards so I kept walking upwards and found the giant statue which was crazy to see how someone could build that by hand. Then we got back in the bus for hours and arrived in Bylakuppe at about 10:00 PM.
My homestay family in Bylakuppe was confusing in the sense of the family dynamic. Who I thought was my Ama-la (mother) was actually someone else’s mom in my group and didn’t even actually live in our house. Then my Pa-la was technically my very old brother. My ama-la was who I thought was my grandma, who was the cutest lady, so cute my friend taylor and I, who also lived in the house with me took pictures with her. My pa-la/ brother is a chef so the food he made for us was delicious. The first morning there right before my presentation my pa-la gave us chang which is homemade tibetan alcohol made form rice… Which is very hard for me to drink so I told him I can’t drink this before school… because I probably shouldn’t be drunk for my first presentation. Then he gave us cauliflower which was fried and covered in a buffalo sauce.. It was so good and the best thing I have eaten here since I left America. It tasted like chicken so I was nervous I probably asked my brother/pa-la if it was vegetarian about ten times. Then Taylor and I walked to school… and ran into two guys in our group about thirty minutes later… then all four of us continued to walk… and an hour went by and we accumulated about most of our class wondering around Bylakuppe trying to find our school. Now over an hour late for my presentation I didn’t feel as worried since the entire class was lost. Sweaty and tired we finally arrived at our school, where our teachers laughed because they didn’t know that our homestay where that far. In Bylakuppe they have multiple camps I believe 14 which are areas of tibetan refugees. We needed a permit just to be allowed to enter the camps, and these were very hard to get my teachers explained.Then Taylor and I walked to school… and ran into two guys in our group about thirty minutes later… then all four of us continued to walk… and an hour went by and we accumulated about most of our class wondering around Bylakuppe trying to find our school. Now over an hour late for my presentation I didn’t feel as worried since the entire class was lost. Sweaty and tired we finally arrived at our school, where our teachers laughed because they didn’t know that our homestay where that far. In Bylakuppe they have multiple camps I believe 14 which are areas of tibetan refugees. We needed a permit just to be allowed to enter the camps, and these were very hard to get my teachers explained. Taylor and I lived in camp 3 and our school was in camp 1 so you can imagine if it took us that long to walk there how far they are spread out.
In bylakuppe we got to see nunneries, where my group and I as part of our field research interviewed one of the monks who could speak english, who was actually Nepali. A partner and I were paired with a high school student from Bylakuppe who was tibetan and she was our co researcher. She took us to a school, our drop off location, and pointed us in the right directions to all these knowledgeable resources. We talked to another young girl about the school system and the importance of keeping Tibetan language… then both girls took us to a cafeteria where about 14 teenage boys were studying for their exams. They gathered around us and we did a group interview, which was very overwhelming at first, but luckily my partner didn’t seem to have problems with crowds. But it was interesting to me how much they know about American politics. Everyone brings up Trump and just laughs and says he’s funny.. and make fun of his hair. During other field work I was privileged to enter the top floor of sara je monastery. Where the top floor is dedicated to the Dalai Lama. He stays there when he visits. So I circumambulated the house, just shocked that that is where I was right then. Every surface even the lid of the toilet was covered in rupees for him. Just piles and piles of money. Then my group and I conducted an interview with on of the highest lamas at that monastery. Which was hard for me because we were getting a males perspective on women issues… but I am great for the opportunity. We also got to visit the sara je science center where I actually participated in their experiment. I got to pitch these very light bean bag like balls to the target and i think everyone was expecting perfection because they knew I played softball in college… but then I put the glasses the monk instructed me to put on and everything was going way off to the left because it was like drunk glasses that they give you in middle school to teach you not to drink and drive. But after the second pitch I just adjusted my body and started jumping to the side like I throw screw balls and then I was able to hit the target overtime after that. That was a really cool experience to be pitching.. is infront of monks. We also visited an organic farm which uses cow poop for everything… even powering their gas for cooking which was really cool. They also use earthworms. But there we got to listen to a presentation on organic farms and got to try fresh tea from ingredients they grow there. I also attended a concert for the end of Losar. Which was in Tibetan and the boy band on stage was so good. They also sung some songs in English like let it be and a bob marley song… also people from the crowd came up to dance or sing like a tibetan talent show.One girl actually danced to Shakira’s Africa song which was my favorite part… mostly because I love that song… but also because she was just like dancing how I feel like young girls dance in their rooms to Taylor swift or something.
I believe that is the majority of what I got to do in Bylakuppe. I also got some weird rash which later after going to the international clinic closer to Kathmandu they told me it was infected bug bites… which explained a lot because I was being eaten alive when I was sleeping. We were sleeping in a garage type thing with two beds… but bugs where every where. Their house was so nice but I got the feeling they really didn’t want us in the house. Outside though we had a shower with cold water… but we had a toilet!!!! finally I could sit and go to the bathroom instead of squatting and aiming into this hole… which our group calls a squat potty. But long story short I got antibiotics for my infected bug bites.. so my tongue is not swollen anymore.. and I am talking lisp less so thats good.
Arriving back in Boudha felt like home. Which was a great feeling because I think that is a sign I am getting comfortable here. I missed my family here in Boudha, and I like how I know how to get places. I am starting to feel like I know what I’m doing. Even though I can’t walk anywhere without locals staring at me the entire time, or yelling at me from across the street to tell me I am beautiful, I walk with more confidence which makes me feel less like an Ingie and more like a seasoned traveler. One of my language partners actually asked if my family was Tibetan. he said I looked Tibetan and that was surprising and not really true at all in my opinion but I think he just noticed I look mixed with something and everyone always wonders what that is. But then the next day my language partner asked if I had any Indian origins. She said you have lighter skin than Tibetans and huge eyes, she said I look very Indian, and she said I am very beautiful like Indians so that was nice… but I tried to explain to her my nationality. I am so mixed of things, to be honest I do not know all that I am so I just tell people a lot of things but I am Guatemalan and they normally say ooooh thats it.
This week in Boudha was a tad stressful, due to the four papers they wanted us to have and presentations, and tibetan quizzes. Everything was a lot but I am almost done now so I am happy, but I still have a lot of work to do for my group paper, and we just got a new quiz guide and a new paper thing to write but soon I will be leaving for Mustang so I am very excited for that even though it will be very cold.
