Settling in...

It is strange to be talking of settling in when I am on the road, but it does feel that I am settling in. I have moved accommodation, so I am now paying half the price I was paying, for pretty much the same thing and without a damp issue. I have had a bad cold – croaky voice and all – and it seems to finally be going... I gave up on the Tibetan meds and switched to western meds, but to be honest, I don’t think either of them have done anything... It is slowly getting better though. Being ill has not stopped me though, I continue to have a relatively full schedule. In the mornings I head down the hill to the Tibetan Library for the Buddhist philosophy class, where we are receiving teachings on ‘A guide to the Boddhisattva way of life’ written by Shantideva many moons ago. It is a 3 month course but I will only be here for the first 3 weeks of it... Then the other thing I am doing is volunteering in a coffee shop, which is a shop that is set up to raise money for a baby day care centre for the local Tibetan population. It is really low key, so not stressful at all. There are power failures a few times a day, so you can only serve what is possible in the moment... ;-)
Yesterday was my afternoon off at the shop, so I went with someone else to see Tenzin Palmo’s monastery, she is the person who wrote Cave in the Snow, as she spent 12 years meditating in a cave. I had not made an appointment to chat to her so I only got to greet her, whereas the person I went with was able to spend an hour chatting with her. It was a good day nonetheless, as it was my first experience on public transport in India, which worked surprisingly well, and it is really a cost effective way to travel as taxis charge the earth – in Rupee terms anyway. The whole journey cost me IR90, which is about £1,25, and it is a 2 and a half hour trip one way!

Tomorrow is washing day...