It has been just over one week since we have arrived here at SECMOL our new home for the next three months. In this time the VISpas have been adjusting to both life with the SECMOLpas and a new environment. The social adjustment has been fluid and smooth adjustment, something that has come naturally to these VISpas. However the adjustment to the new environment is much clearer on the soccer field. We have just started to participate in the daily games here at SECMOL and it is very clear who is a Ladakhi and who is not, just look for those who are panting and trying to catch their breathe. Life here at SECMOL has been in full swing, upon arrival there was a passive solar workshop put on by SECMOL and LEDeG an NGO from Leh started by Helena Norberg-Hodge, this NGO's main goal is to promote sustainable energy education, and initiatives to the people of Ladakh. There were over thirty masons from all over Ladakh who were here for a five day workshop on passive solar design. As the Masons left on the 16th a new bunch of eager learners joined the SECMOL community. SECMOL hosts a number of workshops and camps for the people of Ladakh. Currently there are over fifty young Ladakhis on their winter break from school who are here attending a spring camp. Here they will take a number of classes, participate in the daily life and responsibilities of SECMOL, as well as, join a larger community where they can practice their English, learn from their peers and take classes from the SECMOL students.
Our students have had their hands full trying to learn and pronounce hundreds of different names, as most Ladakhis have multiple names given to them that they go by. An example is my Ladkhi name given to me by two SECMOLpas is Tsewang Richen. The Students have jumped right into the community here each doing their responsibilities to keep the campus running. SECMOL is a campus run by the students, every student must pitch in to keep the campus running smoothly and with the addition of fifty extra students there is much to be done. Cooking now takes place outside the kitchen on an open fire to cook the enormous amount of food to feed over a hundred people three times a day. Student's responsibilities include: Dairy; milling the two cows, Electricity; rotating the solar panels three times a day and checking the electricity on campus, cleaning the facilities, cooking duties, taking care of the greenhouses and the plants, and the ever changing tasks to keep SECMOL running.
This Valentine's Day our students had a chance to explore Leh, the closest town to SECMOL. Valentine's Day was also the Hockey finals and speed skating finals for Leh and its greater areas. Our students had the opportunity to see some of their SECMOLpas in action competing on the ice. After each student was paired with a SECMOLpa and give a location and a list of question to answer. Some of the locations were religious places of worship, Hospitals, and other places of interest in Leh. Each pair had to use each other and their environment to navigate Leh, as well as, the question they were asked to answer.
Yesterday we had a very interesting guest speaker come to talk to the students about Buddhism. Tsewang Norbu all so known as Vivek, formally known as David turned out to be much more than just a Buddhist scholar; a man of many names, Tsewang Norbu by his Ladakhi name, Vivek by his English name, and his former Christian name of David. Vivek was taken at the age of six from Ladakh into Kashmir by a group of protestant missionaries, where he was put into school for seven years, but the Ladakh Buddhist association and Leh police took him back to Ladakh where he then went to a monastery for ten years, three of those he was a monk. After leaving monkhood, Vivek went to school in Burma where he studied Buddhist psychology. Now Vivek is a consular and teacher, he uses Buddhism to help people deal with real problems they encounter in life. Having had lived and experienced all he has, he has a great perspective on religion and Buddhism in our daily lives. Vivek plans to teach at the College of art in Maine next fall. Our students will be starting classes on Buddhism next week.
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