Saraswati Puja, Prayers to the Goddess of Wisdom
Today in Saraswati day, a special day of prayer ceremonies for students as Saraswati is the Goddess of Knowledge. I visited Sujata school and watched the Brahman, who is also the deputy principle, conduct the ceremony or puja. He was also teaching his apprentice how to conduct the elaborate ritual which blessed various substances with water and mantra before making offerings of the substances to the goddess. Just before the unveiling of the paper mashy status of Saraswati was unveiled, which the children had a hand in making, the sacred fire was light and all 150 or children, packed into a tiny mud and brick classroom, stood in prayer in anticipation of the darshan; i.e the goddess casting her eyes on them and thus blessing them. Truly an honour to be part of this ceremony and I also hope that Saraswati send some blessings of knowledge my way too.

Republic Day
Thursday 26h January was India's Republic Day, or Independence day. Ecoles De La Terre  has 5 schools and the tradition is that the director visit all 5 schools on that day to unfurl and salute the flag of India and join in the singing of the national anthem. I was very lucky to take part in this day and visit all the schools with him. It was just great to see the kids all lined up in the school uniform, with hair all combed and oiled, trousers pressed and shoes polished and just so excited to have a fun day. Each school had drawn a map of India on the earth around the flag pole and adorned the map with scattered flowers and photos of Mahatma Gandhi. Some of the kids did song and dance performances which were eagerly applauded by their class mates and conveyed by loudspeaker to the the rest of the village so that everyone could join in the festivities; whether they wanted to or not. All the schools were brick buildings with either mud or concrete siding, tin or straw roofs and a mud courtyard with some flowering plants. There were no benches or tables in the class rooms and all the children sat on mats on the floor. The school had anywhere form 2 to 5 rooms with holes in the walls where windows should be and a covered veranda, cool and breezy which is ideal for the intense summer heat but not so good in the cold. School would have 200 to 500 children in classes and a few teachers to do the job of many.
As the visitor I had the chance to sit and talk with some of the teachers and one head of the village who informed me that lack of good health facilities was a problem for many families. One school had a health centre next door and was teaching basic health care and disease prevention to the people in the area. Another, rural school was lucky to have a plot of land next door so part of there curriculum is to teach the kids farming and animal husbandry skills and also used the milk, vegetable and fruit to have school meals. In the village there is a big concern that many kids will leave for Indian overpopulated cities so this school is trying to teach a respect for the land, income generation through farming as well as healthy diet. Just having the school does not fix the problems of village life but it is a good solid foundation and focal point to encourage all the villagers to participate in the development of their village and their kids future.
One thing I did notice this week while doing the data entry for the kids exam results is that attendance is not consistent. For example out of 114 days for a term, kids were coming to school anywhere from 40 to 90 days. Comparing this to the kids marks I saw that out of a possible 450 marks the top mark was 350 while most were scrapping by with 150-250. I was a bit frustrated to think of the work that goes into creating these school and that they are free and yet the parents were not insisting on good attendance, so how could a kid even begin to get good marks. I chatted with some local friends and the director of Ecoles De La Terre to find an answer. In the past kids have just not gone to school, many if not most adults over 25, while they may speak several languages to interact with tourist, are illiterate. Children traditionally worked in the fields, in the home or gone to work to add to the family income and since in the rural areas the government school is far from the village, with impassible roads during monsoon, kids just did not go to school. Bihar has shown me that education is truly a luxury and all too often for most people putting food in your mouth and just surviving comes first. Now NGO schools in Bodhgaya and the surrounding area have only been functioning since the late 90's and what they are attempting to do is change a complete way of thinking about the value of a child and education as an investment for the opportunity at a better income and better life. Many parents never went to school and can simply not conceive of the value of an education, so no wonder they do not push their kids to attend class. There are mechanisms in place to report why a child does not attend class such as being ill, but needless to say this week I will be concocting some ideas for getting parents more involved.
Understanding this gap in the parents education I realized that in many ways just getting a kid to be in class in Bihar, far less take exams and get into college, which many of the older students are now facing is a fantastic accomplishment. 10 years is a very short time and parent will only begin to see the value of an education when the older children get jobs, now this will take at least another 5 years. Since the school term will be ending soon Rajesh the director has been consumed this week working with teachers in getting the older children passed their exams and accepted into college. So it take time to change a mind-set but Ecoles De La Terre seems to be performing miracles on a shoe string. 

threading eyebrows

Rudracha; a Women's Vocational Training Center
Saturday morning and some time to catch up. I have been getting to know the women here at the center a bit more, I just wish I knew Hindi more. In computer class they worked on excel sheets and learned how to write a job application. After class the girls wanted me to show them this mysterious thing called the Internet, so we played with sending e-mails, facebook and you tube. The first thing they wanted to see were videos of the tsunami in Japan, they had heard about it but were socked at the picture. During monsoon here the dry river bed fills up quickly and I think ,they were drawing some similarities. And I though they would want to see Bollywood videos.

Computer class

Embroidery and knitting class

Settled into the new place just fine and it has been a full on two days, all good. I am assisting at the woman's vocational centre, well more like a basement really. They women learn the Bihari local  painting on cloth and pottery, knitting, embroidery, sewing and dress making as well as computer and hairdressing. It is a busy basement with each corner allocated to a different activity with two to four classes per day depending on the activity. I will be mentoring the computer and the hairdressing. Hair is not exactly what I wanted to help with but they are so happy to learn as this can be a good source of income working in the neighbouring town's beauty parlours, so I agreed coz I cannot for the life of me knit.
The women are of mixed age groups but mostly late teens and early 20's and unmarried. Learning a skill that they can earn them rupees will stave off marriage for a while and give then a lot more confidence. The older women are of course married and need a job they can do at home so they fill up the dressmaking and sewing classes. The NGO also provides micro credit for the women who have been through the vocational program. It is great that they can provide the next step for these women to get financially independent. and apparently they have 100% pay back rate. The women in the computer classes have grand plans of working in government office or a bank,which is big dream for this town, but so great they they have this chance. In the afternoon I work in the main office, boaring data entry at the moment but I also help the office girl learn some office skills. Luckily she speaks a wee bit English and we laugh a lot at my poor attempts at Hindi. Today a woman health worker came in to report to the director on her class on aids awareness in the village. I will be going with her and a doctor next week to another village to see how that AIDs awareness program is doing. I will be learning so much in this next while and look forward to getting to know the women more. 

Volunteer Work
Everything in India takes more time than you think and you have to drink a good few cups of milk tea during the process but I found a place to work for the next 3 weeks; Ecoles De La Terre Charitable Trust, in the women's program. http://www.ecolesdelaterre.ch  I will be staying at the women's training center assisting in the vocational training program in the mornings, most likely teaching computer skills and English to the young women and working in the office in the afternoon with the micro finance and family planning programs. The founder Rajesh started this work in 2001 with a small school  but saw a need to "work with the whole family not just individuals because all of society is connected."  I will have opportunities to go into the small villages to "see what the true problems is,"  as well as meet the women who have gone through the vocational training and who are now in the  micro finance program. It will all be an education for sure and I hope to pass on to you some of the  women's stories. I will move in on Sunday so I have the weekend to invest under the Bodhi tree.

Peace After the Crowds Leave
It has taken more than a few days for the dust to literally settle after Kalachakra. The hordes of people finally left about days ago and there has been some space at the main temple to do some meditation practice and enjoy sitting under the Bodhi tree. The sun has come out and it has been just a pleasure to be here. This has to be one of the most international villages on earth. There are groups of  pilgrims and monks coming here from all the Buddhist countries ,all  dressed in their finest national dress as they make offerings of flowers and incense chant under the tree. Burma, Laos, Tiawan, China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tibet, Russia, Bangladesh and various states in India.
This town is a place of extremes, great wealth in the monasteries and hotels due to all the visitors but great poverty in the villages.


 Everyday I walk through the mud streets, with so much garbage strew everywhere. The houses are mud, brick or concrete, with no running water and maybe only a bulb for light. The women, in brightly coloured but tattered saris, squat out side their doors tending to small cow dung fires cooking chapati and vegetable curries as the children run around barefoot and often bare bottomed. The men are either in the fields or working in their small shops selling chai, cigarettes or tourist trinkets. There are also so many animals in the villages; goats, ducks, chickens and dogs so needless to say you have to watch where you put your feet and flip flops are never a good idea. Today I stopped a baby goat from chewing it's way threw a plastic bag and watched two puppies fight over a dead rat. However for all this utter poverty, people are kind,the women smile bashfully if you say namaste, the kids always want to play and constantly ask for sweet and shout HELLO; I see more smiles here in one day than I do in the Washington DC metro for a month. Often I think here I can see physical suffering but in the West even though we have all the comfort we have much more mental suffering.

As a tourist, whom the locals are very pleased to see, it is easy to romanticize poverty because Bodhgaya may be a bit better off than other areas of Bihar which are desperately poor. The harsh fact is that with no family planning or healthcare women often have lots of children and do not often have the means to feed them. Children go to work very young, some parents even send their children to be factory or domestic workers in the big cities or at worst, sell their children or leave them on the streets to fend for themselves. This region of India has many social problems and corruption and extortion keeps the funds from getting to the people who need help the most.
My plan was to work with an NGO here in town so I have been asking around to find a legitimate, non corrupt organization that is effective in it's work. An Austrian friend told me about The D foundation which have several programs, education for children as well as teaching basic health care, family planning and some vocational training for women. The Jaitpura Centre for women is a great program that is assisting destitute women in Sarnath, many of whom have been homeless all their lives. However after a few days of back and forth phone calls and meetings I discovered the foundation is in the process of getting started in Bodhgaya and the founder, who by all reports is a dedicated, kind and honest man in presently sick in Sarnath, so the program here is on hold.
http://www.dfoundation.net/
However, today after some re-thinking I met with a Hindu monk friend and I will be going to see 2 schools and another women's project tomorrow to see if I can be of some help. So fingers crossed.

Kalachakra Ends
That was 3 three crazy days of very very early mornings, unbelievable crowds, 8-11 hours sitting a day and feeling so lucky to here with  His Holiness. Kind of overwhelmed at the moment and sleep deprived but so very happy. Here's some sites with some great photos ( since we were not allowed in cameras) and some news. We had all the high lamas including Sakya Trinzin and HH Karmapa, a Hollywood star and terror threats, only in Bihar. Earlier in the week His Holiness was presented with " The Mahatma Gandhi  International" and today he was conferred with the Title "Supreme Leader of All Buddhist Traditions"  by the Ecumenical International Organisation of the Tibetan Buddhist Traditions.Rumour already has it, (before he even left the building) that the next Kalachakra is likely to be in Amravati, Andhra Pradesh, where it was in 2006, but I am happy and greaful to enjoy today.      
Today His  new book  Beyond Religion ; Ethics for a new World  was also launched.


http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=beyond+religion+dalal+Lamaa&x=16&y=20
http://www.dalailama.com/

http://www.chron.com/news/gallery/India-Buddhist-Festival-34310/photo-2011739.php

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-03/news-interviews/30584247_1_richard-gere-kalchakra-mahabodhi-temple

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/kalachakra-01092012124316.html

http://www.voanews.com/tibetan-english/news/Dalai-Lama-meets-with-Chinese-Devotees-at-Kalachakra--136766463.html

http://www.shambhalasun.com/news/?p=27071 

Papaya anyone

In the midst of the Kalachakra Crowds.
Today the sun came out for a bit. It has been Kalachakra dances today so that means a day off before initiation. Took a stroll around town and snaped some photos, I hope you can get an sense of how festive the atmosphere is. There are so many street vendors selling everything from gold and coral rings to cheap plastic toys. The icecream cart on a bike is my favorite. The beggers are out in force and I think many of the local kids are skipping school pretending to be beggers so they can get some cash for chocolate. Was hoping to make it  into the main temple today but it was just so busy, elbow to elbow crowds and being 4ft 10 in  I am not that brave. Today's deed, a Tibetan girl and me found a screaming puppy in the middle of the crown and amazingly we managed to find and return it to its very worried mum. 

ladies from Kunnuar

Muna at his shop

balloon seller outside temple

A few rupees he will recite prayers for you. 

Happy New Year 2012
The first week of 2012 has disappeared already. Two days of rain and two days of drizzle turned the dust into mud but hopefully the sun will stay out now because the laundry needs to dry.  For all yi Dharma folks you know the routine at teachings in India and for those that don’t, well it goes something like this. First things first, the hassle and negotiations over getting your place to sit, then getting there real early the first of teachings day to stake your claim. The endless security lines with security guards who pat you down and check your bags for camera and cell phones. The ever changing schedule only ever circulated in Tibetan, the radios that crackle and the transmission of the translator cutting out at random, (usually at the time when you are not taking a nap). The monks that step all over you and your stuff as they try to pour hot butter tea into cups for morning break, your neighbour who speaks another language gossiping to their friend over your head just as you are beginning to understand what His Holiness is talking about. The toilets,,, well! you have to roll up your trousers legs cover your nose and mouth, squat while you hold the door closed and get in and out as quick as possible. Your cushion that goes missing, the rip in the tent that lets the rain in just where you are sitting and if this is the case then there will be umbrellas that you cannot see over. Hours of sitting where you are packed in so tight you can hardly move your legs. Then there is the crush of people skuffling there way out of the grounds at the end of the day trying to pour themselves through the same small entrances we can in at one by one.

 In so many ways I must be mad to be here and it is hilarious (actually caught myself laughing as I was writing this) what we go through for teachings but in a weird way it is really enjoyable. I have laughed so much this week because there is also so much good stuff about being at teaching in India that you just do not seem to get in the west. Like sharing the blessed biscuits and kapsay, loaning each other others radios, ear buds, cups, shawls, food, water, cushions, toilet paper, asprin and books, recommending medicines and cold remedies to hotels, places to visit and restaurants to avoid. Talking about the latest Dharma events and news, catching up and joking with people you have not seen in years, snatching a glimpse of Richard Gere is always fun. Seeing all the lamas in one place at one time is amazing because you never know which lama you may literally bump into walking around the stupa. Then of course the best part is receiving teaching from His Holiness the Dalai Lama in such a holy place is fantastic and makes all the daily irritations disappear.  

We just finished three days of teachings today on “Hymn to Buddha the World Transcendent” by Najrajuna, “the 2^nd Volume of the stages of Meditation” by Kamilashila, “Eight verses of Mind Training” by Geshie Langri Thangpa, “Thirty Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva” by Gyalsey Thokmay Sangpo and “Jewel Lamp: a Praise of Bodhichitta” by Kunu Lama Rinpoche. All very inspiring texts which make me realize I have a lot of work to do on this mind.