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Memories of milking cows and teaching by candlelight

( Last Updated: 07-10-2010 )

I cannot believe it is almost a year now since I was in Pakang milking cows at 5am and teaching by candlelight. As my Nepali and Lepcha vocabulary melts away it brings back endless memories of nights by torchlight trying my best to proof read my 900 pages of the Lepcha dictionary - a task I never thought I'd complete!

I am really writing to say a huge thank you for such an amazing experience. Without AV I would never have found such a unique and truly unforgettable culture. To this day I miss those smoky kitchens, the endless mounds of rice, the slow realisation that actually it was to be our honour to kill the family pig that had been residing outside my window for so long! And of course the infectious laughter of the children and such a brilliant tribe.

The Lepchas is really a part of me and I can only count down the days until I can return ‘home' to one of the most diverse countries in the world.

I have just finished my first year at Edinburgh and this summer I have managed to restrain myself from returning to India straight away and so I'm spending 6 weeks working in Shanghai - a totally new experience and yet another language barrier! However my dream still remains to somehow access Tibet and therefore I am hoping to investigate this further when I am in China.

Claire, Pakang Samsing, Lepcha Teaching, India 2009.

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