Waking up to the dogs barking and pigeons happy outside me and Emma’s window was a gentle reminder that I was far from home. I immediately got my personal journal, book and camera, and headed straight for the rooftop restaurant at our hotel. I wasn’t the only person who wanted to be up there first thing in the morning, about five of us spent the hour before coffee and tea came out just getting closer and discussing our excitement for the days to come. There are so many things that we saw today on our wonderful tour around the valley but the first thing I want to acknowledge is this amazing group of eager, kind, funny and curious young adults, assuring that everyone was having a good time and engaging in thoughtful conversations. Outside of our group, I enjoyed today the beauty of being a curious foreigner. Every moment I saw something new and shocking like a group of monkeys casually cutting through our group while holding their babies to their bellies, something else even more wonderful would appear and learning to embrace the newness and just experience it was really a blessing. I feel very at home here even though it is all new and different. I think this feeling is part of the experience of being here to ‘learn service’ rather than jumping to try and serve others. We have already learned so much about the history of the city and cultural norms yet there is still so much more to learn. The greatest take away from today that I received was the symbol 1, the nose symbol painted on the Buddha’s faces on the Stupas, there are many faiths and ways of life but in the end we are all here for the same reason, peace. Ending our night with the open cremations of loved ones as strangers, really hit this point home to me today, because if there is one thing we all have in common it is passing on, and I believe that because the people here embrace death as something normal speaks to the reason I made this trip, and volunteered to be leader of the day, because of the messages that people from far away have to share, you just need to embrace not knowing and let their messages come to you. I am so grateful for this group, for Karma and Sonam, and all the others making us feel welcome and giving us this gift to experience their culture. I’m very excited for more learning to come as we head back out into the city tomorrow. Namaste!
– Lilly Andrews-Edwards
