Jump into the fire

Moments after I posted my last blog while trying to upload some pictures - the connection to the so called broadband crapped out as usual and I then learned that there is no broadband here at all - just a "faster"versin of dial up.

One of the things that happens to me when I get really tired is that fear moves in and in reading my last blog I see I was operating in it… its like when you see an animal get struck by a vehicle… you want to help but in relationship of the enormity of the situation - one can feel so helpless…

Probably the most gratifying of all the experiences here for myself has been working with the little monks in Geshe Sangye's school. The Gaden Shartse School is where all the monks from maybe 3-17 go to school each day from about 7-5pm on top of a heavy regimen of spiritual practices.. The school has a computer room consisting of 12 - 15 computers running Windows 98 and Mavis Beacon Typing Teacher. That is about it - there is no computer teacher so we have been trying to spread our time evenly and where we think we can make the most impact. The nuns have been tasked with doing some tech savvy tasks and tomorrow we will return to check on their progress and turn over the laptop. Even small tasks we take for granted (such as moving one computer to another room) -is huge for the nuns - as in the past they would have to hire someone to do this. So today they should be moving their computers around and in the am we will head back over there to see how they have done and spend one final day of computer tutorial.

The young monks in the school are soooo delighted to do anything on the computer. I am so thankful to Mitzi, Saul and all the drummers for the event as that helped to purchase software such as READER Rabbit & MATH rabbit which absolutely thrills the little monks. Now they have something to facilitate their English while learning to use the computer. Principal Geshe Sangye (from the Gaden Lhope Tour) is also delighted to . There are some older monks also with keen interests so today I will be giving some desktop publishing pointers. If and one has some older (windows 98) children's computer software - David & Susan are coming here on the 11th and they could perhaps bring it with them. Anything used in the elementary situation - alphabets, math, etc.