Getting settled in the house in Paro, our first week in the mountains was wonderfully quiet. Now Lama D has returned to Kathmandu on business. And the children have arrived! I meet his ex-wife and get to know my new family. His children Baby and Kunga have decided to spend their summer break here, so we’re planning our summer school.
Lama D’s three children are cooking lunch for us. The family can’t bear for me to be alone. His children announced they are coming to live with me to “take care” of me during their summer break. I find this very amusing, wonderfully entertaining, and quite helpful.
We took a walk and picked up garbage along our street. There was a ton! Now it’s clean.
This is Kunga Norbu. He’s in the eighth grade. It has become a full-immersion summer school. We take walks, meditate, speak English, and memorize passages from the Buddha’s words. We practice handwriting, dance, and watch American movies. So far we watched “Life is Beautiful”, “Mongol”, and the “Sound of Music”. Today we’re working on a 3-D model of the solar system for his science project. Yep. There’s a lot of learning going on both ways. The dogs belong to the caretaker farm, and they protect us.
We take daily walks in the surrounding forest and meditate on the rocks.
We arrive home from our walk, and begin the English lessons.
Today’s lesson included detailed study on vocabulary and how to form the letters. Slightly messy printing on the left, transforms into readable letters on the right side. We’re using the Buddha quotes from my books to practice English.
We went into town and stopped in a cafe for lunch. I looked at a Bhutanese cookbook we found. There aren’t many.
My sister, Thuji Zam is Lama D’s cousin-sister. She owns a hotel for Indian tourists nearby. She came over to show me how to make Indian curry gravy with immersion-blended veggies, spices, and cashews. Indian cookery can’t be used in our Bhutan cookbook, however very good to learn.
This is our final curried vegetables dish. WOW! So delicious!!
My books are nearing completion. The Buddha Speaks book has just five more chapters to go. Now I must prepare the artwork. These are some of the black and white images.
The Buddha Speaks Weekly Planner needs 52 quotes with 52 color images. Now I must prepare art from my photos and free images. Raw elements are on the left, finished page on right.
It has become an interesting art project. Raw elements on the left. Finished page on right.
Oh my! Now it has evolved into a series of Bhutan Greeting Cards. Each card has a landscape scene and a Buddha quote from the Tibetan Kangyur, the sacred written text of the Bhutanese tradition.
It’s so much fun to edit and enhance my photos! For this greeting card, I photographed out my bathroom window – see left side. The metal grate is a Buddhist Dharma Wheel symbol. On the right is the finished card.
This photo of my sister Ghalem is color-enhanced with the addition of a mountain, butterfly and monastery.
This greeting card is from a stock photo of the Taktsang Monastery. On the right is the color-edited version with Rinpoche Padmasambhava floating in a bubble above. Each card has a Buddha quote from the Kangyur.
Lunch is almost ready. Today Baby is making vegetable fried rice with red rice, homemade cheese from the farm, and fresh eggs. Yummy!
Studying the Buddha book, Baby learned the word “mirage” and made this graphic quote.
Thanks for stopping by. Never a dull moment here. My travel blog comes out every Friday. Hope to see you next week!
