Week 1

After a bumpy start, Jennifer and I finally joined our group in the city of Kangding. We missed our flight out of Denver and had to wait two days to catch up with the group. Kangding was an amazing city on the border between "China and Tibet." The mixture of culture here was very interesting to see. Jenn and I joined about 1,000 Chinese and Tibetans dancing in the town square. They do this every night for exercise, and it was a good workout!

We left Kangding the following day and travelled a few hours on bumpy roads into the heart of Tibetan culture. We stopped in one small village and distributed shoes to a few children and had fun playing and racing with them!

Th further we drove, the more beautiful the landscape became. We passed by gorgeous traditional Tibetan homes, built of stone and ornately decorated.

We are now in Tagong, and have been here a few days. We were very lucky to meet a kind and generous monk who runs a small school/orphanage for boys. The school is in great need of assistance, so we hired local contractors to build new beds, gave tennis shoes to all of the (40) boys, and bought new blankets. We also played games with the boys and cooked a great meal to share with all of the students and volunteers. Even our hired trip drivers pitched in with the cooking. The boys were very focused on their studies, reciting Tibetan scripture, but they all had tremendous smiles on their faces!

Today was an amazing day- we visited a nunnery, and hiked up the mountainside in the rain to raise prayer flags which we had blessed by the highest ranking monk of the local monastary. We also had a beautiful wedding blessing ceremony for two of the group members!