This morning I woke up at 5 with Uttara, Saurabh Ji, Adeline, and Sol to get to the airport around 7 for our 8:30 flight to Delhi. At that hour of the morning, the world seemed so different because of the light and weather. The clouds were hanging......Read More

I have never been a hiker. In fact I have dreaded hiking all my life- to the point where my dad once bribed my sister and I with plastic Walmart rechargeable toddler cars. After that hike- which leads up to the most beautiful lake- we drove to......Read More

I love the shape of toothless mouths. Puckered, soupy, soft and malleable, the lips collapse around the gums. And the mushy words whistle gently in protest as they are exhaled into the cold air. Rigzin, the grandfather in my homestay family has no......Read More

Matthew’s Yak 10/6/17 I have been trying to appreciate silence. I’ve always been a pretty talkative person and have always felt a need to fill silence. At SECMOL, however, I have come to appreciate the buzz of students practicing their......Read More

Skiing Speech, 10/5 Every night at Secmol two people are selected to give a 3-5 minute speech on anything they want. One guy talked about compost toilets, another explained how he got to Secmol and a girl shared a folk story. Last night as I was......Read More

Matthew’s Yak 10/05/17 My time in Ladakh has led me to reflect quite a bit about what it means to exist outside one’s comfort zone and about the benefits of doing so. I feel like this experience, and what one gains from it, is relative......Read More

Sol Yak 10/5 (Secmol/Trek) Our group has completed the trek and has arrived on Secmol campus. The transition was quick and settling into our dorms after living in a tent for five nights was a challenge. I am getting over the initial hump of the......Read More

Sol Yak 10/5 (Basketball) A lot of my life has been dedicated to the game of basketball and it is something that I have a strong relationship with. My relationship with the game has changed, now it is a source of fun instead of it being intense and......Read More

A thought… The trek we did last week gave me a lot of time to think (time that is hard to get in daily life when your schedule is full to the top). Walking in silence for hours definitely makes you question many things, and even learn about......Read More

Hello! Today is the 4th of october but because of the lack of internet this will probably be posted later. We are in SECMOL. For anyone who doesn’t know what secmol is, secmol is a school in Ladakh that has 3 different courses. One with kids......Read More

This week, I am the scribe which means I am responsable for posting yaks and making sure that other people post yaks. It will be a difficult task though because the internet is never working. On September the 21st, we left our lovely guest house in......Read More