Describing any wonderful experience is hard, especially one that contains so many separate and distinct memories. I struggled to begin sharing the details accurately through the conventional ways of description so instead I thought I might present a......Read More
“We come and go from this world empty handed. The only thing we can take with us is life.” -Kempo That’s why I joined dragons. I think that’s why most of us joined. To see, to feel, to experience things differently, even just......Read More
There are certain things we know without having to actually witness: the moon changes its shape and position every night, monks wear robes, Nescafe has a tendency to make people hyper. There are things we can’t know without witnessing: the......Read More
On our last morning in Nepal, in ancient Bhaktapur, our carved wooden oval window looks over a scene of deeply rooted patterns and a rhythm of life that’s as unfamiliar to us as it is automatic to Newari’s here. How profoundly their or......Read More
The sun sinks behind a 300 year old Mosque, illuminating the perfectly rounded towers. I remember visiting the Mosque during our Muslim week (what seems like ages ago). I stood on the balcony, looking out over the ghats, down at the boats in the......Read More
A few mornings ago, as Duncan and I crowded around the outlet to read our parents Field Notes on the program house iPad (hi mom and dad!), we found ourselves distracted by Photos of the Week and Field Notes from other students on other courses in......Read More
The Kathmandu valley presents a chasm of a contrast to the world outside of the hills which one can occasionally glimpse from a solitary moment on building rooftops: looming mountains of ragged green and reflective sky-shearing peaks through which......Read More
I recently read a short book that was given to me on Buddhism, called What Makes You Not a Buddhist. In each section, the author, Khyentse Norbu, repeatedly urged the reader to not simply intellectualize and then shelve the philosophies he was......Read More
As I write, I am surrounded by Alpacas, sheep, and horses as they graze. The herders sit on nearby boulders and watch over, dressed in traditional clothes of colorful hand-woven wool ponchos and skirts. We were at camp after hiking for six hours and......Read More
Hola from the heart of the Incan Empire. Your favorite Peru 6 week course is currently approaching our midway point, which happens to be hitting a few of us kind of hard. Midway points are a time for reflection, as my 50 year old parents might agree......Read More
Long walks occupy that strange in-between space in the mind; you can think in a way that is not thinking or dreaming or analyzing. It is just another part of the slow pattern of walking. You step forward, your mind moves somewhere soft, you step......Read More
Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, he said:“Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does......Read More
I wrote parts of this after Idul Adha on the 5th of October. Now we are in Buntau, Toraja, on Sulawesi. Didn’t want to get anyone confused 🙂 I’ll write about our current experience this coming weekend. Last night the celebration for Idul Adha......Read More
Death came at 4:30 on a dark Monday morning. I had been lying in my host parents’ room, waiting for them to return from the hospital. My host nieces, Pari and Khushi, were peacefully sleeping in the room next door. We had returned from the......Read More
Asalaamalekum mbok yi, This sentence could be the shortest description of who I am. It says ‘peace be with your family.’ The first word is of Arabic origin and was brought to Senegal centuries ago with Islam. Religion and the culture of peace......Read More
