Caroline: Life in Phey
The scenery is stark and absolutely incredible, almost ridiculous. Indescribable. As are the villages that are perched on hills or hidden in valleys surrounded by terraced fields as best to use the glacial melt that they use as irrigation water. The village we entered today sort of resembles a medieval village---a maze of stonewalls with endless small wooden or tin doors leading to the enormous white villas that every Ladkhi villages consists of.
We spend the majority of time in the kitchen, the warmest room in the house cause I'm endlessly cold all the time (I've made the stove a constant companion). I'm currently sitting on a rug ("stan" in Ladkhi) next to the window looking over the village square and write this on a low red wooden table covered with cups of cha (ladkhi chai) of which I drink at least 15 cups a day and biscuit from my family in Phey. There is nothing I will miss more than the tea drinking habit.
Ok, I'm back---just went with a 12 year old girl to help her with her chores in the monastery because she was afraid to go alone. And I look down and am reminded of another era. I'm wearing a black traditional goncha that has a huge skirt. It is very austere in a way and every time I glance down I feel like a mountain woman from a different era trekking to the neighboring village as these women have been doing for centuries.
Every day the elder children of this village trek a 2 hour trek over a pass to go to school and back again. This daily walk is what we will be calling our "trek" tomorrow. Pitiful of us isn't it? I realized this as I walked down toward this village today --the question to ask is NOT: Is it is interesting? but is it useful? Otherwise-what's the point?
-Caroline