People are coming and leaving but some are staying luckily

At the end of last week we, the teachers, Marketa, Lada and Pyru (having introduced 15 minutes long yoga lessons during the breaks, which were greatly welcomed by children, she has become a full member of our teaching squad) made use of Dalajlama's holidays and set off for Phuktal Monastery, distant one day walk in direction of Padum. We wanted to participate in celebrations of his Holinesses' birthday, but unfortunately we didn't arrive on time. By the time we reached the splendid complex in the rocks almost no one was there - monks were on holidays. Luckily enough one of them took care of us. He was a great cook and entertainer. During the dinner he told us stories about Phuktal, such us that there is no spring water after the winter, most likely because some women got there (according to the tale only men can take water from there). Naturally it wasn't a tricky decision to stay there overnight. In the morning we took part in prayers at the sunrise, had a breakfast and said our farewell. We arrived back in Kargyak at nine in the evening extremely tired but satisfied. On Tuesday morning we had to head back to school. The pupils were pleased to see the pictures from our trip and also a movie on the laptop. Even though we thought the kids would bring pens after the treasure hunt, we were disappointed. 'Madam, no pencil' has not been eradicated. We secretly believe that they eat them. Regarding other news we have introduced besides the yoga lessons also 5 to 10 minutes long meditation classes, hoping that they would calm the children down a little bit. In addition to this we are also planning to hold afternoon extra lessons for those who need to catch up on morning's material. The Thursday was a day of big welcome. Stenzin Yiga got back and along with him successfully arrived Jana, Jirka, Štěpán and Lenka from Olomouc and also Zofia - a Polish girl who spent some time over here last year and probably liked it a lot. Particularly she and Milada will be helping us from next week on with our educational efforts. From the direction of Padum the internationality of our team has been enriched by returning Swiss guy Martin and Frenchman from Lyon Sharif.

On Sunday Pyru left for Delhi to accompany Wozer on his way for a plastic surgery. We will miss her here during the yoga lessons, but wish her best of luck with her quest.

As far as the construction is concerned the stone crashers are still breaking huge stones into small blocks so that we could finish the outside walls. Apart from this we have cut all the pillars which will hold the roof. The timber for the roof construction will bring Spalgey, Lobsang and Nawa. Right now there is working for us seven Nepalese guys under the command of Mr. Suresh, six workers from Shimla provided by Raju and further six Nepalese labours who we 'bought out' of slavery after complicated negotiations. Very good news is that the infected hand of one of the Nepalese employees has improved a lot - actually it is no miracle after all, because Honza, Adam, Petr, Pyru and Tennam have been patiently giving him injections with antibiotics every six hours for the last eight days.

Written by Marketa, translated by Adam

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