More from Mirge, and a Trip to Kathmandu

“Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take your broken wings and learn to fly

All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive”

-Paul McCartney

Have you ever heard 17 quasi tone deaf Nepali 3^rd graders sing Blackbird?  It’s very sweet.  I wrote the lyrics up on the board and we went through and underlined and circled the nouns, verbs, adjectives and prepositions in order to keep it educational, traditionally speaking.  They were big on the guitar and it serves as a pretty good motivational tool for them to get things done.  Sometimes I feel like I’m too hard on them, but I’m learning gradually.  The 4^th graders are helping me write a song about Nepal (they are still the class I get along with the best by leaps and bounds…and I’m pretty sure they are more advanced in terms of English and general knowledge than the 5^th grade class).  The 5^th grade class and I haven’t done any music yet since I only have them once a day and I haven’t had the time to fit it in since they all have exams coming up, but they are pretty insistent that I bring the instrument in.

The fourth grade class and I read, from their English book mind you…I brought nothing in, the story of Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha).  Since he was born in Lumbini, Nepal, he is taught in their social studies and english as an “important person of Nepal.”  Most of them have the 8 fold path (some bad translations aside) memorized…I thought that was pretty interesting.  Some of their general knowledge questions include, “Who is the Hindu goddess of knowledge?” “Where was the Buddha born?” “Who is called the Light of the World?”  “Where was Mohammad born?”…religion is just part of social science for them, and is such a part of daily life (not saying it isn’t in America…we are just in such a state of repression and denial about it with our, illusory “separation of church and state” that we like to hide it from the young ones)…that it is central to the curriculum.  I did notice some interesting and wonderful, in my opinion of course, cultural differences when the class was asked questions about what makes a person “great.”  Before the story began, the book, highlighted as a class discussion, asked, “What makes you a great person?”…the options were Rich and Wealthy, Very Beautiful, Strong and Powerful, Highly Educated.  Dissatisfied with these options as I understood them, I asked independent of the book…they said things like “being nice,” “being intelligent,” “doing something good for your country” came up a few times…I asked if any of them thought their parents were “great people” and then asked why…that opened it up further into the realm of “sharing” and “nice” was repeated a few times.  I asked if they knew the words Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, Peacemaker…and they were very attentive and understood pointed out that “Ghandi was honest and kind and a peacemaker” and that “people who share are generous.” 

What caught me off guard was that when I asked them about the options in the book, assuming that they would understand them in the same culturally biased way that I did...but I definitely underestimated them.  It started off normally enough, “What makes someone rich and wealthy… “money…gold....”  they ran out of steam pretty quick…I pressed and one girl said “silver?...precious stones”  and that was the end of that.  I asked them about beautiful…and they said, “kindness…peacefulness…niceness…honesty” many of the new terms introduced a few minutes before…I’m the one that had to pull the conversation to a joking point and ask “But what about long beautiful hair?  Or pretty eyes?” and then we joked about that for a little bit on looks but that’s really not what they thought of first when the subject of beauty was raised.  Highly Educated was fairly straight forward, “reading a lot,” “going to school,” etc.  It was when we got to Strong and Powerful that I was taken aback.  One girl, my big talker, said, “doing yoga and gymnastics and exercising in the morning,” and I laughed and said, “very good.”  And then Rasik, he and his sister Rasila constitute a very sweet and bright set of twins whose father is a very pleasant man and an English teacher at the first college (grade 13) in Mirge, stood up and said, “meditation,” and I just smiled so huge cause I did not expect, despite the fact that he is clearly from a very Hindu family and often comes to class with a Tikka (-un?) on his forehead signifying that he has done his Puja in the morning,  to hear that out of a 3^rd grader.  Other students repeated things about “goodness and truthfulness.”  Not one of them mentioned anything about ruling or anything political or war until we talked about what a ruler was, but even then I could see that political power is not what they connected with the topic under discussion.  It was quite clear that, for them, spirituality, morality and health are the sources of true strength and power.  My hope meter for the future of humanity jumped a few notches that morning.  They really are an awesome class.

Ok, I didn’t get on here to brag about my 4^th graders all day…I just got caught up.  I have been reading a lot lately.  I just finished a book called Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress about the "Cultural Revolution" and romantic literature left here by the previous teachers, as well as a book of short stories by Thich Nhat Hanh I picked up in Varanasi called, The Stone Boy and other stories, which was a real experience…I don’t know if everyone would have found it as fascinating since part of the novelty was noting the transformations as well as the patterns in his writing and teaching style, but, for me to hear/read this teacher that I always associate with super tranquil, healing, meditative literature, write detailed stories about the ravages of war, dying children, pirates, rape, quantum physics, exile and self-immolation (apparently one of Thay’s students was one of the female monks who “immolated herself for peace” during the Vietnam War …and he writes a very abstract story/tribute to her about a bird and a fire in a wood…it was like looking at Pollack, I didn’t know what it was about until I read the explanation, but I was moved in a way I didn’t really understand), most of which were written in the years during the conflict or directly afterwards when he was in his 30’s…very different perspectives in some ways…same wonderful Thay in others.  There was a story about a woman who climbs a bamboo stalk to the moon and who ends up having to split herself in two so that she can be with her moon family and her earth family , and one that takes place largely in the mind of a physics professor whose son is at death’s door and who discovers the non-dual nature of life and death by way of relativity and wavicles and the law of conservation…one with a girl who becomes a fish and so she speaks in great detail about the gruesome events of the refugee boats and chants the Heart Sutra to the stranded refugee in order to relax her and allow her to sleep…anyways…I recommend it. 

Thanks in part to my sister Zara, who wrote me a very nice email about guitar the other day, and to Nikesh, who is still constantly strumming away, I have started playing more and writing again.  It feels good to mess around again and invent some new sounds.  I am working on an entry from Lumbini, but its been a little difficult for multiple reasons including power outages etc. but also because I feel like Lumbini deserves four entries and I am having a little difficulty trimming it to one.  But I’d like to get caught up so I’ll get it out there soon. 

Haha.  I got on the computer to say that I am planning to head out to Kathmandu tomorrow for a few days since the children have their exams coming up for a while and my teaching services will not be required.  I am planning to visit some monasteries and to buy some more food and maybe visit with my friends if they are still around.  I will let you know how that goes.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone since I may not write again before then, but don’t forget that every day is an opportunity to begin anew…it is not necessary to wait for Jan 1^st.  As the light of the sun once again takes ground from the night after the solstice, allow the light of mindfulness expand and dissolve the darkness of delusions.  Metta to you all. 

"We gathered all the truth we found behind the sun
Blinded by the brightness of it all
But the light will bend the lies will fall..."

But the Saga of Mirge is far from over...