Conversation classes

The Irish should have departed on a Sunday, but they didn't. So they decided to leave on Monday, but they didn't. This day, as I was going to met them at their place, I got distracted with what was going on right next to their hotel. As I was looking over the fence, this Swedish guy, Robert, approached me and explained everything about the conversation classes with Tibetan people, which I found interesting and decided to join and meet with the Irish later on. The story was to talk with a group of Tibetans, whose amount depended on the number of volunteers available, but it was usually from 3 to 5. You could talk about anything, the weather, the family, life, anything. Nevertheless, in my case, most of the days we always ended up talking about the Tibetan problem.
As you may all know, or not, Tibet was invaded by China in 1959, and the government, as well as monks, as the Dalai Lama, searched exile in India. Since then, they have been fighting with peaceful weapons to FREE TIBET. More of this, you'll find on the internet and history books.

Going back to conversation classes, you got the opportunity to talk with many different kind of Tibetans. From monks to very shy girls. Their level of English also varied, and so you had to search for conversations everyone would understand. Though you had constantly work on getting everyone to speak.

Learning about the Tibet situation, and how do they manage their lives has been very inspiring. Overall, their faces of gratitude after each hour class, from 17:30 to 18:30 was the most fulfilling. I got to do conversation classes from that first Monday till the end of week, Friday, not wanting to miss any day and regretting not starting doing this classes since I got to Mac Leod.

As I said, these 5 days were very inspiring. I lately claimed not to be a person done for volunteering with people, I did not search this on my travels through India and the world, but doing this has meant a deal of a change on this point of view. I even made a Tibetan friend with whom now I send emails. Unfortunately, she has had to go back to Tibet for reasons I don't know, and so her purpose for being in Dharamsala learning English has momentarily vanished. I hope for her all the best.

Just to leave you all with the thought before finishing this post, monks, and I would say many other Tibetans, have to walk during 40 to 50 days to get to India from Tibet as they are not allowed to have passports. They have to avoid guards as going in or out of the country, not to mention all other prohibitions they must have in their country.

Many movies have been done on this issue, the best known being "Seven years in Tibet", with well known Brad Pitt and the latest, probably "Dreaming Lhasa". But I would say none has or will have the impact needed so that the whole world stands up for a FREE TIBET.