Living a monk's life

Here I am, living in a monastery, surrounded by monks and the occasional nun. This is an unusal place for a Western lady to spend her time in Nepal.

I have a room of my own, and there are three good meals every day - traditional dahl bhat twice a day, of course. I spend the weekdays teaching the monks in the school. I teach the new learners in Class I, and the more advanced English speakers in Classes X and XI. The ages range in the classes as they are graded when they enter on their level of Tibetan. Those with little or no Tibetan start in Kindergarten of Class I for Tibetan and English also, and then they progress from there. So in Class I there are six year olds, and twelve year olds. In Classes X and XI the monks are young men in their late teens and twenties.

English has been taught here by Tibetans, and one Australian nun Ani Demchok. Now they have me, a native true-born English speaker, with my own gentle voice and typical (I hope) pronunciation. Pronunciation, listening and speaking are the skills the teachers want me to help with during my time here, and also they want to encourage the monks to read more English.

How can I enthuse them to read more English...? I went to the book market today and bought some story books - Huckleberry Finn, simplified Shakespeare and Oliver Twist. A mixture of boys' reading and tradition. I will work these stories into the lessons. But first there is an essay writing competition on the 30th May and we are preparing for that. Each day we work a little more on the stages of essay preparation and I am now in the fortunate position to read the essays and have an insight into the mind of these young men.