Yakity Yak the Parkers Talk Back: Hanging out with my English Students...

Me and Keane and Gracie with three of my English students (from l to r: Pema Tsangmo, Kahsang Dolkha and Pasang Dolkha)

(Above picture: Gracie playing with a calculator she found on the table and the Tibetan man in the back of the photo is about 70 years old. He is the father of my 50 year old student. He is holding and spinning a 'prayer wheel' which is a Buddhist form of prayer and worship. The prayer wheel is filled with written prayers and prayers are also written on the outside and they believe that every time the wheel is spun by them that the prayers inside and out are being offered up to the gods on their behalf in turn, giving them good karma (merit) for the next life. Most old people do this constantly: day and night when they are home and not sleeping.

I have started teaching English to 5 Tibetan women ages 20-50 twice a week in the mornings. These ladies are all at very, very basic levels. None of them have ever gone to school and most of them can't even read or write their own language. One lady had never really held a pencil or pen until the first day of our class in July with our volunteers. It has been a fun experience for me and I really am enjoying it so much. The ladies are so sweet and funny. They want to learn English because most of their husbands live and work in America now. They haven't seen their husbands (although they talk on the phone most days) for over 4 years! They are hoping to eventually get a visa to come to America too (which is really hard) so they want to learn English before they go. I am also using this time to pour out the love of Christ on them and teach them about who Jesus is. It is a special time for me each week. Yesterday one of my students invited me to her home (three of my students live together) to practice English and drink Tibetan tea (remember...this is the butter and salt tea...). We had a great time and Keane and Gracie LOVED being there. Keane and Gracie seriously acted like we had never fed them and ate all the snacks, bread, tea and juice they had offered us. I guess they like Tibetan food...of course my students loved watching them and talked about how cute they were.

Gracie and Keane relaxing on the Tibetan rug after their snack time.

The Tibetan tea that they were dipping (and dropping) their Tibetan bread and crackers into. My student gave them their own glass of tea...of course they didn't drink it all but they sure loved dipping their snacks into it and then eating them!