so, i have a plan now: jojo and i are both leaving sarnath on april 6, and spending the next night in a fancy hotel somewhere in delhi, where we will sip fancy drinks, eat good food, and veg out in the air conditioning to celebrate living in the maya devi girls' hostel and making it out alive. on the evening of the 8th, i will leave jojo and take an overnight bus to shimla, where i'll spend the next day wandering. then early on the morning of the 10th i'll make my way to the nunnery in kinnaur.

yesterday i called the nuns there. a girl named dechen answered the phone, and we chatted for about 10 minutes. this was the basic tone of the conversation:

me: i am coming to teach on the 10th of april.
dechen: no! come tomorrow! i wish that you would come tomorrow and teach me!
m: i can't come tomorrow, but in two weeks, i will come.
d: two weeks! so far away! april 10!
m: and i will stay for six weeks --
d: NO! don't leave! stay for six months! why do you have to go so soon?
m: i have to go back to america, so that i --
d: don't go to america! stay for six months, not six weeks! today i am so happy. today i am very much laughing. my english teacher is coming!

every sentence was punctuated by one or two other girls giggling in the background, and whenever dechen would stumble over english words, she would say, "oh i am sorry, teacher. i don't know english well and i do not know what i am saying. but i am very much happy! i am very laughing! my english teacher is coming! you will come and teach me english and then i will know what i am saying!"

it was really wonderful to hear how genuinely excited they are. i'm looking forward to going. dechen asked what the weather was like in varanasi (today the thermometer says it's 93 degrees, and that's in the shade and under a fan), and she said that as we were speaking, snow was falling there. i can't wait to escape the heat here, but i'm a little worried about the sudden shift from blazing heat to bitter cold.


*also, i have to go straight through dolanji on my way back to delhi in late-may, so yangri and i decided that we're going to meet up once more before i have to leave for america. this also means that i can take pictures of dolanji - something i really regret not being able to do when i was up there for losar.