By Kanak Soni
Volunteer position: Personal Tutor and Conversation Class Assistant

I wanted to travel to the mountains by myself this year, and like it was destined to be, I came across Lha Charitable Trust while surfing the internet. I read everything about them and I thought this will be a great opportunity for me to learn about such a wonderful community alongside volunteering at Lha. I decided to write to the team and heard from them the very next day, this started the journey of discovering myself through learnings which unfolded the deeper meaning of life.

At Lha, I was tutoring for English private classes and volunteering for the English conversation classes. There were highly knowledgeable Tibetan monks and nuns along with other young Tibetans who wanted to learn and excel the language. It was absolutely amazing to see how motivated and enthusiastic everybody was when they walked in for class with such beautiful smiles, it really felt like I was part of their family. I was blessed to have worked with *Geshe monks who added so much value to my perspective, we would go chat over some Tibetan butter tea and even grab some delicious Tibetan thukpa and momo. They treated me with utmost respect and even gifted me some Tibetan tea and Himalayan incense.

Every day at McLeod was fun. Over the span of a month, I visited the Dalai Lama temple several times and would come across people from class and we would do the kora (circumambulation) together and then grab some spontaneous tea and talk over so many things. I enjoyed treks and movie nights with friends from all over the world. Two of my most favourite visits were the Tibetan Museum and LTWA and Tibet related screenings both at the Tibetan Museum and at the Hope Café.

I am so grateful for everybody I met on this trip to Dharamshala. Thank you for an experience of a lifetime and I am hoping to come back often. Oh, and I did wear the chuba (Tibetan traditional dress) to one of my classes at Lha and everyone was in an awe. I did get myself a Tibetan name as well, Tenzin Lhazey. For my ending note, I really had a great time at Lha and I would definitely recommend to come here, volunteer, meet some lovely people and broaden your perspective.

*Geshe or Geshema for women and Khenpo, is equivalent to a Doctorate in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and is the highest level of training in Tibetan Buddhism.