By Tenzin Choekyi
Volunteer job at Lha: French Teacher

In the late 1990s when the internet was available only in cyber cafes or offices, Lha provided a few computers with the educational Mavis Beacon Typing Game. It was free to locals who wanted to learn typing. So, as a small girl who enjoyed playing video games, I went to their classes a few times to play this typing game. Two hands on the screen, starting from the left with A, S, D, F, G and H untouched, then the right from J to the semicolon were to be imitated. To win the game,

I had to quickly follow the screen fingers to type the words on a broken, floating iceberg before it reached the other end of the screen. Lha was as such an educational game centre for me.

Since then my hometown has changed in many profound ways. Almost everyone has the internet on their smartphone and people type with their two thumbs as we well know. Also Lha, in this time period, has grown with even more beneficial services.
Volunteering at Lha has reminded me not only of these memories, but also the culture of respect our community holds for teachers. Even if I came to McLeod mainly to spend time with my family, I also wanted to be directly of service to my community. Teaching the French language came as a perfect opportunity, given the growing number of Tibetans leaving for France. Learning a new language is still an ongoing experience for many Tibetans and it was my hope that what I taught could come to some use in their future.
From that beginning until the last day as a volunteer, everyone at Lha was very kind and welcoming. The students and staff always share a friendly rapport and this is also true of the atmosphere in their community kitchen which serves healthy meals to the public and Lha staff every day. This environment of community spirit and respect in McLeod Ganj, and at Lha, makes contact between tourists or visitors and the locals more meaningful. Yet the influx of domestic tourists, the traffic, and more places being bought or sold in Mcleod seems to come at the cost of losing our space to meet, interact, learn and grow as a community. And that is why I am thankful that Lha continues even today to be that place of solidarity in exile in the heart of McLeod. I am grateful to everyone who keeps Lha running, and hope to find it there, always, with doors wide open.

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