Life and such in China

So the other day, my fiance and I were wandering the Tibetan market in town, checking out the nomads and monks that were getting ready to head back out to the grasslands. Whilst wandering about, we ran into two monks from Sakya monastery (in the Shigatse region), said "Hello." We talked for minute, and then one went "We are from Sayka monastery, you give me money!" I said, no, you're a monk, you don't need money. He was okay with that and wandered off to ask someone else. (If you ever travel out here, you should NEVER give a monk money. They get all that they need from their monastery, and more from general poor people who wish to gain karma points. Besides-why give money to a guy that's wearing a nicer watch than most people in the U.S. wear? So the rule of thumb-just say, politely, no-you don't need it, and move on.) About ten minutes later, we encounter this Muslim (quasi) guy selling this stuff I call Weigar cake. It's a kosher cake-made with sugar, nuts, and dried fruits. Really quite good. We proceeded to have a serious miscommunication that resulted in a different price than what I thought we had originally agreed upon. Then we argued, and a crowd (a big one) gathered to watch the foreigner get cheated. We continued to talk, I called a friend in town for some help with language, the crowd grew larger. Finally, after some time, we got away from the whole affair-but still were rather soundly cheated. Bummer. But, that is how it goes here, being a foreigner. You can't speak well, especially the local dialect, and they know it, so they cheat you. Sometimes there's no way around it, like this time. At least the cake was good.

The Genius of the '80's (and it's not Reagan!)

Ladies and gentlemen-teased hair, rockin' music videos with a theme reminiscent of a Reynolds wrap factory and classic songs like "I Ran" can only mean one of the New Wave all-time greats- FLOCK OF SEAGULLS!!!! Even the long running TV show "Friends" realized the magnificence of this group and their absolutley smashing hair styles. Hopefully no Japanese audiences where harmed during the making of this video.

Climbing again....

So while I was down bambling about Thailand, I checked out some of the climbing at Krabi/Tonsai/Railay beaches. Excellent stuff! Everything from 5a (5.7ish) up. Also a lot of great bouldering, which is what I mostly did (no rope partner till later on in the week). So here is a pic or two of the trip, with some friends of mine from Lhasa. The hand picture is what happens when two things happen: 1)you haven't climbing hard in over 5 months; and 2) you don't take a rest day until way too late.

Randomness!!

So it's always nice to have some British silliness and thieving rock rodents to look at. Cheers!

Thoughts on Marriage (inspired by Mark ch. 10).

So being engaged is really pretty awesome. It's also brought home lots of things (i.e.-responsibilities) that will soon be entering into my world. We have been listening to John Piper's sermons on marriage that he is doing currently, and a lot of things are standing out in my mind...Like Mark chapter 10, verses 7-8. Especially verse 8. "What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." I mean, that's huge. It's also awesome...especially in today's culture of serial marriages. Once we get married, nobody on earth can seperate us...especially when you look at the next few verses (which you should do). Huge, and rather astounding. Our view of marriage in the west is, at times, rather like our view of God. Look at John chapter 1, verses 5-10. God, who made the world (and marriage, look at Gen. 2:18-25), isn't recognized by the things/beings he created. Very strange really. Perhaps that's why our view of marriage is so warped and, dare I say it, rather perverted (not perverted in the register with your local police sense, but the older, original sense)....especially when we see the type of relationship we are called to have-marriage on earth is a mirror, an everyday example of the relationship between Christ and the church. As husbands (future tense for me at the moment), men are called to love their wives as Christ loves the church...for a good picture of this-look at the cross. For an easier example to understand, at least for me-look at the book of Hosea in the Old Testament. Eye opening, at least to me. Huge. All that to say-marriage, it seems, is more than the crazy love at the beginning of being engaged...it's a fulltime commitment to glorifying God through the relationship He has seen fit to bless us with. Super Huge.

So now that the immediate joy of becoming engaged is still with me (mouth hurts from smiling), I figured I should give you guys an update on my last trip south. The day before my birthday, two guys rolled into town, and we decided to leave the next day and head south to a little city called Jyekundo. It's in the middle of the Khamba Tibetan area, and at about 12,500 feet. So that Saturday, we hopped onto a sleeper bus (three rows of bunk beds down a bus), and off we went. While we were there, we met up with one of the guy's friends, a monk at a monastery way outside of the town. We'll call him Nate (his name is hard to pronounce, much less spell). So we met up with him, and then his cousin/brother (familial relations here are defined in a different way than in the west-Tibetans will call cousins brothers and sisters just as fast as they will their real brother or sister), who is a Lama in that area as well. So my 24th birthday was spent eating dinner and hanging with a monk, a lama and his wife. Pretty sweet, if you ask me. The next day we went out to Nate's monastery, and then hooked up with his family, all nomads. His father is an 82 year old nomad-quite feat out here. While there, we met most of his family (which includes lots of monks and really cute kids)...this was Christmas day. the few days, we just kinda wandered around the town. I had to miss a day to the effects of eating lots of tsampa mixed up with yak-dung-hands...does wonders for the digestion, lemme tell ya. We checked out the main monastery in ton, and met some of the younger monks who were just getting out of school (where they learn all things needed for a monk's life-Tibetan scriptures, various Tantric things, etc.). I had to leave the next afternoon to get back to Xining and teach, so the next morning we went up to the mani stone pile on the outskirts of the town. A mani stone is a rock that has some sort of Tibetan Buddhist mantra carved or painted onto it, usually the "om mani padme um." That place is huge. So that's that. Here's a few pictures, and if I can get my Flickr site to work, a whole lot more will follow.

TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY AND MIRTH ARE UPON US!!!!!

Howdy there everyone...after much internet difficulties and oddness, my homecomputer now works, so the randomness shall continue on. OKay then-since I last posted, I've been further into the Tibetan regions of the world, I've been climbing in Thailand (and experiencing a wonderfully horrid beer Tsingha), and my wonderful and lovely girlfriend came out visit me, and now is in XIning with me. On to the tidings! On the eve of February 11th, after we ate a rousing dinner of meat on a stick and bingzis (bingzuh)-I got terribly nervous, but tried to act tough (and failed I think), and asked Lindi to marry me. And she said yes, which absolutely makes the rest of the year (and my life) a "most excellent adventure" (to quote the great bill and ted). So HURRAY!!! I'm ENGAGED!!! More to follow, I'm rather gleeful at the moment.

More Good Music

So, as I said last week-check out the John Butler Trio if you haven't yet. This week, I am proclaiming the music of one Damien Rice, Irish troubador. He has incredible lyrics and music, an amazing vocalist sings with him named lIsa Hannigan. If this thing works, I have embedded a video of a song from his first full length album, "O." His second, "9" just hit the store maybe a month ago. You're doing yourself a disservice (in my highly subjective and opinionated opinion) if you don't at least listen to a little bit of it. Enjoy!

Enough for the seriousness already!

So I figured that after the last few, maybe we needed some light-heartedness. Here is a picture of some of my students, and my best Tibetan friends. Also is a picture of a rinpoche I met a few months back...cool guy. Okay then-Enjoy!

Thoughts Born of a Confession

Today I was standing in the post office to pay my gas bill (don't ask, just how it works here), when a nomad woman, much like the one in the picture, came up to me. She was begging, asking for money, which is not uncommon here, especially as the year turns cold and the nomads come off the grasslands. And, to my great shame, instead of just giving her the first bill that I touched in my pocket, I rooted around and could find nothing small (smaller denominations are also physically smaller here), and so I said "duibuqi, meiyou"-which means "sorry, don't have." The reality of the situation was that I did in fact have money. Plenty-I had just been to the bank. But I confess I didn't want to give her a large note, but that I wanted to give her something like 5 mao, or 1 kuai (kind of like 50 cents or 1 dollar)-not that 100 kuai note I touched. Why?! I say that I love these people, and when a real, tangible way to help comes along, I say "no." I do love these people, and I do want to help them. So why did I do that? I think that in the West, anywhere, not just the States, we have a warped view of reality-we are rich. Even if we are poor, we are rich. I'm not saying it's bad-I could care less, honestly. But these people here-the nomads I love, the Tibetans I love-Khamba or Amdo-right now, no matter-they are poor. And since I have been here in China or Tibet, or whatever you want to call it, I have seen things that a Western mind simply cannot compute fully-and I haven't even seen the really bad stuff yet. The reality here is that many of these people are dirt poor in a way that we can never understand. The nomads come in off the grasslands in the winter because of a very, very real battle with death-by starving or by the brutal cold. I like the cold because it's a challenge. The cold kills these people because they have nowhere else to go. How's that for an incredible priority miss-match? They come in and beg on the streets. Why? They have nothing but yaks and tents-those don't work so well in the city. Children and old women with what amounts to rags wander the streets asking for money so they can buy food. The faces of these people are burned into my mind. They fill my sleep. As a Westerner, with all the things I come from, all the glitz, glamour, and things my culture and I deem as "essential"-gear, iPods, computers, cars-I, and we all, have no common ground. None. In time we gain it. After years, not months. We filter through the mindset of "they should just get a job." The can't-they didn't go to school. They don't speak the right language. And they aren't the right race. But you know something? The nomads, these beautiful people-they know why they have to beg. They know why I said I was sorry, in their own way. And they don't hold it against me, or us (mostly). Instead they smile. They have an inner joy, despite all their outer suffering. Maybe they aren't happy, but they have joy-that's why the lady could look at me and smile at me with a smile full of deep joy that I have never had, though she saw right through me. Why are they joyful? They love their life in way that seems impossible-the grasslands give them life, and death. Their families offer safety. And most of all-they smile. And all I could do was say "meiyou." So confess this to anyone who reads this, and to the nomad woman who will never read this. And from on I will just reach and give, and not look or be concerned. Would Christ be concerned? I don't think so, but I may be wrong. I have so much, so much. And they have nothing, in the true sense of the word. I'm called to love them. We are all called to love people. So love someone today in a way you never have, in a way Christ would. Unconditionally. And please don’t make my mistake, and say "Sorry, I don't have."