A VIS teacher’s brief summary of lessons learned in Ladakh throughout the semester, based on VIS journal entries…

We have learned:

• to simplify, to live without all of our stuff, to leave the safety of campus with just hiking boots and a sleeping bag, to carry everything you need on your back up steep hillsides and into a stranger’s home for the night. To do it yourself, whether it’s building a wall or a whole building, milking cows for milk at night or curd in the morning, rotating solar panels to make our own electricity, gardening, planting, moving rocks, or mucking out the composting toilet. Nothing is ever as complicated as it seems, and if no one can teach you how to do it, there’s probably a book in the library that you can teach yourself whatever you want to learn, whether it’s solar building, solar panels, playing guitar, learning to knit, cook or learning Ladakhi or Spanish.
   
• to appreciate the small things, teatime, an extra blanket, clean clothes, new socks, an egg at dinner, jam and crusty bread for breakfast.
   
• to make do with less, we’ve done without toilet paper and spoons, without electricity after 10:30pm, we’ve managed to share cookies and chocolates on treks with 15 other people, realized that maybe we don’t need quite so much all to ourselves, perhaps we don’t need a whole room to ourselves after all.
   
• to disconnect from technology, from facebook, from email, from television, from cellphones and text messages keeping us constantly connected, and maybe realized that it’s actually kind of nice to not be tethered to technology, to be a bit unreachable, off hiking in a Himalayan valley somewhere, or to just focus on being with the people right here, singing and dancing to Ladakhi songs instead of holed up with laptops late into the night.
   
•  to work hard, like Ladakhi villagers driving Dzos across a field in Rumbuk, or SECMOL students studying for class 10 exams, whether it’s moving rocks, or scrubbing clothes by hand, or spending a whole month researching a topic that you want to learn about.
   
•  to be generous, with both time and food. To share space with 2 or 3 other people, or sometimes all 15 other people. To compromise sometimes, to let a lot of little things, little annoyances and grievances go. To choose to share a care package with roommates instead of hoarding it all for yourself, to break a cookie or chocolate bar in half to share with a SECMOLpa.
   

There’s so much more we’ve learned, so here are the thoughts of fellow VISpas, excerpted from their writings:

• My experiences here have become a part of me. Without parents, I've learned how to take care of myself. Independence--it's what challenges us most that allows us to grow the most.
   
• I'll probably eat healthier when I go home and really love having fresh fruit in January.
   
• I've learned how much homesickness hurts.
   
• I've become less attached to the internet, to most things, actually, because I've had to let go of so much of what I'm used to.
   
• Don't stress about things being where you left them. They'll turn up someplace entirely different in 12-72 hours.
   
• Do not take toilet paper for granted.
   
• Learn to let something as small as crusty bread and jam for breakfast make your day a great one. Seize every opportunity. Let your environment be your playground.
   
• Attachment gives you fear, love gives you courage. That is what I want to bring back with me.
   
• I'm much more down to earth than I used to be. I've also become much more tolerant than I used to be.
   
• I've learned to deal with my problems in a much more relaxed way here.
   
• The ability to share a room with three people, eat predictable food every day, and shower less than twice a week are also things I've learned. But the most valuable thing I’ve learned is that however undesirable these lessons look on paper, they're quite the opposite. I never realized how big the world really was, and how lucky I am to get the chance to live a life like this.
   
• I have gotten less shy while I've been here, more daring, more willing to say hi to a stranger, and start a conversation.
   
• I really just want to keep embracing the day, as corny as that sounds. Every little thing has so much more meaning, it's like I renewed my life.
   
• There are many things I am going to take away, but also things that I will leave behind. I will leave behind my ignorance of the world outside the US. I will leave behind much of my mean nature I may have had at times before coming to Ladakh. I will take away a bigger sense of adventure and a much larger appreciation for long, even painful hikes.
   
• One thing I am taking away from this experience is a sense of independence. One of my biggest fears used to be being lonely but now those times when I'm off thinking and walking by myself are the ones that I enjoy the most. I also learned a lot about how a family should look or function. I always think of SECMOL as one big family where everyone takes part in work and how there is just a sense of love and security.
   
• I learned a lot about myself and what I am capable of. I am a lot braver than I thought I was. At first signing up for this trip was a get-away from my problems, but it turned into so much more than that.
   
• Using my body and carrying my things on my back, trusting my body to right itself even when I lose my balance, feeling my heart beating hard, and then slowing down when I take a rest, have all made me realize that my bones and muscles are just as much me as my face or brain, and this has led me to realize that all my body is just plants and sunshine.
   
• I would like to take home this new connectedness and familiarity and trust of my body and myself.
   
• The Ladakhis have taught me that when work needs to be done you just do it, no matter if you don't know every detail of why you are doing it.
   
• I've learned how great it is to have a big flowery thermos of sweet tea and an unlimited supply of biscuits, the Ladakhis have taught me the true meaning of hospitality and have always made me feel incredibly welcomed in their homes.
   
• I've learned that I am friendly and loveable.
   
• I learned how to milk a cow. How to make mok moks. How to eat with only a spoon. How to eat without any silverwear. How to wash muddy clothes by hand. How to type on a tiny keyboard.
   
• How to play A, D, and G chords on a guitar. How to not only stop complaining aloud but also stop complaining silently to myself and just accept that my exhausted body has to, and will, keep moving forward.
   
• Express the desire, motivation, generosity, love, compassion, self-lessness, honesty, gratitude, and exuberance that you have found on this journey. That's what you, I and we must tell ourselves while miles hum by like footsteps on a treadmill, crossing the Atlantic.
   
• I want friends and neighbors to feel like they can just stop by without invading our privacy. I want our home to feel more open for others to enjoy, and I want to serve them tea and biscuits. I have learned from the villages of Ladakh how open and inviting you can be with your neighbors--and it just feels right.
   
• Instead of going through life feeling like I have to do tasks like grocery shop, cook, and work I want to feel like they are opportunities to talk with other people in the world--whether they be my closest friends or someone I just happen to be standing next to in the grocery store line.
   
• I want to take back the friendships I have made here, not only VISpas but SECMOLpas also. It's going to be really sad leaving them.
   
• The most important lesson that I've learned is that you can live life with the simplest things and still be happy. No matter how much I may get sick of the same food, cold showers, or compost toilets I always know that I am 10 times happier here than I was at home. I also learned that family matters a lot, you see it in the homestays. They all spend their days together.
   
• "Only one bucket for bathing, cold water for washing, be happy."-- sign in the bathroom "If you love someone you need to express it, otherwise you are a loser."--Skarma Lotus
   
• Things to bring back: acceptance, impermanence, helpfulness, friendliness.
   
• One thing I absolutely love about SECMOL is how simply and sustainably we live while here. It makes you think about the excessiveness of our previous lifestyles. Almost every bit of excess is put to use. Used paper and plastic as insulation, scraps of wood for cooking. Even the method they use to capture heat is fantastically resourceful.