Zangdok Palri Project Newsletter - September 2008

In Dzogchen…

In light of the present situation in Tibet, which is known to you all and needs no further explanation, many of you have asked for news from the Dzogchen school. It is not easy for us to run our project exactly as planned, but we will continue to develop it. We may not be able to progress rapidly, but we will progress, step by step.
This last school year, the pupils mainly studied Tibetan and Chinese. Sadly, the European teacher who had started his English classes early March was forced to leave Dzogchen by the end of April.

Disappointed but not discouraged, and planning to leave again for Dzogchen as soon as he can, Rafael tells his story:

“My classes started at 10 a.m. everyday. and continued with a 15-minute break till 12.15. They were proceeded by Tibetan classes with the local teacher Urjen Tso. After English lessons the children had lunch and then continued with Chinese classes from 2 to 4 p.m. with Tsega, a young Tibetan teacher who arrived at the school a few days after me. We provided also some sports activities which included football, basketball, darts and even some dancing and kung-fu!

Initially there were 17 students in the class but after some time 2 new pupils joined the school. The two Tibetan teachers also came to my classes this time as learners sitting and studying with their own students! The youngest child was about 5 and the oldest student was well over 20 so the age range was really wide.

The lessons began with some basic social everyday phrases and went on with the English alphabet and the Western writing system. The classes got off to a very promising start as most of the the students mastered spelling and writing relatively quickly taking into consideration the fact that they had never learned it before. Numbers were taught next as well as some basic vocabulary such as days of the week, family members, classroom objects etc. I also put emphasis on function language that would enable the students to introduce themselves in English, welcome someone, spell their names etc.

I believe the students would have been really successful if the classes had continued and would have learned a great deal. In most cases they were exceptionally enthusiastic and eager to learn new things.

The classes continued till April 25, when I was forced to leave by the Chinese police. The whole group came to say goodbye to me the following morning and that was probably the only time when I saw them not smiling...”