Hello from Shangrila,
This week was just as busy as last, but the weather improved a bit. Sunshine in the morning, rain in the afternoon, slightly warmer. I have never appreciated my 2nd Street Brewery hooded sweatshirt and Jerry’s Land’s End down jacket so much.
The highlight of this week was the addition of new baby kittens to the Handicraft’s Centre house cat Lily. The German intern Berit and I acted like new parents and went on the internet to learn about how to care for baby kittens. Lily is eating like a horse. Yesterday she decided my yogurt was much better than her cat food (dog food since we were not able to find cat food the last time we went to the store). Strange cat – we tried to feed her milk since it’s much cheaper than cat food but she won’t eat milk, yet she ate my yogurt. The attached photo showed Lily with her kittens, two black & white and one tan & white. There was a fourth, the first one to come out. She took very long to come out, Lily abandoned her so she did not make it.
The bee project is going well. The Hamugu villagers are very excited about starting the beekeeping project. Only 19 of the 20 bee colonies ordered survived the journey as one box tipped over while the van went through a flooded area. The sunny warmer weather is going to help quite a bit. The village is full of wild flowers right now. We hope to start collecting honey in a month.
I started teaching English to a 16-yr old Tibetan girl who runs a Tibetan weaving store with her mother and grandmother. She in turn is teaching me a little Shangrila Tibetan. I learned that the Tibetan language is not one language, it varies even just among the nearby towns.
Berit and I stay busy updating the Handicraft Centre’s store inventory and adding photos to it, and we continue to work on putting together a booklet on Yunnan herbal medicine in English, with photos, brief background description, indications and dosage.
We continue to do translations for local business owners, including one for a shop that sells grilled yak meat and mutton. We made a sign for them in English with the various meat offerings and prices.
Haven’t had a day off yet. Hope the weather cooperates tomorrow (Sunday) so I can do some hiking.
So long for now,
Belinda
