Once again, our day began with a reflection in the early morning hours on the banks of the Indus River.

After breakfast we played Frisbee with some of the SECMOL students, and then headed out on foot to the nearby village of Phey. As we explored the village, we noted how religion is interwoven into day to day life here. Prayer wheels adorn the doorways of many homes, and mani walls (piles of stones that have been carved with mantras) can be seen along the paths.

Phey is home to a Buddhist monastery school, and we had the opportunity to meet with the school director, the High Monk. Our students were excited to meet the young monks at the school and were surprised by how full their days are with such familiar routines and courses. Although it is a very traditional religious school, they have an integrated curriculum, so the young monks there study English, math, science, history and other familiar subjects in addition to religion. A science class we stopped in on was studying the endocrine system!

Returning to SECMOL, we surprised the students with chocolate (a welcome treat!), and then set up for a very important lesson from the Ladakhi students: how to do laundry. It turned out to be a lot easier than we expected, and (as with everything we do with the SECMOL students) a lot more fun! Needless to say, fun times doing laundry turned into fun times having a water fight. Some of the SECMOL students even climbed up to the roof and poured water on us from above!

Later that afternoon, we met up with the SECMOL students again for a workshop with Katrina, who is a drama teacher from southern India. Split up into small groups, we worked together to design and rehearse shadow puppet plays based on sustainability issues, to be performed after dinner.

At dinner, Chloe officially joined the SECMOL tradition of the dinner speech, describing to us her experience with Model UN. This led to an interesting discussion on the United Nations: who they are, what they do, etc.

That evening we pitched parachute tents, back-lit by solar lamps, and we gathered together to watch one another’s shadow play performances under the stars. Our Ladakhi friends brought drums, and we stayed out playing music, talking, and singing songs long into the night.

-The Global Awareness India Team