Making a Difference

In the fall semester of 2007, Anne Deriaz delivered an inspiring speech as part of the Franklin Fall Lecture Series about her work in India with the Spiti Valley Buddhist monks. Adrian Mangiuca ’09 was immediately captivated and wanted to be personally involved himself. He began an internship with Deriaz and Les Amis de la Sapan Foundation with which she worked and whose goal is to preserve Tibetan culture through education and community-based projects. The Foundation had received a request from some of the Buddhist monks in the Spiti Valley for help with learning English. So with the assistance of Dean of Arts and Humanities Sara Steinert-Borella and Deriaz, a student trip to the Spiti Valley region to teach Buddhist monks English for the summer of 2008 started to emerge.

Also in the audience were Tristan Jones ’11 and Madi McClintock ’11, who were similarly inspired by Deriaz’ talk. They quickly signed on to go to India during the summer break, and Katie Herron ’11 joined them after hearing about the project. A year of thorough planning with Steinert-Borella, Deriaz and Associate Dean Andrew Starcher could not prepare the students for what they would experience.

Upon arrival in the Tibetan region high in the Himalayas, Tristan and Adrian went to the monastery of Komick while Madi and Katie proceeded to the Key monastery, which was a few hours away by foot, all intent on teaching. They had taken a crash course in teaching English as a second language but could only speculate about what their students would respond to and what their level of comprehension would be.

As they began to teach, equipped with panels of wood painted black for blackboards and buckets of chalk, they adapted quickly to the needs and the comprehension levels of their new students, and they found that communication was surprisingly easy. “Cultural barriers were no problem,” said Adrian. “The kids were so adaptable.” Although Tristan, Adrian, Madi and Katie had to deal with a wide range of ages and comprehension levels in their classrooms, they found that the students helped each other naturally, with the more experienced English-speakers tutoring the less experienced. “It was hard at first,” said Katie. “We used methods from learning French. By the end, there was noticeable improvement—they gained confidence and were comfortable with the language.” They also discovered that the monks loved games and competition, and their students requested quizzes and exams. “They were just like us,” said Madi. “They liked to sleep in, play, eat candy.”

All four made daily evaluations of the lessons and planned the next day’s teaching around how they felt the monks were progressing. Tristan and Adrian saw that their students knew a lot of vocabulary but didn’t know how to put the words together to express thoughts or a story line. “We ended up focusing on grammar and being able to form sentences,” said Tristan. “It was a lot of trial and error.”

The four volunteer teachers quickly realized that the pace of life and perception of time were completely different from “Swiss time” in the Spiti Valley. They now were on “India time.” The morning before a lesson a messenger might come to them and say that the monks were leaving on a hike into the mountains so there would be no class for a week, and class times changed frequently and unpredictably. “I have a different outlook now,” said Tristan. “I’m a lot more open and a lot less uptight.”

Although Tristan, Adrian, Madi and Katie were teaching two lessons a day and privately tutoring an older monk, the majority of the time they were the ones learning how to fit into the daily rhythms of life in the monastery and seeing their “needs turn into wants,” as Adrian put it. They learned how to wash their clothes by hand, what foods to eat and not to eat, and how to be resourceful with limited means. They also witnessed a puja, or holy ceremony, and the creation of a sand mandala for which Buddhist monks are famous.

Another learning experience was seeing how Westernization was influencing the region, such as the move from traditional mud-brick building material to concrete and the use of soda in religious ceremonies. “I saw that we could learn from each other and that there are wrongs and rights on both sides,” said Adrian. “We can see what’s being lost and what’s gained.” Prodded by homesickness, Tristan and Adrian brought a little bit of the United States to the monks when they taught them how to play baseball on the Fourth of July; from then on, they played baseball together almost every day.

Tristan, Adrian, Madi and Katie each came away from their time living with the Buddhist monks in the Spiti Valley with feelings of personal growth and insight. “It was a positive experience,” said Katie. “By the end, I was sad to leave.” In Madi’s words, “Teaching was incredible. You really have to commit yourself,” and Tristan noted, “It changed me as a person for sure.”

“It was the most valuable thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Adrian. “I learned more than I ever knew and came out completely changed.”

Photos on this page from top to bottom: Franklin students with the monks at the Monastery in Spiti Valley; Katie Herron '11 taught along with Madi McClintock '11, Photo: Madi McClintock; Adrian Manguica '09 hikes up to Key Monastery in the background, Photo: Katie Herron; Tristan Jones '11 tries out local transportation, Photo: Madi McClintock; Madi McClintock '11 and one of the monks enjoy a laugh, Photo: Katie Herron.

For more photos see our Photo Gallery.

September 2008