Back in Leh

Last night we settled into the guest house in Leh, where we will be staying until finally arriving at Secmol this Saturday, exactly one month after our departure from Burlington, VT. Our extra bags were waiting for us in Leh, as well as hot showers, which, for most of us, were our first bathing experience in this time, save for an occasional splash of the face from a glacial stream. It's interesting to note that the streams are no warmer in the summer, since the sun merely melts more of the glaciers which feed them. They are only faster, an putting your head in there causes a sensation similar to brainfreeze from ice cream, but from the outside in. So now I am clean and clean shaven and am looking forward to seeing my friends at Secmol again, equipped with some music equipment. A frustrating note about that: Stupidly, I plugged the keyboard into an outlet (240 volts in India) with a plug adapter, but without a voltage convertor and the AC adapter for the keyboard is now shot. Of course it's difficult to get a 120 volt adapter in India, let alone Ladakh, so we'll have to wait on the keys until I can figure that one out. This is a big frustration for the time being as the piano was one thing I hoped to work with the students with most. But aside from this one letdown and some stomach trouble all around (similar to that of the spring crew, and seemingly everyone else who comes here), things are going pretty amazingly. Before coming to Leh we spent five nights in Takmachik, west of here and also in the Indus River valley, harvesting grasses for the animals and filling up on apricots. Every available inch of space in every Takmachik home was covered by drying apricots--bedrooms, beds, roofs, courtyards, everything covered. We ate thousands of them and shook walnuts down from trees each day. At the end of the week the village children dressed in traditional outfit and performed songs and danced for us.