more from Bodhgaya

Settling in nicely and getting into a bit of a routine. Caught the cold that's going around here and was partly out of commission for two days, coughing and sneezing and feeling bad. Feeling better today, but two of my friends here seem to have caught it.

Most days, I'm up before the sun. It doesn't get light here till after 6 am, and is dark again by 5:30 pm. I get up and move quite slowly for the first bit as is my nature. I set up my cushion on the bed under the mosquito net and sit for a little while. Then around 6:30 or 7:00 I go across the street to Hari Om cafe for breakfast. They're supposed to be open at 6, but when I get there they're usually just lighting the fire in the kitchen and getting started. It's a temporary place with walls about 5 feet high of brick around the outside, and a couple of inside walls to divide the space, and a pretty good tent roof on top. No doors, just fabric hanging in the doorways, and a gravel floor, with a little mouse running around busily. They burn cow dung in the kitchen and the draft up to the roof doesn't always work right away and the place is sometimes filled with smoke when I arrive. On those days I choose to sit outside. I get oatmeal porridge with banana and honey and a milk tea. Total is Rs 45, equivalent to $1.00 Canadian. Sometimes the owner brings over the Bihar edition of the Times of India and I get caught up on the local political scandals. Then it's down to the Mahabodhi Temple where the Kagyu Monlam is being held. While I'm walking I'm likely to see pigs rooting through the garbage, dogs either asleep on the path, or cruising around looking for a fight, cows meandering around, sweeper children sorting through garbage for plastic and tinfoil and such, little piles of burning garbage, goats picking around the garbage or nibbling on greenery, and I'm careful as any farmboy would be to step around the shit that dots the path. The street vendors will just be setting up their carts and stalls for the day. Beggar children are on duty already though. I keep forgetting the Hindi word for "Get lost!" but it comes in pretty handy. I've seen tourists make the mistake of giving a rupee or two to one of those kids, and the result is not quite a riot, but it's close. On the way I go to my favourite chai-wallah. He was ripping me off at first,  but now he fills my mug about two-thirds full for Rs 10, which is about right. The events there start earlier, but I'm content to be there by 9 am when the Karmapa begins to teach. I do kora (circumambulations) until the teaching starts, then find a shady place to sit and listen to the teachings. The teachings are translated and broadcast on FM radio, so I listen on my little MP3 player. By mid morning the sun is bright and high enough that I start to feel warm, and it's time to take off the sweater. There are pigeons living in the niches of the temple, and also two kinds of parrots, one kind green, and the other some sort of brown. The green ones are the better fliers. In Delhi there were a lot of big vultures, very good soarers, but there are only a very few of them here. There is also some kind of crow, and also a robin-like brown bird with red around the eye. There are also a lot of little chipmunk-like critters, bigger than ours, with stripes on their backs, and more squirrel-like in their ability to climb trees. A dog has about 6 or 8 puppies tucked away in a hole between the roots of one of the big trees, very cute. His Holiness teaches till elevenish, then I join up with my friends Prasad and Michel and it's off the the Mahayana Hotel for lunch. It's included in the program we're part of, but I actually prefer the more down-market places like the Tibet Om cafe, or Mohammed's near the Tibetan Refugee Market. They're not much for ambiance or decor, but the food is really great. After lunch, the routine breaks down. Sometimes it's out to Mingyur Rinpoche's Tergar monastery if something is going on there. It's nearly a kilometer away on the west side of Bodhgaya, a nice walk down a pretty busy road, every kind of vehicle imaginable, much honking of horns and swerving around, but no accidents that I've seen yet. We walk past rice fields, some with rice growing, some with rice being harvested, some with just the stubble left on the field. I talked with a rice farmer who told me that three months work had netted him 600 bundles of rice (they tie up the rice in small sheaves about 5 inches in diameter) that would give him about 100 kg of rice, worth about Rs 30 per kg. He keeps it for his family and trades with other villagers if he has excess. He said it's been dry the past two years and the crop has been poor. Bodhgaya has electricity so they can irrigate from wells using electric pumps, but away from here where there's no electricity they're suffering very badly. Rice was Rs 20 per kg last year, and is Rs 30 per kg this year, which is a real hardship. Most days I'm hanging out with Michel or Prasad (or both) and we take opportunities to meet with Rinpoches who are giving interviews. So far I've met Mingyur Rinpoche twice, and once each with HH the 17th Karmapa, Gyaltsap Rinpoche, Jamgon Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche and Thrangu Rinpoche. I'm surprised at how accessible many of them are, and Michel seems to know who is where, and who we need to talk to, and in addition he seems to be quite lucky, so I'm happy to ride on his coat tails and see who he sees. In the evening we have supper back at the Mahayana Hotel, then maybe some time on the internet, or some more kora at the Mahabodhi Stupa, and usually back at my room for a fairly early night. I have a small kettle (only Rs 180, about $4) that I can use for making tea in my room. I got 500g of sugar for Rs 17, so I'm all set. Also, the electrical adapter that I bought in Canada for $40 doesn't work, so I got an Indian one for Rs 20 (about 50 cents) that works great, so I can charge my computer and camera battery. Anyhow, the computer battery is low right now, so that makes it time to quit. Hope everyone is well...