S-c-h-o-o-l'-s out for winter!

That's right ladies and gentlemen! After one day back from the holiday break, the government has closed all schools in the state of Bihar for another week due to cold and fog! Very sadly, one of the evening school students at our school passed away over the holidays due to an extended fever (due to the constant dampness and cold it is presumed - he was 15 years old); the government is unaware of this situation, so it is unlikely that this caused the closure, but assumingly it is to prevent such horrible tragedies from happening.

Nevertheless, the students are back to the break, and we are off to Varanassi today with our principal and Kabir-Sir (the other monk/teacher that lives with us), along with probably every other westerner and monk in Bodhgaya to hear FREE teachings from... you guessed it: His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself!!! The opportunity was just to good to pass up!!! And Doug just informed me that there is streaming video of the teachings on DalaiLama.com, starting on Thursday! (I know, he's so nouveau!)

Miss you all and hope you have a wonderful week! We've posted some school photos just to keep you busy until we get back! ;-)

Namaste!

Love K and C