Water Hope's Tracy Tomkovicz - Trip to China - Close to Cheng Du

Well for the last 2 days we have pretty much just been driving like crazy. We wake and load the cars at 7 and are out of town by 7:30. We usually don't pull into the town where we will stay until 7:00 that night. A hot shower each night has been a treat. I really don't care if I taste another Sichuan meal again in my life. I am actually starving but whenever we pull over to some seedy roadside stand or restaurant my appetite goes out the window.

Last night we stayed in LuDing. The city is famous for a chain bridge where the Red (communist)  Army had one of its famous battles against the KuMingTong Army.  It was a scary chain link bridge covered with wood planks with space in between (not too much unlike the kind you see in children's play grounds) where you can see straight down below. The only difference is that this bridge is about 20 meters long and hangs about 20 meters over a raging river below. The fun part was Steve, Ali and I were the last people to walk onto the bridge so the rest of the group thought it would be fun to jump on and swing the bridge to make our crossing a little more fun!  OH MY GOD! I thought I was going to die!  They were cracking up!  VERY FUNNY...Not.

We left this morning at 6 am to get over our last pass and not get stuck behind a bunch of trucks. We will be into Cheng Du fairly soon. Steve, Ali and I catch a flight out to Hong Kong later today and will spend a few days they to recuperate before we fly home.

This will be my last note. Thanks to all of you who have responded and enjoyed my narrative journey. I felt bad that on my last trip overseas for WaterHope, when Aline and I went to India, that I didn't keep a journal or send notes. I hope you have enjoyed coming along my journey with me. Wish me a safe return and I hope to see you all soon.
Tracy

Water Hope's Tracy Tomkovicz - Trip to China - Day 1 of the drive

The drive I have dreaded and looked forward to the entire trip. We left Sechen at 8:30 am. Three Land Cruisers loaded to the hilt with people and gear. Our first stop was in Monegongo. Monegongo is a small Tibetan town about 2 hours away from the Monastery. We were stopping there to replace some parts for a local girl's wheelchair. Her mother is a doctor at the local clinic. She has 2 club feet. Tibet is not at all forgiving in climate, temperament or accessibility for people with disabilities.  Scott meet this girl one night when he and his wife were taking an evening walk and she came out of a local bar being pushed by a very drunk friend. The friend got the 2 front wheels of her wheelchair stuck in a ditch and pitched the rider into the mud head first. Scott and his wife ran to the rescue. It turned out her wheel chair was badly in need of replacement parts. This was why we were there. The family was great and her 17 year old brother was quite the basketball (NBA) fan. He spoke english well enough to carry on a conversation about his love for basketball.

When we finished our good deed for the day we headed out of town to one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. It is called Yilong Lhasto (the L is silent). It is fed by the glaciers from the local mountain range that are at about 20,000 ft elevation. I have attached a picture for you but it doesn't do it justice. We ate lunch there then headed out to Ganze

We stopped in Ganze to drop off a generator at a local girls school (the electricity here is pretty spotty), purchase some local items and fix one of the car's tires. We soon hit the road again and drove until 8:00 pm when we arrived at LuHo. We checked into the Golden Yak Hotel and let me tell you anything feels like to Ritz compared to the guest house at the monastery. We had a quick dinner of everything that could possibly burn your tongue off. Carlos and Randy ad sweat dripping down their foreheads it was so damn hot!

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. I had my first shower in 6 yes SIX days. To say that it was like a religious experience does not begin to describe how glorious that shower was. I will sleep well tonight.

Good night all,
Tracy

Water Hope's Tracy Tomkovicz - Trip to China - Last day at the school

Sorry I didn't write last night, but I was just too tired and had to go straight to bed. We worked all morning wrapping up our various projects. Ali, Eva and I painted the last wall in the Dining hall. Steve, Carlos and JimBo made a plastic box to go over the water filtration system to protect it from the dirt and smoke in the kitchen. Scott, Randy, Tensen, O'yang and Steve (the other Steve) hired a backhoe to dig a trench and the men laid pipe. Next spring Scott will put in a box by a natural spring up the hill. The pipe will bring the water directly to the water tanks in the kitchen. The poor water boy will have to find a new occupation but they will have a constant source of water to the water tanks and filtration system. It was a stinky job. They had to skirt by and old, abandoned outhouse. Oh  my lord you can guess how much fun that was.

The trench got all dug and the pipe got laid. Next we had a photo shoot. Scott brought his friend Jacques who is a professional photographer. Jacques set up all of his camera equipment and a back drop near the wall of the monastery and photographed each of the workers with props unique to what we did when we were at the school . It was a blast. We all teased each other and the smiles were genuine. Scott brought the cooks new kitchen pots, pans, and tools along with 2 Toques (chef's hats). Jacques took pictures of the 2 of them in their new hats. They were so shy. They kept giggling and covering their faces. It was very cute.

We said our last, very sad goodbyes to the cooks, the teachers, the water boy, the monks and of course the beautiful children. I had  a weird mixture of feelings going on, sadness to be saying goodbye to the new friends we had made, joy to be heading home and dread of the three day drive back to civilization. This was when I really wished I had a pair of those damn ruby slippers Dorothy had. "There's no place like home."

Paijai treated us along the walk home to go inside some of the more private and sacred temples around the monastery.  They were awe inspiring. Covered with amazing murals and filled with gilded Buddha statues in all of his many forms to was breath taking.

Steve, Ali and I made dinner for the crew. Pasta Fagioli soup and couscous with sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and parmasean cheese over a wood burning stove.  We even had a cocktail of rum and coke for a toast to our last night. Maybe that is why I was too tired to write?

Talk to you all soon!

Water Hope's Tracy Tomkovicz - Trip to China - Third Work Day

This is the third work day of Tracy Tomkovicz' trip to China and the Cheng Du region to help children there.  This email was sent on September 11th:

Today we had our same wake up, oatmeal and hike to the orphanage. We started right into finishing the mural, the men worked quickly to finish up the insulation, sinks, and second water tank in the dining hall. We had a goal to finish by 2:00 so we could work with the kids for a few hours in the afternoon cleaning up the grounds. They have a severe problem with all of the trash that is generated here. There is no centralized garbage collection, so there is a lot of trash everywhere. It is so sad. This is such a beautiful valley but no way for them to solve this problem for themselves.

The cooks made us a gourmet Tibetan lunch with carrots and yak, peppers and yak, spicy cucumbers, and rice. Double Yum! We sat in a huge circle in a meadow by the stream (where the children had already cleaned). Each of the 10 of us spaced ourselves out somewhere in the circle to sit amongst the children. I felt like a mute. It is so hard to sit with these beautiful creatures who are starving for your attention and not be able to speak to them. So what does one do in a situation when surrounded by a dozen little girls who you can't talk to?  Play patty cake. You know not the one you do with little babies, but the kind where you sing songs or chant and clap at lightning speed. They totally knew how to do it. Well of course they did. They are girls!  What fun.

After lunch the clean up began. Our crew began putting away our work materials also and cleaned up our work area. The children shared plastic bags and collected all of the trash, moved and stored all of the old windows, swept and mopped the dining hall floor. The place was really looking great. We told the children that if they helped clean they would get some rewards. Ali and I ordered a ton of little toys from Oriental Trading Company to give to the children. I know, I know. You are thinking isn't that a bit stupid to buy toys from China, have them sent to America, to bring back to China?  Well they were the cheapest toys and easiest to order so leave me alone!  We had the girls line up in one line and the boys in another. Then we passed out 2 toys to each child. They loved them. Boys were flying planes all over the yard and the girls were trading their bracelets and small animals. Next we tossed out 10 new soccer balls and 10 new basketballs brought by Scott.  The kids went nuts. There were balls everywhere. The kids were having a blast but didn't have a clue how to play a game with them. Steve of course had to put on his coaches hat and in his best Tibetan, oh I mean English, taught a group of young boys how to pass, catch and the triple threat. It was a hoot to watch.

Our final work of the day was each worker had to paint something on the mural. Everyone was stumped and challenged by the assignment. We had yaks, mountain climbers, butterflies, dragon flies and even a hot air balloon (we decided to stump the poor little Tibetan children with figuring out that one!). It all tied the mural together so beautifully.

We trekked back to dinner with the English teacher in tow. We wanted him to join in on our American meal and conversation. Dinner was a simple pasta dish with a red sauce with roasted red peppers, parmasean cheese and onions! I was in heaven.

Now I am tucked away in my little bed. Ali is already snoring and Steve is in the bed next to me emailing all of his friends. Good night all. Tomorrow is our last day here in the valley. Sunday we start our 3 day drive back to Cheng Du.
Tracy

Water Hope's Tracy Tomkovicz - Trip to China - Second Work Day

This is the third email from Water Hope's  Tracy Tomkovicz on her trip to China: 

We woke early today and have our breakfast. Jacques made blueberry muffins in a big frying pan for us all. We. Then set of for our hike to the orphanage. Alison and I started right into working on the mural. We needed to get everything ready for the kids to do their part. The new preschool students (all 40 of them) we studying in the main hall because they don't have a classroom so they study outside. It had rained the night before so it was too wet and cold for them to sit outside. We decided to have them be our first group of artists. We took 2 students at a time made them go to the new sink with fresh clean water and wash their hands first. We then put them each up on a ladder, painted one of their beautiful hands and had them make 3 hand prints as leaves on the tree that is the centerpiece of the mural. This activity mesmerized, tickled and overjoyed the young students. All of our fellow workers quickly entered the room and were snapping pictures like crazy. It was joyous chaos and I am so happy I was fortunate enough to be there to share in it. After we finished with the preschool students the school broke for recess. Well the word about the mural and the students part in it spread like wild fire. The other 140 students were trying to rush the doors to the room. The cook had to swat them away with a stick!  We decided we could not make them wait any longer so if they lined up and behaved each one would have a turn at adding to the mural with their hand print. As is the custom here, the boys were first in line. The other student peered through the windows and egged on the painters. The line seemed to go on forever. Finally after about 3 hours of doing students, teacher, cook, water boy and monk hand prints our magnificent tree was done. It was majestic and silly all at the same time. We finally made the trek back to the guest house at 6:15.

I was so excited to grab a quick powerbar, was up and hit the sack. Scott showed up about 20 minutes later and informed us that we were invited to dinner at the head monk, PaiJai's (pronounced pay jay) house at 7. I would have skipped it but how often do you get invited to dinner at the home of the Head Monk of an entire Monastery and orphanage?  Not too often so I cleaned my face, picked myself up and followed the crowd.

PaiJai's house was humble but beautifully adorned with Buddhist art. He made us a simple meal of tea with sugar and yak milk, Ginseng in Yak Butter sprinkled with raw sugar, homemade Yak yogurt, and a soup consisting of Yak, Bokchoy and hand ripped pasta (kind of like gnocchi)...yum! I tried everything and all I can say is thank God I only have of live here for 6 days of my life. This diet is better than Isagenix, South Beach or Weight watchers. Someone should come up with a diet plan where they ship you off to some remote village and only let you eat the local fair, in my case yak. My pants are already falling off of me.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful the evening was surreal. The conversation was lively and informative. We did not talk anything about politics as this is not why we are here. We are purely on a humanitarian mission to help the children here.    Paijai's generosity was heartfelt. He opened up his private prayer rooms to us to go inside and see. We all felt so honored. As a parting gift he gave each of us a bracelet of prayer beads. He said because of what we are doing here all of the monks will pray for our safe journey home and each time we place these beads under a Buddha statue our prayers will be answered.

It was an awesome day. I am going to sleep now. Good night you all!
Tracy

Water Hope's Tracy Tomkovicz - Trip to China - First full day at Sechen Monastery

 Water Hope Founder and President Tracy Tomkovicz took an amazing trip to China.  Here are her emails in blog post sections.  This one was the second one sent on September  9th:    

We actually slept well. Better than I expected. My toes got cold and I had to wake Steve up every time I to go to the bath room. As you have probably guessed the bathroom facilities leave much to be desired and the are a few very unfriendly dogs that live outside the guest house that you have to give a very wide birth. The dogs are fed by the monks even thought they are mean because the monks believe the dogs were bad monks in a previous life. For these reasons I am not going to the bathroom in the middle of the night alone.

We had a nice breakfast of oatmeal with raisins and sugar and a cup of Pete's coffee (bless the Lord in Heaven!). At about 9 we set off for our trek across this small valley to the school. We were greeted by there beautiful, happy faces and warm greetings, tashi delek in Tibetan. The kids and monks all laugh when we say it to them.

We started right into our work because we only have 6 days to complete all of the projects that need to be done. Alison, Eva and I are working on a mural (that is a surprise for Dick Grace so don't say anything to him if you know him)  for the main hall/dining room and Steve is working on installing a tank, sink, faucet and drainage system in the same room with a great man named Jim or Jim-Bo. We took one 20 minutes break to have a gourmet lunch of salami and crackers, peanut butter and jelly followed by some dark chocolate. I was in heaven!  Although the Chinese food is great, it is really hard to eat every meal, every day.

The children love having their pictures taken and seeing it on the viewing screen. Most of them have probably never seen a picture of themselves. They are more friendly now and getting more bold about approaching us. The girls seem to be more bold than the boys.

Late in the afternoon a large supply truck arrived and all of the older children helped to unload and put away all of the supplies. It was like Santa's sleigh pulling up in the town square. The children were overjoyed to carry in the sacks of rice and sort through the eggs like they were each a precious Christmas package.

We broke for the day at 5:30 and made great progress. The monks and children are very impressed by what we have done so far on the mural. The first few children used the new sink with the clean filtered water in the kitchen. It was a glorious sight. I don't think they know how much that system will change their lives. They seam to be more impressed by the mural.

Steve, Ali and I made the trek back to the guest house to beat the pending rain. We are now all cleaned up and feeling exhausted but satisfied with a hard days work. We will sleep well tonight.
Take care you all!  Anyone have an In-n-out burger handy?

Water Hope's Tracy Tomkovicz - Letters from China - First Letter

 Water Hope Founder and President Tracy Tomkovicz took an amazing trip to China.  Here are her emails in blog post sections.  This one was the first one sent on September  5th:   

Last night our guide Fu took us to the ancient part of Cheng Du. It was a beautiful part of the old town.  Ancient streets lined with red lanterns and serene ponds filled with lotus blossoms. It was a scene from a movie. Too beautiful to believe. We enjoyed a meal of traditional Sichuan delicacies. Sichuan is know for it's hot food. Fu said the women love it. The hotter the better. This is how they stay so thin. It not only speeds up your metabolism but it is so hot your tongue is on fire so you can't eat very much!  It was so delicious!

 

This morning we leave Cheng Du for our full day of driving to Kanding. Kanding is at 8,000 ft elevation (about the same as the highest peak in the Sierra's). We stay there over night and wake up at 4:00 am to start our drive to our next city. Our Land Cruiser is packed with our supplies (lots of power bars, peanut butter and tortillas), the extra parts and filters for the water system, molding for the 80 new windows being installed at the orphanage, gifts for the 160 orphans who live there and us. Our adventure begins!  We are all very excited and happy to be here.  Take care all.  More updates to follow!

  

Above is a picture of our driver Huang and the Chinese countryside outside of Cheng Du.

Water Hope - the blog

This is the new blog for Water Hope.  It contains, or will have, stories, news, videos, and photos of all of our activities.