Workshop Day 1

Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 3:30 am

Monday, January 16, was the first full day of the Science for Monks Workshop.   Classes are held in the main instruction building a 10 minute walk from our sleeping quarters. 

So far, 23 monks and 3 nuns have arrived and 5 more monastics are expected to arrive later.  Tori and Lori, two science educators from the Exploratorium, arrived in the morning to join us too.  Geshe Lhakdor, the director of the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamshala, India, gave a welcome speech to everyone to set the stage for the workshop.  Geshe Lhakdor was the Dalai Lama’s personal translator for 16 years and is a well-respected leader in the Tibetan community.

After the speech, Tori, Lori, Bryce, Kelly and I gave short introductions about who we are and our plans for the workshop.  Then we watched a video of a speech given last month by the Dalai Lama.  We had Karma, one of the Tibetan translators, translate the Tibetan into English so we could understand.  In his speech, the Dalai Lama described why he thought it was important that people learn science.

Each workshop day is scheduled divided into four 1.5 hour blocks.  Breakfast is served at 7 am and then the first block starts at 9:30 am and ends at 11 am.  After a tea break, the second block starts at 11:30 am and ends at 1 pm.  The third block starts at 2:30 pm and goes to 4 pm, followed by another tea break, then the fourth block from 4:30 pm to 6 pm.  Dinner is served at 7 pm.

The tea breaks are very important, especially to the monks.  It gives everyone a chance to stretch and relax a bit.  The tea we drink is a traditional Tibetan brew:  it is very sweet with milk and some spices that I cannot identify.  I told my daughter Kelly to watch them prepare it so she can duplicate the recipe.  Apparently, it is not simple to make correctly.

During my teaching block, I explained what I had been doing since the last workshop in May.  With a translator at my side, I told the monastics about the new Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering where I work and about my new project to investigate the neuroactive properties of medicinal plants and herbs.  I encouraged them to let me know if they know of any plants that I could use in my work.  We then did a very quick review of neurotransmission.

Poor Little Hot Pot

Monday, January 26, 2012, 2 am

The last time I was in India I took note about how convenient it was to have a small electric hot pot to boil water.  Not only would the hot pot provide a good source of drinkable water, it would also allow me to have a nice cup of coffee in the morning.

Before I left Seattle, I searched everywhere for a portable electric hot pot.  I looked everywhere:  online, department stores, grocery stores, drug stores to find this treasure.  Finally, I settled on a an 8 cup hot pot which was the smallest one I could get.  I tried it out in Seattle and it worked fine, boiling water in just a few minutes.  I even tried it at the hotel in Bangalore and it worked.

But I am sorry to say that my poor little hot pot has met its end.  The first time I tried it in my room at the Tibetan Children’s Village College it broke.  Water came to a boil quickly, but then it stopped working.  I think the problem was a voltage incompatibility:  the hot pot is rated for 110V but the electricity here in India is 220V.  Many electronics, such as most computers, can handle both voltages, but others, such as my hot pot, cannot.  

Little Friends

January 15, 2012, Sunday, 2 pm

Our sleeping quarters at the Tibetan Children’s Village College are quite spacious:  an apartment with a living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen.  Plenty of room for two people.  Little did Kelly and I know that we would be sharing our space with many other friends:  friends of the 6 and 8 legged variety.

Although the room is somewhat clean, the bathrooms are home to many spiders.  These little guys do not appear to be of the dangerous type, but you never know.  We spent a good hour washing every corner of both bathrooms.  Small ants seem to have taken up residence in part of the space too, so we will keep all of our food locked away in plastic bags and containers.

We were offered another apartment but on inspection of the bathrooms in this new space…well, just use your imagination…we decided that our current apartment would be more than adequate!

Breakfast in Bangalore

January 15, 2012, Sunday, 2 pm

A driver was waiting at the airport to take Kelly and me to the Royal Orchid Resort and Convention Center Hotel on the outskirts of Bangalore  (photo to right is the view from the hotel balcony).  The hotel provided us with a nice place to catch a few hours of sleep after arriving in India.  We did not arrive at the hotel until 2 am. Unfortunately, the room did not have any hot water, so hopes of a nice warm shower after 24 hours of traveling were dashed.

The director of the Science for Monks program, Bryce Johnson, was staying in the room next to ours.  At about 8:30 am, we met Bryce for breakfast in the hotel restaurant.  The buffet-style breakfast was excellent with a choice of Indian and western foods to choose from.

At 10 am, we loaded our luggage into a car and headed off to the Tibetan Children’s Village College.  The drive took about an hour from the hotel.  We never ventured into the main part of Bangalore; instead we took a ring road around the city.

The Tibetan Children’s Village College is a collection of buildings on a large plot of land.  There are separate buildings for the Science for Monks program staff, college staff, women students and men students.  The cafeteria is located in its own building as are the classrooms.  (Left photo:  view of men's and women's living quarters)

On Sunday evening, we took a short walk through the college and discovered some outside basketball courts where a lively game with kids from the Tibetan college was taking place.  I’ll have to go back during the week and get in a game.

Arrived in Bangalore

Made it to Bangalore.  After a very long trip from Seattle to Paris to Bangalore, I am finally here in India.  Each leg of the flight was about 10 hours, with a 2 hour layover in Paris.

On the flight from Paris to Bangalore I experienced a new first.  An announcement came over the speaker system on the plane that the flight attendants were going to be coming through the cabin to spray pesticide!  I had never heard or seen anything about this before.  But sure enough, flight attendants holding two cans of spray above their heads, marched back and forth, up and down the entire plane.  The smell of the spray was not too bad, but it definitely smelled like a pesticide.

Next Stop Paris, Then Bangalore

The trip begins!  I am on my way to Bangalore, India for the Science for Monks workshop.  My daughter, Kelly, a third year college student at Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, is joining me.  That's us in the photo at the Seattle Airport.

We will take Air France to Paris, then change planes for the final flight to Bangalore.  It will take about 25 hours to get to India from Seattle and we are schedule to arrive in Bangalore after midnight.  I hope to get some sleep on the plane.  We will stay overnight in Bangalore and then drive out to the workshop location outside of the city.

One week!

My departure to India is just one week away.  I am still working on creating lessons and collecting supplies for all of the activities.  The science educators from the Smithsonian and the Exploratorium who will join me are bringing many supplies with them and we will purchase some supplies after we arrive.

I am probably overambitious in my planning and it is likely that I am trying to do too much.  The last time I was teaching this group I fell behind in my schedule because I did not take into account the time it took to translate what I said into Tibetan.  I hope to do a better job this time!