More than eating different food all the time and lacking heat, running hot water, and a multitude of other creature comforts, the language barrier makes getting around difficult. The other things can be trying, but once you adjust your mindset, you can deal with almost anything. Not being able to communicate, though, makes life hard.
Today, Julia, Liz, and I walked to Gagal with our recently purchased fabric in search of a tailor to make us real Indian suits. Claudia, who is ahead of the game, already has one and gave us directions to the tailor she used.
Apparently, none of us have any command of the English language anymore, because we initially ended up in the wrong shop. The lady tailor we encountered did not speak a word of English, and we don't speak any Hindi. I never would have thought it would be so difficult to explain that I wanted someone to sew me a shirt and pants, especially because you can point to it, but we just could not get through to her.
We left and went across the street (Claudia told us later this was the correct shop), where they people inside the tailor (which was the size of a hallway) spoke minimal English. Enough to specify long or short sleeves, and to tell us that it would take one week. Hopefully we will look like real Indians by then!
This evening, Geshe-La gave a talk on the rituals of Tibetan Buddhism. He spoke in Tibetan with a translator, and I kept thinking that it would have been so much more educational if we could actually understand Tibetan. It didn't help that I misheard peacock feather as pickled feather, which created a lot of laughs when I finally figured it out later.
In other words, oy vey.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6
No comments:
Post a Comment