The Mibby Post

Date: February 28th 2005

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Hi everyone! a quick update from Ladakh...
Things here have been warming up. Very sunny for at least half the day each
day. Enough to start heating up the thick mud/stone walls so we can shed
some blankets at night -even though the evening/morning temperatures are
still quite chilly. The day time sky has been just incredible. Like a
clear fall day, Puffs of cumulus clouds billowing above the brilliant white
mountains against a starry blue backdrop. It is almost surreal.

We are all really settling into our life here. I think Louise may have
found her calling as an English teacher. She really likes it and the
students really like her.

Anna, Lily and Marley seem to really be thriving in this environment -except
for an extreme dislike for the food and occaissional vomiting and diarhia.
They have been real troopers! Anna got up three times the other night to
relieve digestive problems in the roofless outhouse -didn't even wake us up
or complain -just did it and came back to bed without telling us.

I think they really enjoy the independence and free time to play, do
homework, hang out with the students or Ladakhis, etc. Anna's working on a
narrative about a flying moose, a project to document and investigate a
local ruin, some photo/computer graphic stuff, painted essays, math and a
ton of drawings.

Lily and Marley do a bit of math each day -Marley is writing a procedural
paper about how to make mo mos (which she and Lily love to do with the cook
each Sunday) and Lily is writing a paper about how she prefers shopping in
Leh, Ladakh (with cows in the street, numerous vending stalls, etc.) over
getting dragged along to shops in Montpelier. They have been thrilled with
various hiking adventures, leading us up and down precipitous inclines of
sand and rock. They had me take a picture of their Calico Critters mountain
climbing yesterday.

All three of girls had prime seats with their Ladakhi friend, Pumy, at the
Matho Monastery this week where we saw Oracles slice their tongues with
swords and run parilously across the top of the narrow Monastery roof lines
(about 50 feet up) They were quite striking and certainly seemed in a
trance or from another world.

The lower part of the Monastery where Louise and I were watching was like a
massive mosh pit with a sea of cramped human bodies waving out of the way of
openings in the crowd made for the monks and Oracles to pass through. The
colors of the building, the dramatic costumes, sometimes sinister -sometimes
shamanic appearing, -the deep, constant rhythm of the large verticle drums
and the envelope of Himalay peaks all about put us all into sort of a trance
for several hours.

We are looking forward to a two-day home stay starting March 1 in Likir and
then a four day treck leaving from Likir and going up to a series of
mountain villages (inaccessable by road) and over a series of mountain
passes. We will bring ponies for the girls to rest on as needed.

We are all looking forward to Mom, JC and Jaimie's arrival on March 18!
(which airline?)


Well -time to go to dinner now. I hope all is well with you, our family,
friends and neighbors.

PS: My workmates would appreciate the fact that instead of my calendar being
jam packed with endless details, I don't ever use one now -except for
writing the occassional appointment on my hand!

PSS: Our email address is now vis@valley.net for those who missed the
change. (put our name in the subject line)

Love Matt, Louise, Anna, Lily and Marley




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