Farewell

A sad and winding down day: Ama-la and Tsering did their packing in the morning, and I arrived in the afternoon for tea with Ama-la and Rinzen, and farewell chats. Ama-la did a little thank you chat on my camera/ video for my mum who had offered to pay for her new glasses, and Rinzin had hysterics over a particular translation (can't remember which now) but it was contagious and she soon had Ama-la and myself rolling around clutching our tummies too with tears streaming down our cheeks!

Finally, Tim arrived with his car to drive Ama-la, Tsering and myself to the airport while Alyssa and Shira took the tube. Due to delays though, I kept getting frantic texts from them asking us not to let Ama-la leave before they got there. So we made our way to a cafe to wait for them, after they had checked in, and we'd bumped into Hitendra who was waiting by the entryway for us, bless him! He is so fond of Ama-la, he couldn't let her go without saying goodbye.


He'd brought with him some Comic Relief noses to give to the children in Dharamsala so here she is trying one on for the camera by the check-in desks. And the photo she is brandishing is one of her and Hitendra at the talk on Friday.

It was a quiet and sombre party in the cafe as we were all sad that Ama-la and Tsering were leaving. Their time here had whizzed by so quickly. I wish now that I'd asked them over for longer instead of just 2 weeks. So many people wanted to host her for dinner, for weekends, for tea that she could have easily stayed for a couple of months. Ah well, maybe we'll do it again one day.

As Heathrow is quite big, we'd requested a wheelchair so she didn't get exhausted walking all over the place, and because of that she got preferential treatment, so when the time came, we all gathered to say goodbye, and waved her and Tsering off as they went speedily through the fast track and through to immigration...

Now, time to catch up on my sleep!

Penultimate day

Sniff, sad to think Ama-la will be leaving us tomorow- I've gotten used to her being around, her beaming smile, her pointing to her teeth and exclaiming gleefully: 'good, good'. And today, to make a slight difference, we took her to the opticians. Dolma and Rinzin were unhappy that she'd been going round with her glasses tied round her head with a piece of string. So we decided to treat her to a full eye exam and a new pair of glasses. It was an entertaining session: Dolma and I were convinced that the glasses she had were prescription ones, only to find they weren't, and Ama-la was then tested using an eye chart for those who don't speak or read English- it's very clever- they use what looks like a large letter E and change the size and direction of it, which tells the optician all sorts of things. Ama-la ended up with a beautiful new pair of glasses, that change into sunglasses when she's out in the bright daylight, but revert back to normal quite quickly inside. She was thrilled, and on walking outside started shrieking in Tibetan, which Dolma translated as 'I can see the car tyres'! Turns out the glasses she'd been wearing all this time, were just ones that a friend had worn on a visit one day and she'd complained about the sun so had tried his on..and kept them! So she now has her own pair.

We then did some shopping, and it was very sweet hearing her calling 'Francey, Francey' when we got separated in W. H. Smiths- apparently she hadn't known my name before but had thought I was a nun (I had very very short hair back then) so just called me 'Ani' (Tibetan for nun). It was only a few days ago she learned I had a name too, so she was practicing it!

And then off to Shira's for a farewell dinner. A slightly fraught time as Tsering had planned to do all the cooking, as his gift to us. However, he'd been kept in Oxfrod by Bino (not sure why) and consequently didn't arrive until after Shira had cooked a meal at very short notice with her good friend and almost had a nervous breakdown in the process. Tsering arrived after we'd all eaten, after Ama-la had started asking if he'd be back in time to take her back to India. He was in big trouble when he finally arrived! But it was a great evening, apart from that, and the meal was brilliant- Shira is a fantastic cook and proved to be a real star! And Gonkar and his wife came too, livening up proceedings no end. It was a lovely way to end the whole event.

Oxford

Almost a weekend off: Ama-la and Tsering went to Devon early on Saturday morning and stayed the night, meeting Karen and myself in Oxford just after lunch on Sunday for an afternoon at the Magic Cafe in Magdalen Road. This afternoon had been arranged by Bino Tulku, an interesting young Tibetan who has settled in Oxford and is very very passionate about the Tibetan cause. Ama -la also talked a lot about the charity and the work she does with the children, to the bemuesment of many people there who didn't know anything about Art Refuge, and Bino hadn't mentioned us at all, so there was a bit of confusion.







Afterwards, Ama-la requested to go back to her London home as she missed her new found friends so Karen and the lovely David offered to be the drivers and we deposited heron their doorsetp a few hours later (we'd had to do a slight diversion via Milton Keynes). We didn't get away that easily though, as Dolma and Martin her hubby dragged us in for a cuppa, and unbeknownst to us were busy cooking us dinner while we chatted to Rinzin. We couldn't really say no to that could we now! They'd told us they were cooking dinner anyway...but then it turned out they'd had a very late lunch so weren't planning on having any dinner at all! What a family! Lesson: never trust a Tibetan in the kitchen!

Dentist and Tibet Foundation

Well well well, it turns out that the reason Ama-la wasn't eating anythig sweet was because she was having tooth trouble. Don't know why she didnt tell us before- maybe she was too shy. So Dolma, from the host family, arranged a visit to her local dentist, a man who was used to Tibetans as he'd been treating her whole family for years, and was more than happy to see Ama-la too. But it was a very funny visit as Dolma couldn't go, so I took Ama-la along with Rinzin, Dolma's mum who speaks only a few words of English (but understands far more than you realise). So we had lots of translating processes going on- the dentist would ask or expain something, I translated to Rinzin who translated to Ama-la who then nodded her understanding. Apparently she had an inflamed root, so the dentist took care of it, but cound't do the proper canal work as it would take another appointment to do that, so he wrote a letter explaing what he had done so that she could get part 2 done back in India. But she was so happy- no more pain!! she kept grabbing my arm, pointing to her tooth and exclaiming happily: 'good, good!' We went home for tea, and happy chatter, then Karma Kabs again, this time to Tibet Foundation, where Riga and the other lovely ladies from Tibet Women's Association and those from Tibet Youth Foundation were organising a talk for the Tibetan Community in London. We arrived earlier than expected so took Ama-la off for a walk through Leicester square, accompanied by the lovely David again, and Dhala. It was cold out though so we repaired to a coffee shop for soem warmth.

The talk later was fantastic, well attended by (mainly) Tibetans, and according to later reports, several tears were shed after hearing her story and the sad history of Tibet from a survivor. Lots of people wanted to talk to her afterwards and have their photos taken with her- she was the real star of the night! The organisers had arranged dinner for her afterward too so I left them to it and got a lift home from the lovely Hitendra again, who had turned up to support us. Like I said before, he's a poppet, and I'm getting quite used to having my own chauffeur ;)

Thursday's talk

Eek! Today's the day of the talk, and I wasn't prepared at all. Luckily an old school friend had got in touch and arranged to meet up for lunch so my mind was well distracted until we turned up at the gallery and started preparing for the evening.
Ama-la arrived courtsey of Karma Kabs again and Tim did a video of Tsering interviweing her about Art Refuge, the program and the children. As it was all in Tibetan, we have no idea what her replies were so will have to wait for a translator to go through the whole thing for us.

We borrowed loads of chairs from the restaurant across the road and waited anxiously while people filed in. I gave a brief explanation about the history of Art Refuge, the programme and Art Refuge UK. I then introduced Alyssa and Shira, 2 of our past volunteers and they talked a bit about what it's like from a volunteers experience. Then we introduced Ama-la who talked about what it's like for her there and how important it is for the chilren. We then encouraged quesions from the floor. We ended with Ama-la displaying a large piece of fabric onto which she had placed photographs of the children, and some of the artwork and explained her way along the rows of images. It was very poignant and the whole evening seemed to have a buzz (or maybe that was just my adrenaline flowing!)

And to end the day off nicely, I was called by a lady from Radio Free Asia who wanted to do a radio interview with me about the charity and Ama Adhe. That was fun!

Somehow though, no-one took any photos of the talk so you'll just have to imagine it...

Wednesday

A quiet morning for Ama-la, then after lunch we explored the London Underground and went to visit the folks at Free Tibet Campaign who had asked for a talk by ama-la about her experiences and the situation in Tibet. They have a lovely office and quite a few staff and volunteers. Strange, but Ama-la seemed to talk more about Art Refuge and the children than her time in prison, which I think is what they wanted to hear more of. And some of them didn't know about us so I was asked to explain about the charity more at the end. Ama-la was presented with a huge bouquet of flowers afterwards, much to her surprise, and I was presented with a gorgeous plant, much to my surprise (Tsering got a t. shirt)!



And that evening we went out for a drive which we thought was going to be a short one, to Hitendra's sisters' house for dinner...but got caught up in traffic and didn't arrive till an hour and a half later- oops! Luckily, Meena was very understanding and it had given her time to make an outstanding feast and to organise her husband and sons! There was so much food (and I fell in love with her cauliflower curry -it was divine!) Hitendra's mum and dad were there too, and his mum felt a special bond with Ama-la- they made a lovely pair. And after it all, poor Hitendra drove us all the way home again- going out of his way to take me over the other side of London where I was staying. He is such a poppet!