Dave is on a train heading Southwest for a few days of meetings in a nearby state. So I'll be a little lonely for the next few days. Tomorrow is Bev's birthday and we're going to kill a chicken for lunch to celebrate. I've been looking forward to it for days. Actually I'm a little nervous about the whole thing, but it'll definitely be an adventure.

Today we went to the Tibetan Monastery and it was raining on us a bit. This Monastery is quite a journey from us and many times throughout the past couple of years we have tried to build relationships with the monks there. We take a taxi and then from there we take a walk up some hills, stairs, and more hills. One of our friends affectionately calls it, "mountain climbing." It's really beautiful up there and quiet as it is surrounded by trees and little else on most sides.

We were talking to some of the monks and it was interesting to hear about their lives. Lipok asked one of them why he was a Lama and he answered that both of his parents had wanted him to be one, so that thay would have peace in their lives. If they sacrificed their son to the life of a monk, all of the days of their life, they would be blessed. So when he was young, they gave him to the monastery and he's been a monk since then. There are around 13 monks at this monastery.

There are literally hundreds of prayer flags that wave over the monastery and out over the city. They believe that every time that the wind blows them, their prayers are heard. We found out that every Wednesday, a large amount ofTibetans in our area go to the Monastery to hang these prayer flags so that they will get strength in their lives.