Author Archives: CHI

GUEST POST – Cheers from Chittagong

Robin Cappuccino is currently visiting all of the Child Haven homes and programs overseas. He has been kind enough to share a glimpse of his journey with us.

Salaam Alaikum from Child Haven International’s Home for 69 formerly destitute children in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Our ride from the airport takes us past stalls filled with jack fruit, bitter melon, lotus root, and many other appetizingly mysterious (to me) offerings from this verdant, fertile land. We pass rickshaws and trucks resplendent with colourful artwork making one marvel at the timid approach to vehicular decoration on the other side of the planet. Equally as impressive are the huge loads of steel rebar, furniture, the odd refrigerator, piles of food, recyclables and plastic-ware moved along on bicycle-carts powered by well-toned men. These loads are often piled up several times the height of the driver. We pass a newish presumably in-need-of-repair motorcycle and its jean-wearing owner, catching a ride on a bicycle-cart powered by a much older pedaler wearing a lungi. Certainly in this heat, the lungi makes more sense. The greenery here is a welcome change from more arid regions we have visited. A single mammoth tree provides welcome shade for a team of young cricket players.

We are lucky to be on hand for the older girl’s turn to make chapattis for breakfast. They rotate breakfast making once a week with the older boys. Chapatti dough is mixed, shaped into balls, rolled into patties, toasted on dry griddles, and served with a vegetable curry to an appreciative crowd. The Soya Cow is well utilized here, with fresh soy milk made and served every day as well as tofu once a week. Periodically, halvah is made from the left-over soya bean mash, coconut, peanuts, spices and sweetener.

Along with great food, academics are a big focus here. The very first Grade 10 graduates at this Home, Farzana, Saiful and Sakib all received a score of A+ on their final exam. We have the great pleasure of taking them out for a celebratory dinner along with their tutor to a downtown restaurant. Farzana and the other older kids often help the younger kids with their studies. The Home’s Montessori School goes up to Grade 4. Of the 55 kids in the school, 20 are our kids. The rest are children of rickshaw drivers, garment workers and other low-income members of the community who pay 78 taka, about a dollar, per month to attend the school which also covers lunch, school uniform, and books.

Child Haven also supports the education of 13 other young people in the community. We meet one such young man who comes to visit with his father who lost a leg in a motor-cycle accident. Prior to the accident he had a thriving poultry business, but now struggles to make ends meet. Child Haven agreed to support the son’s college studies, and he now reports he has scored 86 on his recent exams. We also meet a bright young girl who comes to see us with her older sister. They came to Chittagong from a remote village where their father is a farm-worker. The older sister is keeping the two of them afloat by working as a seamstress, and came to Chittagong because she very much wants her little sister to be able to go to school. We have agreed to pay her tuition. She tells us that she has just scored 96 out of 100 on her final exam for Grade 5.

The Chittagong Home also houses some tremendous artists. Their skills have been recently honed by a new art teacher who comes once a week, but were apparent well before. Bijoy shows us a drawing of a bird and its nest, as others kids sprawl out on the floor working on various creations. Pathan’s is of an idyllic coastal scene with trees, a few houses, small boats and bright yellow sun.

Among the visits we make is to the Acid Survivors Foundation. The Foundation maintains a hospital for acid burn victims, and does training for survivors. They also have been at the center of a very impressive drive to eradicate this violence often perpetrated against women by spurned suitors, or angry husbands. I had not known that children were also the victims of such abuse. We learn that the number of victims of acid violence in Bangladesh fell from 496 in 2002, to 85 last year, including 13 children. There have been no acid attacks in Chittagong for the last three years. We have come to offer Child Haven as a possible placement for acid attack survivors interested in working with children. Survivors often are left with extensive scarring even after surgery. We will receive a call if interest is expressed. Here’s to the courageous and dedicated campaigners against violence to women and to children and to men all around our world.

Until next time,

Robin Cappuccino for CHI

 

Stay tuned for another ‘glimpse of the journey’ as Robin continues his travels through the CHI homes in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

GUEST POST – Greetings from Gujarat

Robin Cappuccino is currently visiting all of the Child Haven homes and programs overseas. He has been kind enough to share a glimpse of his journey with us.

Kem cho from Child Haven’s Home for 49 formerly destitute children in Gandhinagar, India. Camels pulling carts lope along beside us and we pass women carrying huge loads of fodder for livestock, and firewood on their heads on our drive to the nearly completed buildings of our Children’s Home. Having had to move from rented facility to rented facility for many years, designing, and building our very own Home on a large rural property is a huge step forward. Bonniema and I are here with Child Haven All-India Board Member, Dr. Suhas Mapuskar, for a puja, or blessing of the new buildings. The doctor will also inspect the new bio-gas and water stabilization system which he has designed. This system will transform the Home’s human wastes into cooking gas, providing a third of our cooking needs, and pathogen-free water for the planned garden.

We arrive for the puja with a bevy of kids, staff, and some of our local board members and friends. The kids have been here several times during construction, but the space is now freshly painted, cleaned, and ready for some thorough exploration. Thanks to a large and generous donation from long-time Child Haven supporters, the Kamra family, the Home is located in two buildings with space for a library, computer room, office, infirmary, kindergarten, dining hall and boys and girls dormitories. As the other kids race from room to room with the staff, 8-year-old Mangu tries the hallway out for dancing, twirling around in the abundant space. Mangu’s father is a rag-picker, and her mother ran away. Being unable to care for her alone he brought her to the Home. Manju leads a rush up the steps to inspect the view from the roof followed by Vinay. Vinay’s father died of tuberculosis, and his mother after first trying to make ends meet living with his grandmother, eventually brought him to Child Haven. Close behind comes Hemangani, whose mother also disappeared and after her school-teacher reported she was being abused was also brought to the Home.

The puja is led by a local Hindu priest with the help of 4 cheerful assistants. A Muslim ceremony will also be held. A blessing is offered in the kitchen and at the entrance to the Dining Hall replete with coconuts garlanded with marigolds, incense, and thrown offerings of rose petals, dhal and rice.

The main ceremony is a 2 hour affair held in what will be the office. Two priests sit on either side of Dr. Chitania and her husband, also Dr. Chitania, local Board Members who represent the Home in the ceremony. As the main priest recites the blessings, the Chitanias are directed in sprinkling rose petals and drops of water on statues of gods and goddesses. They also sprinkle coloured powder from little bowls using marigold blossoms as powder puffs. Rice, seeds and ghee are offered and a multitude of other tasks at the appropriate moments in the ceremony. We are gathered around, sitting cross-legged on small mats. I make a mental note that actually practicing Yoga in addition to thinking it would be a good idea, might come in handy the next time I’m called upon to sit cross-legged for several hours. The chanting of prayers is accompanied by two priests, one playing a rousing rhythm on a large drum with small sticks tied to two of his fingers for added emphasis. The other priest accompanies with an equally lively and surprisingly musical sound made by playing a metal plate with two spoons. The puja is a cheerful affair, much like a wedding with lots of smiling and laughter. While obviously a very prescribed ritual it retains a rather casual air as priests take brief cell-phone calls as needed. Part-way thru, dried cow-dung is brought out, a small part of which is placed in a bowl of water, and the rest placed on decorated bricks and lit with the help of poured ghee. I have to admit that any religious ceremony celebrating cow-dung is my kind of ceremony. “Manure is the farmer’s friend” I remember my father extolling many times when we were kids as we spread it in the garden or used it fresh with a little hay to chink the cracks in our ancient log barn. Of course cows are considered sacred here, and their dung used in many ways. Into the fire, at the appropriate moment in the blessing, is thrown rice, dhal, flower petals, mustard seeds and other propitious items. An alter is slowly being assembled with freshly cleaned and blessed statues of gods and goddesses, all manner of fruit, flowers, sacred symbols and the ends of a thread that encircles the room. One of the goddesses I don’t recognize I later learn is Bahuchara Mata, riding on a rooster. She is considered the patron of the transgender community, and a temple dedicated to her is located in the same district as the Home.

The puja approaches its climax with all the elders together placing a coconut in the fire, which by now has been replenished with kindling. The coconut’s pure water, nutritious fruit and hard shell represent the divine I am told. It also represents selfless service as every part of the tree is used in multiple ways. With drum, plate and chanting climbing to an ever heightening crescendo of spirited rhythm, everyone claps their hands in time, and joins in the chant. Some of the children are brought forward to hold and wave around a plate on which incense is burning as the final blessing. The room is now becoming well smoked by the smoldering fire and incense. Perhaps it is the smoke, but as I ponder the stories of these children, and the expressions of love this building and their on-going support represent, my eyes fill with tears.

 

Until next time,

Robin Cappuccino for CHI

 

Stay tuned for another ‘glimpse of the journey’ as Robin continues his travels through the CHI homes in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Tibet.

GUEST POST – See you in Savarsai

Robin Cappuccino is currently visiting all of the Child Haven homes and programs overseas. He has been kind enough to share a glimpse of his journey with us.

Greetings from Child Haven International’s Home for 48 formerly destitute children in Savarsai, India. Savarsai is a small village, several hours drive from the Mumbai airport, where our flight lands. Ajit, our usual driver, picks us up in his 4WD Toyota, for the stimulating journey to the Home. The dotted lines between lanes appear to be for decoration purposes only. Often 5 or 6 rows of traffic, including motorized rickshaws, motorcycles, bicycles, the occasional ox-cart, massive 2-wheeled carts pulled by sinewy men, buses and trucks, are packed into what the less adventurous back home might utilize for only 2. Of course here there are many more people going many more places in a great multitude of conveyances. There also is less personal space in general, and that certainly applies to a very intimate sharing of roadways. This is most dramatically experienced in the amount of distance considered necessary to pass vehicles as well as the required vision of the road ahead for that to be deemed a good idea. Fortunately oncoming traffic generally is familiar with this approach to road-sharing and are experienced and adept at quickly riding off onto the shoulder usually without slowing down as the need may arise. All of this is accomplished, and is perhaps only possible, with the use of maximal and near constant hornage. The application of this auditory information and feed-back cannot not be over-estimated in this process. It stands to reason that the use of an additional sense would be advisable if not required in such closely careening quarters. Avoidance of accident reports in the local paper tends to contribute to a more relaxed trip. Fortunately, Ajit is a skillful practitioner, and we make it to the Home once again. It may also help that there is a workshop producing plaster statues of the Hindu God Ganesh, the remover of obstacles, right next to the Home.

Bonniema’s arrival is greeted with great excitement as carrom and cricket games are temporarily abandoned while we shake 48 outstretched hands. The little kids delight in shaking hands repeatedly especially when one shakes 2 or 3 hands simultaneously. We are introduced to several new children including one little boy whose mother, we are later told, brought him to the Home after she had been abandoned by her husband who threw her into the fire before he left. She was still covered in scars. Her five-year-old son had somehow figured out how to support them both selling ice-cream in the street while she convalesced. His cheerful presence gave no indication of his having had this challenging set of experiences.

One of the other kids, Indika, age 7, is quick to show us how well she has learned to climb the metal poles supporting the porch roof. She has learned to hold herself up using just her feet. This skill was doubtless perfected as she and other kids climbed and scoured the top-most branches of our mango trees for ripening fruit. It is mango season in India, and there is no worry about mangoes from our trees over-ripening and going to waste as they are constantly monitored, by dozens of keen eyes and harvested at the first hint of ripeness. Tiny Indika’s dexterity and fearlessness in tree-climbing is near legendary. The bananas ripening near the new library room reach a greater degree of ripeness as they are not quite as extraordinary a treat. The same is true of the jackfruit protruding tumor-like from the trunk of a neighbor’s tree.

It being school vacation, the kids busy themselves with all manner of play in the yard. A great deal of enjoyment is found with an abandoned garden hose, which gets cut up and fashioned into swings for the jungle-gym. Hirakani, a care-giver for the girls, ramps up her status with everyone, by hitting a cricket ball out of the yard when she steps up to bat. The night-watchman and soya-milk maker, Icha’s, 2-year-old daughter, Karyshma, is thrilled to be given pen and paper to begin her writing career.

A highlight of the visit for me is a play put on by some of the older kids about saving girl children. Foeticide of female fetuses remains a wide-spread plague. While the use of ultrasound and subsequent operations for this purpose is strictly illegal, the practice persists. In Mumbai, the ratio of girls to boys is 874 to 1,000. An estimated 15 million girls were simply not born in India over the last decade. The play presents a family discussion on the impending birth of a girl child. At the conclusion of the play, Divya, age 16, gives an impassioned soliloquy in Marathi demanding to know why girl children are not wanted. As translated to me she states, “Now, women are doctors, lawyers, engineers. We can do anything men can do. Plus we take better care of our parents. There is no reason for girls not to be born!” In any language it was clearly a passionate declaration. Judging by the spontaneous applause, it was an articulate and meaningful one as well. Purveyors of injustice take note – a new generation of truth-speakers is well on their way.

 

Until next time,

Robin Cappuccino for CHI

 

Stay tuned for another ‘glimpse of the journey’ as Robin continues his travels through the CHI homes in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Tibet.

GUEST POST – Hyderabad Hello’s

Robin Cappuccino is currently visiting all of the Child Haven homes and programs overseas. He has been kind enough to share a glimpse of his journey with us.

 

Greetings from Child Haven International’s Home for 225 formerly destitute children in Hyderabad, India. Bonniema and I arrive for the climax of the Home’s Summer Program, planned for the school vacation period. It has lasted for the past several weeks. Just after dawn, on our first day, the boy’s cricket and girl’s “kabbadi” finals take place in the comparatively “cooler” early morning, (the temperature reaches 109 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-afternoon). Kabbadi is a traditional Indian game in which team members who cross over into the other team’s half of the playing field are not supposed to take a breath until they return to their side. They repeat “kabaddi, kabbadi, kabbadi,” over and over so the referee knows they’re not breathing in. Both games are played with great enthusiasm and vigor and are the culmination of multiple earlier games. The second early morning, boys’ volleyball, and girl’s “kho kho” finals are held. Kho kho, another popular Indian game involves lots of mad dashes between seated players, with much laughter and shouting from the side-lines. Kabaddi and kho kho require no special equipment, but great attention is given to measuring out a playing field marked with light sand on the clay dirt of the playground.
After breakfast, carrom finals, girl’s and boy’s, are held. Carrom, a kind of table billiards, popular in almost all our homes, is played by flicking disks with your fingers into corner pockets of the playing board. These games are played with intense concentration and quite a bit of advice, cheering and commiseration from the assembled enthusiasts.

The dining hall is freshly decorated with posters from a competition based on protecting the environment. These could be posters from anywhere in the world highlighting the dangers of air and water pollution from industry and careless human behavior, but with an Indian orientation. They focus on concerns like keeping rivers clean so that water buffalo have a safe place to eat and bathe. Providing milk rich in fat and protein, water buffalo are also harnessed to plow rice paddies, and eat aquatic plants that could otherwise take over rivers and streams.
The afternoons progress with the little kids playing in the shade, while the cooks escape the heat of the rice and dahl cooking in the kitchen by bringing vegetables out on the dining hall porch to chop in the light breeze. Pockets of girls sit and comb each other’s hair and carom continues to entertain.

Later in the day a water truck brings a load of drinking water to fill the reservoir in the courtyard, much to the delight of the littler boys. The water available from the town pipeline is suitable for washing and bathing but not pure enough to drink. It is the great multiplicity of these kinds of expenses for our 1,300 Child Haven kids that keeps our monthly donations just barely able to keep up with monthly expenses.

We also receive a visit from the husband-to-be of a staff member who grew up at the Home. He arrives with several of his family members. Their upcoming wedding is a source of much anticipation on the part of both children and staff. As Child Haven is the bride’s only family, we take on the traditional duties of a bride’s family; discussing her future living situation, making sure that she will be allowed to continue working (which is her desire), and agreeing to provide pots and pans, a bed, table and chairs and other basic household items traditionally provided by the bride’s parents. We also make clear that we do not believe in dowries, which does not appear to be a problem. After consultation with a Hindu priest to determine auspicious days, it is decided that the wedding will be at the Home, in several months and Bonniema will schedule her next trip accordingly. Everyone seems quite pleased with the deliberations.

Our final evening features a dance performance, much singing, a play and a prize ceremony. Fortunately, all the kids receive a prize. Staff members have picked out a variety of beautiful and practical prizes including new towels, drinking cups, pens, belts and ribbons which are handed out with great fanfare.

As I walk to my rooftop room for the night, the full moonlight, miraculously the same as the full moonlight I have enjoyed so many times, so many miles away, brings both a sense of longing for and connection with, loved ones far away. The gentle glow encircling, illuminating, conjoining all of us on this wondrous spinning sphere.

 

Until next time,

Robin Cappuccino for CHI

 

Stay tuned for another ‘glimpse of the journey’ as Robin continues his travels through the CHI homes in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Tibet.

GUEST POST – Keeping cool in Kaliyampoondi

Robin Cappuccino is currently visiting all of the Child Haven homes and programs overseas. He has been kind enough to share a glimpse of his journey with us.

 

Greetings from Kaliyampoondi, India and Child Haven’s largest Children’s Home, with 316 formerly destitute children. Once again I am travelling with my mother, Bonnie Cappuccino, Child Haven’s International Director, whose 80th birthday we recently celebrated.

Morning comes early at our Kaliyampoondi Home. When I get up to look around a little before 6, Tamil Selvi, a children’s care-giver, has already drawn a rangoli with rice flour on the ground outside our door. This swirling blessing will be appreciated and walked over the entire day, only to be swept away by Tamil Selvi before she draws another pattern the next dawn.

By 6, the kids are gathered for a morning non-denominational prayer in the dining hall, and then line up for cups of fresh soya milk, which Johnson has gotten up at 3 to prepare. Clusters of girls sit and drink their soya milk on the dining hall verandah, a few of them chatting with Pam Hellstrom, a volunteer intern from Ontario. Groups of boys prefer the big sand pile in front of the new girl’s dorm now under construction.

Taking advantage of the cooler morning air, some of our older girls, back at the Home for their summer break from college, help clear construction debris from inside the new dorm. We keep a watch out for scorpions and the small poisonous snakes that might have moved into the broken piles of bricks we are moving. The last time I was here, a boy helping move some fire-wood for the kitchen, was bitten by a scorpion and rushed to the health clinic down the road. We see only toads.

The girls, actually young women, are studying a range of courses; Juli is in the final year of a Bachelor of Commerce degree, and Nirmama Devi is studying English with the hope of becoming an English Teacher. In addition to Pam interning here, my little sister Kim Chi’s daughter Krystal is here for 3 months. In several days she has managed to learn more Tamil (the predominate language in this part of India) than I have learned in the past 14 years of visits. Maybe it has something to do with already being fluent in Vietnamese, French and English, or maybe, (probably), she’s just a lot sharper than her uncle. In addition to learning Tamil, Krystal has been hard at work learning names, helping Kuttiyamal and the other cooks in the kitchen and learning some interesting variations on jump-rope.

On the roof of the dining hall, where I go to watch the sunrise, a tarp of chilies from the garden, dry in the hot sun. I am told they will last for less than a week of cooking for the 400 or so people Kuttiyamal and crew cook for each day. This is my first visit in the heat of the Indian summer. I am discovering the rhythm changes the searing heat brings to activities in the Home. Heavy work, and strenuous play (cricket, volleyball) where possible, happen early and late in the day. On my first day in Kaliyampoondi I wondered where all the kids had gotten to around 2 PM, and took a look into the boy’s dorm to see everyone sound asleep.

As I often complain to the kids, the hot sun wreaks havoc quickly on my relatively useless skin which lacks the melanin present in darker skin to protect it from the sun’s rays. I don’t tend to get a lot of sympathy though, the $500 million dollar a year scourge of skin whitening and bleaching products speak to a pervasive prejudice against darker, more sun-resistant skin. Massive advertising campaigns of corporations such as Unilever, purveyor of Fair and Lovely, Pond’s White Beauty and the Vaseline and Dove whitening products capitalize on racial inequities and foster a sense of inferiority while marketing products that are dangerous and or ineffectual.

A Gandhian activist visiting the Home, described how darker skin can affect everything from finding a husband or wife, to finding a job, driving some misguided mothers to apply skin whitening baby oil to their precious infants. Perhaps vestiges of colonial or caste inequities, these biases are being strongly challenged by the Dark is Beautiful Campaign among others. Certainly whitening products are not welcome in any of Child Haven’s Homes, where, as the photos attest, each of our children is the most beautiful child in the world.

Until next time,

Robin Cappuccino for CHI

 

Stay tuned for another ‘glimpse of the journey’ as Robin continues his travels through the CHI homes in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Tibet.

Religious Diversity in Bangladesh

We strive for religious equality and freedom of religion at all of our Child Haven children’s homes. It is one of our core Gandhian values. We believe wholeheartedly that all religions are equal and that our children and staff should be able to practice and express their faith openly and freely. We are proud to have children and staff who identify with every major religion and nowhere is that diversity of religions greater than in our home in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

This is a poster made by some of the children in the Chittagong home. It shows symbols and sacred monuments from different religions.

This is a poster made by some of the children in the Chittagong home. It shows symbols and sacred monuments from different religions.

Child Haven’s work in Bangladesh began in 2002. In the wake of the 9/11 bombings in New York, we felt it was important for North American’s to have a greater understanding of people of a Muslim culture. We believed that setting up a children’s home in a predominately Muslim country would be our way of helping others understand acceptance.

While most people in Bangladesh identify as Muslim, there are also many people who are Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Sikh, Jain, and others. There are also large populations of Tribal people who share Animalism spiritual beliefs.

Shatumoni covers her head with a scarf during prayer time and when she goes outside of the home, as do many Muslim women and girls.

Shatumoni covers her head with a scarf during prayer time and when she goes outside of the home, as do many Muslim women and girls.

Religion is closely entwined with culture and can be expressed in many ways. Here we see some the Tribal children performing a tradition bamboo pole dance.

Religion is closely entwined with culture and can be expressed in many ways. Here we see some the Tribal children performing a tradition bamboo pole dance.

We try to help our young people learn and explore their own religion and culture. They are encouraged to visit the sacred gathering places of their own religion, such as mosques, churches, and temples. We have a religion teacher who comes to the home several times a week to aid in this as well.

This poster is placed in all of the Child Haven homes to help celebrate our religious diversity and to remind us that all religions share some core values and beliefs.

This poster is placed in all of the Child Haven homes to help celebrate our religious diversity and to remind us that all religions share some core values and beliefs.

“All religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth.” - Mahatma Gandhi

When these boys look at each other they don't see a muslim or a christian or a hindu or buddhist - they simply see a friend.

When these boys look at each other they don’t see a muslim or a christian or a hindu or buddhist – they simply see a friend.

We could all learn a thing or two from Bangladesh. These children know what truly matters – that we are all human and that we all need love.

 

Until next time,

Rene for CHI

GUEST POST – Kem Cho from Gujarat

This is the last guest post from Robin Cappuccino’s travel series of his recent visit to all of the Child Haven homes – here are some thoughts from road.

Kem cho from our Child Haven Home for 49 formerly destitute children in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. As we drive to the Home, camels, goats, water buffalo, Brahman cattle, and small horses share the roadway. A mongoose crossed the road on our last visit. Continue reading →

GUEST POST – Greetings from Delhi

Robin Cappuccino is currently traveling to all of the Child Haven homes – here are some thoughts from road.

Here in the Delhi area, Child Haven is the primary funder of two projects we-co-sponsor with local groups. The Maitreya Children’s Home for Tibetan refugee children in New Delhi is home to 24 children and the MVP Women’s Project is located just outside Delhi in Ghaziabad. Continue reading →

GUEST POST – Namaste from Nepal

Robin Cappuccino is currently traveling to all of the Child Haven homes – here are some thoughts from road.

Namaste from Kathmandu where our Child Haven Home cares for 203 children, 77 of whom are enrolled in Child Haven’s Green Tara School along with 153 children from the surrounding community.

It's pretty cold in Nepal this time of year. Hats and sweaters outfit all the children - but it's their constant playing that really keeps them warm.

It’s pretty cold in Nepal this time of year. Hats and sweaters outfit all the children – but it’s their constant playing that really keeps them warm.

Continue reading →

GUEST POST – Tashi Delek from Lhasa

Robin Cappuccino is currently traveling to all of the Child Haven homes – here are some thoughts from road.

Tashi Delek from Lhasa, where Child Haven supports 15 children, college students and several senior orphans. The flight from Kathmandu offered a clear view of Mt. Everest, its searing peak scraping the sky and snaring passing clouds. No less a profound visage, the Potala Palace rises high above Lhasa as we enter the city. Continue reading →