Back to School…Lama Style

Now that I’m back in LA and still wrestling with a fresh dose of jet lag, I realized that I had forgotten to post up my favorite pictures from my recent road trip through China.  During the travels, the highlight for me was certainly our stop at a Lama village in the mountainous terrain between China and Tibet.  One of our objectives was to bring supplies, water, and gifts for the local school children, and it was truly such a rewarding experience on so many fronts.

As a continue to trudge forward with my personal matters, I was reminded of my own children during this visit and made me subconsciously compare their stark contrast in daily living to what many of us have become accustomed to…and possibly only know.  Our crew had arranged for this special day months in advance, and the school children all wore their best outfits to greet us at the door…

Even though we had arrived late, the children were only all smiles when we finally pulled up.  Seeing all these happy kids already truly made everyone’s day, and it already made this entire journey worth it for me.  After we greeted all the little people, we went about our business to present the school with various supplies including book bags, water, pens, note pads, paper, water bottles, etc…

I even did an impromptu English lesson even though most of the kids were too distracted with their new gifts.

Once we were done presenting the various gifts, the school principal invited us to a traditional lunch of lamb meat prepared into lamb stomach lining, which is a local delicacy…

I don’t think anyone from our team had ever had lamb meat prepared like this…and this included our tour guide who travels through this part of the region on a regular basis.  Surprisingly, the meat was very tender and succulent once you get over the image of someone stuffing raw lamb flesh into the stomach lining.

All in all, it was a most memorable experience for me, and I definitely brought back something to impart on my children, which is simply to remind them that true happiness isn’t about what you have…but what you do with what you have.  And on that note, it’s time to get this day started back here in LA!

Oh…if I didn’t have little people of my own, I might have been tempted to adopt one of these cute little people myself!