We visited the young monks of Dubdi Monastery in Yuksom Sikkim to see how our lunch program was going.I am thrilled to report we saw young monks with chubby cheeks and full bellies. Imagine achieving this by raising $4.34 USD a day to feed 34 monks ! Lunch is a fresh cooked meal of rice ,dal and veggies. Lunch is still the most substantial meal of the day for these boys.
We did notice very few monks had socks and most of their sweaters were quite worn out. We felt chilly ourselves in the humid cold of Yuksom Village and we were wearing fleeces! When we returned to Gangtok we all contributed some money and bought 43 new warm sweaters and 32 pairs of warm socks and a sack of oranges for the monks.

We brought books, art supplies and puzzles to the boys.These boys just do not see these kinds of books and puzzles and their excitement is heart warming. It justifies all that hauling of excess baggage SO WORTH IT !
Mary Kitchen, Darrell and Lynn Hayes did the Life in America/Australia slide presentation for the kids and they watched with fascination. Valerie Hellermann (TCEF project manager ) then showed them video of last years visit and they laughed and giggled as they saw each other on the screen.

Guy Kitchen , Montana builder, built a beautiful picnic table for the monks. It was quite an amusing process as Nawang took Guy to the local carpenter to borrow some local tools. We knew at that moment it would be an adventure!  Guy had lots of help from our group ( Craig Harrington, Nawang Bhutia, Mike Willing, Chogklang,  Sonam and Wangchuk) as the first task was hand carrying the long planks of wood through the misty ,soggy, steep forest to the monastery grounds. A local carpenter appeared and first just observed and then tentatively offered his assistance.

He was as intrigued with our tools as we were with his. A friendship was born! The table was finished despite the chilling drizzle and Darrell served the monks their lunch from the table.

Special thanks to our friend and program coordinator in Yuksom, Nawang Bhutia. Nawang supervises the program all year, and hosts our yearly visit in his family hotel, Hotel Yangrigang.
Remember this lunch program costs $4.34 USD a day to feed 34 monks. Less than $5 a day puts warm food in their bellies and creates chubby cheeked monks!!!