Fifteen months ago, an earthquake ravaged the town of Chengdu in Tibet. Today, homes are still in ruins. Recovery efforts were not able to be made until this April, explained Sarah Daniel, an engineer from Canada, who recently spent four weeks in this plateau region of Asia building homes, teaching English, and immersing herself into the Tibetan culture, while she helped restore a seemingly broken-down town.
“A lot of people didn’t seem like they were struggling,” said Daniel, of the Tibetan peoples’ morale. “They were used to the harsh conditions, and remarkably patient.”
With the presence of high spirits, in both Daniel and the Tibetans, growth in structure and mind was possible. After volunteering with United Planet for 10 months in Nepal as a teacher, Daniel used what she learned and applied it in Tibet: “Nepal was a lot more trial and error than Tibet, where I figured out how to run a lesson.”
Aside from teaching Tibetan children the alphabet, Daniel also became involved in the rebuilding efforts of the town. Due to the earthquake, many people lost their homes, causing families to live in tents of varying sizes for the past months. Daniel worked closely with her host family, who also lived in a series of tents, to set down stone foundations for new homes.
As she worked, Daniel became a part of the country’s lifestyle – performing dance rituals with the locals in their robes and appreciating the laid-back operations of the town. She valued the community’s tendency to place a high focus on family and dependence on one another.
And despite the fact that she did not understand the Tibetan dialect, especially when she visited the Nomadic peoples, Daniel made sure there was a form of understanding: “It was fun gesturing and trying to communicate… body language and hand gestures [made it] enjoyable.”
Daniel noted the similarities between the Tibetan culture and her own, while appreciating the new world in which she came to love- “It was a fascinating place to live and I could never forget any of the fantastic people and places I came across there.”
The lovely Sarah in traditional Tibetan garb doing traditional Tibetan dancing!
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