momo's!

well, strictly speaking, tsoma - we don't use that fancy Lhasa dialect here!

But I am happy to say that my first meal in Amdo was tsoma, and some other delicous food of course. Sonam  and his lovely new wife Lhamo  and i went to a new Tibetan restaurant "Yak Restaurant" for lunch. It is quite near "The Black Tent", one I have been to a number of times before. The food was great and it is run by Tibetans. Apart from tsoma we had Sonam's favourite - a lamb dish with lots of green and red peppers (which are much, much hotter here) and a kind of noodle made from potato served in a broth that seemed to be mostly chilli and chillli oil. "I love meat". Sonam declares, yes I remember. Then we both laugh about the huge amount of meat we were served while staying with Yangdrontar in Kokonor. Even he found it too much. I think I ate a whole herd of sheep!

Lhamo is very sweet, she was a bit shy, she worries about her english. She works full time for a Tibetan company here in Xining doing pay roll and office bursar type work. They met at college. We had a really good day together. Xining is bigger and busier if possible. Lots and lots of new buildings. I could not find any landmarks that I remembered. "Sonam, where is the bridge?" "Oh, they pulled it down."

Sonam is very happy and seems more settled. His best friend died last year and that was what decided him to get married, he was going to wait until he finished his studies. He told me, "after that, everything changed for me." His family are very happy and he claims they like her better than they like him. I ask "how is your mother?" He  laughs and points to Lhamo, "you mean her mother now". He also tells me that he has not really spoken english for two years. With all the troubles here, it was not an good idea, and sometimes they could get in trouble for speaking it. I now also have to register with the police wherever I am staying. A hotel will do it for me, but when I stay privately I must do it within 72 hours.

The Xining garbage truck music boxes now play "There's no place like home" instead of "Fleur de lys". It's kind of endearing.

So we are off to Rebkong today and then its radio silence from me for a week whilst on retreat. Rebkong is about a two hour drive, we are taking a taxi instead of a bus because I am a visitor!

An email from Dr Nida last night - "I am glad you are back in Tibetan samsara".