On the next morning of the trip, I woke up in my homestay in the village of Hemis to eat a breakfast of chipote, eggs, and greens. Once we were all finished eating, we packed our things and left the home.

It turned out that the village that we stayed in on this past night, Hemis, was the home place of one of the Ladakhi students, Namgail, who led us through the mountains on our trek. Since he was from this village, we all were given the privilege of a tour around Hemis led by Namgail. We also were invited to his home, where we got to meet his father and grandfather, and also have tea time.

Once we finished with tea time and said goodbye to Namgail’s family, we were off again- back to SECMOL. Before we went back, however, we stopped first at the Alchi Monastery. This monastery was a bit more touristy and structured in its tours than the other ones we had been to, but it turns out that this was because it was extremely old- it was built about 1,000 years ago.

After receiving a tour of this beautiful, hand painted monastery, we all sat down to have lunch in the convenient restaurant that was available on site. The food was just okay here, but I enjoyed this lunch so much because of the conversations we had on it. The adult leaders- Liz, Robbie, and Sandesh- have all been to so many places around the world and had a plethora of wild experiences, some good and some bad. On this day, these leaders told us their craziest travel and leader stories, from getting bedbugs to a participant stepping on a stingray’s stinger. The main story that stood out to me, however, was one of Sandesh’s. He recalled to us all about the time when he got cerebral malaria. This is a fatal type of malaria which came very close to killing him. Luckily, as he told us, he was able to be driven out of the middle of nowhere to find medical attention in time.

When this lunch was done, we all piled back onto the bus and finally returned to SECMOL. We rested for a little bit, but were allowed to do whatever we wanted. I took this free time opportunity to help with the students’ chores- namely, milking the cows. I had never milked a cow before, so I asked some students if I could help them milk it, and also for tips on how to do so. After they taught me I was off, milking like the wind, I even decided to go out on a whim and drink some of the milk straight from the udder. I’ll admit, it didn’t taste great, but it always makes for a great story.

After we ate dinner that night, I sat outside with some Ladakhi students watching the stars again. It was a beautifully clear night, when hundreds and hundreds of stars were visible. On this night, I gave one Ladakhi student an elephant silly band I had on my wrist in exchange for a bracelet he was wearing. It was a great trade, and solidified our friendship. These friendships that I was creating turned out to be some of my most meaningful ever, and I would not trade them for the world.