Me
“I would like to make sure that all of you rascals are accounted for,” says my history teacher, Mr. Danaher. My classmates and I are on a trip to Asia. We travel to four more countries before departing from India.

I can’t wait to get home. I’m a wreck. I smell like a zoo. When thirty kids are trying to bathe within the same sixty minute time frame, you run out of hot water by the fifth kid. And all we’ve been fed is rice. Rice, rice, and more rice. I really need a greasy cheeseburger.

I don’t know what’s up with my teacher, but he’s walking incredibly fast. I have to run to keep up with him. He’s six foot two and has legs as long as the Nile River. He keeps telling us to “chivvy along.” I can’t help it. I’m four foot seven and am deathly afraid of heights. The hill that we are walking on has an incline and my stomach is slowly creating a tight knot.

Mr. Danaher
My nerves are getting the best of me. I’m paranoid. My wife’s due date is the day I come home. I was volunteered by my supervisor to take thirty kids to Asia for a week. Joy. I’m praying that little Caleb waits until his dad comes home. If he doesn’t I’ll be in big trouble with my wife. Hopefully everything will be just tickety-boo.

“Chivvy along!” I need to motivate the students to walk faster. At this rate we’ll never reach the top of this hill! At the top sits the Yumbulagang Palace. The palace was home to royalty until it was handed over to the monks of Tibet. They converted it into a monastery. I am eager to see the architecture of the building.

Rosie
It took awhile to convince my parents to get them to pay for my airfare. They finally came around. And boy am I glad, too. It’s gorgeous here. The darkness of each night seems to swallow you until it spits you back out into the daylight of a new dawn. And the broadleaf evergreen forest can be seen almost anywhere. As a devoted activist to saving trees, this pleases me.

My parents and I are polar opposites. I’ll admit, we don’t have the best relationship. I’m glad to get a break from them. They have planned out my future, while I have ideas of my own. I want to do something to help the world. My parents want me to strangle myself in a pencil skirt and work in a cubicle.

My excitement builds with every step I take. I can’t wait to get a taste of what it’s like to be a monk. The thick fog is like a shield preventing me from seeing the palace. My teacher was the one that spotted the building first.

Monk
I heard a deep voice exclaim that they could see the palace. A large group began sprinting the last hundred feet to the top of the hill. I could feel the many eyes upon me. These children were looking at me as if I was a centaur. I fell into deep concentration. I could sense a strong energy in the back of the group. It was unique to anything I had ever sensed before.

Rosie
“Can everyone see him okay?” my teacher asked. I responded with a yes, and I spoke of the truth. But, I didn’t need to look at him to see him. I didn’t know his name, yet I felt as if I knew his story.