At the beginning of each meal a child is selected (perhaps as a reward for being quiet) to stand on the bench and lead the group in prayer of thankfulness. This girl is clearly happy to be chosen.

The meals are very simple—dal bhat— which means rice and lentils, at every meal, with Tibetan bread, greens, and occasionally part of an apple.

These two students have volunteered at the small, one-room school clinic for 2-3 years so are now in charge of registration and record keeping for the annual dental clinic held by volunteers from Denver, Colorado.

Monks, nuns, and students from the local orphanages and schools attend the dental clinic. Here one of the SMD students is teaching a group of nuns the correct way to brush teeth,

The only toys I saw, for sports and exercise, were hacky-sack made of rubber bands, and a "jacks" game played with pebbles (no ball or jacks). But the children are very happy to make their own.

I was shown how to play the traditional Tibetan-Nepali stringed instrument called the tungna.

After my lesson, I taught some songs on an old guitar found at the school, and then taught my "student" how to teach others—the way learning occurs in a Montessori class, student to student.