As a person with learning differences, I'm always looking for ways to make learning work better for me. Generally-speaking, if I can have the chance to do something I'll probably understand it much better than if I just get told about it. For example, when we were in Gorkha, we were shown how to make traditional plates out of folded leaves from long, flat, floppy grasses. Then I tried making a plate. It kept falling apart until I was shown how to fold the leaves differently. (I had only folded them twice, but you need to include three folds in order for the leaves to lock in place when they are woven together.) After learning this trick, I was able make a nice plate to eat my delicious lunch from!
At the end of each day, I like to sit in a comfortable place and think about my day. Where did I go? Who did I meet, and what did they say? What was fun or unexpected? Also, I try to notice smells. Yep! Smells! I smell for the rain in the air, my tea or anything else noticable in that moment. When humans use their sense of smell, they remember better and for longer--like an elephant--which is precisely the reason I try to smell my environment!
To illustrate my point, I am going to tell you about one day when we were near Sauraha and were walking through a wild area very, very quietly. We had just found out that a grumpy, male wild elephant named Renaldo was nearby.
