While in the village, the community of Bridim are dedicated to making this one of the most memorable experiences in a lifetime. There will be a host of events and excursions taking place throughout your stay. However, there is also plenty of free time to take it all in. Feel free to use some of this time socialising with the villagers, sharing a yak butter Tibetan tea, or some ara (something a little stronger!). You will be welcomed in their homes.

Socialising and Local Cultural Events
Excursions
Cuisine and Cooking Instruction
The Ultimate Organic Farming
Language Instruction
Teaching

In such a rich and ancient cultural environment, the opportunities to participate in social and traditional activities are enormous. At the most informal level, you will be welcomed in many villagers' houses for a chat. There are many more organised events including:

• Village music and dance events
• Meals at a villagers' houses
• Regular festivals, including New Moon festivals, Dalai Lama's birthday and Lhosar – Tibetan New Year

Visitors are free to attend these events and will be welcomed by locals. You may also be invited to a wedding or even a funeral party held on the 49^th day after the death. This is not a solemn occasion, but involves much singing and dancing.

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Village tour Visit to the two local gompas (temples/monasteries) Visitors may try their hand in the fields, which are distinctively terraced into small steps of flat land staggered down the steep mountain slopes. Caves, navigable by experts, where the deity of the village is purported to reside Visit other local villages

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While local cooks will be on hand to cook all meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, you may choose to learn how to prepare the local dishes. All food in these villages is prepared absolutely fresh and you will do the same, first picking the food from the lodge's garden, preparing sauces and cooking in the traditional style over the wood fire. Most meals are vegetarian in Bridim, although chicken and sometimes beef is eaten – fresh of course.

Some examples of local cuisine are:

• Momo
• Tibetan dumplings, steamed or fried, served with chilli sauce
• Shakpa/Janjo
• Mix of potatoes, meat, cereals, vegetables, masalas and chillies – very tasty!
• Dal Bhat
• Rice and lentils
• Thukpa noodles
• Noodles with mix of vegetables, meat (if desired) and spices

Locals enjoy a number of homemade beverages, soft and alcoholic, in day to day life and on special occasions. If visiting a local house, expect to be offered a local brew, especially ara. But if you want to be really polite, you could bring your own homemade drink to offer them as a gesture of goodwill. The most popular local drinks are:

• Ara
• Strong, distilled local spirit made from barley, rice, millet or wheat
• Chang
• Local beer
• Chya
• Tibetan tea made in ornate, traditional churns from tea, salt and yak butter

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Agriculture is an integral part of society and the cornerstone of the economy in Bridim. There are no pesticides or yield-enhancing machinery. The villages largely have the resources to feed themselves, using excess food to barter with other villages. In short, it is the ultimate organic, sustainable system.

Major crops in the village are potatoes, spinach, corn, wheat, onions and chilli. Animals kept are cows, working oxen and chickens. Visitors may accompany the cow herd to pasture or help in the agrarian fields, which are distinctively terraced into small steps of flat land staggered down the steep mountain slopes. There is even an opportunity to stay up all night scaring away the bears, wild boars and the occasional leopard from the fields!

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This is not essential given the available translators, but your ability to connect to the locals will be greatly enhanced if you can learn to say just a few words. Such an effort will be greatly rewarded with smiles and laughter. It is not usual to see non-locals, even Nepalis, speak this obscure but rhythmic, naturally rhyming language.

The language is a dialect of Tibetan which has developed its own characteristics and lexicon since these Tibetans settled in this region around 500 years ago. The levels of isolation, even for villages just a few miles away, due to the sometimes impassable mountain terrain, can mean that the language can change from village to village, although will always be understood. It is only a spoken language, as traditionally illiteracy runs close to 100% outside of the lamas. However, Tibetan characters can be used to transliterate the spoken dialect.

We provide language instruction, teaching the basics of grammar and vocabulary. You will be in the ultimate, albeit only place to practise.

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Those who have a particular skill, including English speaking, may wish to step to the front of the local school room and share some of their knowledge.

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