I know the stars that shine on me

brighter than you or I may ever be.

Welcome to the Strangers Podcast from KCW's Independent Producer Project.

My name is Leotiao.

And last year, I went to India with my son, who was nine months

old at the time, because my fiance, who was also my son's father, had decided that he wasn't

actually ready to be a husband after all. So I had a broken heart, and I wanted to go to India,

which apparently is what a lot of brokenhearted people

want to do. I think something like 90% of the people who go to India are running away from heartbreak,

and the other 10% are running away from like a felony offense. These are not official statistics.

That's just what I observed. But anyway, I got this opportunity to go start a theater project for the Tibetan community

in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. And I just jumped on it.

And the organization I was going to work for was going to set up babysitting for me,

and they were going to provide

housing for me and the baby in a monastery. You know, so I pictured this serene healing environment

with beautiful views and chanting monks. And I thought this will be perfect.

Oh, moni bell in home, oh, oh, moni bed in home. As soon as I got there, after many hours of travel with the baby, I realized that it wasn't going to be anything like that.

They took me through the monastery to my room and I instantly noticed that dogs had peed and pooped inside the hallways.

And in fact, I saw a dog take a crap right in front of me and nobody else seemed to notice their care.

And then I peaked into one of the bathrooms, which was disgusting.

And they took me to my room where there was a balcony that had a beautiful view of the mountains, but about three feet of the fence were missing.

So my little speed-crawling baby could plunge to his death in a heartbeat, and the floor in the room was covered with filth, and the linoleum was peeling in like a hundred places. And all my baby wanted to do was to sit and pick

...