Whew! What a whirlwind of activity! I just got to Bangkok after having spent two days in at a forest temple, one day driving, and one day in Ayuthaya (the old capital of Thailand). I'll start from the beginning, but may not be able to finish right now because we are supposed to go to dinner soon.
Day 1-
Left Udon Thani with Ma, two of her friends, and thhe driver (who actually works at the tire shop but always drives long distances for Ma because she doesn't like to drive- like me!) at around 1:30am and drove until just after sunrise to the temple in the forest. We immediately began to prepare food for the monks along with some of the village people who walked up (like they do everyday) to help prepare the one meal that the monks would eat. (Forest monks eat only one meal per day and only drink liquid after that, versus the "city" monks who eat two meals).
Prepping the food in the "kitchen."
We prepared a nice feast of fried fish, sticky rice, white rice, fresh green beans and cucumbers, fried vegetables, a salad (with mainly green leafy vegetables that I have never seen before, as well as LOTS of garlic). Everyone brought it to the temple (one room building on stilts) to the two monks that were there. Once my shoes were off (of course- as no one wears shoes inside of the house and therefore would never dream of wearing them in the temple), I scooted over on my knees in front of the monks and Ma followed me.
Figuring that she was about to greet (hands placed in "prayer position" followed by the salutation in Thai) the monks, I put my hands in that position and said "Kap koom ka". Oops! What I said was "thanks" when what I meant to say was "salutations" when I really should have said nothing at all. What Ma was really preparing to do was show her respects by bowing three times to the Buddha and the head monk. Everyone got a good laugh at my obvious feau paux and I became the center of the conversation for a few good minutes, although I have no idea what was said. The head monk asked my name, to which I replied "Leelowadee" (my Thai nickname given to me by Ma) because that is much easier for Thai people to say. He replied, "No Rebecca?". Another laugh from the audience of course. :-)
After more conversation, one of the men passed each dish to the monks and they filled their alms bowl. (Ma said that the monks can't say no, but later I saw that they just passed the things on that they didn't prefer to eat). Before eating, the monks did a chant (prayer?) together, but again, I have no idea what was said.
And before we left them, they let me take a picture. :-)
So then we took a break to eat our own breakfast and then a short nap before heading down to the village school to start cooking what I thought would be lunch for the school children, but actually turned out to be dinner for the entire village (about 250+ people).
The head monk talking to some children while they waited for dinner-
Monks, Ma and friends (including me), and school children-
Day 1-
Left Udon Thani with Ma, two of her friends, and thhe driver (who actually works at the tire shop but always drives long distances for Ma because she doesn't like to drive- like me!) at around 1:30am and drove until just after sunrise to the temple in the forest. We immediately began to prepare food for the monks along with some of the village people who walked up (like they do everyday) to help prepare the one meal that the monks would eat. (Forest monks eat only one meal per day and only drink liquid after that, versus the "city" monks who eat two meals).
Prepping the food in the "kitchen."
We prepared a nice feast of fried fish, sticky rice, white rice, fresh green beans and cucumbers, fried vegetables, a salad (with mainly green leafy vegetables that I have never seen before, as well as LOTS of garlic). Everyone brought it to the temple (one room building on stilts) to the two monks that were there. Once my shoes were off (of course- as no one wears shoes inside of the house and therefore would never dream of wearing them in the temple), I scooted over on my knees in front of the monks and Ma followed me.
Figuring that she was about to greet (hands placed in "prayer position" followed by the salutation in Thai) the monks, I put my hands in that position and said "Kap koom ka". Oops! What I said was "thanks" when what I meant to say was "salutations" when I really should have said nothing at all. What Ma was really preparing to do was show her respects by bowing three times to the Buddha and the head monk. Everyone got a good laugh at my obvious feau paux and I became the center of the conversation for a few good minutes, although I have no idea what was said. The head monk asked my name, to which I replied "Leelowadee" (my Thai nickname given to me by Ma) because that is much easier for Thai people to say. He replied, "No Rebecca?". Another laugh from the audience of course. :-)
After more conversation, one of the men passed each dish to the monks and they filled their alms bowl. (Ma said that the monks can't say no, but later I saw that they just passed the things on that they didn't prefer to eat). Before eating, the monks did a chant (prayer?) together, but again, I have no idea what was said.
And before we left them, they let me take a picture. :-)
So then we took a break to eat our own breakfast and then a short nap before heading down to the village school to start cooking what I thought would be lunch for the school children, but actually turned out to be dinner for the entire village (about 250+ people).
The head monk talking to some children while they waited for dinner-
Monks, Ma and friends (including me), and school children-
posted by Rebecca | 5:53 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home