But first, a brief synopsis of what I did yesterday. I was on my way back from a brunch food run to 7/11 (where else?) when I was stopped by three or four Thai students outside my building. "Are you in a hurry? Do you have time for an interview?" they asked. I answered "no" and "yes" respectively, so we headed inside to sit around a small table. There was one guy in the group who seemed to be the spokesperson most confident with the English language, so he acted as a sort of liaison between me and my actual interviewer, a shy and giggly girl.
This was for an English class, and the interview focused mainly on the differences in the educational system and student life between Thailand and the United States. I hoped I gave good answers and that she did well on the interview! Anyway, it was an interesting way to start my weekend. In the evening we headed to the Saturday market, stopping first at a Thai/American restaurant for dinner. We then wandered the street market, enjoying the atmosphere and checking people off our souvenir lists.
My favorite find, though, was the waffle stand. Happiness is a fresh banana waffle! It was raining a little bit on and off that night, certainly not the downpours that I've witnessed here, but just enough to keep us cool. I have been to each of the walking street markets more than once, so after this weekend I think I might take a break for a while and then go back later in the semester. My mantra seems to be, "I'm here for four months, I'm here for four months . . . "
So then this morning we got up bright and early to take red trucks to our respective temples and meet up with the monks for more talk and a tour of their facilities. There were four temple buildings on the site, we initially sat down in one larger, open-air temple before relocating to a more official, enclosed temple because there would be "an activity" happening there. It ended up being a lot of laypeople coming up to fix lunch for the monks. After talking for a while, we wandered the grounds and saw the ordination temple, as well as this one with the grand entrance.
It was still slippery from last night's rains, so I nearly ate it on the steps coming down! I had been distracted by a couple novices playing checkers at one of the many stone tables that are common to public places. Many of them are inlaid with tile checker boards, but we had never seen anyone playing chess or checkers on them until today! Most monks abstain from any kind of entertainment, but apparently the novices (some as young as seven years old) are allowed some leniency during their free time.
We visited the cemetery where the previous abbot was buried, then caught a glimpse of the tiny houses that the monks live in. We were told there were only about 20 monks at Wat Fai Hin, but around 150 novices! They have to live two or three to a room since there are so many of them. We then headed up the road a bit just for fun, and on the way out of the gates I saw two of this little structures that are all over Thailand. They looked religious, but did not contain images of Buddha.
I asked one of the monks about them, and finally got my answer. Before Buddhism came to this region, the hill tribes followed a religion called animism, which addresses the appeasing of spirits. These "spirit houses" are places to make offerings to the gods/spirits. The practice is blended with Theravada Buddhism, and so this world religion becomes personalized to the specific region and culture. Way cool.
We need to go back one more time to see a ritual of some kind, either on the Sabbath day based on an eight-day week, or just for an evening chanting. This afternoon I have my IPSL class and some Thai homework to do, so I'll sign off for now!
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