Monday, February 4, 2013

Night(s) of the Novice Monks

    A fun time was had by most at the novice monk camp this weekend!! We meditated, made bricks and feasted at every meal. Overall it was an experience I will not be quick to repeat, as you will see below. Lawrie is a former monk and arranged for our trip up there. He spends some of his weekends meditating up there.
  • Day 1 (Friday)
    • Left the guesthouse about 8:15 in the morning. All of us tried to pass out immediately. We were woken up when we stopped at a 7/11 to get some supplies.
      • My mosquito bites on my feet had become unbearable by this point. One on the right side of my right foot was huge, jutted out so that wearing shoes (both sneakers and flip flops) was painful, and felt more like bone than puffed up skin. The gas station had nothing to help.
    • Back on the road and back to sleep till we started on twisting mountain roads. That road was made without thinking of people with motion sickness. We eventually made it to the camp where we were given food. And rice. Then we choose rooms. Alessa and Lilith choose the room with the hot water heater while Niko got the room next to them. Donna and I had a room with four floor mattresses in it while Deanna and Karen got a couch and a raised bed in addition to two floor mattresses. 
    • Then we realized there was no toilet paper. Anywhere. And we weren't told to bring any. Plus, there was not a way to flush the toilet, you poured water into the bowl until anything in there washed away. Toilet paper took a few buckets to go down. 
    • Stopped at a convenience store where I picked up some eucalyptus balm. It works miracles for mosquito bites and smells delicious. All my bites have gone down considerably since then. Thank god. 
    • Shortly after we were whisked away to a temple on the Burmese boarder. Literally. The monastery was divided in two and you could see what remained less than half a mile away. But thanks to all the landmines there was no way of getting there. So we went to a Shan refugee camp. While the grown ups talked (and talked and talked and talked) the ducklings found two kittens, one who couldn't settle on a person or a place to sit while the other one curled up on my lap and passed out. We saw some weaving, watched some soccer, it was like a normal village.
    • After we returned to the camp we found out another group had come to stay at the monastery, two different types of engineers who were building different items for the temple. But a married couple had come with so the monks told our translator Lawrie that Lilith and Alessa needed new accommodations. So for two nights Donna and I shared a room with Lilith and had no say in the matter. 
    • In Karen and Deanna's room (which Alessa had moved into) a scorpion had been found. A very tiny scorpion. It was 'accidentally' killed by Niko. We were on a nature reserve so it was illegal to kill any and all animals.
    • We watched the novices go through chanting and mediation then each group introduced themselves. They in English, we in Thai. Every novice started out with "Hello, good evening."
    • Since we were expected to get up at 5 to chant and meditate again, bedtime was early.  
  • Day 2 (Saturday)
    • Woke up at eight, missed chanting, missed breakfast, and was ridiculed by Niko (who I found out is a (stupid) freshman. Not sure I like his attitude towards everyone anymore). Worst wake up I have had in a while. Lilith slept in as well but this was ignored in favor of teasing me. Lawrie talked to the cook who gave us some food. And rice. I was forced to put Lilith's dishes away because she doesn't do anything. Ever. 
    • Helped out the girl engineers saw some wood but realized quickly we were useless. There was not enough tools and a huge language barrier so we were allowed to leave. We failed. 
    • After lunch (more food. And rice) we were made bricks out of mud. It took us 40 minutes to make 16 usable bricks (one broke after coming out of the mold) while the novices make 250 a day. We failed. 
    • More hangout time until dinner where we had some food. And rice. What I'm trying to say is that I don't remember the food we had but we had rice at every meal of the day. Then meditation where we watched a movie on the Burmese-Thai sex trafficking business. 
    • Then finally bed!!
      • But not before another scorpion was discovered in Deanna's and Karen's room. I rushed over, barefoot, to see it. Big mistake, since it was right by the door, and I became trapped. Karen started poking it with a broom to get it to move, which it did, by falling into Alessa's stuff. This simple motion had Deanna in the bathroom, Alessa on the raised bed, and me screaming my head off in the door way of the bathroom. Karen searched for the scorpion and startled it so that the Satan spawn crawled under the nearest mattress and curled up in a ball. It was swept outside, where I had to venture. Barefoot. With a mighty roar I leapt into the night and whimpered my way to my door. Less than two feet away. 
      • Giant spiders have also been found in their room. 
  • Day 3 (Sunday)
    • I was woken by Lilith in the bathroom being as loud as possible. She was greeted by one of my glares as she came out. And went back in. I realized that I was not getting any bathroom time so I headed out for some food.
      • As previously mentioned, the monastery did not have toilet paper so I bought some for myself and Donna. Which Lilith helped herself to, even moving it on a couple occasions. Without asking. 
      • There were other issues with her over the course of the weekend that are not making it into this blog. 
    • After breakfast we were informed we were making bricks the hard way: by mixing the mud with our feet and carrying it over to the mold. Lilith refused to get close to the mud and instead stood there awkwardly. 
    • Next we covered the inside of one of the rooms with the mud. The houses we stayed in were made of mud and have to be recoated every once in a while. It was a lot of fun and even Lilith did some work. We tried to remove some of the mud in the nearby lake but then we had to pack and leave. Lilith left her bed in a mess so Donna straitened it for the novices. 
      • We were literally pampered there, they cooked and served us food, had our rooms ready to go when we got there, among smaller details. We were asked to do little things like clear away our dishes or fold up our blankets when we left. Lilith refused to lift a finger she did not have to which was seen by the rest of us as incredibly rude. 
    • After a while on the road Drexler and Lawrie decided we should see these Buddhist caves. These caves were the undoing for our group. We were sent in alone where once we reached the actual caves we were assaulted by tour guides, who Niko and Alessa wanted to hire immediately. After arguing for a minute or two we were lead along by a guide on the worst tour ever. The sign had promised amazing sights but it was a cave. That's it. Then Deanna became claustrophobic and we began exiting the cave. Karen and I wanted to explore further so when no one was watching we went down another passage and found a sleeping Buddha. We quickly left because the guides expected a tip after the tour. When we got out Niko immediately asked us if we had tipped and then tried to berate us for not doing it since he had tipped the guide 500 baat and expected us to pay him back. When we did not he sulked the rest of the way back, even after getting money from Drexler. He worsened Deanna's condition by being incredibly rude to her about the whole money issue. 
      • I am starting to wonder about the people I am traveling with and feel that the less time I spend with some of them the better. 
    • We were amazed at the bathrooms when we came back (they flushed) but then went out to an Italian dinner. Where I got stuck by the seat of my pants to my chair. I had studs on my back pockets and one had gotten into one of the circles of the chair I was sitting on. I also had a chocolate desert with brandy in it. Suddenly the weekend seemed better. And apparently most Italian deserts have an alcohol of some sort in them according to what the rest of the table received.
I have to say here that the novice monks were all so cute, especially this little thirteen year old one who gave me a muddy high five. And they worked hard too because in addition to their monk duties they were going to school and doing HIV/AIDS counseling. But they were so happy doing it.  
Lizard Count: 4            I don't think they like our room anymore.

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