How sadistic do you have to be to plan a meeting at 6:30 am on a SATURDAY?!?!? That thought ran through my head multiple times as my alarm went off at 5:00 so I could be ready to go. They told me on Friday that there was a meeting on Saturday morning to honor the King and that they would pick me up at 6:30. So I got up at 5:00 (ok really 5:15…same thing) showered, dressed, and had just taken the first bite of my cereal ("Frosties" here in Thailand) when they showed up (it was 6:10…I thought Thais were always late?!?) I was quite surprised when they showed up with the silver bowls they use at the wat (temple) and filled with flowers and food (which told me that there was going to be some worshiping and donating) because I thought that we were honoring the King not praying (I am starting to learn that they go hand in hand here).
When we got to the ampur (larger city), there were two rows of tables and everyone gathered around them and waited. And waited. Remind me again why I had to wake up at 5:00? Finally, truck-loads of monks started showing up. We all lined up behind the tables and the monks walked down the row and we "made merit" by giving them food. They had so much that they had helpers walking next to them taking food out of their bowls and putting it in bags so that they would have room for it all.
We then all assembled in an auditorium and prayed for a couple of hours…yes I said hours. I now know why we had to start so early. Monks have certain rules that they have to live by. Among them is the rule that they can only eat one meal a day and it has to be before 12:00 noon. So we started early so that the monks would have time to eat their daily meal.
I spent the rest of the day laying in bed with the fan 2 feet away as it was 102 degrees inside my house. I did make a quick trip to the store that is a few buildings down but it was too hot to do anything else (and it got up to 103 the next day)!!! So I hope you are all enjoying the cool weather where you are at!
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