Two Ceremonies and a Festival

I am now in Khon Kaen, Thailand after spending a week teaching art to children in Bangkok. I am staying at a hostel for children who were orphaned in the tsunami, come from broken homes, extremely poor families or abusive ones. I teach for about 2 hours in the afternoon. I set out paint supplies and the kids come in when they feel like it and start painting until they feel like leaving. It is a lot of fun and the kids are very enjoyable to work with. I like Thailand a lot as it is a beautiful country, the food is terrific, people smile easily and are very friendly.

This week I have had the good fortune to participate in two different ceremonies and a holiday. The first ceremony occurred at the local Buddhist temple. It was to initiate boys into the monkhood. The program lasts a month but the teachings last for a lifetime. We had 9 boys from the hostel who went to the program. In the ceremony, the monk in the front talked a lot for a long time. We gave medicine to the temple and money to the children. To give the temple gifts we had to walk on our knees to the monks, put it on a special dish and then walk back kneeling. I carried one of the gifts. Most of the children did their part well of acting very serious and happy. One little child heaved great sobs and wanted to go home but did so quietly and a monk talked with him for a few minutes. The families of all of our boys came which was nice that each one had some sort of support. The families handed the boys their saffron robes. When it was time to give the children the money gifts we again did it from a kneeling position. We couldn't hand them the envelope of money, we had to drop it on their lap on a safron washcloth. Then they could accept it.

Yesterday was an awesome day. As I mentioned I am at a hostel for children. They have had English camp for the last two weeks here with three other volunteers. I have been teaching art, sometimes with English camp but usually only to the hostel children. Today was the last day of English camp and the first day of a 10 day water festival. Two of the volunteers were supposed to leave in a few days so they had a farewell party. The hostel leaders carried out a huge ceremony to honor and thank us for all of our work. First the children wrote and performed modern and traditional dances and skits. We did a karaoke song in Thai very badly. I did two magic tricks, one which worked and one which failed miserably. Certificates were handed out to every student for participating in English class and for the volunteers.

Then they had a ceremony to start off the Songkram festival. Those being honored, the four volunteers, the director, the founder, and another leader sat in chairs in the front. Scented water with yellow flowers was poured into our hands and we were garlanded with jasmine, and given a beautiful ring of jasmine buds with marigold on the streamers which is called a paungmalai. Each of the 100 students and staff filled a mug with the water and then went on their knees to each of us and poured the water into our hands as they said thanks or a prayer for us. We then made a prayer back or wished them good luck or a good year and put the water back on their heads or shoulders. It was a solemn ceremony until we put the water on their heads. When they got through doing this with all seven of us they could go and chase each other and pour water all over each other from buckets and pour baby powder on each other. Then they would come up from behind us while we ere still participating in the solemn part and pour water on our backs.

After we cleaned up we came back to the central room for dinner and their wecoming/thank you ceremony. The four of us were seated in the front of the room around a large vase filled with green leaves that had been rolled and put together into an extremely ornate sculpture called pandogmai. It had many many strings hanging from it. Candles were lit for the Buddha sculpture first and then for the pandogmai. The girls in traditional costumes did a welcome dance and asked the spirits to come into the room. The second dance was for when the spirit was in the room. We were given presents of T shirts. Then we were each given a sacred string by everyone in the room. Each string was tied around our wrist and a wish was made for us like good health, long life, and thanks for our teaching them. Some parents had arrived so we each got about 100 more good wishes and strings tied on our wrists. As they finished giving us the string they went to eat their food. I felt showered in love. The various ceremonies had lasted since 1 and continued until 7 or 8 pm.
It was quite a day.
I am going to a tribal village today which I am excited about. It is 140 km away and is very remote it sounds like. I will need to stay in someone's home.