A month without underwear 1

This past weekend, the volunteer Mike, who lives in province Tak, the province above me, became a monk. He is buddhist and since it is midterm was given permission by Peace Corps to become a monk for a month. 3 other volunteers came up for the ordination as well, which was fun as we got to sleep at his house without him there...he has to stay and live at the temple the entire time he is a monk. I wanted to highlight and explain some of the experiences of what happens when you become a monk. First everyone comes and cuts a piece of your hair. Monks have to shave all of the hair on their head, including their eye brows. This is because as a monk you can not be vain and concentrate on your outter apearance. I thought it was great that we all got to help in the shaving process...its very community oriented and is a way for everyone to participate in this process.

Next Mike put on his ordination robes. These were very funny as they were all white and gold lace with a lovely gold metal belt around his waist.














Then we sat and listened to a monk chant. Listening to monks chant is very boring as we can not understand any of it. All chanting is done in polly which is the original language of the buddhists from India, as that is where buddhism originated. So imagine having to sit on the ground and listen to a monk chant in a monotone voice that you can not understand for 30 minutes to an hour.