Dance competitions and bad ass monks
Trip Start
Jun 22, 2009
1
29
34
Trip End
Sep 22, 2009
Mae Hong Son, Thailand
Monday, August 31, 2009
Back on my own - my friend Eric has gone back to Chiang Mai, and another volunteer who showed up on Wednesday (Sevi from USA) and stayed until Saturday, has gone back to Bangkok. She'd come from another couple of locations and had already done a couple of weeks in Chiang Mai and Nong Khai (but wasn't keen on either location). Had to stop myself from being too judgemental about her (Rich kid from Torrey Pines) but she was young (21) and it showed. Kind of glad she omnly stayed just under a week to be honest!
The last couple of weeks a group of the older girls from the school have been practicing a dance routine for a local interschool competition. Went to see the dance off on Saturday - the girls were great (in fantastic costumes) and they won the competition against two other schools. They'll now qualify to go on to a regional competition.
Sunday I asked Kham Chuen if we could go with the older kids to the local temple for meditation. Dressed ready for the temple (covered in white), forgot a hat and sun cream as thought we be inside, then it turns out there was a change of plan - the monks wanted the kids to help out at a meditation centre with some planting. So we pull up in a rural location and the kids spend the morning sorting muddy grass and planting it. There's me all in white looking like a lemon with no sun cream on...we only stayed for a bit as sun was bloody hot. Kham Chuen explained how the centre was also used for rehabiliating wayward young men as monks....there certainly were a few bad ass looking monks about, covered in tattoos and wearing safron bandanas!
