The Trouble With Monks
While Makara helps care for the children at the orphanage every day, my primary work is teaching English. I started out teaching the young women at the Sewing Training Center at 6:30 each morning. But I’ve now added private tutoring for Venerable Choern, LHA’s Deputy Director, and Sovatha, LHA’s financial director, every afternoon.
They both speak English with varying degrees of ability. The young women come more recently to English, and some have had no schooling at all. They will return to their villages when their training is over, and some of them believe they will never encounter an English speaker again. They approach our classes with varying levels of interest, but they remain unfailingly gracious, polite and respectful to their teacher.
I am assisting their usual teacher, a young monk named Savoun who allows me to lead the class and translates for me. We are covering words and phrases that pertain to sewing – needle, thread, sleeve, cuff, “Do you have the scissors?” and “Is your sewing machine broken?” We had a moment when I was explaining to him the difference between a zipper and fly, and he pointed out that monks do not use a fly because monks do not wear pants (or drawers for that matter).
Let me now explain the ground rules. Monks are not permitted to touch or be touched by women. No shaking hands, no standing too close in pictures, no sitting in the same part of a car or van with a woman. We aren’t even supposed to hand them anything directly (but they’re not especially strict about that).
Now, when you consider that they are some of the finest looking men around with those shaved heads (Shaving Day comes twice a month), wearing the hottest shades of the color spectrum (rust, marigold, butterscotch –they even have matching umbrellas), in those off-the -shoulder robes against that café au lait skin… and no pants to boot? I mean, is that even fair?!!?!!? O
Lord, I hope I’m not blaspheming.
The monks I’m around the most are in their 20’s-early 30’s. As you can imagine, I’ve caught myself more than once, just in the nick of time, reaching out to touch a monk arm. They are sweet and sincere young men, hardworking, dedicated to helping others and improving themselves, lovely human beings almost impossible to resist.
Almost.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Battambang By Boat
Battambang By Boat
We joined the photographers for a 3-day excursion up-country to Battambang, Cambodia’s 2nd largest city, a French-influenced province north and west of Siem Reap. We set sail on the small ferry boat early Monday morning, July 16th. Had I read the description in the tour book, I might not have gotten on the boat so easily or eagerly. The sentence, “The boats in no way meet international safety standards” does not exactly inspire confidence.
Still there were life jackets on board, scores of similar tour boats docked two and three deep, and thousands of skiffs, pontoons and other floating craft along the river bank. In fact, these were floating villages. Families for generations have lived their lives on the river, with everything they own crammed onto a covered boat no bigger than an oversized canoe. Even the schools, restaurants and little convenience stores float..
Cambodia is a country with strong knees. The people crouch to do everything. The smaller boats are rowed and steered from the very front by a person in a kneeling /squatting position. The covered house boats seem to provide no room for standing, so cooking, washing over the side of the boat, or doing any of the daily chores of living occurs from a crouched position. They even rest by squatting low to the ground.
In the Buddhist tradition, veneration is performed with the feet always facing behind the body, never in front. The monks and nuns eat sitting on the ground, with their legs turned to the side and feet tucked beneath or beside their bodies. My 50-plus knees remember with fond longing the days of the lotus position, deep knee bends, and sitting cross-legged Indian-style on the floor for long periods of time. Now I need a chair to sit on and something to brace myself with when getting up from a kneeling position.
Our boat ride took us across the northern end of the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest fresh-water lake in Southeast Asia, and up the Sangkor River, a tributary of the Mekong in Viet Nam and Laos. But it quickly turned from a leisurely glide under hot and sunny skies into a sodden crawl after a sudden rainstorm hit. The four-man crew struggled mightily to keep the passengers dry while periodically clearing the propeller of weeds, pushing off from the now narrowed and reedy banks, and steering safely around the bends in the river (someone had to stand in the rain at the front of the boat to point). Add to this the task of preventing the jerry-rigged engine from overheating. (Repeated sopping by rags doused in river water seemed to be the preferred cooling method.) But the crew worked together like a well-oiled machine, and we were none the worse for wear when we docked 9 hours later.
The highlight of our trip to Battambang was the ride on the Bamboo Train. The word train is used euphemistically, and only in the strictest technical sense. Yes, there is a train track. But dispel all visions of train cars, doors, windows and seats from your mind.
Battambang is the coconut and rice bowl of Cambodia. Its fertile soil feeds most of the country. The Bamboo Train was first constructed by the French many decades ago to transport produce and other goods to the capital, Phnom Penh. It was actually a train then. Now it’s a unique and creative form of local travel, peasant style. The “car” is a flat bed of bamboo slats about 10’ long and 8’ wide, covered with mats for seating and powered by a motorcycle engine. It runs on small steel wheels joined by a rod that look like a weightlifter’s barbells and weigh just as much.
The one railway track stretches on for miles.
Your fellow passengers are mostly farmers, local merchants and factory workers, but motorcycles, small tractors, sacks of produce and barnyard animals are also welcome and frequent riders. After a running push by one of the train crew you’re off at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. No roof, walls, no windows, no seats. Just you and your travelling companions with trees, streams and rice paddies zipping by on either side, the wind in your face, and God in heaven as witness.
The fun really begins when your train meets an oncoming train from the opposite direction. The right of way is determined by the train carrying the heavier load. For example, five mere humans are easily trumped by 2 humans and an iron plow (even minus the ox that pulls the plow). The train with the lighter load unloads it cargo and gets completely dismantled on the spot so the other train can pass. Off come the passengers, the mats, the flatbed, and the wheels, then all back together again for the ride to proceed. So don’t forget to factor that into your travel time if you’re on a tight schedule. But one would not want to hurry on such an exhilarating ride. It is the essence of Cambodia – resourceful, cooperative, efficient and completely surrendered to the beauty of the natural world around it.
I celebrated my birthday on our return boat ride to Siem Reap. As a Cancerian, there’s no better way to spend a birthday than on the water. No rains this time, just watching life lived on a river. For these Khmer , it’s the source of everything – food, drink, cleansing, playing, buying and selling, connection and community. I thought about the wondrous places I have spent past birthdays: at the Pyramid of Gizeh, in a grotto on a Greek island, with my family in Guyana, in the mountains in Colorado, on a near-deserted beach in Mexico. I have been most fortunate to have seen the planet from many different vantage points. And maybe because it was on my birthday, all of them were holy moments. This was no exception. Blessed be.
We joined the photographers for a 3-day excursion up-country to Battambang, Cambodia’s 2nd largest city, a French-influenced province north and west of Siem Reap. We set sail on the small ferry boat early Monday morning, July 16th. Had I read the description in the tour book, I might not have gotten on the boat so easily or eagerly. The sentence, “The boats in no way meet international safety standards” does not exactly inspire confidence.
Still there were life jackets on board, scores of similar tour boats docked two and three deep, and thousands of skiffs, pontoons and other floating craft along the river bank. In fact, these were floating villages. Families for generations have lived their lives on the river, with everything they own crammed onto a covered boat no bigger than an oversized canoe. Even the schools, restaurants and little convenience stores float..
Cambodia is a country with strong knees. The people crouch to do everything. The smaller boats are rowed and steered from the very front by a person in a kneeling /squatting position. The covered house boats seem to provide no room for standing, so cooking, washing over the side of the boat, or doing any of the daily chores of living occurs from a crouched position. They even rest by squatting low to the ground.
In the Buddhist tradition, veneration is performed with the feet always facing behind the body, never in front. The monks and nuns eat sitting on the ground, with their legs turned to the side and feet tucked beneath or beside their bodies. My 50-plus knees remember with fond longing the days of the lotus position, deep knee bends, and sitting cross-legged Indian-style on the floor for long periods of time. Now I need a chair to sit on and something to brace myself with when getting up from a kneeling position.
Our boat ride took us across the northern end of the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest fresh-water lake in Southeast Asia, and up the Sangkor River, a tributary of the Mekong in Viet Nam and Laos. But it quickly turned from a leisurely glide under hot and sunny skies into a sodden crawl after a sudden rainstorm hit. The four-man crew struggled mightily to keep the passengers dry while periodically clearing the propeller of weeds, pushing off from the now narrowed and reedy banks, and steering safely around the bends in the river (someone had to stand in the rain at the front of the boat to point). Add to this the task of preventing the jerry-rigged engine from overheating. (Repeated sopping by rags doused in river water seemed to be the preferred cooling method.) But the crew worked together like a well-oiled machine, and we were none the worse for wear when we docked 9 hours later.
The highlight of our trip to Battambang was the ride on the Bamboo Train. The word train is used euphemistically, and only in the strictest technical sense. Yes, there is a train track. But dispel all visions of train cars, doors, windows and seats from your mind.
Battambang is the coconut and rice bowl of Cambodia. Its fertile soil feeds most of the country. The Bamboo Train was first constructed by the French many decades ago to transport produce and other goods to the capital, Phnom Penh. It was actually a train then. Now it’s a unique and creative form of local travel, peasant style. The “car” is a flat bed of bamboo slats about 10’ long and 8’ wide, covered with mats for seating and powered by a motorcycle engine. It runs on small steel wheels joined by a rod that look like a weightlifter’s barbells and weigh just as much.
The one railway track stretches on for miles.
Your fellow passengers are mostly farmers, local merchants and factory workers, but motorcycles, small tractors, sacks of produce and barnyard animals are also welcome and frequent riders. After a running push by one of the train crew you’re off at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. No roof, walls, no windows, no seats. Just you and your travelling companions with trees, streams and rice paddies zipping by on either side, the wind in your face, and God in heaven as witness.
The fun really begins when your train meets an oncoming train from the opposite direction. The right of way is determined by the train carrying the heavier load. For example, five mere humans are easily trumped by 2 humans and an iron plow (even minus the ox that pulls the plow). The train with the lighter load unloads it cargo and gets completely dismantled on the spot so the other train can pass. Off come the passengers, the mats, the flatbed, and the wheels, then all back together again for the ride to proceed. So don’t forget to factor that into your travel time if you’re on a tight schedule. But one would not want to hurry on such an exhilarating ride. It is the essence of Cambodia – resourceful, cooperative, efficient and completely surrendered to the beauty of the natural world around it.
I celebrated my birthday on our return boat ride to Siem Reap. As a Cancerian, there’s no better way to spend a birthday than on the water. No rains this time, just watching life lived on a river. For these Khmer , it’s the source of everything – food, drink, cleansing, playing, buying and selling, connection and community. I thought about the wondrous places I have spent past birthdays: at the Pyramid of Gizeh, in a grotto on a Greek island, with my family in Guyana, in the mountains in Colorado, on a near-deserted beach in Mexico. I have been most fortunate to have seen the planet from many different vantage points. And maybe because it was on my birthday, all of them were holy moments. This was no exception. Blessed be.
Harlem N Da House
Cambodia Week 2 – Harlem ‘N Da House
There was a couple of days overlap as the dentists left and the photographers arrived. In between Maegen and Camera, our neighbors from Harlem, arrived. Makara and I met them at the airport the evening they landed. They looked tired from their flights and relieved to see us there. I could tell by Makara’s excited chatter that she was happy to have a girlfriend here with her.
Since they were newly arrived, we did some of the same things we had done with the dental students:. an elephant ride at Angkor Thom, a tour of Angkor Wat, and lunch at the Artisan Café where I had a prawn and green mango salad followed by a homemade chocolate ice cream cone that were all absolutely delicious!
Everything seems like a new adventure when you are showing it to someone else. The tuk tuk ride seems more fun and more harrowing, the Blue Planet (our favorite café with the long white-sheeted mattresses and pillows for patron seating along one side) more daring and different, the street scenes more cacophonous and picturesque. When we toured Wat Damnak and the LHA offices with them, I was proud to show off my English students in the sewing center.
As you can imagine, we are a visual novelty wherever we go. We have encountered almost no any Africans of any kind or continent during our stay. Both Makara and Maegen have dreads, thereby drawing additional looks. The Khmer are unabashedly curious, and will continue staring even when you are looking right at them. But when you are warm and acknowledge them, their faces light up like the sun breaking through clouds, guileless and open. Most relish the opportunity to practice their English, and will attempt a conversation. I’ve learned a few Khmer phrases, and when I’m asked “Souksa Bye-tay” (“How are you?”), I get the best reaction when I respond in slang with “Souksa bye mop-mop” (“I’m crazy fine.”).
There was a couple of days overlap as the dentists left and the photographers arrived. In between Maegen and Camera, our neighbors from Harlem, arrived. Makara and I met them at the airport the evening they landed. They looked tired from their flights and relieved to see us there. I could tell by Makara’s excited chatter that she was happy to have a girlfriend here with her.
Since they were newly arrived, we did some of the same things we had done with the dental students:. an elephant ride at Angkor Thom, a tour of Angkor Wat, and lunch at the Artisan Café where I had a prawn and green mango salad followed by a homemade chocolate ice cream cone that were all absolutely delicious!
Everything seems like a new adventure when you are showing it to someone else. The tuk tuk ride seems more fun and more harrowing, the Blue Planet (our favorite café with the long white-sheeted mattresses and pillows for patron seating along one side) more daring and different, the street scenes more cacophonous and picturesque. When we toured Wat Damnak and the LHA offices with them, I was proud to show off my English students in the sewing center.
As you can imagine, we are a visual novelty wherever we go. We have encountered almost no any Africans of any kind or continent during our stay. Both Makara and Maegen have dreads, thereby drawing additional looks. The Khmer are unabashedly curious, and will continue staring even when you are looking right at them. But when you are warm and acknowledge them, their faces light up like the sun breaking through clouds, guileless and open. Most relish the opportunity to practice their English, and will attempt a conversation. I’ve learned a few Khmer phrases, and when I’m asked “Souksa Bye-tay” (“How are you?”), I get the best reaction when I respond in slang with “Souksa bye mop-mop” (“I’m crazy fine.”).
More Cambodia Week 1
More Cambodia Week 1
We arrived at night. Our United Planet coordinators, Dr. Jon Ryder (a dentist from Iowa) and Sophanit Prin ( a young Khmer woman), were there waiting for us, along with two other American questors who were wrapping up their dental mission.
Our first night was spent unpacking. We’re in a new hotel, the Soma Devi, in an air conditioned room that gets too cold when it’s on and too hot when it’s off. No in-between. But it’s clean, modern, with all the comforts of home and the most warm and accommodating staff. And in a nod to environmental consciousness, the room key must be inserted in a wall panel inside the room in order for the power to turn on. When we leave and take the key with us, the power turns off. Ingenious!
The other questors here now are 4 dental interns from Ireland and the US, along with one other dentist in practice from the Bay area. They are all finishing their stints this week. Makara and I accompanied them on their final day, when they travelled with Dr. Jon and local dental nurses from Angkor Children’s Hospital to a primary school in the countryside. There they converted an empty classroom into a makeshift dental clinic and performed extractions and fillings on about 40 young patients. My job was comforting (read holding down) the children as their decayed teeth were pulled. For the most part they were quite stoic, and fortunately, there was novocaine. It was heartbreaking to see the effects of malnutrition and lack of care on their teeth, especially for those who were losing permanent teeth so early in life. But it was gratifying to see these volunteers performing such a valuable service…one that so many of us take for granted at home.
Life and Hope
There are several ongoing UP projects in Cambodia. Actually, in each country UP partners with a local NGO (non-governmental organization) to coordinate the in-country volunteer activities. The one here is the Life and Hope Association, LHA. It was founded by a young monk at Wat Damnak named Venerable Somneing and Dr.Jon Ryder, with the support of various donors and friends. Wat means temple or pagoda, and Buddhism provides the guiding principles for the organization.
LHA has 5 on-going projects. It runs two orphanages; a Food for Education program which gives rice to poor families, helps them build new homes or provides a micro-loan to start a business in exchange for them allowing their children to go to school; a Sewing Center, which teaches young women how to sew in a six month program that includes room and board near the Wat grounds; and an under-construction junior high school, set to open in the fall.
Jon and Ven (an accepted abbreviation for Venerable; he’s about 20 minutes old, after all) have given multi-tasking a whole new meaning. As I watched Jon on his ever-present cell phone, he reminded me of a record label executive. With his many talents operating on all cylinders (dentist, university professor, former musician, professional photographer, husband, father and volunteer extraordinaire), he is an inspiration. Then when I met Ven, someone mentioned his nickname was Hollywood Monk because of his inexhaustible energy, depth-defying passion, enormous charisma and, yes, ever present cell phone. The two comprise a formidable transcontinental brotherhood that is a wonder to behold.
We also joined the dentists on their cultural days which are the wrap-up activities of the UP curriculum. The group of us visited the ruins of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom and spent a couple of days with the children at the two orphanages. The children are a delight, every single one of them. Makara has been spending time playing with the children and teaching them American games. They took to her immediately, holding her hand and sitting on her lap. I will begin today teaching English to the young women at the Sewing Center.
Since our arrival, we have been joined by several other questors who are accompanying Dr. Jon on a photographic quest. There will be about 14 of them in all. Makara and I will travel with them for a couple of days as we explore other parts of the country, cameras at the ready.
To be continued...
We arrived at night. Our United Planet coordinators, Dr. Jon Ryder (a dentist from Iowa) and Sophanit Prin ( a young Khmer woman), were there waiting for us, along with two other American questors who were wrapping up their dental mission.
Our first night was spent unpacking. We’re in a new hotel, the Soma Devi, in an air conditioned room that gets too cold when it’s on and too hot when it’s off. No in-between. But it’s clean, modern, with all the comforts of home and the most warm and accommodating staff. And in a nod to environmental consciousness, the room key must be inserted in a wall panel inside the room in order for the power to turn on. When we leave and take the key with us, the power turns off. Ingenious!
The other questors here now are 4 dental interns from Ireland and the US, along with one other dentist in practice from the Bay area. They are all finishing their stints this week. Makara and I accompanied them on their final day, when they travelled with Dr. Jon and local dental nurses from Angkor Children’s Hospital to a primary school in the countryside. There they converted an empty classroom into a makeshift dental clinic and performed extractions and fillings on about 40 young patients. My job was comforting (read holding down) the children as their decayed teeth were pulled. For the most part they were quite stoic, and fortunately, there was novocaine. It was heartbreaking to see the effects of malnutrition and lack of care on their teeth, especially for those who were losing permanent teeth so early in life. But it was gratifying to see these volunteers performing such a valuable service…one that so many of us take for granted at home.
Life and Hope
There are several ongoing UP projects in Cambodia. Actually, in each country UP partners with a local NGO (non-governmental organization) to coordinate the in-country volunteer activities. The one here is the Life and Hope Association, LHA. It was founded by a young monk at Wat Damnak named Venerable Somneing and Dr.Jon Ryder, with the support of various donors and friends. Wat means temple or pagoda, and Buddhism provides the guiding principles for the organization.
LHA has 5 on-going projects. It runs two orphanages; a Food for Education program which gives rice to poor families, helps them build new homes or provides a micro-loan to start a business in exchange for them allowing their children to go to school; a Sewing Center, which teaches young women how to sew in a six month program that includes room and board near the Wat grounds; and an under-construction junior high school, set to open in the fall.
Jon and Ven (an accepted abbreviation for Venerable; he’s about 20 minutes old, after all) have given multi-tasking a whole new meaning. As I watched Jon on his ever-present cell phone, he reminded me of a record label executive. With his many talents operating on all cylinders (dentist, university professor, former musician, professional photographer, husband, father and volunteer extraordinaire), he is an inspiration. Then when I met Ven, someone mentioned his nickname was Hollywood Monk because of his inexhaustible energy, depth-defying passion, enormous charisma and, yes, ever present cell phone. The two comprise a formidable transcontinental brotherhood that is a wonder to behold.
We also joined the dentists on their cultural days which are the wrap-up activities of the UP curriculum. The group of us visited the ruins of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom and spent a couple of days with the children at the two orphanages. The children are a delight, every single one of them. Makara has been spending time playing with the children and teaching them American games. They took to her immediately, holding her hand and sitting on her lap. I will begin today teaching English to the young women at the Sewing Center.
Since our arrival, we have been joined by several other questors who are accompanying Dr. Jon on a photographic quest. There will be about 14 of them in all. Makara and I will travel with them for a couple of days as we explore other parts of the country, cameras at the ready.
To be continued...
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