Seaweed Pringles

So, this weekend, a number of important things happened. I'll start with the most important one.

On Friday evening Eva became ill during our Pasaviet class, she had been feeling off since mid-day. She got a tuk tuk back to the guesthouse where she met Greg who took her to the hospital. The rest of us were left at the Temple wondering what had happened. She was diagnosed with appendicitis but the doctors in Luang Prabang could not be sure. It was decided that she should be sent to Bangkok as they have a big awesome hospital. Her insurance said that the altitude of a commercial flight may cause her appendix to rupture so she had to wait for an ambulance. Lesley, Anna and I decided to visit her at the hospital during the afternoon to see how she was. In usual Eva fashion she was in good spirits and was even talking about coming back on the program. She got to Bangkok Saturday night where the original diagnosis was confirmed and she had emergency surgery. She hasn't had any complications and we're expecting her back on Friday, hurray! :D

On Saturday morning Jane, Simon, Richard, Anna and I woke up to watch alms near our guesthouse. The monks and novices go by at about 6:45 so we were up pretty early. We stood off to the side as they went by, collecting from a few women who run shops in the area. It was a very surreal experience. Our guesthouse is in one of the busier parts of town so it felt strange to see it in the dark and in total silence. There was also something really sad about seeing the novices walk in their solemn little lines. They are not meant to smile or make eye contact as they collect their food. There's also the fact that we as volunteers have gotten to know the novices better and have an understanding of how hungry and tired they are. Every novice I know works incredibly hard even though they wake up early for drumming, cant eat past mid-day and go to bed late.

We'd been tossing around the idea for a while but seeing the alms Saturday morning solidified it for me. A group of us(Lesley, Anna, Anja, Briony and I) decided to give alms near Pasaviet in order to give to our students. We got food on Saturday and then woke up early on Sunday to grab a tuk tuk out there. It turned out they come later than we originally thought, and we ran out of food but it was still a good experience. Due to the rules about making eye contact we weren't sure if all our students were there and what they thought. All I can hope is that it meant as much to them as it did to me. Alms are meant to mean something to the people who give them, not just be a tourist attraction. This was a really great way for us to give with meaning even though none of us are Buddhist.

In other news, some of the old kids have left and new kids have once again arrived. The only people left from my original group are Lesley and Eva. This weekend we said goodbye to Darlene, Simon, Richard, Alex, Jane(and her husband Alan who visited), Anna, Briony and Anja. Our group the last two weeks got along really well so it was sad to see everyone go. After a while you tend to associate people with the whole experience and seeing them go just feels weird.

We did get seven new people though! A somewhat overwhelming number especially after some tougher goodbyes. The new kids are: Bettina(Germany), Andrea(England/Slovakia), Stacey(Australia), Kristie(Australia), Pyret(Sweden), Eric(England), and Trish(England). I'm not actually working with any of them in class so I don't know any of them to well. Several of us are also feeling that the bonding process is harder this week than it was before. I think it's because we got rid of a really good group. I hope there wont be to many hard ones like this considering how much longer I have to go.

In other news, the dog at Xayadeth, Mipu has had puppies! So now when we go to lesson plan there's all kinds of adorable puppy noises. Sadly, Mipu is in mom mode and isn't quite as friendly. Hopefully I'll get a picture of the little ones soon.