Letter 7 (Ann)

Hi,



In case you are interested :>) I have been up at 5:30 A.M. several mornings and it is really nice and cool then. But I have been getting to bed at 10:00 or 10:30.



I have been in a pool most afternoons and am surprised how cold they are.  I would guess the temp. is 65 degrees.  But I do about 1/2 hour of exercise anyway.



Tonight is a home hosted meal where our whole group of 15 goes to a home to meet the family and they will prepare dinner for us.  We have seen so many Buddhist temples.  They are beautiful but I am about templed out.  This a.m. we were on the street b y 6:00 a.m. and bought food to give to the monks.   They begin their soliciting food for the day then and everyone usually gives them rice, a vegetable and a dessert and a glass of water in the bowl or bag they carry.  They take it all back to the temple and eat two meals before noon and from that food and then no more the rest of the day.



Today we had a "monk" chat and it was very interesting.  With an older monk who is a professor in the university.  Then we went to a temple and kneeled in front of a monk who was seated.  He "blessed" us and sprinkled us with water using a long bamboo tube.   The men in our group each had string tied around their wrist by the monk, by he threw the women's at them since no monk can even touch a woman.  When Dave and I had our picture taken with the monk at the monk chat, I had to be reminded not to get too close to him.  



It is almost impossible for me to kneel on my knees now.  I really need to do something about them when I get back.  And every time we go into a temple we are supposed to kneel if we present the Buddha with flowers or incense. 



Yesterday we visited 4 factories.  They were all different and very interesting.  My favorite one was the parasol factory, because at the end of the explanation we could have one of the parasol painters paint a piece of clothing, hat, camera bag, etc. for us.  So I took off my new photo vest ($8.00 by the way and so many pockets I can never find anything!) and had her put a butterfly and flowers on the back.  Guess what color!  PURPLE.  It is beautiful.



Today we visited a Jade factory.  I felt sorry for the little lady who took us around.  She is, of course, supposed to follow us all over and "help" us with any questions we may have.  We had no intentions of buying anything jade so I walked away from her and went back into the workshop we had just come from (and had been told we could return later).  She followed Dad around until he finally decided to go to the restroom and then she found me and waited for me to come out of the workshop area.  We finally went outside and ate their cookies, drank ginger tea and talked with others from our group that were not buying.



We are going to walk the night market tonight after dinner which is in about 25 min.



Love,



Mom