Trip to Doi Angkhan

A few Saturdays ago I went on a trip to Doi Angkhan with 6 novices from the temple school and the teacher Khun Charrin. It was a great day!
The boys in front of the board of their village Ban Noi Lae. All these boys are from the Palong hilltribe and wanted me to see their homes and meet their families.

Joy in front of a traditional Palong house. All the tribes have their own style of building their huts.

Palong girls in their colorful clothes. I love that they keep their traditions alive while they at the same time change some ways like allowing education for the girls.

The village is half build in Thailand and in Burma. The borders are fluid here.

We made many groups photo's...

One of the boy's father has a few donkeys for bringing back vegetables and other things they grow in Burma. The fields are close to their home but because the steep mountains the donkeys are very useful.

The Palong villagers were gathering at the temple where the children were playing with boxes.

The temple with a lot of Shan influences because the Palong came from Shan State.

Joy and his brother in their house. Very very simple but with a new tv.

Joy's house is shared with 7 people. The parents have a separate area because they deserve the most respect. Married brothers and other siblings share the main living area for sleeping.






Joy's brother and a neighbour in from of the house.

We met a sister of a students who didn't came on the trip. She has a photo on the blog because her eyes are of amber color and very different. This shows that the origins of the Palong tribe is not from around here but from higher mountains like Tibet.





Man working with bamboo.

Most friendly grandfather taking care of grandson while parents are at work in the fields. The boy lifted his arms up to be picked up by me. Normally the kids are so shy so it was very nice.

All the kids' lungs are rattling and have bugger over their faces. Winter is cold here, very cold.
















The white patches are Bumese army camps. They are everywhere. Even though there is not a lot of fighting at the moment, the soldiers do come to the villages to demand food or money. The are desperate too because no-one is feeding them. Water needs to be fetched from way down the mountain. They may be the 'baddies' but they are also just surviving...



This was quite far into Burma. Beautiful mountains...

Part of the Royal Project is that the families are having one or two rose houses so they can sell roses. Seems great but the story is a bit different. The Lahu people in a village further down the mountain refuse to be part of it because the pay is really bad and there is so much corruption from the 'middle man'. The Palong have not the position to deny the 'work' because they have no papers what means no voice.





The roses we cut were for the Christmas dinner at Malfrids!







The Lahu village nearby.









We climbed the last bit of the mountain and we could see Moung Choum way below!

Kids playing in the late afternoon sun. Lahu houses are build on longer stilts and look different again.

The Lahu chief was in a jolly mood. A very old and respected man.

A father of one of the boys who brought some pumpkins as a present for me. They were delicious!

Donkeys just coming back up the mountain fully loaded with fresh vegetables and some specials roots who are profitable when sold in markets in Thailand.

Palong grandma looking after children.

Crazy December

See here the 'Kerst stal' / nativity display (?) which we gave Malfrid for Christmas. Sarrayut made it from bamboo and de figures AJ and I bought in Holland. The roof is made in Red Lahu style and is really special.




Meet our new volunteers from Sydney; Adam and Amy. They are here for a month and already done a lot of work. Amy is working with the xo laptop kids to help them use the machine and is teaching them English as well. The kids are really exited and would like to have Amy the entire day. She is a delight to see at work!
Adam is working with Aaike and Ben on the website and all sort of other technical things. Even a server for the xo's is being created at the school. They are a great addition to the team!

On the left you see Blake from the US who is Monk for a Month! He has taken the 8 precept and on Monday he will ordain as a novice. Blake is the real deal and fits in so well with the temple life that you would think he always was there.
Hannah who stayed in the temple for a week came back to visit all us again before returning back to the UK.

Charrin and the boys from the temple school had a festival day with other temple schools and had to prepare a stall with all photo's and activities. It looked al great.

Elsbeth and Miel left us but might be back for a Christmas celebration this week. They are now of to a nice resort. I hope they have fun!

Hannah on her final departure. She helped me with a document and really want to help when back in England. It's great to have so many enthusiastic people!

Monk for a Month

We had a nice dinner at the fry fry with our volunteers Miel and Elsbeth and our Monk for a Month Hannah.

Hannah was our first female guest and was a great girl. She was the ideal rol model and she managed to do so much else in just a week besides meditation and studying. Good fun!

Hannah was learning the Pali scripture for her eight precepts with the boys. The were helpfull and loved to help her.

Not easy to pronounce the words let alone being able to repeat them after the abbot without a book! Most impressive...

The ordination for the 8 precepts is not in the temple like the one for being a novice like the men. Hannah did great and Dr. Apisit was very impressed in het sincerity to learn and understand.

Besides chatting with all the boys at the temple and teaching English in the school for 2 afternoons, Hannah also helped with laying stones on the square at the temple grounds. A real trooper.

Dr. Apisit. He is an amazing man and everyone we take to meet him sais the same.

My week:

Meet our new volunteer Miel and Elsbeth. They are from the Netherlands and will be with us for 3 months. Elsbeth will teach in two school and Miel will help with other stuff like organisational things. We hope they will have a good time in Thailand!



And another parade...

I have spend this week with preparing new rooms for Monk for a Month and last Saturday I brought with me the ladies to clean. As always they were like a hurricane... From ceilings till tiles till fly screens, all was taken care of. I brought presents for them from Holland so that was a nice surprise.

There are now 3 rooms with in each 2 just made beds. Simple but comfortable.

The truck was many times full with stuff! From a big storage cupboard to racks to bedding as you see here. Now we hope for new guests!

Not my photo but this was the view last night! The moon was standing together with Venus and Jupiter like a smile! When I spoke to people today to ask if they were happy today they all were and more than normal because the universe had smiled at them! Great stuff, let's hope it will happen more often because it does the world good.