No Monkey Business

"Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace."  

-Buddha

The first place that I taught here in Thailand has manage to stay extremely special to me over the past six weeks. Since most of the Thai population is Buddhist there are several monks floating around. Most men/boys will be monks at some point in their life. You can choose when that time will be but many boys will be monks early in life because it provides an opportunity for free quality education.

Twice a week I have gone to Fun Min Temple to teach monks ranging in ages from 12-18. They are so fun. I don't know if it was growing up with brothers but I felt at home in a room full of teenage boys. They may have been Thai monks but they still weren't totally different than teenage boys at home. They love to play jokes, be silly, and make fun of teachers.

I had to nick name the two older monks at the school. "Papa Monk" is in his 30's. He has been a monk for "many years" and travels around the world teaching others about Buddism so his English is pretty good. The funniest moment that we had with him is when he brought us eye wash. He had purchased it in the states and wanted to know what it was for. He was a little disappointed that it only helped your eyes but seemed content knowing what it was. Why he bought it? I'm not sure. Maybe it had really cool labeling?

Then there was "Big Brother Monk." When you picture a monk you picture this character. He was round, large, and smiled all the time. His English was limited but he would make sure to greet us and say goodbye each day.

I had so much fun with these kids. Papa Monk would sit in on my lessons and he was impressed with the few Thai phrases that I've picked up. My monks loved when I would tell them to stop talking, listen, or not funny in Thai. I had to be careful of letting them teach me Thai because they were making me say things like "I love you" which could get a female teacher in some trouble. (Women are not allowed to touch Monks. It is a big deal here.)

I will post pictures as soon as I can but living in the jungle keeps you limited on what you can do. :)

As my monks would say "See you again soon! Goodbye!" (Use a Thai accent for affect.)