Monks, Markets, and Playing Hard to Get

Sunrise.

We left our hotel early yesterday to give alms to the Laotian monks. Every morning, Buddhist monks walk the streets of Luang Prabang accepting food from the citizens of town. These monks sole source of sustenance is what they receive through the generosity of others.

We arrived at our place on the street to find rugs to kneel on all lined up on the sidewalk and bowls filled with our offering. Now, normally citizens provide grains of rice, bananas, and other staples of the area. For some reason our bowls were full of those wafer cookies we used to eat as kids. You know the ones — brown, yellow, or pink wafers with white creme in between. Well, we had the yellow ones. No one ever explained the significance of this offering. I surmised that even monks need a little sugar now and then.

I lined up first on my rug with Lisa and the rest of our group to my right. I was a little nervous as I wasn’t sure how to make my offering. Right hand, left hand, both hands? Look them in the eye, look down? Say something? Fortunately there was a local woman about a half a block down to cue my behavior. The monks came dressed in their orange robes walking down the street barefooted in single file. The held silver-colored pots with lids. As they approached us, they opened the lids on our pots and we deposited the sugar wafers.

The monks were very young. Most Laotian males become monks for a period or two during their youth. Contrary to what most people know, they don’t need to remain monks for their entire lives. This is a time they learn about Buddhism and practice its teaching. But, most typically exit the monastery eventually and lead normal lives.

Back to our offering. The first group came through uneventfully — us putting wafers into the pots. Then came more monks. Our baskets were getting low on wafers. I began to panic. What if we run out? I never thought there’d be so many monks! Fortunately, a couple of people in our group slept in so I grabbed their baskets, took some wafers and passed them down to Lisa and the others. But, the monks kept coming! Just when I thought some of the monks might go hungry, a local woman rescued me by giving me a whole basket of crackers. Saved, I made sure the local monks would eat today. But, the monks kept coming.

Som Pong, our Laotian guide came over and said I shouldn’t take any more crackers from the local women. They charged for them. Oops. He said the monks would eat just fine and that we would not receive spiritual demerits for excluding some of the monks from our offering. Relieved, we got up, I paid the women for their crackers, and we left. Despite the shortage of sugar wafers, it was very rewarding to participate in this local custom.

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Next stop, the morning market. The locals set up a farmers market of sorts each morning in the middle of town. Now, a word about Laos. It is a heavily jungled, mountainous, land-locked, undeveloped country. As such, the people here have learned to eat everything and leave nothing to waste. This was very apparent as we walked the several-block market full of everything from local fruits and vegetables to every sort of fresh wildlife imaginable– and all their parts. We saw live frogs, eels, buffalo, (including Lisa’s favorite, buffalo lung), fish, and even wasp larvae. We were impressed by the variety and availability of food in this market. While the region is not affluent by any means, people are not going hungry. This is a very good thing. And, while the food may seem foreign to us, it makes sense in the context of the geography and culture of the region. That doesn’t mean some of our group didn’t leave the market with just a little less appetite than when they walked in.

The Mekong river winds from China through Laos and Cambodia and drains into the South China Sea in Vietnam’s famous Mekong Delta. We took a riverboat ride down the Mekong midday. This wide muddy river provides food and water for millions of people. While pondering this thought, I waited eagerly for each one of Amanda’s texts giving me updates on the A’s-Tiger’s game four. I shouted out load and jumped for joy when she let me know of the miraculous A’s comeback win. Then I sheepishly sat back down when the blank stares from my tour mates told me they didn’t know or care about the A’s-Tigers outcome. I once again began to ponder the history and significance of the river.

After returning to Luang Prabang, we rented bicycles and toured the town. A good local lunch, a visit to the main temple, a tour though a museum and a ride along the river were all enjoyable. But, what’s a tour of the town without shopping. Laos is a country early in its economic development process. You may remember from your econ classes that first comes agriculture, then textiles and raw materials, then manufacturing. While Vietnam has an emerging manufacturing base, Laos does not. This was perfect for Lisa. She had been looking for a tapestry for the Boulder condo and this turned out to be the perfect place. The local weavers loved her as she emerged with a nice wall hanging. A quick visit for earrings to the local silversmith and the shopping excursion was complete.

Our final stop before dinner was to a place called Big Brother Mouse. It is a local non-profit that works with underprivileged local kids on English, French, and Chinese language skills. This allows them to get much better employment in the future.

Lisa and I walked in to a room full of eager young teenage boys (yes, only boys, unfortunately). They were so excited to have Americans in their classroom to help them better understand the English language. The lesson they were working on was the nuance of slang. Easy. We know lots of American slang. The first one was, “food for thought.” Uh, oh. How does one explain this concept to kids who are just learning the language. Lisa and I traded off attempts at explanation. “You know, it’s like, uh, feeding your brain with an idea.” “You say something provocative, oh, what’s provocative?” This was going to be harder than we thought.

We worked our way through a few easy ones (eat like a horse, see eye to eye) and then got to “play hard to get.” This was easy as Lisa does this to me all the time. We acted out a scene where a girl is playing hard to get with a boy and got everyone laughing. Another of our friends, Bridgett, was explaining the English definition of various herbs and spices. I was impressed as I hadn’t heard of many of them. After 45 minutes of explaining words, teaching pronunciation and showing pictures of our family, we had to leave. The boys were disappointed. They wanted us to stay all night! This activity turned into one of our most rewarding activities of the trip. We’ll never forget their eager faces, gentle personalities, and desire to learn.

The People of Laos; We are family now.
(by Lisa)

In our two short days in Luang Prabang, Brad and I felt like we were able to interact with enough Laos people to get a feel for their nature. They are a very gentle, unassuming people who are very proud of their town and country. They are quick to smile and are extremely polite and courteous. When we were at the market, Brad wanted to take a picture of a chicken (see below) and lied down on the ground to get the picture. The people of the market thought this was hilarious and all got a good laugh at the crazy guy on the ground with a chicken!

Our guide, La, befriended us quickly and by the end of lunch he declared that we are all family now because we had gotten to know each other so well. Another surreal moment was when we were riding our bikes around the town passing by groups of monks in their bright orange robes seeing them interact with one another. We now have one up on Chris and Matt because I don’t think even they have ridden their bikes through groups of monks! Of course, my highlight was interacting with the boys at the school when we helped them with their English. They were so personable and enthusiastic to interact with us. I really, really wanted to go back and spend the day with them today because we had so much fun with them.

One last note for my yoga friends. We were able to take a serene, relaxing yoga class at our hotel this morning. Our group was situated on a teak deck overlooking a pond with lily-pads and temples in the far-off hills. As we practiced, we could hear roosters crowing and birds chirping and the occasional motor bike. I felt very far away from Danville and The Studio that’s for sure. Our instructor was from Boston. She and her husband decided to get out of the rat race of the financial industry and travel the world last year. They both decided that their favorite place was Laos and are trying to make a life here. “Food for Thought” for all of us…..And, yes, that’s another of the slang words we had to explain to the boys!

Brad’s Chicken