TEO Newsletter April / May 2006

Dear friends,

it is June now and this newsletter is longer than normal - and it covers two months. We were busy with the new design of our web site, summer camp at the orphanage and attending a lot of festivals. Jenny proofread our web site but all her changes are not visible yet. We will add them together with new photos page by page. Our first priority was to get the site online and accessible with most browsers. Some of you complained that they were not able to access certain pages.

Songkran was wet as always and one day longer for us. We started a day earlier to celebrate with the orphans at their home. Ed, Craig and Sabine spend the night before the parade at a temple and helped to decorate the truck for the parade. After only one hour sleep we started early at Wat Pochai the next morning with giving food to the monks before some of us went inside to watch the first step of the procession, the removal of the Buddha statue. The

others choose a strategic spot along the procession route to toss water at the statue and monks later.

We spend the next days in wet clothes and covered in white powder. Foreigners are a favorite target. And we also got our share of Thai whisky, music and dancing. It was fun!

These days Thailand is in a frenzy. The celebration of the 60 th anniversary of His Majesty the King's accession to the throne is on and you see a lot of people dressed in yellow shirts with the kings insignia. And there is the world cup. Thais love soccer, or football how they name it here. The internet slowed down quite a bit, no idea if it is related, and we had problems uploading new pages and sending out this newsletter.

Enjoy reading and do not miss our new photo albums.

Have a great summer,
Your TEO-Team

A Thai funeral

by Katrine Iversen and Christina Poulsen, Denmark

During out stay in Nongkhai we went to a funeral. It was very exiting to take part in and learn the Buddhist culture. We were invited by the family and everybody was very pleased that we were there.

Thai funeral

During the first hour of the ceremony the monks were chanting about the way of life and some of the relatives gave speeches about the deceased. Everyone was given a rose made out of paper and laid it beside the casket. After that the deceased was taken out of the big air conditioned casket, and was laid in an open coffin. The family poured perfume on the body and afterwards put her in the oven. Everyone lit an incense and said a prayer for the deceased. That was the end of the funeral.

It was a really touching experience. One of the big differences between a Christian and a Buddhist funeral is that at a Buddhist funeral it is not appreciated that you show your feelings or cry. Some members of the closest family were crying but they tried to hide it.

When we left, the family was thanking us for coming and we were thanking them for the interesting experience. We found it hard to react to their thankfulness of our presence because we felt like it was us who should be thanking them because in our culture you just don't get invited to a funeral.

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Songkran at the orphanage

Part of our Songkran celebrations was a visit at he orphanage. As the boys are not allowed to leave to take part in the festivities in town, we took the bus out to Nong Song Hong to celebrate at their place.

Some women from the village had organized a nice meal for everyone and kids and staff were eager to splash water over volunteers and each other. It was a hot day and no one minded being wet for most of the time. The boys loved their new water guns and posed for any amount of photos. With the help of women from the village and our volunteers the kids had a great day and got a taste what it would be like to celebrate Songkran in a big family.

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Songkran Photos

Click here to see all photos

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Orphans become novices

Beginning of the holidays 12 boys from the orphanages decided to become novices in a forest temple for a couple of weeks. As you might know from last months article about becoming a monk, that some of the ceremonies involved are normally carried out by parents and relatives. While the shaving was done quite unceremoniously and involved a haircut for nearly all boys at the orphanage, volunteers joined the festivities at the temple and took over the parents role, handed over the robes and made merit.

We had agreed to meet at the temple and got directions to the temple. What we did not know was that there are three temples close to each other. The first one was definitely the wrong one. We ran into the monks breakfast and after discussions with some of the elder women present we tried the next temple. This looked more promising, the temple was obviously prepared for some celebration, but there were no children and it was already the agreed time. We went back to the village to call the orphanage. It turned out they were just a little bit late and later picked us up on their way to the temple.

The atmosphere at this temple was quite relaxed and the volunteers got a short introduction into the right behavior at a temple and some of the rites performed.

For the younger boys it was a little bit difficult to find into their new role as novices. The were used to play with the volunteers, get a hug from time to time and sit on their lap. Novices and monks are not allowed to touch women. While the volunteers were aware that things changed after the boys turned into novices and put on the orange robes, some of the boys forgot and came to hug us when we left to return home. But the abbot was nice and understanding and laughed with us when he saw it.

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Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo Summer at the orphanage photo

Click here to see summer camp photos

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English camp, April 24 - May 4

english camp

Thai-Experience volunteers helped teaching English at the English camp for 50 students from different school in the province, organized by the Nongkhai Educational Service Office. It was two weeks full of fun and new learning experiences for everyone involved.

english camp team

Camp team: Thai English teachers and volunteers

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Donations

We thank Claire and Pete Noor who sent new learning material and Cathy Ung who brought a bag full of toys and baby clothes for the orphanage when she come to help for one week.

If you want to donate learning material, English book for the library, games or clothes for the orphanage, please contact us.

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Upcoming Thai Festivals and Holidays

  • 10. July 2006 Asarnha Bucha Day / Asalha Puja Day
    Celebration to remind of the first sermon Lord Buddha gave to five disciples, introducing the middle way, the noble eight-fold path and the four noble truth. Celebrated with candle light processions.
  • 22. July 2005 Buddhist Lent Day
    This marks the beginning of the Buddhist rain retreat which last three months. During this period monks are not allowed to sleep outside their temple. If they have to stay outside it should be limited to maximum of three days. Thai people buy big candles and offer them to temples.

Overview of all Thai festivals and holidays

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