Buddhist Community camp, Loei

I spent 2 weeks in the Tham pa santitham temple, we were only 2 volonteers during the workcamp. Their were Yelin, a girl from Korea and me, Lucie, French. And of course Bell, from VSA.

Life in the temple, we were going  to the village to helped monks carrying the food villagers gave them. We could not wear shoes, and girls always must kept their distance from monks to be sure not to touch them.

When we went back to the temple, we prepared food for the monks, organized it in plates by types of food (rice, meat, vegetable, cooked things, sweets, etc.). When it was ready, we brought it to the monks, they chose what they liked, then we prayed all together. As there were many food, monks allowed us to eat what they did not eat, it is very good ! A good way to discover Thai gastronomy !

 There is a huge temple in construction on the site, so we help the monk and people from the village to build it. As we were only 2 girls, we didn't help that much, but we tried to do our best !

When there were no building task to do, we did some cleaning, and we spent lot of time to wiped the floor to help the monks. On free time we went to see around the temple, to the market in the village and to see bats.

At dinner, Bell taught us how to cook Thai food. Lan, the youngest monk in the temple joined us and we talked about Buddhism, he likeed when we asked many questions. After that, we practice some meditation, he taught  us how to do, and how we could progress.

So, this  is a classic day in the temple, many times the program changes and we go to discover some places of the region.

Lucie Bardisa, French Volunteer

VSA1403 Buddhism Community Camp (New)-Loei 14February 2014