Day 6: "It's not like you're in a prison"

Today I was late to morning chanting...again. It's becoming a habit. I get there by 5:30 am, but I think they start early. When someone rings the bells, it does not mean "get up", it means "we will start chanting soon." After chanting, I went to put on bug repellent for alms round and unfortunately, they left without me.
At 10:30, we had afternoon chanting for the anniversary of Ven. Dhammananda's mother passing. Her son came with his baby, who is adorable. People brought so many desserts, which made up the main portion of my lunch. Ven. Dhammananda kept part of a waffle for me since she knew I missed Western food. It turned out to have corn in it, but I picked it out, closed my eyes, and pretended I was eating at a diner back home.
My mom sent me an email last night to comfort me and her first sentence reminded me that I was not in a prison. Ironically, we went to a prison today to donate extra supplies, mostly sanitary napkins for female prisoners. We took a picture with the guards, who seemed embarrassed to stand next to a huge pile of maxi pads. All the people walking into the prison wore hardened expressions. I wondered what each person's story was: is she the girlfriend of someone in there? Is that the family?

The donations at the prison

A couple days ago, Ven. Dhammananda asked if I could teach English class to some of the people in the wat. When we returned, I wanted to cancel the class because I did not feel very well, but no one showed up so it worked out nicely. I think they were working on making a cement sidewalk. When I took a shower today, I thought the frog that stayed behind the water bucket decided to finally leave. At one point, I started to notice the water not flowing and what do you know...the frog was holding on for dear life in the drain! I immediately stopped the water and he made it safely out. I actually had my camera from earlier in the day and managed to get a picture of him.

The frog as a drain stopper...

...thankfully he escaped

I finished dessert for dinner then went to evening chanting. They chanted differently tonight and I got lost for a while. After, we went to the Medicine Buddha and did a short chant 108 times. Ven. Dhammananda sprinkled us with water and gave me an apple and banana for my heat rash. She said they would work as well as medicine. I guess we'll see if they actually do help.

 Picture of the Medicine Buddha from June 20th