Day 20: Time for Celebration

The Bhikkhunis ordained 2 laypeople as samaneris today. It was a spectacular experience.

 Decorations

Colors decorating the boat

First we shaved their heads, which freaked me out a bit. Mostly because the razors made a scraping sound against the nun's buzz cut and I could not handle the sound. The other layperson's haircut took less time because they used an electric razor. Both of them cried as we shaved, I could feel the heavy emotion in the air. How they were giving up a normal life, possessions, romance - everything for a simplistic monastic life.

Before the haircuts

And the shaving begins...

 Apparently this was not so painful, but it looked like it was.

After their haircut, they wore a white outfit and we formed a line to the vihara (the building with the Medicine Buddha).

The white outfits

The procession

Dotcom joining the parade

I got to hold one of these fun sticks with some others in the back.

 We circled the vihara 3 times.

Then they received their orange robes.

 

Throwing flowers behind her

Chanting for the Bhikkhunis in the mud house

 Receiving their bowls

The procession back to the dining hall

As we walked to lunch, people stood in line to donate money and food to the new samaneris. We had a big lunch with good food and I felt so happy to serve my friends for the first time.

The line of Bhikkhunis and samaneris with the newest additions

 Visitors serving the food

Picture of all the Bhikkhunis and samaneris

From noon until 2 pm I packaged Ven. Dhammananda's dhamma talk CDs. I got hot in the office and had to take a break. Someone was hogging up the fan...

Not a fan of this dog (no pun intended)

My first true friend from the wat came back to visit today and told me that 18 students from Dayton were coming to visit tonight around 5 pm. It turned out there were only 17 students since one lost his passport in Cambodia (quite unfortunate). Only 3 are girls, so they will stay here while the boys will stay in a nearby hotel with the professor. We took the group of students on a tour of the wat and then had dinner. I thought it was funny to have pad thai because first of all, we never have dinner prepared. Secondly, we never eat pad thai, so it really did not depict life at the wat or in Thailand. I am not complaining though! I thoroughly enjoyed my prepared dinner.
Afterwards, we attended evening chanting in the room for Sunday services in order to fit everyone. We only have 6 English chant books, so the students were pretty lost, hot, and uncomfortable. Many of the guys struggled to sit for so long and some of them looked like they were in pain. I tried to recite everything from memory and I actually did better than I thought I would. I definitely enjoy reading along better though. After the guys left, the 3 girls and my friend gave offerings/prayers to the spirit house. I talked with one of the girls from the trip and they went to China, Cambodia, Tibet, Vietnam, and Laos! They will go to Burma after Thailand, but come back to leave from the Bangkok airport. They are all business majors taking a General Education course on Buddhism. They also learn about business in each of the Asian countries. I thought it was such a cool idea.