I woke up at 4:40 am to have a granola bar, put on my white clothing, and wait at the gate for the students to come at 5 am. They came at 5:15 am, but I tried not to feel bitter about the 15 minutes of sleep that I lost. After a tasty breakfast, we went to paint the big wall near the Medicine Buddha building. Once we were all nice and sweaty, we went back to the library and one of the Bhikkhunis taught us some tai chi. She made us turn off all the fans, so we did not enjoy the class as much as we could have.
Tai chi lesson: Building the pagoda move
I was allowed to attend the Question and Answer session with Ven. Dhammananda and watch a movie on women in Buddhism.
Q&A in the library
Around 4 pm, we returned to the wall and finished painting it a light blue. We had a shortage of paint and brushes again, so when I put down my cup to get a drink, I returned to find no cup in sight. As I looked for another one, Ven. Dhammananda came to take a couple pictures of the students. I asked how I could help more and she told me to give the visitors "whatever they want." I found this instruction quite cryptic, so I wandered around looking for something to do. When I encountered Ven. Dhammananda two minutes later, she said "What are you doing? They need help over there. Go help them paint!" Confused, I asked her where the paint brushes were, hoping she would tell me where I could get more. She replied, "if I knew, I wouldn't be asking you." She had never scolded me to such an extent and I completely froze. She told me to look for a brush somewhere and start painting. She returned a minute later as I searched for some tools with a roller in hand. Of course that would be my luck. She told me that it was just lying around and "you know, you are really not being helpful." Those words stung like venom in my chest. I remained silent and started vigorously painting the wall with the roller. In my next two encounters with Ven. Dhammananda, she scolded me for not painting the right area and then again for not reaching the top part of the wall. By the time I finished, blue paint splashes covered my work clothes. At least it looked like I had been helpful.
I ate dinner in silence, replaying the scoldings in my head and trying to tell myself to not take it personally. After evening chanting, I went with my friend to watch her give a traditional Asian Gua Sha (scraping) massage to the cook. She used a wooden spoon and some oil to scrap the woman's back until the skin turned red. It made me a little sick to my stomach, yet it fascinated me at the same time.
I went back to my room exhausted, only to find the newly ordained samaneri waiting for me to help another layperson with her English homework. I could not help but laugh at the passage - it was some ridiculous comparison of July and heat to "twin bitches" that "make you suffer." For someone not fluent in English, the passage would not make much sense. I tried to help the best I could to explain the metaphors and vocab of the text. The English-Thai dictionary definitely helped. Finally after explaining strut, flaunt, fade, wash out, explode, pavement, glow, and bitches, I returned to my room at 11:30 pm and quickly fell asleep.
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