COLD!!!

After all Katherine’s talk of HOT weather, the mercury has plunged to a frigid 72 degrees. We were sitting outside earlier and moved in because it was too cold. I guess after a few weeks of 90-some degree weather, with steamroom-like humidity, 70 degrees feels downright chilly.

We got an invitation today for a “divorce party” this weekend. An IT guy at the embassy lost his grandfather recently. In the Buddhist faith, when a loved one dies, the men of the family traditionally become monks for a short period of time to create good merit for the deceased. So the IT guy, his brother and his father are becoming monks for a week.

There’s just one catch…monks cannot be married.

So, the IT guy will be divorcing his wife, shaving his body, and donning the saffron monk robes that are so prevalent around Vientiane. And then 7 days later, he’s done.

Okay, there are two catches…at that point he will be divorced. And tradition dictates that it’s up to his now ex-wife to decide whether to take him back or not. In fact, if she doesn’t ask him to remarry her, he’s out of luck.

I suspect there are plenty of women waiting around for their husbands to decide it’s time to make some merit so they can cut and run.

So anyway, we’ve been invited to the temple to witness the ceremony wherein he will become a monk, then go celebrate afterwards at the divorce party. It has to end at midnight though, because he has to be back at the temple for lights out.

One other tidbit from this weekend. Our night guard’s wife was in an accident on Saturday night. Seems she was riding her motorbike home from the market where she sells “things” (all I know) and was in a pretty serious accident. Before our guard rushed off to the hospital to see her, he said to me “They told me she is half dead and half alive. But I’m not worried. I haven’t had any bad dreams lately. Bad things never happen unless I dream about them first” and then he was gone. (his wife is on the mend, by the way).

His statement made me wonder whether he considered his wife’s serious accident a “bad” thing or not.

p