Story Cont'd.

Okay, I realize that, in continuing this story, it's not so interesting, so I'll quickly wrap up.


Sleeping shirtless man didn't wake up, even when yelled at by Ae, so we went off to find someone, anyone else.

I mean, for god sake, you can't just drop a fruit basket off on the Abbot's doorstep (my idea... Ae reacted like I said we should beat the Abbot with sticks).

So we walked over and found a solitary nun, sitting in her white finery (picture a monk, but with white robes. The nuns are quite asexual, as they have shaved heads as well. In fact, if not for the white robes, I would have figured she was some old dude).

The nun said that she was one of three people there, the rest were on some fun outing (she wasn't bitter, though). One other guy was in the shower and the third person was in an unknown location.

So we sit down in front of the nun and say we've got this small gift for the temple. She gets up, slowly, grabs her sash thingy, and comes back to sit down.

'I need to do a blessing for you,' she said.

'That's okay, we just wanted to drop this off for the temple,' Ae said.

'I NEED to do a blessing for you,' she said. Okay.

'Did you bring water?' she asked. Now, there is a certain type of blessing where the blessee slowly pours water on the ground while the blesser chants incantations/blessings in Pali, a language I know even less that Lao. Anyway, generally when you go to get a blessing, you bring your own water. How stupid are we?

upon learning we didn't have our own water, she says, 'oh, just grab any old thing over there and bring some water back,' So I found a coffee cup, Ae grabbed a plastic bowl, and we filled them up with water, then slowly poured it out while, you guessed it, the nun chanted in Pali. Good breath control on that nun, too.

So, blessing done, the nun went back to peeling some fruit that she had been concentrating on prior to our interruption, and we beat feet back to the Embassy car.

Ae tells me that we are certain to meet in our next lives because we went through this blessing together. What is uncertain is if we will meet as higher beings, based on our good karma gathered from a lifetime of good works, or if we will be two ants toiling in the same anthill somewhere, damned, as it were, to a life of toil by our bad karma. Or, if we'll meet when one of us, a higher being, steps on the other, an ant. It's really a crapshoot.

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Katherine and I have both been quite busy with stuff at the Embassy, but Diana and Alan have taken care of themselves admirably.

Diana gave Vone a lesson in Red Sauce today (so we had spaghetti and red sauce for dinner). Thursday she teaches Vone, Goht and others turkey, gravy, mashed potatos, etc. So we will have Thanksgiving in February on Thursday.

Saturday to Bangkok, and the luxury of the Peninsula.