Another long day of Funeral Ceremony

First let me correct yesterdays post. I did some research and found out that the creature I almost stepped on is a Millipede, not a Centipede and does not bite. However I am sticking with my commitment to leave my shoes on entering dark rooms. 

The monks were back at 6:30 am and again at 11:00 am today. After eating, all the monks left except the head monk and there was a huge chair set up for him from which he did a 2 hour long lecture on Buddhism for the group (almost all women). He left and a singer took over that could sing authentic Thai songs in both a male and a female voice. When he finished about 3 pm I walked to the house and laid down for a nap. Phai woke me up at 5:30 pm to let me me know she had brought me dinner and she went back to to her sisters house. I came over to the restaurant (I have my own set of keys) and am sitting in front of the fan (mostly to keep the mosquitos off me) and am eating dinner and updating my blog. 

I feel overwhelmed. Phai's mother passed the afternoon of Friday May 17th and it is now the evening of Tuesday May 21st and the activities have been non stop and will continue until tomorrow when her ashes are finally interred at the Temple. I understand it is normally a ten day process but has been abbreviated to six days due to the major festival this seeking which is a huge parade in the village one day and then the rocket launchings the net. Phai will be ready to sleep for a week when this has finished. Most mornings she has been up by 5 am and one morning 4 am and going non stop all day until 10:00 at night. During that time she runs back the house to shower and change clothes, takes trips to the temple to talk to the monks, makes arrangements for the tents, the food, and everything else involved that is too much to list here. She is the oldest sister here so the burden falls to her. Her two older  sisters and on younger sister returned to Florida after spending a month her just two weeks before her mother passed. 

Oh my goodness, the monks are back and I can hear them chanting over the loudspeakers as can the rest of the village. In fact, everything that too place has been "broadcast" over the huge loudspeakers. 

I have so much work to do to get the photos and video edited. The video is especially time consuming because the uploads to YouTube take a lot of time. I wish I had more time to write things down each day so I wouldn't forget anything and I am hoping that the photos and video will spur my memory as I work on them. It will be hard to convey to you all the strange events of the past week but I will do my best and for those that get a chance to attend any of my presentations I plan to do when I get back I am sure I can fill in some blanks then. 


Head Monk in His Chair

In case you thought I was exaggerating the size of his chair.

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The loudspeakers. Those are phone wires not power lines they are resting against. 



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