LISTEN TO NICK TALKING TO RACHEL SLOANE ON 14TH DECEMBER 2004... BEFORE THE BATTERY ON HIS MOBILE PHONE RAN OUT! CLICK ON THE LINK AT THE TOP RIGHT OF THIS PAGE >>  | | Nick and his colleague Bob |
I am now more than a month into my project at the Sri Bodhiraja Bhikkhu Training Centre and I am enjoying it immensely. It has been slow settling in and difficult becoming accustomed to a new, primitive lifestyle and new daily routine, but I feel a lot more at home now. My typical day consists of meditation with the Monks before the sun rises at 5:45 am. This is supposedly preceded by an extremely cold shower, but more often than not this is conveniently forgotten until after the sun is up and providing some valuable heat.  | | Sri Lanka |
I then eat breakfast, like all meals with my fingers after serving the 40 or 50 monks beforehand. Breakfast normally consists of dhal curry and rice (not too spicy!) I then teach an English beginner's class to younger monks from 8:30 until 10:00. I really enjoy these lessons because I get to go right back to the basics and have a lot of fun while teaching. Then I hastily make my way to assist teachers at the local International College for two hours before lunch. Lunch includes more varied dishes of curried vegetables and fish ... and of course rice. My temple does not eat meat in order to follow strict Buddhist teachings (it means cravings for meat for Bob and I are fairly common.) I then teach classes in the afternoon to more advanced students before either lending a hand at the Children's Orphanage or doing some gardening at the Montesorri Pre-School.  | | Local student |
As the sun sets I attend Puja (daily respect to the Buddha) when I am currently learning to chant Pali, an ancient language which is now widely renowned as dead. It is the most important part of the day for the monks as they pass over 'merits' which will help them secure a fair passing into the next life. I then drink tea before returning to my straw mattress and bed sheets (which shrunk after their first wash) to prepare for the next day. Sometimes, in the evenings I have intriguing meetings with the Chief Priest in his office. Normally this means being summoned, like a naughty pupil to the Headmaster's office. Our High Priest is a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament, and an extremely intelligent man.  | | Gathering of local people |
I can't help thinking that maybe sometimes I am seeing an insight view of how Sri Lankan politics works. He is a very important person in our district especially and travels to Colombo (the capital) regularly to attend Parliament. He is also invited to many local meetings as guest speaker. This has been fantastic for me, as he has allowed us to travel with him on a number of occasions and so I have managed to appreciate more of this stunning country. Embilipitiya, our local town is full of friendly and helpful people who are intent on ripping you off at every opportunity. However, I have become wise to many tricks of the trade over this first month and I now make sure I am charged a fair price. I even managed to 'out-do' a Colombo three-wheeler taxi last weekend and managed to save myself 50 Rupees. So, that's about 35 pence, but it is a lot of money in this country! We hope to visit the south coast today for the first time. So in my next report you should start to get more of an impression of this beautiful country.
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