On January 3rd,
we drove to the international Buddhist university where Lan is studying. We took a short tour of the campus, seeing where
Lan sleeps, eats, and takes classes. I had
thought Lan lived inside a nunnery, but she lives in campus “hostel”
accommodations (where nearly
everyone else is a nun).
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| Lan's table in the dining hall |
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| Lan's room in the U hostel |
Before heading out for the day, Lan wanted to
make sure that we all had our heads covered from the bright sun. She bought a hat for Jim and Beth – and Leon
found his own favorite. Mine was
borrowed for the day. (It would be a little difficult to pack).
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| Mine was borrowed |
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| New hats all around |
Lan first took us to a regional market in Yangon. I love markets! If you can’t tell by now, I like photographing people’s faces. Myanmar people were especially friendly and shared a smile happily. The marketplace was a perfect photo op.
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| Lots of fresh fruit for sale... |
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| and vegetables .. |
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| ... and rice. |
After the
market, we went to lunch at Lan's University and met her mentor nun who is from Korea.
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| Lan's mentor |
Lan's mentor introduced us to a highlight of our day! Part of her role is to help the Buddhist monks learn English. Many of these monks are quite distinguished scholars of Buddhism, but simply don't have any opportunity to speak to anyone in English. Of course, we said "yes!"when asked if we would spend part of our afternoon practicing conversational English with them.
It was really interesting -- especially when I scrambled to think of something to say and started describing aspects of Jim (e.g white hair, white beard, blue eyes). They thought that was funny. Afterward, they showed us around their living areas in the monastery, then walked us out the door for a long good-bye.
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| Eager to converse... |
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| Jim has white hair and a white beard... |
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He showed me his room.
(Notice that he has no mattress in the bed,
only a reed mat over a board.) |
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| Saying good-bye for now |
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