Day 5 - local students
Alms Giving
Local Students
Alms Giving
Alms giving is the ritual where people line up on the street to give food to the monks walking by. It takes place at 6am everyday, Ivan woke up early enough to do this. Ivan bought a basket of sticky rice and was confused as to how to hand the rice to the monks, since they weren’t separated into small bags. It turns out you just pick up a ball of rice with your hand and puts it into a monk’s basket, and repeat the process for every monk. I felt sorry for the monks, as it was certainly not sanitary. I’ve only read about giving rice, but I did see other food in the monks’ baskets. I sat on the little stools when I did this, as did most tourists, but in hind sight I should’ve kneeled to show respect. There were surprisingly few people giving, and also few monks. Perhaps this wasn’t the most popular spot for alms giving? I’m still not sure. I was on the eastern side of the night market street.
Voyagers’ tips: You can buy a basket of sticky rice right on the street, the lady will collect the basket back when you’re done.
Our guide from the rice experience farm also teaches English there at night to students that want to learn English outside of regular school. We went there to visit the students. It was a fantastic experience, it was great to see these kids going above and beyond after school to improve themselves. Tourism is a major source of income here and poverty is a big problem, English is a great way for them to get out of poverty when they grow up.
Voyagers tips: If you go to Living Land Farm for the Rice Experience, ask them about visiting their English class. Alternatively, you’ll often see students on Phousi Hill eager to practice English with tourists, ask them about their schools and be open to visit them. It’s a fantastic experience, a great way to meet local students while helping them out. If traveling with kids, it’s also a great way to expose your kids to how kids in other countries learn.