Temples and Teaching in Ubon!

While I was able to busy myself with meetings and interviews for my thesis I also made some time to trek about the town and visit some of the temples. This is one of the oldest buildings in town. It is build over a lotus pond, on stilts apparently to keep the buddhist scriptures from being destroyed by insects.





















Here is another building in the same temple area.






















While strolling around I was approached by a monk and because you just sort of wander in and out of these places I thought perhaps I have done something offensive or that maybe he is upset because I am trespassing. To my surprise the young monk spoke decent English. In fact he is the English teacher at the school for boys at the temple and asked me if I would come and speak to his students in English for 20 minutes or so. I thought what the heck, why not? One student was very good and was evening studying Japanese! The majority of them were very shy, though not too shy to ask the two no-no questions in tne US - How old are you? Are you married? I answered but warned them that they should be cautious in asking these questions to other foreigners.

The man in the middle of the picture is the teacher Chantharom, he is 24 but has been training to be a monk since he was 10 years old.
















Here is a picture of me and the students.