An exorcism

As I'm approaching my last few weeks here, my daily routine has changed slightly. In a last minute switch-up, I was asked to teach English to our interns. Approximately once a year, my NGO runs a six-month internship program for young women from the migrant communities and refugee camps in Thailand. The current group of interns are 16 to 25 years old, from all different ethnic groups in Burma and are learning about women's issues, human rights, the history of Burma and computer skills. And now I'm helping them learn English as well. I've never taught before (aside from the tutoring I've been doing here for my colleagues) and so I was admittedly overwhelmed when I first sat down to plan a lesson. It's been two weeks now, Monday through Friday in the morning, and I like to think my classes are going...okay. I'm enjoying it at least! 

One of my favorite parts is eating lunch with the girls after class. We have nice chats about my home, their homes, cultural differences, how we're both finding Thailand and so on. Earlier this week a few of the girls brought up the topic of ghosts with me because the night before some of them had felt a ghost in the house. They laughed about how silly the idea was, but the stories were spooky nonetheless. "Do you believe it?" they kept asking me. I gave it some serious consideration. "I'm not sure I believe in ghosts, but I do know that they still scare me." 

At the end of yesterday's class I was reminding the girls to prepare for their presentations, which they were supposed to give this morning. "Oh no, no class tomorrow" one of them said, and they all looked at me. "Ummm, yes...tomorrow is Friday"

"No, tomorrow we will bring in the monks for the house and the ghosts. Will you come?"

A Buddhist exorcism you say? Why yes, of course I'll be there! 

I should clarify that our Western idea of ghosts is quite different from what they believe over here, for the most part. The images of pallid people floating around in tattered clothes, trying to scare or kill us and letting out moans that make you shiver is Hollywood. Here they believe in spirits - dead people who do not necessarily wish to do harm to us living people, but want to be acknowledged by us and for us to share our good fortune with them.  

So this morning I arrived at the intern house and everyone was gathered there. The main room was cleared out and there were mats laid across the floor. A little table, about a foot high, sat at one side of the room and on it were the offerings for the monks - new robes, laundry detergent, coffee, toothpaste, money, etc. Monks aren't allowed to ask for anything, including food, so everything that they own or consume must be given to them by the community. Three monks arrived, each one wearing a different shade of the saffron robe, and took their places sitting behind the table. The rest of us, about 15 woman and one man, knelt down on the floor facing the table. Everyone began chanting in unison, their palms touching up near their faces, bowing their heads down to the floor in front of them and back up. The chanting is in a language called Pali, which sounds very similar to Burmese. There is a chant you say at the beginning and the end of each ceremony, basically asking for forgiveness from everyone in your life whom you may have crossed or hurt. Almost everyone in the organization is Buddhist, so they all knew the chant. However, I was happily sat next to the two Catholic girls and so together we knelt quietly as everyone else chanted and bowed. I found it really nice to close my eyes and listen to the low hum of the chant.

The lead monk then asked one of my friends if we wanted the spirits in the house. She said no. He asked her twice more and she said no each time. Then the monks led everyone in a chant explaining to the spirits that they were not welcome here and that they should find another place to stay. The monk and the man with us took a bowl of water with a lotus flower inside and sprinkled us and the house by flicking the water off the flower onto all of us and throughout the whole house. After presenting the monks with the offerings and reciting the closing chant, they fed the monks. We sat at watched as the monks ate and engaged their audience in conversation. They were Burmese themselves and so it was later relayed to me that everyone spoke briefly about the idea of going back to Burma. The monks returned to their monastery and we all ate lunch and continued to giggle nervously about the ghosts. 

As we were returning to the office, my friend asked me "So what did you think?" with a grin on her face. 

"Very interesting, I'm glad I got to see that" I replied. Learning about Buddhist beliefs and practices has been really interesting, and I especially treasure every opportunity I get to participate in activities outside of work with these wonderful women I've gotten to know.

We kept walking in silence and then I just had to ask, "what are you guys going to do if the interns hear the ghosts again this weekend?" She smiled at me and then we both cracked up. Starting Friday off with an exorcism - I think it's going to be a great weekend!

PS: The monk's Blackberry rang twice during the ceremony...