Monday we were up early to hang the white board & bulletin board in the office and at 9, Monk Hun & our tuk tuk arrived. We were off to Siem Reap as there's a monk blessing planned tonight…a unique opportunity we couldn't miss! We left early so we could tour the the Apopo Center—home of the Rat Heroes, African giant pouched rats who with their keen sense of smell can detect a minute amount of DNT and because they're light weight, they don't activate the landmines they find. In 2023, they located over 1000 in Cambodia alone. They are in many countries. They can cover a tennis court size area in 30 minutes. It would take a metal detector close to 4 days! These rats are trained in less than a year & live about 8 years. They can also detect TB. Dogs are also used but because of their weight, it's more dangerous. It's believed there's 4-6 million mines in Cambodia. Over 40,000 amputees can attest to the danger. A map of the world showed other countries with millions more. It was fascinating to learn about & see those Rat Heroes…yet also a painful reminder of the remnants of war.
Next was the new Angkor National Museum…impressive exterior and interior. Excellent displays with several short videos explaining much of what we saw at Angkor Wat. It added much depth & understanding of the Cambodian history. My favorite was the Hindu god of caring who had 20 arms, 4 feet & 10 heads…seems about what you need! Sue had arranged for us to stay in her friend's hotel ($35) & so we headed there for a rest and a HOT shower…first one since I left home! At 5, we meet up with Sue & some of her friends and we walked to where the monk's blessing ceremony was being held which was by the river. After much gonging & music played mostly on xylophones, a procession on young girls with exotic hairstyles carrying a tray of lit candles were followed by 400 monks. (There's about 400,00 here.). Each monk took a seat & then was offered a Coke, Sprite & water. I had to chuckle as I watch one of the monks drink his Coke & take a photo with his phone. Selfie?? A long string of monotone chanting started with hardly a breath taken. Then a couple of the monks walked the length of the crowd sprinkling water on us and later tossing flower buds. Guess that's why they called this a blessing ceremony. Fortunately we were seated next to where the Apsara dancers dressed in the ancient clothing we'd just seen in the Angkor Museum began performing. Such perfection in total synchronized movements that were deliberately done in slow motion. Each finger, foot, head movement & body position was exactly the same for the 12 dancers. The could bend their hands & feet in a backward curve which looked painful to me. Spectacular! Finally, each monk received a "goodie bag" and a wad of money, then they left in a single line. We headed back to our hotel in awe. Next morning we met up with Sue & Hun for breakfast at the Muffin Man. The man who owns got his start when Sue's friend asked him to help her make muffins for some event. He loved it & run with it! ATM & grocery story was our last stops before heading back home. Sue stayed as she has a dentist appt tomorrow. We had our classes & the library and Rog started plans on building a chicken coop. We had our 7 pm class read in pairs a simple, informational English book & then asked them to present what they'd learned. Many just read aloud but some could do it. We'll try that again to see if more will learn to summarize facts. I roasted chicken & we made salads which we ate with some of Rog's bread. First supper with just the two of us!
