Nuns & monks

Post by **DawnHRD** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:56 pm

Can anybody help me with this?
Today a Buddhist nun came to my gate. Through a mixture of Thai & English (neither of us spoke the other's language well), she let me know she liked all of the dogs she could see in my garden & she looked after puppies in her wat.
My stepson (Thai, 4yrs old) came into the garden as we were talking, and she pointed to him & mentioned "money". I thought she was talking about alms & was about to go & get my purse, when she went into her bag, got out her purse & gave him 20 baht!

Is this OK? I made sure he wai ed & thanked her properly, but I really don't know what the appropriate behaviour was in a case like this. Can somebody advise please?
I'd be grateful for any feedback - thanks

Post by **lomuamart** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:11 am

I wonder if that was my mother-in-law? Seriously, she's a mai chee at Wat Petchravudh (sic) at the top of the hill on the Pala U road and has countless dogs, puppies and cats that she takes care of. They regularly get the meat scraps from our cooking.
I reckon you handled the situation correctly - a wai was definitely in order there. Did your son accept the money for himself or as a donation for the dogs?

Post by **DawnHRD** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:27 am

Actually, I wondered that, but I thought that :
a) it was unlikely she knew we were an actual organisation, she probably thought that I just had a lot of dogs
b) she gave the money to him, not to me, so I thought it was probably meant for him, so I let him keep it.
I really hope that was right, I was quite flustered (being out of my realm of experience) & didn't want to commit a bigger gaffe by refusing or making a fuss about it.
He gets given money by strangers a lot & it always makes me uncomfortable, for a number of reasons, but this was a whole new one on me.

Post by **lomuamart** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:11 am

I'm sure you were right whatever the reason for the gift.
Nice touch by the nun, though. I'll ask my wife when she wakes up if her Mum was wandering around the other day handing out money to farangs with lots of dogs.

Post by JD » Mon Jan 16, 2006 9:44 am

Maybe the gift was because it was Childrens Day this weekend.

Post by **DawnHRD** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:41 pm

Could be. It was really nice of her, anyway. You'll have to let me know if it was your mother-in-law, Lomuamart!

Post by **Jimmy** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 3:23 am

It sounds like a great thing she did....The kind of thing that restores your faith in Humanity....

Post by **lomuamart** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:17 am

DawnHHDRC wrote:Could be. It was really nice of her, anyway. You'll have to let me know if it was your mother-in-law, Lomuamart!

It wasn't Dawn. The m-i-l has been safely tucked up in the temple for some time. If she'd gone out, the family would have known about it as one of the daughters has to go and take care of the house in her absence.