The dancing monk

Today we visited a Pagoda at the request of two young monks who we met at Angkor Wat. I don't know what you think of when you imagine how a monk lives, but this certainly wasn't what we were expecting. One monk showed us to his room - complete with pictures of Ronaldo and the English football team on his wall. The crazy frog theme was playing on his stereo and he asked Garry if he liked to dance. Thankfully his firm answer calmed the young monk down.

We talked about football and English lessons and about what it was like being a monk, and then the dancing monk said that he had to go out with his friends. Another, calmer monk took us to his room which was a lot bleaker. He had no mats on the floor and just slept on wooden slats. Nothing in his room but a kettle and books. He told us that he was very poor and the only way that he could afford an education was to go to the pagoda and be a monk. He told us about the 21 precepts that he had to learn and we told him about the 10 commandments.

He had just bought a book to do his studies in. He said it was very expensive for him, but he needed it. We asked how much it was and he said 5000 riel (just over a dollar). We said that we would give him the money for it. His name was Sam.