Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Nam Myoho Renge Kyo Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. If this doesn't make sense to you, don't worry..it didn't to me either. A colleague from the University invited me to a Buddhist service this morning. It was an extremely interesting experience, but not like anything I had in mind or have done before. It was at one of the members' house and there was a small altar set up in the front of the living room. One man (seemingly a leader) sat in a chair directly in front of the altar, facing it. There were a few rows of chairs behind him for everyone else; there were about 15 members in total. I walked in with my colleague hoping she'd pick the couple of empty seats in the back row....of course not. Instead, she picks the front row in order to really show off my cluelessness. Once seated, I looked around and noticed everyone had their hands in prayer position, so I quickly got mine in place, attempting to act casual and like I've done this all my life. The other obvious thing was that they were all chanting something...so with my hands in prayer, I listened as carefully as I could. It sounded like a bunch of jibberish that was definitely not English or Spanish.....great. But as a foreign newcomer who was sitting in the front row, I had to do something (and quickly) in order to avoid the sketchy eye from everybody in the room...so within about a minute of sitting down and listening, I decided to move my mouth and mumble sounds. Before I knew what I was doing, I proceeded to try and emulate the mysterious sounds a little louder. You can picture me trying to say this phrase really quickly in which I had no idea what I was actually saying. Well, apparently I wasn't doing as well as I thought I was, as my colleague went into her purse a few minutes into it and handed me the words (would have been nice if she had done this BEFORE, but what are ya gonna do). OK, well now I knew how to say the words, but I still had no idea what I was saying. And go figure, these were the only words that were spoken for the next hour. The members would chant them in unison, sometimes speeding up, sometimes going very slowly. (Turns out, via wikipedia, the words mean "To Honor/devote oneself to the Wonderful Law" and it is chanted to attain perfect and complete awakening--would have been cooler to have known that going into it) You better believe I got darn good at this phrase after an hour straight of repeating it. After the hour, the group circled up and had a sort of meeting for the next 45 minutes, mostly about their hopes of creating an official worship place in order to attract more people, etc. Overall, it was totally different from anything I've been to which made it a really neat thing to see.
Other than going to Buddhist gatherings, I have also been establishing my role with the volunteer organization, Casa Esperanza. I talked with the director of the program here in David and he invited me to actually go on the streets sometimes with other members of the organization in search of children being mistreated and thrown into the work force. I told him I'd love to become active in that aspect as well. The next day, I worked with the children and bonded with them throughout the day. I actually ended up teaching an English lesson to them on the fly (about 15 of them ages 12-17)--it was very cool to see how eager most of them were to learn the language as several came up afterwards to ask even more questions.
Other news: Panama had a 6.0 earthquake whose center was really close to David Saturday morning. At 3 a.m. I felt my bed sway and shake underneath me--a pretty wild experience since I wasn't sure if it was an earthquake or a scene from Paranormal Activity. Glad it was the former..
I just took my first shower in a few days as a pipe burst on Friday, leaving our neighborhood completely without water. Evidence:
A student at UNACHI came up to me earlier this week and after conversing for a while, we began talking about music and the fact that he plays the guitar. As a passing statement, I said I would love to learn to play too someday...he responded with, "You want to learn now? ...I can teach you if you want?" Really? Well, uhh OK. So he led me to a different part of the school where there was a guitar and long story short, I ended up having an hour long guitar lesson right then and there.
Last thing before I go, as I was sitting on the bus this past week, staring forward and lost in thought, a monkey pops up in front of my face and makes a terrifying shrieking noise as it's eyes bug out and are locked in on mine. Needless to say, I jumped back (forunately managed to refrain a shriek of my own) and took a few seconds to process the fact that monkey was a foot away screaming at me on a bus. Once I came to terms with it and he stopped screaming at me, I actually liked the little guy.
Alright, miss you guys. Take it easy everybody...Tomalo con calma.
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