New Cultures

This will just be a short entry but today was the second anniversary of Noong's husband's death from cancer. She asked me if I wanted to go to the temple with her early this morning and have a remembrance celebration for him. We got there and burned some incense and she said a prayer to Buddha for his spirit. Then a monk came over and chanted some stuff I couldn't understand. They gave a food and water offering for Pete's spirit in the afterlife and prayed once more.

See the Buddhist believe in a life after death, but more than just a "Heaven". They believe in the spirit afterlife and that the spirit is actively around and doing things (hence the food and water offerings). In the Christian faith we believe that your soul goes to Heaven and stays there if you are a Believer but once you are in Heaven that is just about it. The soul cannot transcend between Heaven and Earth on a regular basis but, the Buddhist don't believe that. I was really interested to see how another culture remembers their dead.

In a way I felt out of place and like an intruder on such an intimate thing, a wife grieving for her husband but she invited me to go and I am glad I went. I respect all religions and all cultures and I think almost every religion in the world has something good to offer. It was a neat experience for me. Today we will be having a party to remember the good times from when he was alive. I never got to meet Pete but everyone who knew him has said he was a great guy and I can tell that Noong loved him very much so he must have been.

The party was a total meat feast and Noong cooked all day and made some great food.  I offered to help but she shooed me out of the kitchen as usual (to be honest I was thankful haha) we had many of Pete's friends over to celebrate his life and had a great time. I did not know him but judging by the amount of people he must have been really loved. So now I am full of food and drink and happy :) It was a good day.

One last thing, remember when I mentioned earlier in my blog that living life here with little to no restrictions has made me more aware of everything? Well it has! The other day I had to navigate alone on my motorbike back home from somewhere I had only been once (as a passenger) but I made it! In Texas I would have been lost for hours without my GPS or calling my dad (he was my GPS before I got one haha) but here I am so much more aware of everything because you have to be. There is not all the health and safety guidelines we have back home so you have to watch everything. I think this has been a good skill to learn though. 

That is really all I have for now. I knew this would be short but I wanted to write it out so I remember this day. Sometimes I do blog more for my memories than for my readers per se. Thanks for putting up with it. I do need to apologise to yall though, every time I say I am just going to write a short little blog it turns into a big long one haha so thanks for sticking with me.-Tyler