The next morning, a couple others and I got up early to visit the market where Pop’s aunts have worked every day for the past 20 years to sell their food. We went to buy food for the monk that comes every morning. The food consists of a meat, rice, and dessert, and it is to signify a meal for yourself in your after life. So, everyone brings out a meal everyday for the monks to ensure they have food in their after life.
This morning, I woke up at 6:00am to see the aunts at work. The aunt’s worked every day of the year since they were teenagers at the local market. I mean everyday–these were the first days they have not worked in years…and knowing that, I felt a lot toward them. They had both really hard lives growing up. When Pop’s mom was born, the mother died giving birth. The father, soon after died, at which the 17 year old daughter–Pop’s aunt, had to take care of several children–including about 3 boys who were stolen from her to work for someone else. I don’t believe she knows anything of them from that point on. So, the 17 year old raised Pop’s Mom, along with the other sister. She worked everyday making her food and going every morning to the market from 3 to 8, selling her food. As she was raising her siblings, she would be so scared at night, that she would take medicines to calm her–which has now caused her to go practically deaf. She is not allowed to leave the country, and is almost a prisoner in Thailand due to her work not being important enough to come back to. Quite a sad story, and I don’t see how anyone couldn’t be affected by the kindness they showed us during the entire time we were visiting. Beautiful ladies they were. So back to my story, at the market, we bought a meal–to give to the monks that come by in the morning, every morning at 6:50 sharp. So, you buy a meat, a rice, and a desert–giving it to the monk will ensure you have a meal in your next life, so most people give every morning…feeding the monks who come, and those back at the temple. It was definitely a sad goodbye at the airport. They had been so great to us, and I for one was really sad to say goodbye. Here we also had to say goodbye to Whitney–she was going to stay in the North a little longer, and then later go to Laos–who knows where she is now!! Now on the plane to Phuket, it was so nice to see the ocean and shore from the plane. We arrived at the airport, and met up with 3 Japanese girls that Monica knew. We then took a bus to the hotel with all our stuff, and got in our rooms. We were in Phuket town, so not too close to the beach–a 30 minute drive. Most people when we arrived wanted to take a nap. We just hung out the entire night.