Morning chanting was really fast and it’s going to be a struggle to go back to Pali-Thai. The alms round was especially painful for some reason and it might just be that layers of my skin were being grated away with each step.

After the meal we had an ovata where the abbot told us that termites had overrun sections of the kitchen. As a way of showing gratitude to the kitchen staff who prepare food for us daily, he got all the monks to help clean up the entire kitchen area and sala in preparation for Wan Phra where there will be more guests than usual. I didn’t know monks did this sort of thing too but given that it’s WPN it’s no surprise.

We helped with moving all the old tools and furniture out of the kitchen. Then we scrubbed all the furniture, railings and work surfaces. Given how much dust and cobwebs had accumulated in some places it wouldn’t be surprising if they had told me that they last did this 5 years ago. They also had 5-6m long brooms to clean cobwebs off the ceiling with were rather fun to use. We sprayed, scrubbed and dried the entire floor area then formed a chain to move all the stuff back in. What was really surprising was that nothing was broken at all until a kitchen staff mishandled a plate in the kitchen.

I think it took 1.5 hours overall and involved about 15 monks and novices. When we finished around 12 we had Nam Pana early but this time with all the lay people that helped too.

Having cleaned the kitchen we no longer had to do the long chores, so they were only half an hour today and there was no evening chanting either. We were expected to practice privately. I did this back at the kuti in the candle light. As I was about to fall asleep I’m sure I heard a tukkae fall onto the roof and move about, but it didn’t make its distinctive sound. This was the last thing I needed to be living with me.