The alms round has improved and getting less painful but afterwards on inspection I now have the biggest blister I have ever seen on my left heel. Tomorrow I think I will try to go back to wearing the dual layer robes for the alms round. Straight after the alms round when the monks reach the sala, they help each other fold their large outer robes back into the shoulder cloth again since they no longer need to wear it as a robe. I felt that I should have also been taking part but wasn’t because I couldn’t manage what everyone else was doing.

After ovata I saw my parents for the last time in a while since they were leaving today. They gave me some of this green powder sachets to dissolve in water which will apparently help with the number two. They also gave me a eucalyptus spray to spray the room with which should keep the mosquitoes away. To be honest mosquitoes haven’t been a problem at all and it was the cold that was keeping me up at night (and most likely keeping the mosquitoes away too). I just hope that the spray won’t attract anything else. Also G. gave me an umbrella type thing known as a glot with nets attached to the edges. It’s a makeshift tent essentially for monks out in the wild. It’s so bulky to use and not really needed at the moment so I think I will leave it for now.

The meditation marathon was getting better. I managed to sit almost one and a half hours and went to sweep storage room 2 in between the sittings since I failed to do it during the allotted time. I took a nap instead since I was so tired. After the meditation we listened to some recordings of Ajahn Chah’s dhamma talk from years past in the sala. That evening I decided to try the shower block in the middle of the woods. It was a lot more powerful than the one by the bowl drying shed somehow.