Sunrise Food Drive...

This morning, 8 of us woke up before the rooster across the street, flagged down a tuk-tuk from across the moat and made out way to Nimenhamen Road. We saw signs all over the city advertising a procession of 10,000 monks, but we knew nothing else.

The street was lined, curb to curb, with white canvas tarps with four straight lines of red fabric lining either side of the street. People sat on the tarps with plastic bags, baskets, and laundry hampers overflowing with individually packed, non-perishable food: sealed cups of water, mini cookie waffers, palm-sized packets of rice, and packs of juice boxes.

We entered a fairly empty street; had it not been 5:15 in the morning, I would not have been surprised at the amount of traffic. We sat down along the curb, a bit back from the red tape so as to leave room for those who had come prepared, with alms. As the hours passed, we watched as thousands of laity mingled through the street and sat down on either side of the red lines.

As the sun rose, announcements began pouring over the loud speaker, in Thai and English, and we learned that the alms (food and money) collected from this event would be donated to the monks in Thailand's southern provinces, where oppression of Thailand's religious minorities has forced many to act out in violence.

Not knowing the purpose of this huge event initially, I was intrigued. Essentially, this was a charity event structured around a huge alms offering. As I understood it, the food and money we gave this morning wasn’t even for the monks present. Instead, the alms went from lay hand, to monastic bowl, to large plastic bag, transported later to monks in southern Thailand.

This whole event made me think about the notion of charity and how fundraisers such as this one are a huge reflection of culture. In order to get as much donations as possible, these monks, in efforts to help their fellow, struggling peers, used a daily practice and turned it into a charity event. In America, what would people think if a group of food bank workers advertised a sunrise donation collection on a main city street? Who would have shown up?

Honestly, not me.

Ready for a nap,
B(ee)