[Savviioor]

Khao Jao, I'm not wholly sure about the concept of forgiveness to the elders....and hopefully someone can jump in. However I have participated in a Mother's Day ceremony at my high school in Trang.

All of the students gathered in the assembly hall and different teachers talked about the importance of parents. Students read essays aloud. Then six mothers were brought in and they were honored as special parents. My mom was chosen (I think just because she had a farang daughter) and a woman whose son was severely disabled was chosen. One woman was the mother of our top scholar. I don't remember who the other three were. They each gave brief statements on the secrets to great motherhood -- or something to that effect. They all sat in formal chairs in front of the assembled students. They then called up the children of these mothers. We wai-ed them formally and then sat at their knees wai-ing them for a very long time. We were crouched over the moms with our wai-shaped hands at their knees. My older Thai sister was at one knee, I was at the other. Very hard to describe.

It was complete silence. The first five or so minutes I was fully focused. After that, I kept my wai, but began sneaking my eyes around. Hmm... what are we supposed to be doing? I looked and everyone else was in deep thought -- no other eyes darting around. Okay... umm.. so I sat there some more. At the 20 minute mark, my legs began falling asleep and I was about to lose all concentration. Then I heard my sister...and the other children begin crying. Still in their wai, they were sobbing. Sobbing for what, I wondered? Sobbing as they release guilt (ask for forgiveness?) sobbing out of pure love for their moms? ...or sobbing because their legs were falling asleep, too? I pondered this for a while and then I heard my mom start crying. I lost it at that point. I couldn't feel my legs below the knee, my back was aching, there were no sounds at all except for those sobbing....and I started in. I lost it. I started sobbing along with them. I don't really know why. I certainly liked my Thai mom...but at that point, I'd only known her a month or so. After about 45 minutes, we were then asked to stand up and walk over to get flowered wreathes to give our moms. I could barely walk....slapping my legs to wake them up. I gave her the flowers and waied her again.

After the ceremony, I was walking back to my class, my friends came up to me and said, 'wow, you were really crying!' I, of course was very limited on my Thai at that point (1 month in) and thought they said, 'wow, you're really hot'. To which I replied, 'yes, it's very hot'. They looked at me like I was a moron... but that's another story!