Begging at a medicants Temple

You must be really quite desperate if you, in Sri Lanka, go begging at a Temple of Buddhist mendicants or “begging monks”.

Still …. It happens. About two weeks ago while I was working at my desk our dog “Rex” ran outside and started to bark and our other dog “Ariel” joint him with full energy. (Sometimes they like to show of, to make sure we appreciate their skills as watchdogs.)

When I looked what was happening I saw a boy standing there and signing that he wanted to come in to the compound, I called back the dogs and told him he could come, I thought he wanted to go to “Panditta Hamuduruwa”. But he came straight up to me and asked for some money to buy food for his family. Because this is quite strange, and thinking I did not understand him right, I asked Rev. Ariyadhamma to come and help me a bit with this talk.

People come to us daily with requests for support but they rarely ask straight forward for money. This boy did, and explained that at home they where with 5 brothers and sisters, and his mother had no money left, so they could not buy any food and went hungry.

When we asked him why he came to Temple and did not go for the tourists to beg, he answered that his mother found that was to dangerous and we agreed. There are unfortunately sometimes people who would try to take advantage of a boy like this begging. Also he told that even tough some monks send him away with some harsh words, many of them let him tell his story and gave him a few rupee. This helped his family to survive when they ran out of food. We gave him some money and I told him that this begging was no solution to their problem. I further told that I wanted to talk with his mother to see if we could help to find a better way to solve their problems. He said that he would come back with here.

Two days later the boy, called Akila, came back with his mother Priyanka and a little brother. The mother thanked us for the money and that we treated here son so kindly. I asked here what the problems where which she was facing. The story is the following: They live at the side of the railroad, they are a very poor family, and a few years ago here first husband, a drinker, died there when he was hit by a train and left here with here two oldest sons (Akila of 14 years old and Eranda of ten ). After a few years staying alone she could not handle it anymore and she found a new “husband” and after some time he lost his job. Since that time he does not supply for the family anymore, except that he “supplied” here with three more children. Unfortunately this is a story often heard over here. Anyhow we made an appointment to visit here in the next days to see what was needed and what we could (try to) do about it.

Together with Anura and Ariyadhamma we went there a few days later and got quite a shock.
Though the house looked reasonably ok, on the outside but it turned out to be a horror inside. I’m sure that a pigs farmer in the Netherlands will get a big fine if he houses his animals in a place like this. There is nothing! No furniture, (two broken plastic chairs and a table who is ready to give up any minute cant be called furniture), no beds, mattresses or even mats!.

They have a piece of a mat, more hole then mat, on which Kawishka of 1 ½ years old, the boy with Asthma sleeps. I don’t know if this “mat” will protect him from the cold floor, but I think it is the idée which counts under this circumstances. Some plastic bags in which they store their cloths, and that’s it. The roof ”stands” loose on the house, the doors and windows are broken there is no kitchen etc. etc.. During the Tsunami the house was filled to the top with water, which is still visible, but because the house still stands they did not receive any Tsunami Aid. I can tell you; when I was living in my mud kuti (hut) in jungle that it was more “luxury” then this place. We told them we would come back again and we left; deeply impressed and sad, that sometimes in this time people still have to live this way.

Well, what to do in a case like this? I don’t know what others do, but I called Alexander.
We discussed the case and he told me to make a inventorie of the situation and inform him about the necessary and the costs. He said: “Don’t worry Bhante, this is exactly why we are going to start the foundation, we do our best and go for it!” We agreed that we would go back with Vidu and make a plan, also we would see what could be done to take care that the family in near future would be able to take care of themselves again. The roof shakes when a train passes and can be blown of by a storm anyday.

We went back there again the next day, now with Fidu, and we made a plan to “repair” the house. The roof has to be taken of , repaired, and be put back. Everything has to be cleaned, impregnated and painted. We have to build a small kitchen shed, a wall around the tab so they have some privacy when taking a bath, a discharge for the water should be made. The garden should be cleaned, and made useful to grow some vegetables and there should be made a fence to protect the children from running on to the rail track. Most of the work will be done by volunteers for free, but in this case we will need the help of two carpenters. Some things we cant do and we will need to hire in professional help to accomplish the job.

We had a serious talk with the “husband” who was just back from a involuntary stay in the police station for two days. Priyanka had made a complaint because he had badly beaten the second oldest son. We made clear to him that if that would happen again we would send some friends to teach him how it feels to be beaten up. Also we told him that we where willing to help a mother with children but that we where not willing to supply anything for a healthy man who was to lazy to work and take care of his wife and children. Our choice of words ( which I wont repeat here J), made a deep impression as it seams because when we saw him again a few days later he told us that he would surely never hit any of the children anymore and if we could help him to find a job he would work.

We learned that Priyanka can make coir ropes of coconut hair, and that she sometimes works a few days for some people, but the payment is below level. We decided that we should give here a wheel and a first portion of coconut hair so she can produce the rope herself. This work she can do at home so she can also take care of the kids. We found a buyer who would buy the ropes for a good price and are now waiting for funds to start this family project. Also we are looking for a job for the husband so he can also take care for the family. The first coming time they will need some extra support, the children are all mal-nutritioned, but we have good hope that after some time they will be able to support themselves on their own.

In the mean time we arranged that they all are getting some new clothes before new year (it’s a tradition here that one where’s new cloths on new years day), the school uniforms for the children will be also supplied before the schools start.

For a report on the present situation see our other blog: Blue Lotus Sangha Sabhava