For far too long our crematorium was neglected and even though I had made a promise to take care of it, it was never high on my things-to-do list. Fortunately, we seldom have to use it, and even though we have an agreement with the local hospital to do their cremations of deceased patients who no one claims, that has only happened a few times.

With all of the children home because of the Corona pandemic, there is plenty of help after home-school hours, and so I decided to put them to work cleaning it.

It took us several days but in the end, I think everyone was pleased with the results, including the residents of the crematorium who had convinced me it was time to make the restorations because they could not social distance in the glass case in which I had kept them for several years.

Now everyone has a good view of the outside and there is no more complaining from the little ones, who often got stuck in the back of the case.

For many of our older children, the crematorium is a place of comfort, because they have friends and family who took up residency there, after being cremated… but for our newer members, it is often a mysterious place that needs an explanation, and we tell them that everything we have at Wat Opot is because of those whose pictures are on the wall.

We do not teach any religion at Wat Opot but the children are encouraged to seek a path of their own choosing. Every night at our meditation we end by singing two songs of Praise… one to the Buddha and another to Jesus. They are allowed, and at times do, ask questions relating to Spirituality, and when they do, they are given information and suggestions, but we try hard not to give them answers… for answers must be found from searching within.

Thanks for stopping by, we would appreciate a comment below just to know that you were here.

The Watopotians

With everyone at home, because of school being out, there are plenty of hands that want to make some extra cash working, and there is plenty of work to do. The little black boy, who is a leftover from the art classes a few years back and who once sat unnoticed at the edge of the Peace Garden pond but was transferred to another garden where he played a minor role observing a bronze boy playing guitar, has been moved up to a place of more prominence and now reminds the children every day to meditate and be more mindful of nature.

I sure hope no one is offended because we painted him black… we couldn’t paint him gold because that is a color usually reserved for Monks, or the Buddha. Any other color than black just doesn’t look good.

One of the other projects just finished today is the Recycle room. It sat unpainted for a couple of years only because it wasn’t high on our things-to-do list. Vandy, who is a University student and usually works in Phnom Penh, has not been able to find work yet and so I put him to work painting. One of his projects was to come up with a design for the front of the room, that had something to do with cleanliness or recycling.

He came up with a drawing that immediately caught my attention and so I told him to go ahead and do it.

It took him a couple of weeks to complete because of the intermittent rain showers. but he finally got it done this afternoon and I am quite pleased with the results.

We are working on other projects as well that we have been putting off doing until a rainy day, and it is raining… but we have to wait until the Sun comes out to do the work.

Thanks for checking in on us. I will be keeping you posted as work progresses.

STAY SAFE!