Second Meeting in October

In October we met with a guest speaker named Michael Bedford. He was a great resource to learn from. He had lived in Thailand for a few years and had plenty of knowledge about the country. After listening to him we learned that the type of government they have is a monarchy. The King, King Bhumibol Adulayadej, is highly respected and you cannot even step on money with out a chance of being arrested. You also cannot talk badly about the king with out the same consequence. If you were to lucky enough to be able to approach the king you would have to approach him on your knees, out of respect. You also cannot point your feet at anyone. It is considered rude. This is because the Thai believe that your head is the cleanest part of your body and the feet are the dirtiest.

 We learned that the currency is called baht. The Thai people are very friendly. They have a saying, Mai Pen Rai, which translates to mean no problem, sorry, never mind or just accept it and move on.  I feel this is a great philosophy to think by. We also learned a bit about Buddhism. Buddhism is like karma, what goes around comes around or like Newton’s 3^rd law, for every action there is an equal opposite reaction. Buddhism believes in the now moment, that it is being shaped by present actions and present actions shape the future actions and present actions.

We also learned some phrases!

Hello, good morning, good day, good evening- (SA-WA-DEE- KA)

Thank you- (KAP-KOH-KA)

Until the next time!